Late in the first half, Brandin Podziemski intercepted a pass and kept it from going out of bounds by tip-toeing the sideline in front of the scorer’s table. Gary Payton II collected the rookie’s save and found Jonathan Kuminga with a behind-the-back pass for a two-handed dunk.
At the moment, Podziemski’s pick was Golden State’s seventh steal. They capitalized on the Wizards’ 12th turnover. And Steph Curry wasn’t involved in any of it.
Curry had his third straight quiet game, but the Warriors’ bench picked up the slack for him as they helped Golden State open its four-game east coast trip with a 123-112 win over the cellar-dwelling Wizards Tuesday night.
The Warriors had been excited about their highly anticipated bench unit led by future Hall of Famers Chris Paul and Klay Thompson, and their first taste of it was sweet.
In his first game since fracturing his hand on Jan. 5, Paul (9 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 4 steals) was a +17 in 22 minutes. Thompson logged 25 points in 27 minutes for his third high-impact game off the bench. Golden State’s bench scored 59 points, overcoming a 6-for-21 shooting night and scoreless first half from Curry.
“I couldn’t think of a better backcourt coming off the bench than me and Chris,” Thompson said on the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast after the victory.
Jordan Poole, one of Curry’s running mates in the Warriors’ 2022 title season, played his second game against his former team. He came off the bench for the fourth straight game, having been relegated from Washington’s starting lineup amid a disastrous first season as a Wizard.
Poole looked determined initially, draining a 3 off the dribble over Curry right after he checked in. He also freed himself for a wide open layup — a too common occurrence for Golden State’s defense early on. But Poole’s game was familiar in the other direction as well; in his first six minutes, he attempted six shots and committed three turnovers.
The former Warrior finished with 12 points, six turnovers and a technical foul in 29 minutes.
In all, the Warriors forced 21 turnovers and broke the game open by winning the third quarter by 21 points.
Meanwhile, Paul’s return set the Warriors’ ideal second unit into place. With Paul, Thompson, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Dario Saric as the key four pieces, Golden State clicked. In one 50-second stretch, they went on a 12-0 run with four straight stops and three straight triples from Thompson, Saric, Paul and Moses Moody — back in the mix because of Andrew Wiggins’ absence (personal reasons).
Moody made Landry Shamet fall on a crossover and later made a fantastic play by poking a ball away and saving if from skipping out of the baseline, leading to a Kuminga alley-oop dunk. Moody made the most of an opportunity that has largely escaped him.
Yet despite Moody and Paul — game-high +10 in the first half — playing well, the Warriors clung to just a two-point lead at half. Curry went scoreless in the half, missing all six of his 3-point attempts.
At that point, Curry had made just one of his last 16 3-pointers across six quarters.
Curry sank a pair of 3s to open the second half, and his teammates followed. Paul and Thompson also buried shots from behind the arc and Payton (3 steals) sparked more transition opportunities in a 25-6 run to dominate the third quarter.
Much of the damage then came with Curry on the bench as the backup backcourt that’s heading to Springfield looked incredible. Thompson dropped 21 points in his first 19 minutes and Paul made an impact on both ends.
“What a luxury to come off the bench with Chris Paul and Klay Thompson, I mean that’s crazy,” Steve Kerr said postgame.
Even with a 23-point lead, Curry continued to misfire, making any cushion precarious. Washington opened the fourth quarter on a 19-8 run, threatening to repeat the type of Warriors collapse that has cropped up often this season.
Curry kept shooting, and used the threat of his jumper to get inside for a couple of buckets. Finally he hit a pull-up 3 in transition and then a practice-level triple from above the break. Even at his worst, Curry had enough in the tank to put away the lowly Wizards.
