Grading Every Golden State Warriors Player From Their Loss to the Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors 115-108 at Toyota Center tonight, ending an eight-game Warriors winning streak. Stephen Curry played six minutes, left for the locker room and did not return, which turned the rest of the night into a referendum on the depth behind him. The depth mostly held: the Warriors lost by seven without him. The best Warriors performance came from a guard averaging six minutes a game, and the two worst came from players the Warriors needed to be steady.

The Deep Bench Outplayed the Rotation

LJ Cryer — A-. Thirteen points in 18 minutes on 4-of-9 from the field, 3-of-8 from three and 2-of-2 from the line, with no turnovers. He averages 3.5 points in 6.3 minutes across eight games this season; given nearly three times his usual minutes he scored at 0.72 points per minute against a season rate of 0.56, and he did it on about 1.3 points per true shooting attempt. Not scoring a turnover in 18 minutes as an emergency ball-handler is the other half of it. The plus-18 is not the grade — it is the only number on the page that agrees with the grade.

Brandin Podziemski — B+. Twenty-two points on 7-of-15 shooting, 4-of-11 from three and 4-of-5 from the line, with six rebounds, four assists and one turnover in 37 minutes. His season line is 16.8 points in 33.0 minutes on 48.2 percent; tonight he scored above that rate at essentially the same field-goal efficiency, and a four-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio from a guard playing 37 minutes without Curry is the part that holds up under a loss. The 4-of-11 from distance sits below his 40.3 percent and is what keeps it off an A.

Draymond Green — B+. Seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, with seven assists against one turnover, five rebounds, a block and two fouls in 27 minutes. He shoots 37.0 percent on the season and made 60 percent tonight; his seven assists are right at his 7.6 average and the single turnover is better than it. He carries the worst on-court margin on the team at minus-20, and that is a number plus-minus cannot be trusted to explain on a night the starters shared the floor with a six-minute Curry. The line itself is a good night.

Will Richard — B+. Nine points on 3-of-6 shooting, 2-of-3 from three and 1-of-2 from the line, with four rebounds and a steal in 19 minutes. He averages 5.1 points in 17.2 minutes on 47.5 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from three; tonight he scored half again his per-minute rate on better percentages than both. Two turnovers against no assists is the one thing in the line that went the wrong way.

Three Players Who Were Exactly Themselves

Yaxel Lendeborg — B. Twenty-five points on 9-of-19 shooting, 2-of-7 from three and 5-of-8 from the line, with ten rebounds, two steals and two turnovers in 36 minutes. He averages 21.4 points and 7.2 rebounds, so the double-double is above his level on volume. It is not above it on efficiency: 47.4 percent from the field against a 52.3 percent season mark, 2-of-7 from three against 44.3 percent, and about 1.11 points per true shooting attempt for a 19-shot night. With Curry gone he took the load and converted it at a rate well below his own, which is a B and not more. The Warriors have been grading him as a lead scorer for a fortnight now; this was the version that needs the shots to come easier.

De’Anthony Melton — B. Eleven points on 3-of-7 shooting — all three makes from behind the arc, 3-of-7 from distance — with four rebounds, four assists, two turnovers and a block in 25 minutes. His season is 10.0 points in 22.2 minutes on 42.9 percent from three. Tonight was his three-point rate to the decimal and his scoring rate within a whisker of it, on seven field-goal attempts and two free throws. Doing exactly your job in a loss is still doing it.

Charles Bassey — B. Seven points on 3-of-4 shooting with six rebounds, three of them offensive, a block and no turnovers in 13 minutes. He averages 7.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in 12.4 minutes; this is that night, delivered at 75 percent from the field against a 65.9 percent season mark. Three offensive rebounds in 13 minutes is the kind of production that decides possessions.

Two Shooters Who Did Not Shoot, and One Who Gave It Away

Georges Niang — C-. Five points on 1-of-7 from the field and 1-of-3 from three in 19 minutes, with five rebounds, four of them offensive, and neither a turnover nor a foul. He averages 8.3 points on 48.6 percent shooting; one made field goal in seven attempts is 14.3 percent, and five points on roughly eight true shooting attempts is 0.6 points per attempt. He is on the floor to make shots and he missed six of seven. The four offensive rebounds and the clean sheet are what keeps this out of the D range rather than in it.

Al Horford — D. Two points on 1-of-7 from the field and 0-of-5 from three, with one rebound, four assists, no turnovers and three fouls in 21 minutes. He shoots 43.6 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from three on the season; tonight he missed all five of his threes and six of his seven shots, for about 0.29 points per attempt. The larger hole is the one rebound: 21 minutes from a centre on a night the Warriors needed size produced a single board, against a 4.0 season average. Four assists and no turnovers are real and they are not enough. The Warriors were worse for these minutes.

Gui Santos — D-. Scoreless on 0-of-3 in 12 minutes, with four turnovers, three rebounds, one assist and a block. He averages 6.1 points in 19.1 minutes on 44.4 percent. Four turnovers is the headline: the Warriors committed thirteen all night, so Santos committed 31 percent of the team’s turnovers in five percent of its minutes, and scored nothing against them. The plus-seven is the clearest illustration all night of why single-game plus-minus cannot carry a grade. This is the one line in the game that actively cost Golden State points.

Under the Floor, and the Inactives

Three Warriors played fewer than ten minutes and are noted rather than graded. Stephen Curry: six minutes, three points on 1-of-3, one turnover, before leaving for the locker room and not returning — a week ago he was closing out games by himself. Graham Ike: four minutes, four points on 1-of-2 with both free throws. Malevy Leons: four minutes, scoreless, three rebounds and two blocks.

Did not play: Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody and Gary Payton II, each ruled out with a knee on the official injury report, and Brandon Williams with a strained right hamstring. Kristaps Porziņģis also did not play; no designation for him is asserted here.

The Full Line

Player	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS	+/-	Grade
LJ Cryer	18	4-9	3-8	2-2	1	1	0	0	0	2	13	+18	A-
Brandin Podziemski	37	7-15	4-11	4-5	6	4	2	0	1	3	22	-17	B+
Draymond Green	27	3-5	1-1	0-0	5	7	0	1	1	2	7	-20	B+
Will Richard	19	3-6	2-3	1-2	4	0	1	0	2	2	9	-2	B+
Yaxel Lendeborg	36	9-19	2-7	5-8	10	0	2	0	2	2	25	-15	B
De’Anthony Melton	25	3-7	3-7	2-2	4	4	0	1	2	3	11	-5	B
Charles Bassey	13	3-4	0-0	1-2	6	0	0	1	0	1	7	+2	B
Georges Niang	19	1-7	1-3	2-3	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	-9	C-
Al Horford	21	1-7	0-5	0-0	1	4	0	0	0	3	2	-7	D
Gui Santos	12	0-3	0-2	0-0	3	1	0	1	4	0	0	+7	D-
Stephen Curry	6	1-3	1-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	-9	—
Graham Ike	4	1-2	0-1	2-2	0	1	0	0	0	1	4	+11	—
Malevy Leons	4	0-1	0-1	0-0	3	0	0	2	0	1	0	+11	—
Totals	241	36-88	17-51	19-26	48	22	5	6	13	20	108	—	—

How We Grade

Grade	What it means
A	Won them the game
B	Did his job, at his level or better
C	Neutral — present, not decisive
D	They were worse for his minutes
F	Actively cost them the game

Grades weigh production against opportunity and against each player’s own rate through 11 games, plus up to half a grade of judgment, noted where used.