Player grades: Warriors vs. Magic

Assessing every Golden State player’s performance in the team’s 94-90 loss to Orlando.

I’ll make this brief, because I don’t imagine any of you want to spend much time dwelling on the Golden State Warriors 94-90 loss to the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night.

Losing is not fun. Losing for the third time in a row is really not fun. Losing for the third time in a row while facing the team with the second-worst record in the NBA is really, really not fun. Losing for the third time in a row while facing the team with the second-worst record in the NBA with four more road games that are all harder than that one is really, really, really not fun. And losing for the third time in a row while facing the team with the second-worst record in the NBA with four more road games that are all harder than that one, and blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead is really, really, really, really not fun.

So let’s get into it and grade the players, weighting for our expectations of each.

Note: League-average true-shooting percentage (TS) was 56.3% entering Tuesday’s games.

Draymond Green

29 minutes, 2 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 1-for-3 shooting, 33.3% TS, -8

Green looked like he was having fun running point guard for stretches of this game, but he also didn’t make as much of an impact as the Warriors would like. He didn’t provide any scoring, and while his rebounding is always better than the box score suggests, it wasn’t his best night there.

He played strong defense as always, but not as strong as he sometimes does. It was only his fourth game back, after all.

But give him the quote of the night award for accuracy:

Grade: C+

Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists, worst plus/minus on the team.

Andrew Wiggins

36 minutes, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 5-for-19 shooting, 2-for-6 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 32.7% TS, -7

The Wiggins offensive slump may have hit a new low. One game after finally dipping below the league-average true-shooting percentage, Wiggins had one of his worst offensive games of the season. He took a lot of bad looks, and missed a lot of the good looks that he did have. He’s significantly less aggressive than he was earlier in the season (perhaps the free throw struggles are spooking him?), and he didn’t have a single assist in this game.

Just bad, bad, bad.

Grade: D

Kevon Looney

12 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 fouls, 2-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 64.4% TS, 0 plus/minus

Looney has been a workhorse all season, but didn’t get too much playing time in this game. He wasn’t getting eaten by Orlando’s big men, but with the Dubs sorely lacking for scoring, Steve Kerr turned to more perimeter players.

As a result, Looney played well, but wasn’t very meaningful in this game.

Grade: B

Klay Thompson

32 minutes, 15 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover, 3 fouls, 6-for-15 shooting, 2-for-7 threes, 1-for-1 free throws, 48.6% TS, 0 plus/minus

Another game with low efficiency for Klay, but his shot selection was a lot better in this game. He wasn’t forcing the issue nearly as much, and the bulk of his shots were ones that you want him to be taking. They just didn’t fall in this game.

Grade: C+

Jordan Poole

40 minutes, 26 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 turnovers, 2 fouls, 9-for-23 shooting, 5-for-13 threes, 3-for-3 free throws, 53.5% TS, -7

Poole had a below-average efficiency game, but it felt like he was very efficient simply because the bulk of his teammates were not. He did a great job righting the ship in the second half after shooting just 1-for-6 in the opening half, and finished with 20 or more points for his 10th straight game.

It wasn’t a great game though. He took some overly-difficult shots, turned the ball over a bit, and had a few poor defensive possessions.

Still, give him credit for keeping the team in it when they seemed to be trying to lose.

Grade: B

Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.

Nemanja Bjelica

14 minutes, 1 point, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 0-for-1 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 26.6% TS, -2

Sunday was one of Bjelica’s best games of the season, but he was unable to back it up on Tuesday. His defense was actually pretty decent in this one, but the offense wasn’t. He wasn’t as aggressive as he’s been lately, and his passing brilliance wasn’t much on display, while the turnovers piled up.

Grade C

Jonathan Kuminga

20 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 5 fouls, 6-for-8 shooting, 2-for-4 free throws, 71.7% TS, +7

Kuminga had some rough defensive sequences in this game, and was often a step behind and a little undisciplined. Which is how he almost fouled out in just 20 minutes of action. He simply didn’t look comfortable on that end of the floor, at all.

The offense sure was nice though ... in a game where the Dubs struggled to score for 48 minutes, Kuminga’s highly-efficient 14 points stands out quite a bit.

Grade: B+

Post-game bonus: Led the team in plus/minus.

Otto Porter Jr.

26 minutes, 14 points, 15 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 5-for-8 shooting, 2-for-3 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 78.8% TS, -1

If the Warriors had won, you could have gone ahead and given the game ball to Porter. Just as he did on Sunday he attacked the glass relentlessly, and brought strong effort to the defensive end of things.

He’s been on fire lately, and it’s a lot of fun to watch.

Grade: A

Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.

Damion Lee

16 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 foul, 0-for-2 shooting, 0-for-2 free throws, 0.0% TS, +4

Lee has been out of the rotation lately and, unfortunately for him, got the chance on Tuesday night and reminded everyone why he’s been out of the rotation.

Grade: C-

Gary Payton II

6 minutes, 0 points, 4 rebounds, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 0-for-2 shooting, 0.0% TS, -4

GPII made his return to the lineup, though in a very limited capacity. He looked rusty on both ends of the court, though his ridiculous rebounding was once again on display.

Grade: C+

Moses Moody

5 minutes, 0 points, 1 turnover, -1

Moody didn’t play poorly, per se, but it’s never a good sign when the only statistic column that you put a number in is the turnover column.

Grade: B-

Chris Chiozza

4 minutes, 0 points, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 0-for-1 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -1

It’s not always clear why the Warriors play Chiozza, but it’s certainly not to put up twice as many turnovers as assists, or half as many turnovers as minutes.

Grade: C-

Tuesday’s DNPs: Juan Toscano-Anderson

Tuesday’s inactives: Steph Curry, Andre Iguodala, Quinndary Weatherspoon, James Wiseman