To say the Golden State Warriors laid an egg on Thursday night would be the understatement of the season. After seeing their five-game winning streak come to a completely acceptable halt on Christmas day, on the road, against the defending-champion Denver Nuggets, the Dubs had every chance to restart a winning streak on Thursday.
They were well rested. They were at home. And they were facing a Miami Heat team missing its best player in Jimmy Butler, and also its starting point guard in Kyle Lowry.
Instead, they got their butts kicked up one side and down the other, losing 114-102. Grades tonight will be short, because our own Joe Viray really summed it all up.
Anyway, as always, grades are based on my expectations for each player. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.
Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Thursday’s games, league-average TS was 58.0%.
24 minutes, 10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 6 turnovers, 5-for-11 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 45.5% TS, -26
Good things happened when Kuminga drove to the rim. Good things did not happen for the rest of the game.
More shots than points and six turnovers is probably not what JK hoped to do in his first game since publicly proclaiming that he should get more playing time.
