Player grades: Warriors vs. Thunder

Assessing every Golden State player’s performance in the team’s 105-101 loss to Oklahoma City.

The Golden State Warriors almost pulled off one of their signature wins of the season. With superstar Steph Curry sidelined, the Dubs welcomed the Western Conference’s top seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder into town, and came a few breaks and bounces away from a spectacular victory.

Instead, it was a 105-101 loss, and their first three-game losing streak of the season. A moral victory? Perhaps. But an actual loss? Undoubtedly.

Now it’s time to grade the players who almost pulled it off, but ultimately failed. As always, grades are based on my expectations of 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 Wednesday’s games, league-average TS was 57.3%.

Draymond Green

32 minutes, 10 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers, 1 foul, 4-for-11 shooting, 2-for-8 threes, 45.5% TS, +8

You could see the hunger in Draymond in this game. He wanted to win the game badly, and that competitive fire rubbed off on his teammates. More importantly, Green just shined in this game. With Steve Kerr opting for a small starting lineup, Green was matched up with seven-foot center Isaiah Hartenstein. And he did an admirable job, patrolling the paint and snagging 13 boards as the Warriors out-rebounded OKC 57-49.

It was a standout defensive game, with Green leading a strong offensive showing from the Dubs. Green was the leader behind the team holding a top-10 offense to 105 points on 54.4% true-shooting, with 14 turnovers. Just look at this!

Dray also quarterbacked the offense very well, creating a lot of offense for his teammates in Curry’s absence.

Excellent work.

Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds and assists.

Jonathan Kuminga

28 minutes, 19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 3 fouls, 8-for-21 shooting, 3-for-10 threes, 0-for-1 free throws, 44.3% TS, +2

The stats don’t look great for Kuminga. He didn’t collect too many rebounds or assists, and his scoring efficiency leaves much to me admired.

But gosh, it sure felt like he played a good game, didn’t it? JK missed his first four shots, but then turned things on. His aggression was a force all night, and even though his finishing was a little off, the relentless attacks on the basket changed the Warriors offense. It was the type of game where it showed Kuminga’s potential to dominate, he just needs to get the shots to fall a little more consistently.

It’s hard to judge that performance. I was impressed by so much of what Kuminga did, but ultimately the results fell a bit flat ... even if he felt like a star for much of the game, and looked strong on defense.

Grade: B+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.

Lindy Waters III

24 minutes, 4 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 fouls, 1-for-7 shooting, 1-for-7 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 25.4% TS, -9

Waters has impressed the Warriors this season, and for good luck. But it’s hard for any player to shine when they shoot just 1-for-7 from the field, and Waters was no exception.

I was impressed by Waters’ defense. But he spent most of the night hunting for threes that weren’t going in. Like pretty much any player to wear a Warriors jersey over the last 16 years, Waters looks a lot better when Curry’s on the floor.

Grade: C
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.

Andrew Wiggins

35 minutes, 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 foul, 4-for-17 shooting, 3-for-8 threes, 5-for-7 free throws, 39.8% TS, -2

In many ways, Wiggins’ game was a lot like Kuminga’s. I was pretty surprised to look at the box score and see just how inefficient Wiggins’ game was, because it felt like his offensive aggression helped the Warriors offense all night, despite the missed shots.

On the other hand, Wiggins’ performance was also the opposite of Kuminga’s: the offense started hot, then disappeared. Wiggins scored the team’s first nine points, and finished the first quarter with 11 points on 2-for-3 shooting, and 5-for-5 on free throws. In the next three quarters, he shot just 2-for-14 from the field and 0-for-2 on free throws for five points, which was capped off by missing a desperation game-tying layup in the final seconds, when he had time to gather the ball and go up strong.

Pretty good defense. And gosh, that first quarter still was exciting. But it got ugly fast.

