Warriors vs. Celtics participant grades: Kristaps Porziņģis debuts for GSW

The Golden State Warriors acquired again into motion on Thursday night time and, nicely, it didn’t go nice. The Dubs, who have been taking part in with out Steph Curry, spent the majority of three quarters getting their butts handed to them by the Boston Celtics. Golden State recovered late with a livid rally within the fourth quarter, but it surely was too little, too late, as they misplaced 121-110.

Let’s grade the gamers who took the court docket for the Warriors. As all the time, grades are primarily based on my expectations for every participant, with a “B” grade representing the common efficiency for that participant.

Observe: True-shooting proportion (TS) is a scoring effectivity metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Getting into Thursday’s video games, league-average TS was 58.0%.

19 minutes, 0 factors, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 0-for-7 capturing, 0-for-5 threes, 0.0% TS, -28

I stay up for watching Inexperienced and Porziņģis play protection collectively. It needs to be actually, actually enjoyable. Sadly, the latter was on a minutes restriction on Thursday, and the previous had a reasonably atrocious efficiency.

Grade: D
Submit-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the crew.

32 minutes, 17 factors, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 fouls, 6-for-14 capturing, 5-for-9 threes, 60.7% TS, +8

Santos has moved right into a beginning position, and I believe we are able to firmly and confidently now say that his power nonetheless interprets when he performs a considerable amount of minutes. He’s nonetheless the identical Gui, flying everywhere in the court docket on offense and protection, and making the little performs. He doesn’t all the time make the greatest performs, however he makes the hustle performs and he simply makes the crew play higher. Santos had a couple of clutch pictures on this sport, and stored numerous performs alive. He made good issues occur.

25 minutes, 18 factors, 3 rebounds, 1 help, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 7-for-13 capturing, 2-for-6 threes, 2-for-4 free throws, 61.0% TS, -3

The worst factor about Melton’s sport nowadays is that he simply may be taking part in his approach out of the Warriors worth vary. That’s an issue for an additional day. For now, it’s onerous to think about the Dubs being in any respect aggressive with Curry sidelined in the event that they didn’t have Melton. He’s taking part in so nicely.

Grade: A-
Submit-game bonus: Led the crew in factors.

23 minutes, 11 factors, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 4-for-9 capturing, 3-for-7 threes, 0-for-2 free throws, 55.7% TS, -27

Moody began this sport very nicely. He made a 3 on the primary possession of the sport, and performed sturdy protection on Jaylen Brown within the opening minutes. From there, although, issues went downhill. He couldn’t keep in entrance of Brown for the remainder of the sport, and actually didn’t present something on the glass — he solely had three rebounds, one in every of which got here when he grabbed his personal missed layup. He couldn’t create any offense, both. I type of surprise if there’s a small ailment he’s working via, as a result of he simply seems sluggish and unathletic proper now.

27 minutes, 5 factors, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 2-for-7 capturing, 1-for-3 threes, 35.7% TS, -4

There have been instances within the sport the place the ball moved fantastically for Golden State, and Spencer was proper in the course of that. His offense helped hold them within the contest within the first half, although his protection actually harm them within the second half.

Grade: B
Submit-game bonus: Led the crew in assists.

28 minutes, 5 factors, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 2-for-10 capturing, 1-for-6 threes, 25.0% TS, +1

Regardless of coming off the bench, Horford was second on the crew in minutes. And whereas he actually struggled to attain, he did the whole lot else actually, very well. The Warriors acquired completely obliterated on the glass and within the paint, however Horford was the one participant who was preventing in opposition to that. He had his elbows out all sport, and guarded the rim whereas gobbling up rebounds. His screens and passing have been very sturdy.

Grade: B+
Submit-game bonus: Led the crew in rebounds.

17 minutes, 12 factors, 1 rebound, 1 help, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 5-for-9 capturing, 2-for-5 threes, 66.7% TS, -4

Porziņģis made his Warriors debut in the beginning of the second quarter, and it went fairly poorly. The Dubs acquired crushed in his minutes, which wasn’t his fault, however he wasn’t precisely taking part in nicely. However when he returned later within the quarter, it appeared that the nerves and rust had been eliminated, and instantly issues have been beginning to click on. He had a couple of very nice performs on this sport, together with spectacular fingers to catch a speedy go, collect himself, and dunk in site visitors; a shot-clock beating contested three; and a blocked shot. And he spent quite a lot of time sharing the court docket with Horford, in a two-big lineup that we’ll seemingly see a little bit of over the remainder of the season.

It wasn’t all fairly. He appeared a step sluggish, which was comprehensible on condition that he’d been sidelined for over a month. He not often appeared to enterprise contained in the arc on protection, which can have been partially a schematic resolution, however actually stood out. He had a pair of turnovers.

These are regular bumps and bruises. General, the expectations have been low given how lengthy he’d been out, and the truth that he was in a brand new system, and he exceeded these expectations.

18 minutes, 14 factors, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 6-for-8 capturing, 2-for-4 threes, 87.5% TS, +15

Payton was one of many largest — maybe the largest purpose why the Warriors made such a robust try at a second-half comeback. His protection was everywhere, forcing a number of turnovers, even when he was solely credited with one steal. His offense was electrical, each getting out in transition for buckets that introduced life to the sector, and draining threes to make the deficit manageable. Only a implausible sport for GPII.

Grade: A+
Submit-game bonus: Finest plus/minus on the crew.

27 minutes, 11 factors, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5-for-8 capturing, 1-for-3 threes, 68.8% TS, 0 +/-

Inexperienced didn’t have his regular stat line, so Podziemski had it for him, as an alternative. An exceptionally well-balanced sport for Podz which, critically, didn’t embrace a turnover or a foul. It wasn’t his greatest defensive efficiency, however that’s choosing nits in a very nice sport. Good to see him play so nicely.

24 minutes, 17 factors, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 fouls, 6-for-11 capturing, 3-for-7 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 71.5% TS, -13

Richard had an enormous sequence within the first quarter. After Boston had pushed the result in 10 factors, Richard drained threes on each ends of the two-for-one to finish the body, getting the Dubs proper again into it. The crew couldn’t keep that efficiency, however Richard did. He was one in every of their largest offensive weapons, and his protection was swarming. I’m trying ahead to seeing how he finishes out his extremely profitable rookie marketing campaign.

Thursday’s DNP-CDs: Malevy Leons, Quinten Submit, Nate Williams

Thursday’s inactives: Jimmy Butler III, LJ Cryer, Seth Curry, Steph Curry