Player grades: Warriors vs. Timberwolves Game 1

Assessing every Golden State player’s performance in the team’s 99-88 win over Minnesota.

Tuesday night was a game in which the best case and worst case both transpired for the Golden State Warriors. The best case: they put together a masterful performance against the Minnesota Timberwolves, at times leading by 20 points while cruising to a 99-88 Game 1 victory. They went on the road, against a favored team, and proved they could not just win, but win handily and without their best player. Which brings us to the worst case: Steph Curry was injured, and almost surely will miss at least a game or two.

It’s hard to know how to feel.

All we can focus on, for now, is how they performed in the game. So let’s grade the players who pulled off the improbable victory. 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. League-average TS this year was 57.6%.

Buddy Hield

40 minutes, 24 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 7-for-19 shooting, 5-for-8 threes, 5-for-5 free throws, 56.6% TS, +22

I won’t lie, I spent a lot of the last few months drafting an article in my head about the Warriors trading Hield this offseason. And then, in the span of two games, he made himself an absolutely indispensable part of the team.

Hield stayed in the starting lineup after Sunday’s Game 7 brilliance, and drew a matchup with Anthony Edwards. And there’s no other way to say this: Hield … well … he won the matchup with Minnesota’s superstar.

It was a thoroughly dominant defensive performance in the first half, with Hield the main reason that Edwards had just one point at the break. I don’t know where this exceptional defense came from, but I am very excited to see it.

The flip side was that Hield had been equally non-existent on offense, scoring just two points. And then the second half began, with Hield knowing he’d need to shoulder a heavier load with Curry out. And he responded with 16 points in the third quarter alone. And in the fourth quarter, as the Wolves fought their way back into it, Hield calmed everything by knocking down clutch shot after clutch shot every time Minnesota got close.

This was a game where the plus/minus felt accurate. The Warriors outscored the Wolves by 22 points in Hield’s 40 minutes. They were outscored by 11 points in the eight minutes he sat. And in a tense and physical game, he had neither a turnover nor a foul.

What an amazing story he has become. And not just because he delayed the game by wearing the wrong shorts.

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

Jimmy Butler III

41 minutes, 20 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 7-for-20 shooting, 2-for-8 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, 44.2% TS, +15

When I predicted the Warriors to win the series in six games, I admitted that much of it was predicated on a hope that Butler would look closer to full health in this series. And while I certainly wasn’t hoping to have that health come at the expense of Curry’s, there’s no denying that Butler looked entirely different physically than he did for the last few games.

For the first time since injuring his pelvis, you couldn’t tell that Butler was laboring through discomfort (though I’m sure he still was). He was moving much better.

It was an inefficient scoring game, but that’s not much of a concern. It was a defensive game all around, and Butler was thrust into the first-option role after Curry’s injury. Just being able to get steady buckets, and get to the line late, is important, even when it’s not all that efficient.

But what he did in other areas of the game was the most critical. He was a menace on the glass, which helped the Warriors win the rebounding battle against a much larger team. He quarterbacked the offense brilliantly. And his defense was superb, with the much-larger Julius Randle looking wholly uncomfortable against him.

Fantastic stuff.

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

Draymond Green

35 minutes, 18 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers, 5 fouls, 6-for-13 shooting, 4-for-10 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 64.8% TS, +11

Offensive force Draymond Green! Where is this coming from? It wasn’t just good variance on the threes, even though he mostly lived behind the line. He was aggressive on offense, driving, kicking, creating, and attacking. He was a much more important facilitator than the four turnovers would suggest.

But, as he usually does, Green earned his paycheck on the defensive side of things, where he was nothing short of a superstar. The Wolves, who were the eighth-best offense in the NBA this season, were fully healthy, fully rested, and at home … and scored 31 points in the first half.

Sure, a lot of that is chalked up to the variance of going 0-for-15 on threes, but it ain’t just luck. It was a dominant defensive performance, and Green is always the first person to point to when the Dubs dominate on D.

Grade: A-

Brandin Podzikemsi

29 minutes, 3 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-for-7 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 21.4% TS, -1

If the Warriors are going to remain competitive in the games where Curry is out, Podziemski is going to need to do two things: he’s going to have to keep rebounding like he did in Game 1, and he’s going to have to score like he didn’t in Game 1.

