CP3 returned and worked wonders.
When the Golden State Warriors made a trade with the Washington Wizards to acquire Chris Paul in June, the motive was apparent. The Warriors had long had a great starting lineup with a questionable bench, with both units plagued by turnover issues. Bringing Paul into the fold figured to help the second unit match the efficacy of the first unit, and help quell the turnovers.
We all know what happened when the year began. Paul did stabilize a bench unit — one of the best benches in the league. But fueled by struggles from Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, suspensions to Draymond Green, and overall sloppiness, the starting five inexplicably was one of the worst in the NBA.
When Paul broke his hand in early January, things felt doomed. But in his absence, a funny thing happened: the starters figured things out. Wiggins and Thompson began to play well. Green returned from a month-long suspension and played like an All-Star. Jonathan Kuminga replaced Kevon Looney in the starting five and, eventually, Brandin Podziemski replaced Thompson, further stabilizing the starting unit and adding firepower to the bench.
And on Tuesday, Paul returned. It wasn’t quite a full squad game, as Wiggins was out for personal reasons, replaced in the starting lineup by Moses Moody. But it was a close approximation, with CP3 and Thompson forming a new-look high-octane second unit.
It won the Warriors the game on Tuesday, as they beat those lowly Wizards that employed Paul for all of four offseason days 123-112 to kick off a four-game road trip.
And it was largely the work of the bench. The Dubs starters were sloppy out of the gates, and scored just four points through four-and-a-half minutes, trailing 10-4. Shortly afterwards the bench started to roll in, with Thompson and Gary Payton II checking in. The Wizards countered with former Warrior Jordan Poole, who wasted no time showing the thrill and the agony of the Poole Party experience: on his first possession he took an ultra-difficult step-back three in Steph Curry’s face. He drained it. On his second possession he tried the same thing with Thompson. He bricked it.
Paul entered with about 4:30 remaining and the Dubs down 19-12 and immediately got to work, teaming up with Kuminga (who had eight points and two assists in the quarter) to get the offense rolling. They at one point trailed 25-16, but ended the quarter on a 7-0 run to trail just 25-23 after one quarter.
But that momentum didn’t carry into the second quarter where, behind a motivated Poole, the Wizards went on an 8-1 run to start the from. But then it felt like the Warriors had seen enough. On back-to-back-to-back possessions the Warriors made threes: one each by Thompson, Moody, and Dario Šarić. With the game tied, Washington called timeout. Immediately out of the timeout, Paul made it four straight possessions with a three.
The passing was beautiful and the offense crisp. The Dubs seemed to be on cruise control in the best way on both ends of the court. Then they slipped into cruise control in the worst way, ceding a huge Washington run to end the frame.
Somehow it was just a 60-58 lead at halftime. Most shocking was that Curry was once again struggling mightily: he entered the locker room having scored exactly zero points.
But the third-quarter Warriors did not disappoint. Curry found some rhythm to start the second half and dropped in eight points in the frame. Paul and Thompson led an elite bench performance, with the former dictating the offense majestically and the latter dropping in 13 points in his fully-embraced bench role. Moody, making the most of his opportunity, was seemingly everywhere on the court, and Golden State ended the quarter on a blistering 25-6 run, outscoring Washington 38-17 in the frame, and carrying a 23-point lead into the final quarter.
It wouldn’t be the Warriors without fourth quarter issues, though. They starter sloppy, with many turnovers (Šarić the offending party on a few) and ceding quite a few offensive rebounds. It took less than two minutes for Washington to cut the lead to 15 and for Steve Kerr to call timeout … and get some starters back in. At the 7:28 mark the Wizards cut the lead to 12 and Kerr needed yet another timeout.
Curry kept firing and kept missing, but eventually figured out he could get good looks at the bucket. Every time it felt like the lead was slipping, Payton and Podziemski would grab an offensive rebound.
But the Wizards wouldn’t go away. Even when the Warriors pushed the lead to 19 points, Washington answered with an 8-0 run to get it back to 11. But they would never get it under that.
The dagger came with about two-and-a-half minutes remaining and the Warriors up 11. Curry got a clean look for a back-breaking three but missed it. Podziemski soared in for the rebound and immediately sent it right back to Curry for the reload three. Even on an icy cold night, he wasn’t going to miss that one.
Shortly after, Kerr called his third timeout of the game to get his key players some rest, and the team’s respective mop-up lineups set the final score at 123-112.
The game ball goes to the bench, which had a stunning 59 points. Thompson, who was brilliant with his shot, his shot selection, and his passing all night, finished with 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting; it was his third time leading the team in scoring in just five games since getting moved to the bench. Kevon Looney’s wonderful defense led to a game-high +20 in just 10 minutes of action, while Paul’s return saw him register a hyper-efficient nine points, four rebounds, six assists, four steals, and +17 plus/minus.
Moody’s first real opportunity in a while led to 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting and fantastic defense, while Kuminga feasted on the Wizards all night long, logging 21 points on 10-for-13 shooting. The Dubs were sloppy, but they tallied a beautiful 39 assists on their 47 made baskets. All that was enough for a double-digit win, even on a night where Curry shot just 6-for-21.
They’ll need that bench performance — and probably a bounce-back from Curry — to keep the road trip going swimmingly, though. It gets harder from here on out after beginning with an appetizer against a 9-49 team. The Dubs now have a Thursday/Friday back-to-back against the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors, before ending the road trip on Sunday against the Boston Celtics.
They’re now 30-27, ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers in the play-in tournament, and within arm’s reach (maybe one of Looney or Green’s arms, but still) of earning one of the guaranteed playoff seeds.
Things are about to get really fun.