The Warriors lose to the Lakers 121-124 in their first preseason game without Draymond Green
Jonathan Kuminga starts, Klay Thompson sits again, Jordan Poole dominates in the third quarter with help from a jumbo frontcourt, JaMychal Green's understated big minutes, and more.
The Warriors lost their Sunday preseason matchup against the Lakers 121-124 but what was most interesting about this game was who didn’t play in it: LeBron James, Patrick Beverly, and Russell Westbrook for the Lakers and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson for the Warriors. The Lakers’ notable veteran trio all sat out to rest. Still, the Warriors’ absences were far more interesting — Thompson is apparently not up to game speed because a self-admitted mental block stopped him from playing pickup basketball during the offseason. At the same time, Green has taken a leave of absence from the Warriors after punching Jordan Poole during practice last week. It’s a great time out!
Smarter and more connected writers than me have written thoughtfully and at length about the Draymond Green situation, such as The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, whose best pieces on the subject I’ve linked to here and here. Draymond’s immediate future with the Warriors is murky, which is a shame. Green’s absence is embarrassing and regrettable and it makes the Warriors a worse team. Bay Area sports fans have witnessed several unexpected succession and transitions from established veteran stars to younger players, most notably, the Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick transition and David Lee to Draymond Green transition. But I think you’d be a fool to expect a similarly unexpected changing of the guard with Draymond out.
Jonathan Kuminga (theoretically) stands to benefit from Green’s absence and he impressed Steve Kerr enough in practice recently to get the first bite at replacing Draymond. Kuminga played 25 minutes and scored 12 points with 7 rebounds but he didn’t make an irrefutable claim to Green’s minutes tonight. Kuminga was still out there in the fourth quarter alongside various training camp depth pieces and fellow young players, James Wiseman and Moses Moody. In his minutes along the Warriors’ established veterans, Kuminga rebounded with purpose and was active, if somewhat uneven on defense. His worst stretch of minutes came alongside Wiseman as Anthony Davis scored forceful interior buckets at the expense of the Warriors’ young frontcourt.
Preseason is a good time to experiment, but I do hope that the Wiseman/Kuminga frontcourt minutes start to dwindle, if not disappear altogether, soon. That might be easier said than done, though, given the Warriors’ roster construction and especially if Draymond Green’s absence bleeds into the regular season in a significant way. If tonight was any indication, the player in line for a bigger role is the Warriors’ other Green, JaMychal. I’ve been skeptical of the J. Green/Wiseman frontcourt, but they shared the court during a dominant third-quarter stretch by Jordan Poole when the Warriors took their lead, and earlier in the period, an unexpected J. Green/Looney frontcourt helped create clean looks on offense while defending the interior.
JaMychal Green played only 16 minutes tonight, but he was a team-high +10, and he looked just as good sharing the frontcourt as he did when he was the Warriors’ lone big. Green didn’t score a single point, but he had 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals. Other players of note and stray thoughts:
Jordan Poole looked rushed early and made some questionable defensive decisions, but his third quarter was the best that the Warriors’ second unit has looked in preseason, and it came almost entirely on alternating pick-and-rolls with James Wiseman or JaMychal Green. Poole finished the game with 25 points in 23 minutes with 6 assists and looked unphased by the fact that he’s been made an unwilling victim of a violent attack by one of his co-workers.
Andrew Wiggins played 23 minutes tonight and had an assertive air to his game. Wiggins picked his spots carefully, but he attacked and shot with purpose when the Warriors felt stalled for momentum. Wiggins is stamped in my eyes but I’m still curious about how his game and statistical output will change after a career-altering Finals. Through three games, Wiggins has grabbed 6 rebounds in 16 minutes, 1 rebound in 16 minutes, and 3 rebounds in 23 minutes and he’s racked up five fouls in each game. The fouls? Go figure. But so far, Wiggins is averaging 6.3 rebounds per 36 minutes in the preseason. I like that.
