The Warriors arrived at their Washington, D.C., hotel in the wee hours Monday morning, slept off a gut-wrenching loss in the mecca of basketball and took the court again later that night against the woeful Wizards in front of a half-empty arena.
It could have resulted in a one heck of an emotional hangover.
Instead, Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis and De’Anthony Melton all returned and led the way to a 125-117 win that snapped a season-long five-game losing streak for Golden State.
What it means
The win was Steve Kerr’s 600th in his career as a head coach.
Despite being delayed with the Warriors’ depleted roster, the 12th-year coach became the fourth-fastest to reach the milestone, trailing only Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich.
Turning point
The Warriors pulled ahead for good toward the end of the first quarter.
The run happened to coincide with Porzingis entering the game for the first time.
Golden State struggled to separate from the lowly Wizards, leading 11-10 when the 7-foot-3 big man checked in at the 6:45 mark. Porzingis went on to lead the Warriors with 15 points before halftime as they opened a lead as wide as 17.
Trae Young, Porzingis’ onetime teammate, finished with 21 to match the Wizards’ top scorer and made sure they never went away, sinking a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 54-52 shortly before intermission. They kept it within single digits for much of the second half.
But Washington was never able to recover from Porzingis’ initial stint.
MVP: Gui Santos
The Warriors’ ironman throughout this stretch of injuries shouldn’t be overlooked despite the returns of three of their key players. At this point, Santos has earned an important role no matter who is on the floor. The do-it-all wing trailed only Melton and Porzingis in the scoring column and led Golden State with a game-best plus-20 in 28 minutes.
Stat of the game: 62 points from players previously unavailable
The fact that the Warriors battled the Knicks so closely only looks more admirable when looking at what they were playing without. Porzingis led all scorers with 30 points in 25 minutes, Melton followed with 27 and while Green (five points) didn’t make much of an impact on the scoreboard, he led Golden State with eight rebounds and seven assists.
Up next
The Porzingis revenge tour makes its next step in Boston, when the Warriors visit the Celtics on Wednesday. Before they return home, Porzingis will have visited all five of his former teams.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