He was a non-factor on offense, but a beast on the glass. It was a hot-and-cold game for him on defense, I thought.

Grade: B-

Steph Curry

13 minutes, 13 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 5-for-9 shooting, 3-for-6 threes, 72.2% TS, +10

Curry looked so happy in the minutes before his injury. Minnesota has a great defense, but they sure don’t have the defense that the Houston Rockets had, and Curry looked like he was no longer playing with a weighted tank top and no shoes. He got the type of looks that he simply didn’t get against the Rockets.

Needless to say, his injury, and the recovery time, could completely change the series. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Nose hairs crossed.

Grade: Just be okay, please

Moses Moody

9 minutes, 0 points, 0-for-4 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -14

I genuinely have no idea what’s going on with Moody. Did he hit a wall after playing a much larger role this year? Is his confidence shot? Is he nursing an injury we don’t know about?

Whatever it is, it’s ugly. He just looks completely lost. After a few games of looking timid on offense, he was over-aggressive in this one, forcing up multiple bad shots after entering the game. He’s getting blown by on defense and out of position rebounding the ball.

It is, frankly, quite bizarre. Thankfully Hield has been playing well enough on both ends that it hasn’t been a big issue.

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

Gary Payton II

26 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 4 fouls, 3-for-4 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 100.0% TS, +8

GPII was questionable entering the game, but ended up being one of the biggest contributors for the Dubs, and even started in Curry’s place in the second half. He brought the defense from the onset, often just ripping the ball away from players. And with Curry out, Payton did a surprisingly good job playing distributor. But best of all? Some huge shots late in the game to help keep Minny at bay.

Grade: A

Gui Santos

4 minutes, 0 points, 1 foul, -3

Santos was, somewhat surprisingly, in the first group of subs that entered the game. He didn’t do much, and didn’t end up having a big role at all, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he is out of the rotation in Game 2.

Grade: C

Kevon Looney

14 minutes, 2 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 fouls, 1-for-2 shooting, 50.0% TS, +4

It was a season-saving performance by the Warriors, and a game-saving performance by Looney. It was pretty clear after Sunday that Looney would play a bigger role in this series than in the last one, and he was up to the task of going against Minnesota’s extremely large team. The Wolves finally found momentum and answers in the fourth quarter, at which point they started destroying the Warriors in the paint, with Rudy Gobert leading the charge.

In came Looney and he saved the day. He grabbed rebounds. He hip-checked Wolves attempting to grab boards. He protected the rim. He set huge screens. He swiped at the ball and disrupted Minnesota’s offense. Just a fantastic game.

Grade: A

Quinten Post

6 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, +14

The Warriors were dominant in Post’s short stretch, though I don’t think it had much to do with the rookie big man, who didn’t do much in that time, for good or for bad. Assuming Curry is out in Game 2, it wouldn’t shock me at all to see Post get a larger dose of minutes to provide some floor-stretching. He looked very playable on defense in this game, which is important.

Grade: B-

Jonathan Kuminga

13 minutes, 7 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 2-for-5 shooting, 1-for-1 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 59.5% TS, -9

I thought there was a chance Kuminga would be in the rotation to start the series. But when the first subs came in and featured Santos — but not JK — I assumed that meant he was out.

But no! Kuminga did join the rotation, even before Curry’s injury, and it was pretty clearly his best game of the playoffs … admittedly a low bar. There were a few possessions where you could see Kuminga remembering that his athleticism can be a big weapon for this team, and I thought he did a good job of playing in the system.

It was also a decent defensive game for him. There were still some rusty mistakes, as evidenced by the turnovers and fouls, but I thought he helped the Warriors in this game, and he definitely did enough to stay in the rotation for Game 2.

Grade: B

Pat Spencer

11 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 2-for-4 shooting, 50.0% TS, -2

Spencer got thrust into the rotation due to Curry’s injury and played admirably. He tried to do too much on a few occasions, but also made some impressive and important plays. He always brings the effort.

Grade: B

Tuesday’s DNP-CDs: Trayce Jackson-Davis, Braxton Key, Kevin Knox II