3 takeaways as Warriors, missing stars, stay undefeated in preseason with win over Pistons
SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Kerr considers this Warriors group possibly the deepest team he’s ever coached, one-through-13, and the abundance of NBA-caliber talent showed on Sunday.
Even without Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors boat-raced the Pistons to stay undefeated in preseason action. They never trailed after the opening minutes and led by as much as 26 points.
Brandin Podziemski (12 points, four assists, four rebounds) paced the offense before he left in the third quarter due to an injury, and Trayce Jackson-Davis (12 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks) made an impact on both ends. In the Warriors’ 111-93 victory to improve to 4-0 in the preseason, six Warriors scored in the double digits.
“Much better tonight than (Friday) night, just getting into our offensive rhythm and creating better shots for each other,” Kerr said postgame. “Thought we played with more energy, more bounce, and those things often go hand-in-hand.”
Golden State stayed hot from behind the arc even without Curry, shooting 18-for-39 (46.2%) from 3. The Warriors’ advantage in that area, as well as at the free throw line, negated their 21 turnovers.
Curry and Green had a scheduled night off, although Curry’s minor right index finger injury could knock him out of another contest out of caution. Wiggins, who has worked back from an illness, is expected to play in Golden State’s final two preseason games, on Tuesday and Friday.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s game.
Looney’s going to play
Some raised their eyebrows when the Warriors fully guaranteed Kevon Looney’s $8 million deal to keep him, but it looks like a prudent decision now.
Looney lost his games played streak last year and fell out of Golden State’s rotation as his productivity slipped. But he spent the summer reimagining his body and conditioning. He took hundreds of 3-pointers a day, and even if his range doesn’t extend to the perimeter for real, he has had a tremendous camp.
In his first-quarter shift, Looney hit a 15-footer off the short roll — he has made a jumper in each preseason game — and was a force on both ends. He finished strong over Isaiah Stewart then stoned Stewart in the post on the other end. He helped key a 17-2 run to close the first quarter.
Looney logged eight points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 13 minutes. If he produced that exact stat-line consistently, the Warriors would be thrilled.
Slimming down should allow Looney to be more nimble on both ends. With the Warriors committed to playing a big next to Draymond Green for the majority of his minutes, Looney is certainly going to be in the mix. That wasn’t the case last year, and didn’t seem obvious heading into training camp.
The Kuminga positional question continues
The starting lineup of Brandin Podziesmki, De’Anthony Melton, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis made Kuminga nominally a power forward in a small-ball unit. The Warriors have mostly played Kuminga at small forward this preseason, deploying him in a frontcourt with a pair of non-shooting bigs.
Yet Kuminga played just like a small forward — the position he has known his entire life. The former seventh overall pick drained his first two 3-pointers, continuing a promising trend in the preseason.
Entering Sunday, Kuminga had sank seven of his first 13 3-point attempts (53.8%). Te even drilled one off-the-dribble pull-up triple at the end of the shot clock on Friday. The Warriors have empowered him to shoot when open, and he has obliged.
“He’s shooting the 3 much more confidently, clearly,” Kerr said of Kuminga. “There’s no hesitation, looks like he’s getting better balance on his shot. And we want the catch-and-shoot when he’s open. The one thing we don’t want is guys to catch and hold.”
Most of the looks Kuminga has taken have been clean opportunities off the catch. Against the Pistons, he hit a stand-still trey from the wing off a De’Anthony Melton pass and another one off the bounce from the top of the arc, dribbling into an easy one when his defender sagged off. Early in the third quarter, Kuminga didn’t hesitate to fire in transition from the left wing.
Kuminga went 3-for-5 from deep, finishing with 12 points in 23 minutes.
Kuminga certainly still has room to improve. He only snagged two boards, which is a point of emphasis. And even the Pistons, one of the worst teams in the league, had success driving by him. But the perimeter shot looks improved, and that’s the biggest variable for him to play in Golden State’s preferred lineup configurations.
Highlight of the game
Trayce Jackson-Davis grew a quarter-inch to 6-foot-10 this summer, and it showed in the best play of the night.
As the last line of defense in transition for Golden State, the second-year center stoned Tobias Harris at the rim, then got a finger tip on Jalen Duren’s putback attempt.
The dual rejections led to a fast break that ended in a Brandin Podziemski 3-pointer. Detroit promptly called timeout, allowing Podziemski to hype up his understated rookie classmate with a shove in the chest.
“Just make a play on the ball, then try to be reactive,” Jackson-Davis said postgame. “Saw Duren get it and try to make another player. Then I got hit, and I kind of saw (Podziemski) hit a 3, but I was a little bit out of it, got poked in the eye.”
They combined for the highlight reel on the night in which the Warriors handed out bobbleheads of them high-fiving, no less.
The two also created, ironically, the lowlight of the game. With Jackson-Davis handling in the corner, Podziemski tried to sprint around him for a handoff but ended up running into his teammate. After a few moments on the court, Podziemski asked to be subbed out. He headed to the tunnel with training staff members and was ruled out with a nose contusion.