Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga score in Warriors loss to Thunder

The Golden State Warriors nearly pulled off one of their signature wins of the season. With superstar Steph Curry on the sidelines, the Dubs welcomed the Western Conference’s top seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder, to town and came a few layoffs 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 a real loss? Without a doubt.

Now it’s time to judge the players who almost made it but ultimately failed. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance of that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a measure of scoring efficiency that takes into account threes and free throws. Going into Wednesday’s games, the 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 badly wanted to win the game, and that competitive fire rubbed off on his teammates. More importantly, Green just shined in this game. When Steve Kerr opted 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 grabbing 13 boards as the Warriors out-rebounded OKC 57-49.

It was an excellent defensive game with Green leading a strong offensive showing from the Dubs. Green was the leader behind the team that had a top-10 offense for 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
Bonus after the game: 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 me very much in awe.

But gosh, it sure felt like he was playing 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 while his finishing was a little off, the relentless attacks at the basket changed the Warriors’ offense. It was the type of game where it showed Kuminga’s potential to dominate, he just needs to make the shots fall a little more consistently.

It is difficult to judge that performance. I was impressed with so much of what Kuminga did, but in the end the results fell a little flat…even though he felt like a star for most of the game, and looked strong on defense.

Grade: B+
Bonus after the game: 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 good luck. But it’s hard for any player to shine when they’re shooting just 1-for-7 from the field, and Waters was no exception.

I was impressed with Waters’ defense. But he spent most of the night chasing threes that didn’t go in. Like pretty much every player who has worn a Warriors jersey over the last 16 years, Waters looks much better when Curry is on the floor.

Grade: C
Bonus after the game: 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 very similar to Kuminga’s. I was pretty surprised to watch the box and see how ineffective Wiggins’ play 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 and then faded away. 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 free throws. Over the next three quarters, he shot just 2-for-14 from the field and 0-for-2 on free throws for five points, capped by missing a desperate game-tying layup in the final seconds when he had time to rally the ball and go up strongly.

Pretty good defense. And god, the first quarter was still exciting. But it quickly turned ugly.

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 come with it.

Podz made the most of it with a strong, well-rounded performance. His offense showed up, with just his third double-digit showing in the last nine games, and better efficiency than the stats suggest, as a few of his misses were shot-clock-expiration-desperation heaves. He had a tough (in a good way) defensive game, attacking 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 chipped in nine more boards in just 12 minutes, bringing his season totals to 238 minutes, 124 total rebounds and 60 offensive rebounds. Ridiculous.

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

Grade: B

Trayce Jackson-Davis

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

Kerr has obviously decided that TJD is not a good matchup against the Thunder when Chet Holmgren is out. Jackson-Davis started the final matchup with OKC, but when Holmgren was injured midway through the first quarter, TJD left and never returned. And for this match he got only four minutes from the bench. It was only four minutes, but they certainly didn’t prove Kerr wrong.

Grade: C

Kyle Andersen

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 one trait that runs through them all: among their regular role player performances, they’ll occasionally have a game where everything comes together and they shine.

This was the game for Anderson, who easily had his best performance since joining the Warriors. His defense was spectacular, his offense was both aggressive and efficient, 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 pitch for 23 minutes before coming off, which also showed how much he struggled defensively. So it is not easy to judge.

Grade: B+

Gary Payton II

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

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

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 is in a bit of a slump and admitted it may be difficult to find a rhythm with his lack of a consistent role. His defense was pretty solid albeit with a few mistakes, but his shots weren’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, the other being in last season’s final game in which the Warriors didn’t care whether they won or lost.

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

It may not have been a stellar performance, but it’s certainly a day Spencer will never forget. And that might give him some more opportunities down the road.

Grade: A+
Bonus after the game: Best plus/minus on the team.

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