What we learned as Kuminga drops career-high 34 in Warriors loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The third time wasn’t the charm for the Warriors Friday night against the LA Clippers, as they lost 102-92 at Intuit Dome.
The Warriors have now faced the Clippers three times this season and lost all three games.
Without Steph Curry And Green Draymondthe Warriors couldn’t generate any offense for most of the night. They scored 21 points in the first quarter, 22 in the second and 19 in the third before exploding for 30 in the fourth.
Jonathan Kuminga presented himself offensively. All night long, he dominated around the rim, leading to a career-high 34 points. He was extremely efficient, making 11 of 19 from the field, with most of his points coming in the paint. He also made a career-high 11 free throws, missing only three times in the charity game.
If only others around Kuminga could say the same thing. The Warriors fought until the very end, trailing by as many as 21 and 19 heading into the fourth quarter, even though they just weren’t shorthanded enough on the first night of a showdown consecutive.
After starting the season 12-3, the Warriors are now 3-12 in their last 15 games.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ latest loss, dropping them to 15-15 on the season.
Kuminga came ready
Before Friday night, the Warriors had been without Curry and Green once this season. The result was a six-point victory against the Houston Rockets on December 5, where Kuminga had perhaps the best match of his young career.
Kuminga in this competition started as a power forward and played 33 minutes. He scored a then-career-high 33 points on 13-of-22 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and was plus-7. Doing it again with Green and Curry on Friday night in Los Angeles seemed likely, but Steve Kerr took a different path. Instead, Kerr started Kyle Anderson at power forward to fill Green’s role as a point forward and kept Kuminga off the bench.
And Kuminga responded to his coach’s challenge, playing aggressively and under control, using movement to get easy baskets. Although he came off the bench, he was the Warriors’ leading scorer after the first quarter with five points and led both teams with 13 points at halftime on 4-of-8 shooting and made all four of his shots francs. Through three quarters, Kuminga was up to 19 points, but no other Warrior was in double figures.
Kuminga has now scored at least 25 points in two of his last three games and has nine 20-point games this season.
Kuminga also had 10 rebounds and five assists, marking the first 30-10-5 game of his four-year NBA career.
Schroder continues to struggle
THE Dennis Schröder the Warriors acquired from the Brooklyn Nets is no longer the same player since he changed his number and wears different colors. His shooting woes continued at the worst possible time.
A game without Curry should have been an invitation for Schroder to get the ball in his hands and take over. This was not the case. Kerr managed to get the ball back into Schroder’s control, but he continued to fail.
Literally. Schroder scored seven points on 3-of-11 shooting and missed all six of his 3-pointers, giving him four single-digit scoring nights in his five games as a Warrior. He seems to lack everything at the moment. This is not something to blame on Kerr. The coach ran pick-and-rolls repeatedly for Schroder, but nothing could get him going.
In 23 games with the Nets this season, Schroder was 45.2 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from three. Now in five games as a Warrior, Schroder has made just 28 percent of his shots overall (14 of 50) and is shooting 17.4 percent from 3-point range (4 of 23).
Wiggins? Boyfriend? Good morning?
Schroder was far from the only reason the Warriors’ offense was the vomit emoji in human form. Anytime the Warriors don’t have Curry on the court, everyone has to step up. That’s why.
Andrew Wiggins gave Golden State nothing offensively, and Buddy Hield.
The Warriors’ second-best 3-point shooter, Hield, made six threes and made it just once. Hield’s nine rebounds are a season high, but that’s not why he’s here. His No. 1 job is to score points and make threes, something he didn’t do much of in Inglewood.
Hield scored five points on 2-of-8 shooting in 22 minutes. Somehow he was better than Wiggins.
Golden State’s second-leading scorer, behind Curry, also had five points. Wiggins was 1 of 3 from deep and also made just one of his eight 2-pointers. His five points are tied for a season low.
The shell-shocked Warriors must learn to win with and without Curry now. The main actors who should be able to intervene in his absence were not present.