Grade: C-

Brandin Podziemski

30 minutes, 12 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 4-for-10 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 3-for-3 free throws, 55.1% TS, -6

It’s been a bit of a struggle at times for Podziemski this year, and his minutes have reflected that. But on Wednesday he got a chance to start in Curry’s absence, and he got all the minutes that go along with that.

Podz made the most of it, with a strong, well-rounded showing. His offense showed up, with just his third double-digit showing in the last nine games, and better efficiency than the stats suggests, as a few of his misses were shot clock-expiration desperation heaves. He had a tough (in a good way) defensive game, and attacked the glass all night.

A strong game.

Grade: A-

Kevon Looney

12 minutes, 3 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 1-for-5 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 25.5% TS, -1

Looney’s season theme continues: otherworldly rebounding with offensive struggles. Looney tacked on another nine boards in just 12 minutes, bringing his season total to 238 minutes, 124 total rebounds, and 60 offensive rebounds. Ridiculous.

Strong interior defense, too, and a few clutch plays, even though the offensive production just isn’t there (though in fairness, a lot of his missed shots [and offensive rebounds] come on tipped attempts).

Grade: B

Trayce Jackson-Davis

4 minutes, 2 points, 1-for-2 shooting, 50.0% TS, -8

Kerr has obviously decided that TJD isn’t a good matchup against the Thunder when Chet Holmgren is out. Jackson-Davis started the last matchup with OKC, but when Holmgren was injured halfway through the first quarter, TJD left and never came back. And for this game, he got just four minutes off the bench. It was only four minutes, but they definitely didn’t prove Kerr wrong.

Grade: C

Kyle Anderson

17 minutes, 10 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls, 4-for-8 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 56.3% TS, -4

The Warriors have had their share of crafty veterans over the years, and there’s a trait that runs through all of them: in amongst their steady role player performances, they’ll occasionally have a game where everything comes together and they shine.

This was that game for Anderson, who had easily his best performance since joining the Warriors. His defense was spectacular, his offensive was both aggressive and effective, and he made brilliant passes all night long.

Excellent work.

Grade: A

Buddy Hield

23 minutes, 17 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 6 fouls, 5-for-8 shooting, 5-for-8 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 95.7% TS, +6

While Waters was a cautionary tale of what can happen when you only seek out threes and take them every chance you get, Hield was a reminder of what it looks like when it goes right. It’s hard to put too much of a loss on a player who scored 17 points on just nine shooting possessions.

Then again, he was only able to stay on the court for 23 minutes before fouling out, which also showed how much he struggled on defense. So not an easy one to grade.

Grade: B+

Gary Payton II

7 minutes, 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 block, 1-for-1 shooting, 100.0% TS, -8

Payton didn’t do anything bad in this game, but it wasn’t a very impactful one, either. He did good things in his seven minutes, but the Warriors needed more offensive firepower so didn’t turn to him ofter.

Grade: B-

Moses Moody

13 minutes, 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 0-for-4 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 0.0% TS, 0 +/-

Not a very good game for Moody, who’s in a bit of a slump and admitted that it can be hard to find a rhythm with his lack of a constant role. His defense was pretty solid albeit with a few fouls, but his shot wasn’t falling and he wasn’t finding other ways to impact the game. One to shake off.

Grade: C-

Pat Spencer

15 minutes, 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 2-for-5 shooting, 2-for-2 free throws, 51.0% TS, +9

Green might have been the best player for the Warriors on Wednesday, but Spencer was the best story. It was just the second time in Spencer’s career that he played non-garbage time minutes, with the other being in the final game of last season, when the Warriors didn’t care whether they won or lost.

Spencer immediately changed the feel of the game, with energy, hustle, and a few brilliant plays.

It may not have been a star performance, but it’s certainly a day that Spencer won’t ever forget. And it might earn him some more opportunities down the road.

Grade: A+
Post-game bonus: Best plus/minus on the team.

Wednesday’s DNP: Gui Santos
Wednesday’s inactives: Reece Beekman, Steph Curry, De’Anthony Melton, Quinten Post