The Golden State Warriors got their butts kicked on Monday night, and who can blame them? In addition to the standard absence of Jimmy Butler III, they were also playing without Steph Curry, Draymond Green,
Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, Jonathan Kuminga, and Seth Curry. Even against a Minnesota Timberwolves team that’s on quite a skid, a win just wasn’t realistic.
Golden State gave it a good run for a while, but ran out of steam late in the first half and never recovered, ultimately losing 108-83 in their lowest-scoring game of the year. So let’s grade the players who played bigger roles than usual in a scheduled loss. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.
Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Monday’s games, league average TS was 58.0%.
Moses Moody
26 minutes, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 1 turnover, 4-for-12 shooting, 2-for-7 threes, 41.7% TS, -13
I’ll talk about this again when we get to another player, but one of the things I’ve been noticing lately when the Warriors rest their starters is that the team really doesn’t seem to view Moody as being an offensive threat. He’s a quality role player, but even with all of their go-to scorers sidelined, the Dubs just don’t turn to Moody to be a scoring option.
Sure, he was only one field goal attempt shy of the team lead, but they were almost all rhythm shots, set up by teammates or by the flow of the offense. There was no sense of Okay, Moses, Steph’s out and everyone else is out, have the rock and feast.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just feels like a little bit of a peek behind the curtain for the team. While some players on the Warriors feel like role players because they share the court with future Hall of Famers, Moody feels more like a role player because he’s a role player. He’s often a very good role player, but in games where he doesn’t have that star cast around him, he doesn’t look very good. He also got taken off the dribble by Rudy Gobert a few times, which can’t happen.
Grade: C
Gui Santos
26 minutes, 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 1 foul, 5-for-13 shooting, 1-for-6 threes, 42.3% TS, -5
Congrats to Santos on his first career double-double! He was all over the court in this one, and a big part of why the Warriors almost held their own on the glass against a team with Gobert and Julius Randle. He also showed off some seriously crafty moves, particularly with a slick reverse post move early in the contest.
He wasn’t efficient, though that’s a theme for the night. And he had more turnovers than you’d like, though that comes with being forced into more of a playmaking role than he’s supposed to have. It was a flawed game, certainly, but it felt like he played well and showed a lot.
Grade: B+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds, best plus/minus on the team.
Quinten Post
28 minutes, 13 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 2 fouls, 5-for-12 shooting, 3-for-7 threes, 54.2% TS, -13
A bit of a hot-and-cold game for Post. He showed some really nice stuff on offense, though ultimately wasn’t too inefficient. He got worked a bit on defense and the glass (Gobert had 17 boards), but had a few eye-opening plays.
Not his best work, but not his worst, either.
Grade: B-
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.
Pat Spencer
34 minutes, 10 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 4 turnovers, 1 foul, 4-for-11 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 45.5% TS, -10
Leave it to Spencer to always bring the toughness. No one played harder in this game than Pat and, despite being mostly out of the rotation these days, he was counted on to lead the team in minutes and didn’t look at all exhausted despite moving at full speed.
Despite the poor shooting night for the team (the Warriors shot 34.7% from the field and 23.1% from deep), the offense often flowed beautifully … until the shot went up. And more often than not, the offense flowed beautifully because Spencer was getting the team into their sets and motions and keeping the ball moving. Sure, that resulted in more turnovers than is ideal, but the Wolves have a top-five defense and Spencer was playing the unexpected role of leading the offense. It happens. He played well.
Grade: A-
Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists.
Brandin Podziemski
28 minutes, 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 4-for-13 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 4-for-5 free throws, 39.5% TS, -14
So, let’s revisit what I wrote about Moody, because there was a distinct difference with Podziemski. It was clear from the plays the team ran, and the way Podziemski’s number was called, that they wanted him to be the go-to scorer in this game. He flashed some potential, as he had a few brilliant plays on offense.
Overall, though, he struggled to score, but again: the takeaway here is less about the results, and more about the process, and seeing what the Warriors wanted and how they value different players. Podz is less steady and less reliable than Moody, but it’s also pretty clear that Golden State views him as potentially being an impact scorer in a way that they don’t with Moses.
His hustle was great in this game. He was the team’s second-highest rebounder and, as he always does, drew some charges.
Grade: B
Will Richard
28 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 6 steals, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 2-for-9 shooting, 0-for-6 threes, 22.2% TS, -11
No, you’re not reading that incorrectly: Richard really did have six steals in this game. It was a masterclass of defensive engagement and activity. He was everywhere on that end of the court, with stunningly disruptive hands.
The offense? Not so much. But as with everyone here, he gets something of a pass given the situation. Gotta love the defense.
Grade: B+
Buddy Hield
29 minutes, 5 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 2-for-10 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 0-for-2 free throws, 23.0% TS, -20
Hield shot 20% from the field, 0% from the free throw line, and got put in the spin cycle by Gobert 25 feet from the hoop. That’s all I have to say about that.
Grade: D
Post-game bonus: Tied for the worst plus/minus on the team.
Gary Payton II
12 minutes, 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 6 fouls, 2-for-4 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 50.0% TS, -20
GPII played less than 12 minutes and fouled out. And that’s all I have to say about that, too.
Grade: D
Post-game bonus: Tied for the worst plus/minus on the team.
Trayce Jackson-Davis
20 minutes, 8 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 3 fouls, 3-for-7 shooting, 2-for-4 free throws, 45.7% TS, -12
TJD gets an “A” for unintentional humor. Twice he came to the free throw line in the fourth quarter of a game that had long since been decided. The Wolves have a “Bricken for Chicken” special, where everyone gets free Chick-fil-A if an opposing player misses a pair of free throws in the second half. Both times, Jackson-Davis missed the front half of his free throws, turning the arena into a frenzy. Both times he made the second, resulting in an audible “awwww” from the crowd. It was pretty funny.
Other than that … well, he played pretty decently, I thought.
Grade: B
Malevy Leons
9 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2-for-4 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 61.5% TS, -7
Leons entered the game having scored just two points in his short NBA career. He not only quadrupled that mark, but was the only Warriors player to shoot with above-average efficiency. And he ripped down five boards in nine minutes! Quite a nice showing for the two-way contract.
Grade: A+
Monday’s inactives: Jimmy Butler III, LJ Cryer, Seth Curry, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Al Horford, Jonathan Kuminga, De’Anthony Melton
