Dub Hub: Steve Kerr praises Jonathan Kuminga’s ‘brilliant’ career night

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Friday, December 6th.

In today’s Dub Hub:

• Steve Kerr praises Jonathan Kuminga’s ‘brilliant’ performance after he scored a career-high 33 points on Thursday night vs. the Rockets.
• MRI for Draymond Green’s left calf comes back negative, status to return is TBD according to the team.
• ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne details 1,000-day long road to recovery for Bulls’ point guard Lonzo Ball.

Without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in the lineup, the Golden State Warriors relied on Jonathan Kuminga to step up Thursday night—and he delivered. Kuminga poured in a career-high 33 points to lead the Warriors to a much-needed 99-93 victory over the Houston Rockets, snapping their five-game losing streak.

After the game, head coach Steve Kerr praised Kuminga’s performance, calling it “brilliant.”

The 21-year-old forward was unstoppable, shooting 13-of-22 from the field and attacking the rim with aggression. When it felt like the Warriors were at risk of losing yet another tight game, Kuminga took over in the clutch, sealing the victory with a late lay-up.

Kuminga’s breakout performance gives the Warriors a much-needed boost which could be the spark they’ve been searching for as they look to rebound from their most recent slump.

For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Friday, December 6th:

Warriors News:

Jonathan Kuminga makes claim as crunch-time option in Warriors’ win over Rockets | The Athletic

“The floor has been opened up a little bit the last couple games for JK,” Kerr said. “But can we get him out there more with Draymond, with Loon? But as a (power forward) like he’s been playing the last couple of nights. That’s really the key. We just have a lot of guys, so we have to sort through all this. But there’s no question we can do more of this.”

Andrew Wiggins discusses playing through an ankle injury that’s been bothering him in recent days

Warriors’ Stephen Curry expected to play Fri.; Green ‘possible’ | ESPN

“Steph’s knee stuff the last couple of weeks ... he’s in pain,” Kerr said before facing the Rockets. “We’re not playing him. We can’t play him through this stretch every game and expect him to get through. I thought he looked really good in Denver. To me he looked more active, more agile, but we have to help him get through the woods on this one.

“And same thing with Draymond, otherwise you’re chasing your tail and then guys end up missing weeks at a time. So it’s nothing more than training staff helping them get through the woods, and hopefully over the long haul that means they end up playing more games than they otherwise would’ve.”

Draymond Green’s MRI on his left calf comes back negative

Spoelstra? Lue? Why USA Basketball has options — and time — when choosing next coach | The Athletic

Team USA won its fifth consecutive gold medal last summer in Paris. Thirteen months ago, Kerr told The Athletic he would step down as the American coach after the Olympics, win or lose. He said, “It’s a two-year … cycle. (Gregg Popovich) coached a World Cup and the Olympics, now it’s my turn to pass the baton. I think that’s kind of how it should be. Frankly, it’s a huge commitment too.” Kerr, who also coaches the Golden State Warriors, has since re-affirmed privately that he will not return as USA coach.

NBA News:

Nikola Jokić records 139th triple-double, passing Magic Johnson for third-most in NBA history | The Athletic

Jokić, the league’s reigning MVP, finished with 27 points, 20 rebounds (ties a season-high) and 11 assists in a 126-114 loss to Cleveland. He notched his 10th assist — on a 3-pointer from Michael Porter Jr. — with 3:37 left in the fourth quarter and passed Johnson in 692 career games. Magic needed 880 contests to hit 138 triple-doubles.

“It’s something that you’re going to look at when you finish your career,” said Jokić, who tied a season-high with those 20 boards. “Right now you don’t even think about it. But it’s a great thing. It’s an honor to accomplish something like that. So it’s a really nice thing.”

Inside Lonzo Ball’s unprecedented 1,000-day return to the NBA | ESPN

The problem, Ball said, was that the first shoes his dad had made for him to wear at NBA summer league in 2017 were unwearable.

“They were like kickball shoes,” Ball said. He wore them just twice that summer. He and his manager, Darren Moore, went out to Foot Locker stores in Las Vegas to buy a different pair of high-end shoes for each game. Ball played one game each in the Air Jordan XXXI, Nike Kobe A.D., Adidas Harden LS and Under Armour Curry 4 en route to winning summer league MVP.

Eventually, Big Baller Brand set up an arrangement with Skechers to manufacture its shoes, which Ball wore for his entire rookie season. But Ball said he wasn’t happy with those shoes either and believes they could have contributed to the first meniscus injury he suffered as a rookie in January 2018.

“I think it’s a possibility for sure, to be honest with you,” Ball said. “I wasn’t really getting hurt like that until I started wearing them.”

NBA will play two preseason games in China next October, per ESPN’s Shams Charania

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

On Jonathan Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins grounding and pounding the Rockets into submission

Kuminga, in particular, showed maturity and poise well beyond his 22 years, something that’s been sought out from him over his four years in the NBA. Perhaps it was being slotted into a role he feels that he deserves: as a scoring option and main ball handler. Kuminga made every case for that being a semi-norm, even with Curry being around. He made plenty of big arguments in his favor tonight, but none was bigger than a crucial after-timeout play where Kerr was able to get Kuminga the ball and rope in the smaller Fred VanVleet into switching onto Kuminga and forcing him to defend a drive.

A tweet to end the week:

Follow @unstoppablebaby on Twitter for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.