PORTLAND — Andrew Wiggins wasn’t hearing any of the noise.
Blue headphones on, gaze straight ahead and over the heads of everyone below his 6-foot-7 frame, Wiggins turned the corners in Moda Center’s dark tunnels for his pre-game warm-up stoic and resolute.
Wiggins grabs attention with his smile, but his temperament through the games highs and lows is so even keeled it often comes off as passive. Subtly, this time, Wiggins’ soundproof stare was telling the world that he wants to escape the doghouse.
It’s been three games since coach Steve Kerr moved Wiggins out of the starting rotation and onto the bench, a role he hasn’t had since he was 12 years old in AAU. But Wiggins has been nearly detrimental to every minute he played and the bench unit was straight up outplaying his fellow starting five. A small demotion as the team fell below .500 was necessary, and Wiggins knows it.
“It was definitely surprising,” Wiggins said. “But anything can happen in this league. I’m blessed to be here, not a lot of people get the opportunity play int his league. If I want to get out of this little doghouse, I got to just keep fighting my way out.”
It was his fight that saved the Warriors in a 118-114 win on Sunday night in Portland. Wiggins scored 25 points on an efficient 9-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from 3. The performance paired nicely with Klay Thompson’s team-high 28-point night that lifted Steph Curry from an off night.
Not only did Curry snap his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer at 268 — the last time he didn’t make a 3 in a regular season game was 2018 — he didn’t crack double-digits scoring (seven points) for the first time since 2022.
Curry’s legs looked tired from playing the latter half of a back-to-back following a 37-point game against Brooklyn on Saturday. But the burden goes deeper. Draymond Green’s indefinite suspension leaves the Warriors without their loudest voice and, for Curry, the emotional yin to his steady yang as leaders. Green gone leaves Curry with some responsibility to rile his guys up while holding a steady hand. He’s even gone away from his popular warm-up routine 75 minutes before tipoff to step back into his own world through all this.
Curry’s plate is overflowing. And the way back out of this losing hole means big-bucks guys like Wiggins and Thompson will have to take their demotions to heart and take back what was previously given.
That plan seemed ill-fated last week in Phoenix. Wiggins slogged himself to a 15-minute stint and fourth quarter benching and Thompson’s ill-advised shooting had the clutch-shooting maestro benched in crunch time for the first time in his Warriors career.
Thompson responded to the benching with immediate frustration — throwing towels at the visiting bench chairs, knocking things over and yelling at anyone in his vicinity who would listen.
“Of course it frustrates me. You think I’m going to chill? I’m friggin’ competitive,” Thompson said then. “At the end of the day I’m one of the most competitive people to put this uniform on.”
Since then, Thompson has scored, 30 points, 9-of-15 from the field with eight 3s against the Clippers; 24 points, 7-of-19 from the field with four 3s against the Brooklyn Nets; 28 points, shooting 11-of-16 from the field with five 3s against the Trail Blazers.
Wiggins responded differently. He’s not much of a towel-throwing yeller. Under the radar, one might wonder if the demotion turned the heat up on his competitive juices like it did Thompson. Did Wiggins care?
Wiggins’ strut to the court before tipoff on Sunday dripped with purpose, then he turned into 2022 Wiggins — driving to the rim, or cutting for a dunk. He was challenging opposing teams’ bigs on the boards and taking on the opposing team’s best scorer. He had a block, a steal and played the entire fourth quarter scoring 10 points to fend off another 20-plus point blown lead.
“Credit to him. A lot of guys would sulk and act like the world was coming down on him if he was uncomfortable or felt it was unfair,” Steph Curry said. “He understands he has an opportunity to be himself. He did that tonight.”
Green in or out, the Warriors were due for some shakeups. They entered the year trying to brew up the perfect chemistry with a tweaked roster to better complement their flowing offensive system. Familiarity fostered a malaise and, on some level from opposing teams, predictability that sent them into a losing skid. Now Kerr changed the starting lineup, for now, and made some decisions that could send curse words and towels in the air.
So far, it’s clear the Warriors needed Wiggins and Thompson to get a little uncomfortable to get comfortable again.
Source: www.mercurynews.com