There was some great NBA action last night. Most people today are talking about LeBron James ending his 10-point scoring streak in the most by passing up a possible game-winning shot to find an open Rui Hachimura, who drained a 3 to give the Lakers the W. The game between the Warriors and 76ers needs to be mentioned too, though, because it was a wild one.
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This had all the makings of an easy Sixers win. Both Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler were out, and Draymond Green went down early as Philly raced out to a 30-10 lead by the end of the first quarter. Improbably, the Dubs fought back, actually pulling ahead with under three minutes to go.
That all gave way to an insane final sequence in which VJ Edgecombe put back a Tyrese Maxey miss to put the Sixers up one with .9 seconds left. This was followed by Maxey racing down the court and making a game-saving block after De’Anthony Melton caught a long outlet and went up for a layup to win it.
As deflating as that final sequence must be for the Warriors, the way the team fought back while being shorthanded should at least provide some proof that this team has fight in it. There’s one extremely worrisome aspect to that fourth-quarter comeback, though, and it’s that Jonathan Kuminga was nowhere to be found.
Kuminga sat out the entire fourth quarter, and it wasn’t hard to see why. He had a brutal game, finishing with nine points on 4-12 shooting in 20 minutes, and his -20 was the worst plus/minus on either team.
He also wasn’t in the starting lineup, a damning indictment if there ever was one given that Curry and Butler were both out.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Anthony Slater talked about both the game and Kuminga’s situation last night, and they agreed that the infamously fickle relationship between Kuminga and head coach Steve Kerr seems to be on the rocks again.
“It was immediately obvious that this issue continues to be an issue,” Bontemps said, pointing to Kerr’s unwillingness to acknowledge that Kuminga would play an important role in the offense before the game.
The fact that Kuminga didn’t start and didn’t finish speaks volumes, and he really didn’t help his case with the way he played. In his final minutes on the floor late in the third quarter, he missed both jumpers he attempted, went 0-2 on free throws and turned the ball over once. When Melton came in for him the Warriors trailed by 15, and they nearly won the game.
After Kuminga re-signed with the Warriors this offseason, both sides seemed to indicate a willingness to work together and make this a good thing. Kerr even said that given the age of the team’s best players, there would be times when Kuminga would need to lead the way in their absence.
Bontemps brought that up to indicate just how much has changed since training camp. “We fast-forward two months later,” he said, adding,” and they’re sitting there waiting for Steve Kerr to say, ‘Yeah, remember what I said back in October? Jonathan Kuminga’s gonna have the ball in his hands a lot today.’ And instead, he sprinted the other way as fast as possible and said, ‘Yeah, we’re not gonna do that.'”
If the Warriors are going to trade Kuminga, they can’t do it until January 15th. As Slater put it, “It feels like a long 40 days to many people in this process.”
In the meantime, Golden State needs to figure something out, especially because they’re so banged up. This loss dropped them to 11-12, the first time they’ve been under .500 this season, and it’s already beginning to feel like a top-four seed just isn’t going to happen.
