Player grades: Warriors vs. 76ers

Assessing every Golden State player’s performance from the team’s 139-105 win over Philly.

The Golden State Warriors may have tumbled back into mediocrity after their blistering start to the season, but they refuse to fall below the magical line of averageness. With a 139-105 shellacking of the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, the Dubs moved back above .500 with a 17-16 record … and have yet to be under .500 at any point this season. Let’s hope that continues, though a little separation between the win and loss column sure would be nice.

After a little break for the holidays (hoping it was a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/New Year’s for all), player grades are back. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Thursday’s games, league-average TS was 57.4%.

Andrew Wiggins

26 minutes, 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 6-for-11 shooting, 1-for-4 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 63.1% TS, +20

One of the nice things about Jonathan Kuminga’s recent ascension (and the addition of Dennis Schröder) is that it allows Wiggins to play a more natural role for him. While Wiggins certainly has the talent to pile up the points, he does his best work when he isn’t asked to be the team’s second scorer … that not only allows the offense to come more naturally for him, but lets him focus on the other elements of his game, which I’d argue are his greatest attributes.

Seen through that lens, this was a nearly perfect Wiggins game. He was aggressive in every phase of the game: he attacked the glass, often swooping in from the perimeter when a long rebound was left unattended; he attacked the rim, both with and without the ball; and he attacked Philly’s offensive players, playing strong defense on both Tyrese Maxey and Paul George.

Great game.

Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.

Draymond Green

31 minutes, 15 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers, 3 fouls, 6-for-10 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 68.9% TS, +30

The Sixers dared Green to shoot threes all night. After making one and taunting Philly’s bench for it, Dray got a little trigger-happy trying to prove a point.

Other than that, I don’t have any notes for Green. Sure, three turnovers isn’t ideal, but they were far from egregious, either. The defense was sublime. The playmaking was superb. The rumbling, Cam Skattebo-esque north-south drives to the rim opened up the court all night long. Just a delightful performance.

Grade: A

Trayce Jackson-Davis

21 minutes, 3 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 1-for-5 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 25.5% TS, +14

Jackson-Davis’ numbers don’t look great, but I think they deserve some context. His teammates tried to force a number of passes to him early on, perhaps hoping his athleticism could run a seemingly-compromised Joel Embiid off the court, and TJD ended up in a few spots where he did well just to catch a lob or a threaded needle, and then had no option but to shoot a difficult shot.

Ultimately, Embiid got his, but Jackson-Davis still held his own on defense, and still made some things happen on offense. If you just look at the stats, he got dominated in the center matchup (Embiid finished with 28 points and 14 rebounds). But there was a reason that the second-year pro got 21 minutes of run, and Kevon Looney only appeared in garbage time. I though he looked way better than the stats suggest.

Grade: B

Dennis Schröder

26 minutes, 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 4 fouls, 5-for-9 shooting, 3-for-4 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 75.9% TS, +17

This was a glimpse as to why the Warriors acquired Schröder, and how good they can be when he feels comfortable with his new teammates, and operating in his new system. He made a pair of early threes — and a few excellent passes — to jumpstart the Dubs as they hopped out to an early lead that they would never relinquish. He complements Steph Curry so well, and can also run the second unit brilliantly. If he keeps playing like this, the Warriors can once again have realistic visions of going places.

Grade: A

Steph Curry

30 minutes, 30 points, 6 rebounds, 10 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 11-for-15 shooting, 8-for-8 threes, 100.0% TS, +32

My goodness. My freaking goodness. Was it Reggie Miller oddly harping on the broadcast about how Curry might retire soon? Was it frustration at the amount of poor-shooting games he’s had this year? Was it just the random brilliance that shows up now and again for an all-time great?

Whatever it was, Curry was nothing short of spectacular on Thursday, averaging a comical two points per shot attempt. For the 12th time in his career, Curry shot a perfect 100% from the three-point line, but this was a personal high for the most threes he’d made without a miss … and only one off the NBA record. And all after being listed as “questionable” on the injury report, due to an injury to … you guessed it … his shooting hand.

Pure magic, that man.

Grade: A+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points and assists, best plus/minus on the team.

Jonathan Kuminga

25 minutes, 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 8-for-11 shooting, 2-for-3 threes, 2-for-3 free throws, 81.2% TS, +25

The Warriors got off to a good start, and built up a little lead over Philly before any of the subs came in. And then Kuminga entered and took the good start and made it a great start, and the Dubs never looked back.

Kuminga was brilliantly aggressive in the first quarter. He scored seven points on perfect shooting, and the offense seemed to function based on his activity. He would bully the 76ers’ defense, get to his spot, and then either score or find the open man.

That set the tone for the team, but it didn’t end there; Kuminga did it all night long.

He’s been nothing short of a star recently. He’s averaging more than 20 points per game since returning following a brief injury absence in late-November, and in his last four games he’s averaging 26.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. He’s looking more and more like he could potentially be the second star they’ve been looking for, and not just on offense — this was a total showing for Kuminga, with plenty to love on the other end of the court, too.

Grade: A+

Buddy Hield

21 minutes, 3 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 3 fouls, 1-for-5 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 30.0% TS, +17

Hield’s one made bucket sure felt like a big one. But he didn’t really do anything else against his old team, which I’m sure he was a little frustrated by.

Grade: C-

Moses moody

15 minutes, 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 4-for-5 shooting, 4-for-5 threes, 120.0% TS, +13

Moody’s game was just like Hield’s, except that instead of almost missing all of his three-point attempts he almost made all of them, and instead of playing mediocre defense he played excellent defense.

Turns out those things matter quite a bit.

Grade: A

Lindy Waters III

16 minutes, 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 fouls, 4-for-7 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 71.4% TS, -2

Waters has been fairly quiet lately, but with Brandin Podziemski and Gary Payton II both sidelined by injuries, he got a chance to be in the rotation for this game. It was nice seeing him find some offense inside the three-point line, and also nice to see him drain some threes, as he had shot just 2-for-17 from distance over the last four games … and just 0-for-4 from inside the arc.

Grade: B+
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.

Kyle Anderson

8 minutes, 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 3-for-3 shooting, 2-for-3 free throws, 92.6% TS, +1

Anderson was limited to garbage time in this game but, thanks to the blowout, there was a good chunk of garbage time for him. Not surprisingly, he handled it like the professional that he is, and was prepared for the moment, even if the stakes were low.

Grade: A

Kevon Looney

8 minutes, 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 3-for-3 shooting, 0-for-1 free throws, 87.2% TS, +1

Looney also handled his garbage-time-only role with veteran professionalism … and also managed to fill up the box score in his limited time on the court.

Grade: A

Gui Santos

8 minutes, 2 points, 1 assist, 1 block, 1-for-2 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 50.0% TS, +1

Nice to see Santos get a little bit of run. Hopefully the Dubs can get a few more blowouts for him to get some seasoning.

Grade: B+

Pat Spencer

8 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 0-for-1 shooting, 0.0% TS, +1

I’ll tell you one thing: when you have to wait until garbage time to get into a game, and then you have three times as many assists as you have shots taken, your teammates and coaches notice.

Grade: A-

Thursday’s inactives: Gary Payton II, Brandin Podziemski, Quinten Post