SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors had every reason to toss Monday night’s home game against the young, tall and spry Jazz into a growing pile of “scheduled losses.”
Golden State, losers of three consecutive, were without several key members of their frontcourt. Jonathan Kuminga was out with knee soreness for the sixth game in a row. Al Horford (sciatica) will be re-evaluated at the end of the week.
Draymond Green was held out with a foot injury sustained during the Portland game when Donovan Clingan landed on his foot during a fight for a rebound.
But after going down big early, an energized lineup rallied for a much-needed 134-117 victory thanks to a relentless 21-0 run to begin the second quarter.
Steph Curry scored 29, while Jimmy Butler put in 18 and dished out seven assists. Gary Payton II, starting at power forward, had his best game of the season: Nine points, six rebounds and a career-high eight assists. And that vaunted size advantage? It never materialized. The Warriors outrebounded Utah 48-47. Keyonte George led the Jazz with 28 points, and highly-touted rookie Ace Bailey put in a career-high 21.
Golden State used all 11 of their active players by the early second quarter in a matchup that was truly a game of runs. Utah began the game up 11-0, and then the Warriors embarked on a 15-3 jolt to answer. And once Utah went on a flurry to end the first quarter up 35-26, Golden State answered.
Keyed by the energetic play of rookie Will Richard, Moses Moody, Pat Spencer, Quinten Post and Butler, the home team outscored the Jazz 21-0 over the first six minutes of the second as Richard’s former Florida teammate Walter Clayton was among the unfortunate Utah bunch caught in the fray.
Golden State led 67-55 at halftime. The Warriors maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the second half.
The Warriors (10-9) will play host to the Kevin Durant-less Rockets on Wednesday in the teams’ first matchup since Golden State eliminated Houston from the 2025 playoffs in a seven-game first round series.
Kuminga update
The day after telling reporters he did not know Kuminga’s immediate status, Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave a pregame update on the forward who has missed the past six games with knee soreness.
“He got an MRI and it was clear,” Kerr said, later adding. “There’s nothing that’s glaring, but it’s bothering , so it’s just day-to-day.”
DeMarco meets Ionescu
Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco is expected to sign a contract to become the New York Liberty’s next coach, and the team’s biggest star was in the building and seen chatting with him pregame.
Ionescu is from Walnut Creek and was the Bay Area News Group’s girls high school basketball player of the decade for her unparalleled career at Miramonte High School in Orinda in the mid-2010s..She was a key figure on the USA’s gold medal-winning team in summer 2024 and helped lead New York to the WNBA title a few months later.