It’s rare that we get a best performance in a loss here at Golden State Of Mind, but in a year where the Warriors were short handed and in need of desperate help, you gotta spotlight great contributions regardless. Especially when they come from a rookie like Will Richard against the Sacramento Kings.
This entry is about happened inside a 121-116 loss to the Kings on November 5. There are games where the result and the story point in different directions, and this was completely one of those games.
Richard scored 12 points in the first quarter alone, went 10-of-15 from the field for the night with five threes, grabbed seven rebounds, added three assists and a steal, and finished with 30 points in his first career NBA start. He became the first Warriors player drafted in the second round or later to score 20 or more points in his first career start since Eric Paschall in 2019, and matched the second-most points ever scored by a Warriors player in his first start, sitting alongside John Lucas while Anthony Morrow’s 37-point record still stands alone at the top.
None of that was supposed to happen on a back-to-back in Sacramento with Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green all sitting out.
What makes this entry belong in the series isn’t just the number. It’s the way Richard played, which Steve Kerr described afterward in terms that didn’t sound like a coach searching for encouraging words about a young player. Kerr said Richard had shown since training camp that he was an NBA player, that the poise was real, that the decision-making under pressure was real, and then called him a hell of a player in a way that had the directness of a statement rather than a compliment.
Richard’s own postgame quote is the one that sticks. He said he is a big believer in controlling what you can control, that whatever role he is in he wants to do whatever it takes to help the team win, and that whether he is playing or not playing he just wants to see the team win. That is either something a 22-year-old says because he knows what sounds right, or something a 22-year-old says because he actually means it, and the fact that he said it two games after sitting out as a healthy scratch and one game after dropping 30 on a professional defense suggests he meant every word of it.
Yes, the Warriors lost. But Richard scored 30 points in his first career start, in a season where Golden State needed every reason for optimism it could find. As silver linings go, this one has some real legs to it. Can’t wait to see what Richard does for the squad next year!
