The Golden State Warriors won an odd game on Monday, beating the Phoenix Suns 116-113. They once again dug themselves a first-quarter hole, and this time it took them a bit longer to climb out of it. But a win is a win is a win, and the Warriors have now won five straight … something they didn’t do at any point last season.
It was a game that featured some great performances and some awful ones, so let’s grade them! As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing
the average performance for that individual.
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 57.2%.
Will Richard
28 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 2-for-7 shooting, 2-for-5 threes, 42.9% TS, -17
Richard got the start in this one, for the second time this season. It was a play to get more perimeter defense on a team starting Jalen Green, Devin Booker, and Miles Bridges, and Richard took turns defending all three. As we’ve grown accustomed to, he played good defense, though it wasn’t the best he’s been on that side of the ball. There were definitely plenty of moments where he got beat, or was a little over eager and out of position.
He did some good things on offense, but not too much. He’s there for defense, though, and he played it.
Grade: B
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.
Yaxel Lendeborg
29 minutes, 16 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 3-for-10 shooting, 2-for-6 threes, 8-for-9 free throws, 57.3% TS, -11
Poor Yaxel. Sunday was the first time this season that I didn’t write a grades article and, fittingly, he had his best game of the season. Obviously that’s his biggest concern, so I’m sorry, Yaxel. Please know that you would have gotten an A with two plus signs had I penned some grades.
For this game the grade has to be a little bit lower, though. Lendeborg got off to a slow start (as did the entire team), and picked up two quick fouls while struggling to get anything going on offense.
As the game went on, though, the rookie picked things up considerably, and he ended up having a very strong second half. I remain in awe of his restraint: you just don’t see a lot of rookies who are so comfortable picking and choosing their shots, and not hoisting an unnecessary number of jumpers. Critically, even after his tough start, the team turned to him on multiple possessions down the stretch, and he very often delivered, while also having a glass-check block late in the game that was probably the defensive highlight of the contest.
I’m still struggling to grade him, though, because I’m struggling to figure out what my expectations should be. This guy genuinely might be the first rookie All-Star since Blake Griffin, so how do I grade him? With all respect to Draymond Green and Brandin Podziemski, Lendeborg is far and away the second-best player on the team (until Jimmy Butler III returns, at least, and maybe after, too), and that makes grading difficult. But who cares, the show is a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
Grade: B
Draymond Green
17 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 1-for-2 shooting, 2-for-2 free throws, 69.4% TS, -6
Oh, Dray. We were doing so well!
The Warriors over the last week have had the best vibes they’ve possessed since the first round of the 2025 playoffs. And Green put that in jeapoardy. Two minutes into the third quarter, he got into it with Phoenix center Khaman Maluach. After being pushed to the floor, Green got up, committed a hard foul, and kind of threw Maluach to the floor. What followed was an altercation with Dillon Brooks, in which Green shoved Brooks around the neck area. He received a technical foul for each act, and was subsequently ejected for the first time this year.
Ejections come with the territory with Green, and I’m usually one to defend him more quickly than others. After all, these are grown adults playing a high-stakes contact sport … some pushing and shoving and yelling never hurt anyone. But this was too far, and, while not as bad as his incidents a few years back with Rudy Gobert, Domantas Sabonis, and Jusuf Nurkić, these started to cross over the line from “aggressive basketball” to “violence.”
Thankfully for Green, the team responded to his absence well, but it didn’t need to go that way. His absence didn’t end up costing the Warriors the win, but it could hurt them down the road, as it’s possible he’ll get a one-game suspension for his actions.
I’ve giving Green a harsh grade for taking himself out of the game and possibly the next one, and not playing particularly well before then, either. But it’s worth noting that the Warriors players spoke after the game about how Green’s ejection fired them up, so … take that for what it’s worth.
Grade: D for disappointing
Brandin Podziemski
33 minutes, 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 7-for-15 shooting, 3-for-8 threes, 3-for-4 free throws, 59.7% TS, -4
The Warriors, over the course of this nice winning streak, have developed a habit of starting slow and finishing strong. And Podziemski completely embodies that. Podz has really been struggling out of the gates lately, but as soon as he emerges from the locker room at halftime, he’s a completely different player.
