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There were still nearly eight minutes left on the fourth quarter clock on Sunday night when Stephen Curry hopped back toward the sideline and immediately motioned for a sub, putting little to no weight on the balky left ankle he'd just turned again. Chase Center quickly knew what was obvious to anyone watching across the Bay Area and beyond. As the two-time MVP was helped back to the locker room with his team trailing by 10, the Golden State Warriors' hopes of a late-game comeback were all but dashed for good.
Andrew Wiggins didn't hear the Dubs' home-opening crowd go virtually silent. Fulfilling the early promise of Golden State's back-to-back blowout victories and a fully committed offseason that left teammates and coaches predicting a much-needed bounce back in 2024-25, Wiggins thrived as an alpha dog when the Warriors needed one most, dropping 11 points on five shots to put them in prime position to steal a victory.
Golden State came up just short against the Los Angeles Clippers, with questionable crunch-time shot selection and struggled to get stops, dooming the home team to a 112-104 defeat. But their first loss of the season, frustrating as it was, certainly did nothing to blunt burgeoning optimism about Wiggins getting back to the game-changing peak he reached while helping the Warriors to another title two-and-a-half years ago.
With an extended bout of family tragedy finally behind him, Gary Payton II was entirely unsurprised by Wiggins scraping that ceiling against the Clippers.
“Oh yeah, he's just being Wiggs, you know?” Payton said when asked after the game whether Wiggins was always capable of such a performance. “Went through a lot last year, and now he's starting to clear up everything and have a clear mind. So, that's Andrew Wiggins for you.”
Andrew Wiggins can provide what Warriors teammates don't
Wiggins finished with 29 points, three rebounds, one steal, and one block on Sunday in a team-high 29 minutes of action, shooting 11-of-15 overall and 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. No other Warrior scored more than Curry's 18 points, with Jonathan Kuminga and Kevon Looney, the only teammates to join him and Wiggins in double-figures during a choppy game that exposed this team's many offensive deficiencies.
The majority of Golden State's 21 turnovers stemmed from its collective lack of initial advantage creation and struggled to space the floor with certain lineups. Kuminga went 1-of-6 from three and looked no more comfortable as a ball-handler and decision-maker from the perimeter. The comprehensive skill development it would take for Brandin Podziemski to realize front-office dreams of an All-Star future was almost completely absent. Buddy Hield's scorching hot hand went ice cold after a record-breaking start with the Dubs. Just less than half of the Warriors' field goal attempts came from deep, where they shot a substandard 32.6%—and ghastly 5-of-28 discounting Wiggins and Curry.
The Clippers aren't the Portland Trail Blazers or Utah Jazz. More competitive, experienced foes like Los Angeles won't make the mass defensive mistakes that let the Dubs' halfcourt offense sing against two of the league's worst teams. The same holds for transition. Just where is Golden State supposed to go for reliable offense if system buckets and open-court opportunities aren't readily available?
Kerr teased one option throughout the preseason and after his team's season-opening rout of the Blazers, alluding to Wiggins' proven ability to score from all three levels of the floor—a rarity for the Dubs despite their 12-man nightly rotation.
“This is kind of what we're expecting this year, honestly,” he said of Wiggins from the postgame podium in Rip City. “Peace of mind, great shape, in the prime of his career. I think Wiggs is poised to have a great season.
“That's what we love about Wiggs,” Kerr continued, “is his ability to score in different spots on the floor.”
Wiggins showed off that valuable versatility on Sunday when pressed into primary-scoring duties with Curry nursing his tender ankle.
All but one of his fourth-quarter buckets came via ball screens or dribble hand-offs, with Wiggins creasing the paint for a tough and-1 through Ivica Zubac, stepping behind Kevon Looney's re-screen for a pull-up triple and leveraging Hield's threat into the space needed for a step-back mid-ranger over the outstretched arms of Derrick Jones Jr.—the latter pair of which pulled Golden State within one possession of re-taking the lead.
Wiggins will only get so many chances to turn back the clock to his days as a No. 1 scoring option this season while playing alongside Curry. The rote pick-and-roll attack the Warriors reverted to over and over late on Sunday will surely be reserved for several-minute stints and entire games the greatest player in team history is sitting on the bench.
What separates Wiggins from his teammates—at his best, at least—is that he's equally capable of producing worthwhile shots as a primary and supporting scorer. This is what the Dubs need from him in 2024-25: Aggressiveness, exploiting advantage situations by driving close-outs, and putting his physical tools to use on the open floor.
Expectations after an eye-opening preseason were that an empowered, evolving Kuminga would emerge as Golden State's second-leading scorer behind Curry. Podziemski's staunchest proponents assumed he could sop up additional ball-handling duties and playmaking usage as a sophomore. Some especially vocal members of Dub Nation have been clamoring for Moses Moody to supplant Wiggins in the lineup since early last season. Hield was the Warriors' biggest non-Curry focal point in Portland and Salt Lake City.
But Kerr revealed at Media Day that he wouldn't be surprised if Wiggins asserted himself as the Dubs' No. 2 offensive option this season, approaching 20 points per game. Specific numbers are less important than the eye test that informs them, especially for a player like Wiggins, whose engagement can wane. He's passed it with flying colors through the first three games of 2024-25, a crucial game-by-game and big-picture development for the Warriors as they navigate Curry's extended prime.
