The Golden State Warriors are in an interesting predicament as they their second round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves shifts to San Francisco. They Dubs have won one game in the series and gained home-court advantage, but Steve Kerr’s club will be without Stephen Curry for the foreseeable future as the Warriors guard nurses a hamstring strain.
With Curry out of the lineup, the Warriors are running out lineups and rotations that they’ve mostly never seen play together during the regular season.
Steve Kerr reveals Warriors’ biggest challenge without Stephen Curry
Jonathan Kumina played sparingly after the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler in their trade with the Miami Heat. In 15 appearances after the break and just 20.8 minutes per game, Kuminga essentially could not play in lineups alongside Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
In the final game of the season, Kuminga was a DNP-CD in an overtime loss against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Kuminga also didn’t play in four of the Warriors’ nine playoff games thus far, but stepped into a big role in Game 2 against the Timberwolves without Stephen Curry due to the hamstring injury.
During a video conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon, Steve Kerr admitted that the Warriors are essentially throwing everything out the window now that Curry is out and trying to find anything they can that could work.
The Warriors forward had 18 points and five rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting in 26 minutes off the Warriors bench as Steve Kerr tested different lineups and rotations in their first game without Stephen Curry. Kerr said Kuminga is definitely going to be a part of that.
“I’m so impressed with [Jonathan Kuminga], his play, but more importantly just the way he’s handled everything in the last couple of weeks, staying ready, continuing to work,” Kerr said after the team’s film session inside Chase Center. “It was really important for him to get some rhythm, get some confidence and I saw all of that last night.
“I think what I said the other day rings true today: Everything has to be thrown out the window now without Steph [Curry] and so everything we’ve been doing the last month or two is based on finding a formula that worked and sticking with that formula and it’s gotten us to this point. We’re in a great spot, we’re in the second round, we’re 1-1, coming home, but there’s no Steph. So everything has to be finding a new formula and JK is absolutely part of that formula and we can’t sit here and put together any analytics from the last few weeks that make any sense right now because there’s no Steph and it’s a completely different team. So the combinations are what they are, we’re going to do what we think is best and bring it tomorrow and bring the energy and see what we can do. JK is going to be a big part of that.”
The Warriors played 19 lineups in their Game 2 loss to the Timberwolves, eight of which featured Kuminga. Two of Golden State’s three most played lineups included Kuminga, and their best one of the night featured Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler (+8 in 11 total minutes).
Because the Warriors don’t have large samples of playing without Stephen Curry after acquiring Jimmy Butler, Steve Kerr and his coaching staff are essentially starting from scratch.
“We’d have to do it based on feel, but we can also do it based on last night and having a tape to watch and that’s why I think that game was really helpful for us despite the loss,” Kerr added. “We learned a lot, the players learned a lot and I think we’ll have a concrete plan coming into tomorrow that we’ll feel good about and then of course we have to adapt and adjust based on how the games work.”
With the series shifting to San Francisco and Golden State taking home-court, the addition of their fanbase will be necessary to help push them past Minnesota.
The Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves will tip off Game 3 of their second round series on Saturday night at 5:30PM PST on ABC.
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