The Golden State Warriors (10-9) snapped their three-game losing streak with a 134-117 win over the Utah Jazz (5-12) on Monday.
Stephen Curry led all scorers with 31 points, and Jimmy Butler had the game’s most impressive stat line with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting, seven assists and no turnovers.
Buddy Hield also had his best game in weeks with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, but a different Warriors veteran was even more impressive.
GP2 Comes Alive After Getting Surprising Starting Nod
With Draymond Green injured, the Warriors needed someone to help fill all the voids that come from his absence. The voids include playmaking, rebounding and impact defense.
Gary Payton II did his best impression Monday.
That Payton battled much bigger players and held his own on defense is the least surprising development. What one couldn’t expect was a career-high eight assists to go with his nine points and six rebounds.
Payton also had one steal, a back-tap Lauri Markkanen never saw coming that led to Payton throwing a behind-the-back pass to Hield for a layup.
If Green misses Wednesday’s game against the Rockets, expect Steve Kerr to keep the same starting lineup with Payton coming off his best game of the season.
Butler Shows His Value by Continuing to Fuel Positive Non-Steph Minutes
With four minutes to go in the game, the Warriors led by 24. Curry was a plus-four. That means the Warriors were plus-20 in the Butler minutes without Curry.
The key stretch came in the second quarter. The Warriors started the quarter with a 21-0 run, and the first 18 of those points were scored with Butler on and Curry off.
Going into Monday, Golden State had a plus-1.0 net rating with Butler on and Curry off, per Cleaning the Glass. They won’t often get dominant non-Curry stretches like they got Monday, but the fact that they are rarely getting dominated is a testament to Butler’s ability to control the game with his scoring, ball-handling and passing.
Richard Might Be Better-Served as Energy Guy Off the Bench
Will Richard had started the last six games for the Warriors, and he didn’t do anything glaringly obvious that suggested he should be demoted. He shot 48 percent in those games, but he only scored more than six points twice. Perhaps he was getting lost in the shuffle as Curry, Butler, Moses Moody and Draymond Green looked for their offense.
On Monday, Richard came off the bench and had a big impact with nine points, six rebounds, two steals and a game-high plus-29 plus-minus. He got up seven field-goal attempts, which was his fifth-highest total of the season.
What’s interesting is the Curry-Richard-Moody-Butler-Green starting lineup has a plus-10.1 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass, but overall the Curry-Richard duo entered Monday with a minus-11.7 net rating.
It’s hard to say if that’s a small-sample-size aberration or a concerning trend, but even if you don’t buy the Richard and Curry duo numbers, Richard has the type of game that tends to be valuable off the bench.
As long as Richard continues to get playing time—he topped 20 minutes for the fifth time Monday—I’m guessing he won’t mind coming off the bench. We’ll see what Kerr decides to do with the lineup when Green returns.