The Golden State Warriors staved off a late-game run from the Houston Rockets on Saturday, pulling away for a 120-101 win at Chase Center. Here are three key reactions to the defending champions' second victory in as many days, a win that puts them two games above .500 for the first time this season.

Jordan Poole, scorer and playmaker

Poole exploded for 30 points and seven triples as Golden State hung on for hard-fought victory over the Chicago Bulls on Friday night. It wasn't just one of his finest performances of the season, but came in a game Stephen Curry uncharacteristically struggled—and with Poole coming off the bench, breaking an early-season trend of his best nights coming as a starting-five fill-in for Klay Thompson.

He was great again on Saturday while moonlighting as a starter, finishing with 21 points, five assists and five threes on 8-of-14 shooting. It's safe to say Poole is coming out of the offensive rut that marked his often vexing play over the first month of the season.

Most encouraging against Houston weren't the barrage of deep triples or series of impressive finishes through and around contact at the rim, though. Poole put together one of his top playmaking effort of the season on Saturday, seamlessly picking his spots as a scorer while leveraging his imminent shooting and off-dribble threat into high-value looks for his teammates—sometimes in highlight-reel fashion.

Poole's perfect fit for Golden State's offensive attack needs no explanation. He doesn't play as much like Curry as any other player in basketball by accident.

His comfort and confidence buoyed by recent changes to the Warriors' second unit, Poole looks a lot like the player who emerged as among the league's most dynamic guards last season. The more adept he gets blending scoring and playmaking on a game-by-game basis, the more likely it will become that October and November labors of both Poole and Golden State are firmly in the rearview mirror.

More second-unit stability

The Warriors jumped out to 15-2 lead over the Rockets, jumpstarting their offense with engaged, connected defense and getting whatever they wanted on the other end in halfcourt and transition. They let up a bit once that massive advantage was established and Houston settled in offensively, but were still up 39-23 after the first quarter.

Sound familiar? That's pretty much exactly what happened the last time these two teams met, when Golden State needed multiple second-half runs to avoid losing a game it once led by 17 points. Kerr discovered something during the Warriors' collapse and comeback on November 20th, though, inserting Draymond Green at the beginning of the fourth quarter to keep his team's struggling second unit afloat.

Golden State's rotation has been set ever since, with Green and Andrew Wiggins joining Poole, Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Lamb to open the second and fourth quarters. That was the plan again on Saturday, and unlike Golden State's bench lineup allowing a 12-0 run after the first quarter in Houston, this time its revamped second unit dug the Rockets an even deeper hole.

The Warriors' 16-point lead was suddenly 48-25 barely 90 seconds into the second quarter, Poole and Wiggins quickly combining for three triples. But overall talent and shot-making ability isn't Golden State's biggest edge over Houston. Cohesion and experience is, and that's how Kerr's revamped second unit ensured the Rockets wouldn't claw their way back into making Saturday's game competitive in the first half.

Simple as this play seems, it's just not one the Warriors' discarded bench lineups were capable of making.

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Golden State, by the way, wasn't immune from giving up runs to the young, improving Rockets. But it was once Stephen Curry came back on the floor that Houston tore off a 20-5 run, pulling within 10 points shortly prior to intermission. A late second-quarter surge made the Warriors' halftime lead 68-52.

Golden State wasn't done letting the Rockets back in the game, though. The visitors trailed by just four points when Curry re-entered at the 6:59 mark of the fourth quarter, on a 14-6 run. But the lineup that gave Houston some late-game momentum wasn't the Warriors' new second unit; Thompson's absence and Wiggins' red-hot hand in the third quarter left Kerr to cobble together a bench unit to open the final stanza.

Obviously, the most optimal scenario involved Golden State building on its big early lead for the game's remainder, or even slowly salting it away. Just the fact the second unit extended that advantage before Curry-led lineups gave some of it up is cause for minor celebration in the Bay, though, especially considering similarly strong play from that group since Kerr first installed it in these teams' previous matchup.

The Warriors' rotation has finally stabilized. Now it's time for the second unit to continue building familiarity and continuity, turning Golden State's bench from an abject weakness into a reliable strength.

Red-hot Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins entered Saturday's game having gone 3-of-12 from deep in his last two games, scoring 22 points on 21 shots. Could his productive, hyper-efficient play up to that point have been an example of small sample size theater? Wiggins' rousing night against Houston certainly alleviated those concerns, reigniting his push for a second consecutive All-Star berth.

He was outstanding offensively from the opening tip on Saturday, draining open threes, attacking in transition and making a palpable impact as a halfcourt cutter. Wiggins scored 17 points before halftime, then poured in 17 more during the third quarter on a whopping five made three-pointers.

His stat line after that last third-quarter triple—34 points on 13-of-16 overall and 8-of-9 from beyond the arc—looked far more like it came in a video game than on the second night of a back-to-back.

Wiggins never quite cooled off, instead playing helpful second fiddle as Curry put the Rockets away late. He's never looked better offensively than he did on Saturday, scoring with ease in perfect flow of the Warriors' offense. Several of Wiggins' buckets helped stanch would-be Houston runs, as did his active hands as a help defender and defensive rebounder.

Wiggins will probably be on the outside looking in at the All-Star Game come February. The West is just too loaded with top-tier talent for coaches to reward Golden State with two-All-Stars given its awful start to the season, and there's no guaranteeing the K-pop bump will once again fall his way.

Regardless, Wiggins' case as perhaps basketball's best role player has never been more ironclad.