Buddy Hield explosion leads shorthanded Warriors to win over Pelicans

After a rough first quarter, the Warriors turned up their defense and Hield and Lindy Waters III turned up the offensive heat in a 124-106 win

It looked rough after one quarter for the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night. Playing on TNT and missing the injured Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors fell behind by 17 points after one quarter to the New Orleans Pelicans. But after that, the Warriors turned up the defense and Reggie Miller fired up Buddy Hield to inspire Golden State to a 124-106 win.

Hield was the star with 28 points and seven three-pointers, including 19 points in the second quarter. He didn’t miss a shot after a halftime conversation with Miller, who uncomfortably refused to share what he told the Warriors’ new sharpshooter. All we know is he was a different player after the break, sinking all six of his triples. For the season, he’s now 20-for-36 from deep.

The Warriors got 19 points and five assists from their temporary starting point guard, Brandin Podziemski, who exemplified Golden State’s effectively handsy defense Tuesday night with numerous deflections, two blocks, and a steal. Demoted starter Jonathan Kuminga came alive with 17 points and three assists, one of them a really nice feed to Trayce Jackson-Davis for a dunk.

As per the charter of this site, whenever we mention “Kuminga” and “dunk” in the same sentence, we are contractually obligated to include footage of Kuminga dunking. So here a very pretty reverse dunk from JK on a breakway.

On the advice of my attorney, here’s another angle.

But the truly surprising game came from Lindy Waters III, who did everything for the Warriors in 31 minutes, in which he scored 21 points with a plus/minus of +26. Not only did Waters score, but he grabbed nine reobunds, dished four assists, got a block and a steal, and made one improbable defensive rebound racing back after a missed corner three.

Draymond Green had the unenviable assignment of slowing down Zion Williamson, who had 31 points for the Pelicans and essentially cannot be stopped by anyone one-on-one. But Green made his night difficult, drawing two charges on the All-Star forward, one changed from a blocking call after a Kerr challenge. Yes, Draymond convinced his coach to challenge a foul call and he was right! That accounted for two of Williamson’s seven turnovers, three of them on charging fouls.

Green also had seven assists and hit a huge three to stop a 6-0 Pelicans run and get the Warriors within four points at the half.

That led to a 40-point third quarter, then a 19-point Hield fourth quarter, and finally to Kerr clearing his bench with 2:43 left, a true Strength In Numbers moment that also let Pat Spencer ge ton the board and Moses Moody to pad his three-point shooting numbers with two late triples.

Steve Kerr moved Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody into the starting lineup and moved Jonathan Kuminga to the bench. The intial result? Confusion.

The Pelicans absolutely blew out the Warriors in the first quarter, which they won, 31-14. New Orleans finished the quarter on a 13-0 run. The duo of Williamson and Brandon Ingram looked spectacular, and for the game, they finished with a combined 61 points on 24-for-36 shooting. But crucially, only five combined assists, while the Warriors finished with a huge 34-22 advantage in dimes.

Jose Alvarado added four assists and a steal for the Pels in a strong rebuke to Tony Hinchcliffe.

Usually when you see a team give up a giant run to end a nightmare quarter, the Warriors would be constantly turning the ball over or giving up fast breaks. Instead, the Warriors simply couldn’t make a shot, while also struggling to communicate on defense in rarely-used player combinations.

Some of this was Pelicans’ defense, like when Yves Missi blocked Jonathan Kuminga at the rim. But mostly it was the bane of all hot three-point-shooting teams: Regression to the mean. Hield was making over 50% of his threes going into the game, but all of his shots were clanking off the rim before halftime. Overall, the team shot 6-for-23 in the first half — then hit six out of seven to start the third quarter.

Clearly, the problem was that Hield wasn’t coming off the bench. His nascent Sixth Man of the Year campaign can’t survive if he’s in the starting lineup. Kerr corrected the oversight at the half, starting Lindy Waters III for the second half. Hield responded in the second half, making five shots in a row spanning the third and fourth quarters, four of them from behind the arc.

The Warriors scored 40 in the third, but the quarter break didn’t cool off Hield, who put up 13 in the 4th quarter as the Dubs tried to run away with the game. He made all six of his three-point attempts after the break and scored 19 points in the 4th.

He also seemed very animated towards the announcers table, where Reggie Miller sat with Kevin Harlan. Near the end of the game, Miller admitted he’d “had a conversation” with Hield at halftime, which tells me that Joe Lacob should spend whatever it takes to get Miller to talk trash about Hield in crucial moments.

Golden State also got nine tough rebounds from Kevon Looney and a staggering five steals from Kyle Anderson, who was as bad at shooting as he was good at forcing turnovers. “Slow Mo” shot 0-for-9 from the field and 0-for-6 from behind the arc (one was a desperation heave), and airballed a corner three. But he’s so good at everything else, he still finished +9 in his 20 minutes.

These teams will do this again Wednesday night, where the Warriors might luck into a minutes restriction for Williamson. Maybe they don’t need luck with their twin flamethrowers of Hield and Waters.