That was again the case in this game. He couldn’t get anything going in the first half, and then he was bailing the Dubs out time and time again in the second. If he had paced his performance over the course of the game, I’d probably give him a “B” for a very solid, if not noteworthy performance. But because he had so many big plays on both ends of the court with the game on the line, we’ll bump him up a half grade.
Grade: B+
Steph Curry
33 minutes, 34 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 9-for-21 shooting, 5-for-13 threes, 11-for-12 free throws, 64.7% TS, +21
I’m sure that when the game ended and the Dubs retreated to the locker rooms, Green was waiting with a big hug for Curry. Golden State was losing when Green was ejected, and had the score held, the biggest story — maybe the only story — would have been Draymond’s transgressions. Instead, Curry went ballistic as soon as Green left the court, and scored 18 points in the third quarter alone as the Dubs rattled off 42 in the frame to tie things up.
Curry looks better this year than in the past few years, and this was his third consecutive game with at least 30 points and five made threes. He seems energized, and that’s a joy to behold, and a harbinger of how good this team can be.
Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points and assists; best plus/minus on the team.
Gary Payton II
20 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 1-for-3 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 33.3% TS, +3
Not surprisingly, GPII got a lot of run against a team with Booker, Green, and Bridges. And also not surprisingly, he handled those assignments really well. He hasn’t had one of his bursts of offense yet this season, and he had a few sloppy plays in this one, but overall, solid performance.
Grade: B-
Georges Niang
22 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 foul, 5-for-6 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 2-for-3 free throws, 88.8% TS, +20
Well that was a damn fine performance. Niang showed everything the Warriors are looking for from him: he drained open shots, passed to the open man, played strong defense while guarding a variety of positions, crashed tho glass, made the smart play, and hustled. He’s very quickly building a strong rapport with Curry, which is huge; the result is that he’s a very trustworthy player to have on the court down the stretch.
It’s not always going to work this well, but when it does? Yeesh.
Grade: A+
De’Anthony Melton
28 minutes, 2 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 fouls, 1-for-9 shooting, 0-for-5 threes, 0-for-1 free throws, 10.6% TS, 0 +/-
Remember when I said, just a few words ago, that it isn’t always going to work this well with Niang? Well, that’s the case for all players in that sort of role … and Melton is living proof. Melton has had some really good games lately but this one was a bit of a clunker … at least scoring the ball, as he could not get any shots to fall.
He did some other good things though. He took care of the rock, rebounded really well, and played decent enough defense. But it’s hard to impact the game when you shoot 1-for-9 from the field, and he just looked a step behind on a lot of plays.
Grade: C
Charles Bassey
23 minutes, 19 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 4 fouls, 7-for-10 shooting, 5-for-6 free throws, 75.2% TS, +10
What a performance by Bassey! His role has been very undefined this year, which makes sense. He’s still trying to carve out a role in the NBA, he’s recovering from a preseason injury, and the Warriors needs fluctuate based on who they’re playing, how Green and Lendeborg are performing, and whether or not Al Horford is playing.
But Bassey got a decent-sized role in this one, and then that role expanded because he was playing so damn well. He was crafty around the rim, finding ways to contort his body to score around and through contact, en route to a career-high 19 points. He not only grabbed a bunch of boards, but did so emphatically, patrolling the paint every time a shot went up.
He even had a great memeable moment, when the ball went out of bounds and he hugged a fan.
Re-signing him is just one of many fantastic moves that the Warriors made this offseason. Hindsight is 20/20, as no one was saying they made good moves a few months ago!
Grade: A+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.
Graham Ike
7 minutes, 0 points, -1
Ike somewhat surprisingly got some run in this game, especially after Green was ejected. He didn’t do anything statistically — he didn’t log a single stat — but I liked what we saw from him on defense.
Grade: B
LJ Cryer
39 seconds, 0 points, 0-for-1 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, 0 +/-
Cryer briefly got onto the court for an end-of-quarter offense situation, but that was all we saw of him.
Grade: Incomplete
Monday’s DNP-CDs: Malevy Leons
Monday’s inactives: Jimmy Butler III, Al Horford, Moses Moody, Kristaps Porziņģis, Gui Santos, Brandon Williams
