Warriors Announce Surprise Starting Lineup vs. Rockets

The Golden State Warriors are starting Al Horford for the first time this season against the Rockets on Wednesday.

Horford joins Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green in the starting lineup.

Horford's presence makes the Warriors lineup bigger than it usually is when Gui Santos is starting. Horford will play the 5, which moves Green to the 4 and Lendeborg to the 3.

The decision makes since considering the Rockets have four players between 6'7" and 6'11" in their starting lineup: Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun. The Rockets' other starter is 6'0" point guard Fred VanVleet.

Horford-Green Minutes Have Been Excellent This Season

The Warriors' typical starting lineup that includes Santos has a plus-24.8 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass. That's outstanding.

But the lineups with Horford and Green have been even better.

When those two bigs are on the court together, the Warriors have a plus-35.8 net rating, which ranks in the 100th percentile.

With that said, the Green, Horford, Curry, Podz and Lendeborg lineup—aka Wendesday's starting five—has a minus-4.2 net rating.

It will be interesting to see how this new starting lineup looks after the Warriors played so well in the first quarters against the Magic and Pelicans with Santos starting.