Kevon Looney played 21 minutes, which is more than he averaged last season, but matchups against Anthony Davis and other bigs of his caliber will inevitably be Looney nights. Looney scored 7 points and had 6 rebounds, but what was most impressive was his defense against Davis and he finished the game with 2 blocks and countless well-contested shots and crisp rotations, including this play below:
James Wiseman, as you’d expect, looked far more uneven defending Anthony Davis. I thought Wiseman did a pretty good job of guarding AD on the perimeter, but pick-and-roll defense proved more vexing, especially when he was paired with Jonathan Kuminga. Warriors’ announcers, Bob Fitzgerald and Kelenna Azubuike noted that Wiseman was a little late on some of his reactions on lob passes and drivers, but that’s to be expected when he’s paired with such an unproven frontcourt partner. Wiseman did, however, score 13 points in 18 minutes and was the recipient of several interior passes by Jordan Poole and Donte ViCinezo. Wiseman finished several shots that someone like Kevon Looney would not have, which was great, but he left 5 points behind shooting 3/8 from the free-throw line. Wiseman also had three turnovers and a few overly ambitious passes out of the post. That he passed the ball in those situations was encouraging, but I thought Wiseman looked best in pick-and-roll actions with Jordan Poole.
Moses Moody has looked dependable in his minutes and it seems that his rotation minutes are the most solidified of the Warriors’ younger players. But I did want Moody to be more aggressive from behind the arc tonight and I thought he passed up a few good shots, perhaps... in search of... great shots. I trust Moody as a shooter and I’d much rather he fire from deep than run the risk of Casspi’ing himself, even to a minor degree.
Patrick Baldwin Jr., on the other hand, continues to look every bit the part of a fearless stretch shooter. In his 6 minutes, all of which came alongside the Warriors’ unproven players, he shot 2/4 from deep. These accounted for all of his shot attempts and through three preseason games, he’s shooting 6/12 from deep compared to 1/2 on two-point shots. I’d like to see him get a shot at minutes alongside the Warriors’ adults at some point in the preseason to see if his physical limitations on defense might be tolerable with dependable veterans around him.
Rotation Watch:
1st Q:
12:00 — Curry/Poole/Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
8:07 — Curry/Moody/Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney: 10-12, Lakers lead.
5:53 — Curry/Moody/Wiggins/Kuminga/J. Green: 15-20, Lakers lead.
4:18 — Curry/Moody/Lamb/J. Green/Wiseman: 20-24, Lakers lead.
3:30 — Curry/Poole/Lamb/J. Green/Wiseman: 23-28, Lakers lead.
2:30 — Poole/DDV/Lamb/J. Green/Wiseman: 28-28, tie game.
The game's opening minutes felt like an ugly reminder of what life without Draymond Green would be like — sloppy defense, unorganized offense, and listless play. The Warriors fell behind 4-10, at which point Kevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins put their imprint on the game. Wiggins hit two threes, including a potential four-point play, and made two strong drives to the hoop, and Looney played tough defense on Anthony Davis in pick-and-rolls and in the post. Moses Moody was the Warriors’ first sub, followed by JaMychal Green at the 5:53 mark of the period. In a little more than a minute, Green was the Warriors’ lone big man and demonstrated obvious chemistry with Steph Curry:
The absences of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson created an opportunity for players further down the depth chart to get early minutes — recent training camp signing, Anthony Lamb, for example, subbed in prior to Donte DiVincenzo for a mostly uneventful four minutes. Lamb was joined by James Wiseman, whose presence pushed JaMychal Green back down a position. In the first quarter, Wiseman went 2/4 from the free-throw line, missed an interior shot, and hit a mid-range jumper on a pick-and-roll as the Warriors’ offense strayed from its typical motion principles in favor of Green and Wiseman setting staggered screens at the top of the key.
2nd Q:
12:00 — Poole/DDV/Spencer/J. Green/Wiseman: 33-35, Lakers lead.
9:13 — Poole/DDV/Spencer/Kuminga/Wiseman 39-38, Warriors lead.
7:56 — Curry/DDV/Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney: 39-48, Lakers lead.
5:59 — Curry/Moody/Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney: 41-50, Lakers lead.
2:59 — Curry/Moody/Lamb/Wiggins/Looney: 47-55, Lakers lead.
