Jonathan Kuminga is coming into his own.
The 20-year-old played perhaps the best game of his career on Tuesday night against the Charlotte Hornets, spearheading the short-handed Golden State Warriors' 120-105 win by making winning plays on both sides of the ball from the opening tip. Not even Kuminga's impressive numbers—14 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals on 6-of-6 shooting in 22 minutes off the bench—quite do the gravity of his performance justice.
Kuming was Golden State's primary assignment for LaMelo Ball, his hounding one-on-one defense holding Charlotte's star to 21 points on 25 shots. He scored eight points in the fourth quarter, finishing a pair of dump-offs from the dynamic Jordan Poole in crunch-time but also sizing up JT Thor for an isolation bucket to help stanch Charlotte's earlier momentum.
More broadly, Kuminga was never out of the fight versus the Hornets, constantly making multiple, team-first efforts offensively and defensively.
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Steve Kerr saw from Kuminga on Tuesday what all of Dub Nation did.
“We went with him for his defense. He was playing really well defensively, he was guarding LaMelo,” Kerr said of Kuminga after the game. “Just wanted to stay with him because of the impact he was making on the ball and with his energy. He made huge plays defensively and I thought that kind of led to a couple of offensive plays…He was rewarded for that defensive effort. I thought he was just brilliant.”
The short-handed Warriors needed every bit of Jonathan Kuminga's career-best night to hold off the Hornets. (via @armstrongwinter)https://t.co/DbwrnCEtkU
— Warriors Nation (@WarriorNationCP) December 28, 2022
Kuminga, obviously, is a long way from reaching his peak. He dreams of being a star-level ball handler on the wing, and the Warriors would certainly love for him to turn them into a reality.
For now, though, Kuminga has found a niche with Golden State this season by embracing his role as a defense-first ball-mover and finisher, consistently finding ways to impact the game without scoring. Among the surest signs of that specific development? Jonathan Kuminga, more confident and comfortable than ever, is nevertheless still aware of his limits.
“I just feel like I do pretty much everything on the floor at this point,” he said after the game. “I'm just not the shooter of Steph or Klay or Jordan, but when it comes to getting the job done, I'm one of the people that goes out there and get it done.”
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