SAN FRANCISCO — So much for Sunday's humiliating loss to the Boston Celtics stalling the Golden State Warriors' momentum. The Dubs out-classed the Milwaukee Bucks at Chase Center on Wednesday in one of their finest efforts of the season, blowing out Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and company 125-90 in front of a raucous home crowd.
Trayce Jackson-Davis shined brightest for the Warriors, rescuing his team from a second-half letdown with a game-changing stint in the third quarter once Milwaukee cut a 20-point lead to six. The rookie big man enjoyed separate sequences of blocking Giannis Antetokounmpo on one end and finishing with a dunk on the other, his rim-protection and gravity as a roll man looming extremely large against one of the biggest teams in basketball.
Moses Moody flashed once again, too, despite moving back to the bench due to Andrew Wiggins' return from a four-game personal absence. While he wasn't as impactful as Jackson-Davis, Moody's dogged on-ball defense of Damian Lillard and all-around physicality was a continuation of the progress he showed while filling in for Wiggins as a part-time starter on Golden State's 3-1 road trip.
Moody had already earned a lasting spot in the Warriors' rotation, taking all of Dario Saric's minutes against Milwaukee. But Jackson-Davis—who got off the bench ahead of Kevon Looney after intermission is also now in line for a regular nightly role, the most significant aspect of a major, imminent personnel shift Steve Kerr discussed after the game.
“There’s gonna be matchups where we need [Looney],” he said. “I know I can trust him, but we gotta get Trayce more minutes to get him ready for the playoffs. He needs reps, he needs more time. You can see what he did tonight. He has an ability to finish and to block shots that gives us a different look, so we decided to ramp up his minutes and slide Moses into a bigger role as well. Those guys were both fantastic tonight, I thought.”
Steve Kerr gets real on Warriors' rotational numbers crunch
Kerr has maintained all season that he would prefer to play a 10-man rotation. He's gone 11-deep often of late, though, an acknowledgement of his team's rare depth amid its stunning midseason turnaround.
Don't count on that continuing as the stretch run of 2023-24 dawns.
“It’ll more than likely be 10. It’s hard to play 11,” Kerr said of the Dubs' rotation. “I know we’ve been playing 11, but if we’re gonna ramp Trayce’s minutes up then it’s more likely gonna be 10. We’ll just try to mix and match. We feel like we’ve found some combinations. We’re three-quarters of the way through with the season so we’ve got a pretty big sample size of the different combinations out there. I think we’re in a good spot now where we’re able to put together the starting group, which has done a great job here the last month or so, and a second group now that we’re fully healthy with a lot of really talented players. You saw that tonight; the bench was terrific.”
Golden State's starting five is set in stone. So are reserve roles for Klay Thompson, Chris Paul and Gary Payton II. With Jackson-Davis and Moody primed for regular minutes going forward, that leaves Looney and Saric on the outside looking in at the Warriors' rotation.
Size, or lack thereof, has been an issue for the Dubs throughout the season. Moth-balling both Looney and Saric only makes this team more diminutive, with perimeter spots reserved for smaller guards who lack explosive athleticism and the likes of Wiggins, Thompson and Payton set to play a lot of de-facto power forward. Draymond Green and Jackson-Davis comprise the shortest center duo in basketball.
Needless to say, Golden State will need to play bigger than its collective height and weight to offset Looney and Saric moving to the bench. It's not like those guys are elite rim-protectors or high-flying alley-oop finishers, though. The Warriors can account for their absence by making multiple help efforts while flying around defensively and all five players committing to cleaning the glass, a challenge Green suggests will be made easier by their depth assuring no one is stretched past his physical limits.
“I think Steve is doing an incredible job of not only monitoring minutes, but finding the right combinations to make those minutes as powerful as they can be,” he said. “It's on us as players that when you're out there you give everything you got. Don't take plays off, because you're not playing a bunch of minutes anyway.
“I think that's one of the beautiful things about this,” Green continued. “Everybody when you're out there on the court, you should be flying around and jumping off the wall because you're not playing a million minutes, so give everything you got when you're out there.”
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