The Warriors took their first lead of the night early in the second quarter. Another training camp invitee, Pat Spencer joined the Warriors’ presumptive bench unit core of Jordan Poole, Donte DiVincenzo, JaMychal Green, and James Wiseman, and the Warriors scored three buckets in the paint on drives. Pick-and-rolls were central to the Warriors’ attack in the J. Green/Wiseman frontcourt minutes and when Jonathan Kuminga subbed in at the 9:13 mark, the Warriors’ offense changed. The Lakers aggressively attacked the Kuminga/Wiseman frontcourt on offense and piled on 9 points in less than a minute and a half as Anthony Davis feasted on pick-and-rolls, including an and-one dunk off of a lob from Juan Toscano-Anderson (that sentence feels very weird to type out):
Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins subbed in after that Lakers’ run and calmed the Warriors down some. Wiggins, as he did in the first quarter, created off the dribble, but to varying effect. The Warriors closed out the half with Anthony Lamb playing alongside the starters and Andrew Wiggins at the 4. Again, this is probably due to the absences of Klay and dray, but it was still curious to see Steve Kerr close with Moses Moody and Lamb either of Jordan Poole or Jonathan Kuminga.
3rd Q:
12:00 — Curry/Poole/Wiggins/Kuminga/Looney: 52-60, Lakers lead.
7:31 — Curry/Poole/Wiggins/J. Green/Looney: 65-67, Lakers lead.
4:44 — Poole/DDV/Weatherspoon/J. Green/Wiseman: 76-78, Lakers lead.
When the Warriors made their first sub of the half at the 7:29 mark, they had put already played nearly five minutes of solid basketball. What was surprising about Kerr’s early sub was that he put JaMychal Green in, not as the lone big, but next to Kevon Looney. I don’t love the J. Green/Wiseman frontcourt, but I can understand it in the context of wanting a screen-setting combo with complimenting skillsets as roll men and stretch shooters. But a J. Green/Looney frontcourt didn’t make much sense to me, at least not until I saw them in action together. Behold this split action three for Jordan Poole, set up by the oversized J. Green/Looney frontcourt:
That lineup also played solid defense, particularly on the interior. But the real story of that lineup wasn’t an unusual jumbo frontcourt — it was the Jordan Poole show in pick-and-rolls. Poole scored 18 points in the quarter and at one point back three consecutive shots when the Warriors gave him the ball and let him cook.
Poole followed that sequence with a tough, deep three and just barely missed a look-away three ala Steph. The Jordan Poole Experience is not necessarily a bad identity for the Warriors’ second-unit offense and it was fun to see a full embrace of that style for an extended period If you want to nitpick, most of those PNR possessions ended in two-point shots and Jordan Poole wasn’t exactly involving his teammates. So that made it all the more satisfying when Poole ended his explosive third quarter with a well-set-up assist for James Wiseman:
4th Q:
12:00 — DDV/Moody/Spencer/Lamb/PBJ: 94-89, Warriors lead.
7:14 — DDV/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/PBJ: 106-109, Lakers lead.
6:38 — Jerome/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/PBJ: 109-111, Lakers lead.
5:56 — Spencer/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/PBJ: 111-113, Lakers lead.
5:30 — Jerome/Weatherspoon/Lamb/Kuminga/Wiseman: 111-113, Lakers lead.
0:12 — Jerome/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/PBJ: 119-122, Lakers lead.
0:06 — Jerome/Moody/Weatherspoon/Lamb/Kuminga: 121-122, Lakers lead.
0:05 — Jerome/Moody/Weatherspoon/Kuminga/Wiseman: 121-123, Lakers lead.
Prior to the game, Steve Kerr said that his starters would play about 22 minutes, which gave opened up minutes for more players on the fringe of the Warriors' roster. This led to an enjoyable several minutes where Donte DiVincenzo handled the ball. I thought DiVincenzo looked solid handling the ball and he created a nice assist for Patrick Baldwin Jr. on this possession:
The Lakers took their lead back in a mostly uneventful fourth quarter that played out until the final possession. The Warriors threw the ball away five times in the final 6 minutes of the quarter, including three turnovers by recent training camp signee, Ty Jerome. Steve Kerr had praised Jerome’s pass-first tendencies upon his signing with the Warriors, but his minutes weren’t very inspiring. What was most notable about Jerome’s minutes was that they came over the Warriors’ second-round draft pick, Ryan Rollins, who did not play a single minute.