With the Warriors’ Big Three out, Gui Santos will be making the fourth start of his career on Friday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Santos will be joined by Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Will Richard and Quinten Post.
Along with Stephen Curry (ankle), Jimmy Butler (illness) and Draymond Green (rest), De’Anthony Melton (knee injury management) and Seth Curry (sciatica) are out.
Jonathan Kuminga was a late addition to the injury report with lower back soreness. He’s also out, which means the Warriors will have just 10 players available against OKC.
Santos Earns Starting Spot
Santos is coming off one of the best games of his career, as he had 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting and 3-of-4 from three, five rebounds, two assists, one block and zero turnovers against the Hornets. He was a plus-15, which was his sixth consecutive game with a positive plus/minus.
Over Golden State’s last 12 games, Santos leads the team in plus/minus at plus-59.
At 6’7″, Santos is essentially a modern-day stretch 4. He rarely gets overmatched on the defensive end by other 4s, which is why it’s been confusing as to why Kerr has limited his minutes and instead gone with smaller role players to play power forward.
On Friday, he’ll get a big share of minutes, which he has earned.
Dubs Need Big Scoring Game from Podz
Believe it or not, Podz is Golden State’s third-leading scorer at 12.5 points per game.
The Warriors’ lack of dependable secondary scoring was already an issue when Curry and Butler were playing. Without them, they’ll need several players to step up.
But it will start with Podz having a big game.
He’s coming off a solid game with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting against the Hornets.
His career high is 29 points. The Warriors might need him to match that to have a chance against the Thunder.
Expect Extended Stretch of Double-Big Lineup
The Warriors have been playing Al Horford at the 4 at times over the last four games, and you can expect them to continue experimenting with that lineup Friday.
It’s more out of necessity than out of bold strategy.
The Warriors have just 10 players available, and three—Horford, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Post—usually play center. So Horford will pretty much have to play some of his minutes at power forward while flanking either Post or Jackson-Davis.
With that said, the double-big lineup could be a good play against the Thunder. The last thing the Warriors can allow is for the Thunder to have big advantage on the glass. In theory, the double-big lineup should help the Warriors in the rebounding battle.
