Here are some quick grab-bag thoughts on the Golden State Warriors’ shorthanded 105-102 victory over the Detroit Pistons:
- The good (possibly even great): the Warriors beat an NBA team while playing without Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Otto Porter Jr. These held-out players joined Klay Thompson and James Wiseman on the bench. That is easily 6 of their top 10 players, and over the last two seasons, this would have been an almost guaranteed loss. Credit should be given where credit is due: these Warriors are built differently. Buoyed by a Jordan Poole detonation (32 points on 13-22 shooting from the field and 4-8 shooting from beyond the arc) and yet another aggressive outing from Andrew Wiggins (27 points on 9-19 shooting from the field, including an 8-11 performance from the charity stripe), as well as numerous contributions from all over their bench, the Warriors actually had this game well in hand…
- Until crunch time, where the Warriors nearly frittered this game way.