Second-year forward Gui Santos hasn’t played much this season for the Warriors, averaging just 5.2 minutes per game across 12 garbage time appearances entering Thursday’s matchup vs. Detroit. But with several of his teammates injured, he received real rotation minutes for the first time in 2024/25, and he took full advantage of the opportunity, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
The former second-round pick tied his career-high with 13 points, converting four of his six looks from three-point range. He also contributed five rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block in a career-high 26 minutes.
As Slater details, while Santos’ stat line was solid, it was all the little things he did to help his team that really stood out. Stephen Curry went just 5-of-21 from the field, but Golden State pulled out a three-point victory over the red-hot Pistons, who had won eight of their last nine games entering Thursday.
“This game is about so much more than whether you make a shot or miss a shot,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s defense, it’s rebounding, it’s hustle, sprinting. Everything you saw Gui do tonight, that’s what wins games.”
According to Slater, Santos will likely play again in Friday’s back-to-back at Indiana.
“We talked before the game about, ‘How many battles can you win?’” Kerr said. “Little battles in the game. He won a million battles tonight. That’s what wins games. He’s been waiting all year, and he finally got his chance, and he delivered.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Curry sprained his right thumb four games ago and was visibly bothered by the injury at times on Thursday, per Slater (Twitter video link). Curry has been wearing a wrap on the thumb, which he said was “whacked” again vs. Detroit. The two-time MVP has been resting on one end of back-to-backs, and he wasn’t sure if he’d suit up against Indiana on Friday. “I’m doing everything in my power to play back-to-backs eventually,” Curry said (Twitter link via Slater). “Whether that’s tomorrow or the next one, I don’t know.”
- Although Jonathan Kuminga is no longer on crutches, he’s still wearing a walking boot in the early stages of his recovery from a significant right ankle sprain, Slater adds in his story for The Athletic. The fourth-year forward is set to be reevaluated on January 26.
- Andrew Wiggins missed Thursday’s game due to personal reasons, but he isn’t expected to be away from the team for very long, according to Slater. The former No. 1 overall pick is averaging 16.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.8 BPG on .454/.394/.794 shooting in 32 games this season (29.0 MPG).
So lets see if Kerr plays Santos very much tonight. Santos played great defense better than most of the pother players on the team. You would think that means more playing time but Kerr likes to stick with the old players. Also good to see Looney out there playing well.
Looney had a -14 last night. So did Steph. Everyone else played decent, but we still blew a huge lead. I hope Gui doesn’t see regular playing time, he stood out for a quarter, probably due to lack of scouting prep from an east conf team, but was out there when we blew the huge lead late. If anything TDJ didn’t play enough.
I just want to see what a Looney, TJD, Dray, Buddy, Steph lineup looks like when we have bigs cooking us. Kerr refuses to unlock the twin towers PNR lineup.
Gui was still playing hard in the second half. Dumb fouls and lack of defense let Pistons back into the game. Pistons went zone and the warriors took too much time to adjust to it. Kerr needs to work on adjusting to the zone defense. Miami exploited the zone on the warriors.
This is why, despite them not sharing an on-court player profile, I compare Wiggins with Ben Simmons. Name a player over the last 5 years who has taken more personal days off? And yet everyone rains criticism on Kawhi over this, but at least Kawhi is consistent on court when he does play, Wiggins spends half the game being invisible, playing middling defense, not scoring when he makes big scorer money as the teams “second best player”. And then he gets “untouchable” tags in trades or fans talk about how “important” he is, when our record right now shows he is the biggest problem on the team.
Andrew Wiggins will never be a #2 player on a contender, he only got his ring when he was like the 4th best player on GSW in 2022. If he’s your 4th best guy your team is top 4, but if he’s 2nd, your team is .500. Wiggins remains the worst all-star in recent history and had no business being there.
The two biggest roadblocks to GSW being an elite team again are Kerr and Wiggins. If they get rid of both they will become a top 4 team almost overnight. This has been true every day the last 3 years.
i was hoping Wiggins turned the corner but its been the same Wiggins. Motivated 1 game and next unmotivated.
He’s never been “better” he’s always been the same underperforming guy who’s game has not improved over time. He had 1 year where his team record made him look good, but he makes 20-25 PPG money and puts up 17 and everyone slurps him like he’s MJ. I dont get it. We only got him because it was him or lose KD for nothing. How did we go from looking at him as “just a guy” to “integral part of the team”? He’s still just a guy. Harrison Barnes is 2x better than Andrew Wiggins.
Wiggins is just inconsistent on offense. When he is aggressive and go at the basket he scores but some games he stands around.