© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
OAKLAND – After a five-game in nine day road trip, the Warriors are back home in Oakland. Despite a .500 record on the road this season (7-7) the Warriors are nearly impossible to beat at home. With a 116-108 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Warriors improved their home record to 12-2. With six of their next eight games coming at home, you can expect the Warriors to hold even tighter to their first-place grip in the Western Conference.
Here are five things we learned from tonight’s game:
“The injector tries, he tries, he tries, he tries”
The injector – as Prince, the Minnesota native sang in “3rd Eye,” – was Alfonzo McKinnie tonight. In his 19 games this season, including tonight, McKinnie has recorded offensive rebounds in 11 of those games. He plays with an energy level that’s rarely ever matched by another player on the floor, and fights for rebounds like his life depends on it.
Tonight, McKinnie played 24 minutes and tallied 7 points and 6 rebounds, three of which came on the offensive glass. His return to action December 5 against the Cleveland Cavaliers was far from the long-anticipated return of Draymond Green, but McKinnie has been extremely valuable for the Warriors this season, and he’s averaging 6 points and 4.67 rebounds since returning to action.
Iguodala sits with hip tightness
Andre Iguodala sat tonight with right hip tightness, and while no one wants to see Iguodala hurt, the injury is ironic coming after the “Winging It” podcast hosted by Kent Bazemore, Vince Carter and Annie Finberg that released today with Iguodala and Stephen Curry making guest appearances. In addition to Curry announcing his disbelief in the moon landing, Curry recounted a discussion with his father, Dell after picking up an adductor strain this season.
Curry said he received a call from his father, which Dell ribbed him for getting a 30-year-old injury. Iguodala’s hip tightness is a similarly 30-year-old injury, and he said on the podcast that he hurt his ankle earlier this season after a massage. He injured himself with a massage. Luckily, he missed no time from the knock, but that vignette came after a discussion between Iguodala and Carter about being NBA veterans.
To quote another Prince lyric, “Gimme a page on my two-way” from “U’re Gonna C Me,” Iguodala recalled how badly he wanted a two-way pager on the podcast after Carter bragged about owning plenty.
It was a reminder about a simpler time from a man who has been in the NBA since before Trae Young was born and one who played with peak Allen Iverson. The memories reinforced how impressive it is that Carter and Iguodala have maintained productivity and adapted to a loss of athleticism and the physical toll of an NBA career in their growing years.
Draymond returned like he hadn’t missed a day
The one-time Defensive Player of the Year isn’t known for playing beautiful basketball. Green does the gritty, hard work that fails to get rewarded most of the time. But tonight, Draymond was slinging outlet passes with the precision of the sharpshooting Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Green tallied a vintage Green stat line of 7 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. To put an exclamation mark on the the poetry-in-motion passing display, he set up Klay Thompson mid-air for a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at half:
Welcome back, Draymond Green pic.twitter.com/XVC0wk4ChF
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 11, 2018
Warriors missed DJ against Towns, Saric
Let’s be clear; the Warriors are doing just fine without Damian Jones. But tonight was one of those nights that it was as apparent as ever that the Warriors are lacking size in the paint. At times tonight, Kevin Durant had to guard Karl-Anthony Towns, which only worked (and didn’t always work) when Towns was double-teamed.
Kevon Looney did a serviceable job against Towns and Dario Saric, but the pair were extremely effective and it was clear Looney could have used some help. Towns finished with 31 points (11-of-15), 11 rebounds and 4 assists, while Saric added 13 points (6-of-9) and 8 rebounds. Luckily for the Warriors, Andrew Wiggins, Taj Gibson, Robert Covington and Jeff Teague were woefully inefficient, combining to shoot an abysmal 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) from the floor.
Cousins’ impending return spells nightmares for opposing teams
DeMarcus Cousins practiced the Santa Cruz Warriors today and will continue his rehab down there to play in five-on-five games and ramp up his rehab from his Achilles tear. Head coach Steve Kerr said the team will take a day-by-day approach to bringing Cousins back into the fold, but as of now, there’s nothing medically wrong that’s preventing him from returning. It’s about getting him – an objectively massive human, as Kerr pointed out – back used to carrying that weight in a game.
There’s no telling how Cousins will respond on the court or if he’ll ever get back to the player he was. That’s simply the nature of Achilles injuries and their inherent unpredictability, especially for athletes with more weight to carry. But that size, as mentioned, is something the Warriors desperately need. And if Cousins displays even a hint of the shooting touch he showed before his injury, opposing teams are in for a very bad time.
His presence alone is implausibly difficult to deal with. Just by being on the court and setting screens or setting up in the post will take pressure off the Warriors’ existing star-studded cast. Unless Cousins demands the ball and throws a heavy hand into the fluid Golden State offense – which is possibly, but unlikely, given the ability of the rest of the team to set the playing standard – he’ll be a boon to the Warriors.