After insisting he would lean heavily into the Warriors' roster depth while mixing and matching the starting lineups, coach Steve Kerr seems finally to have settled on a permanent unit.
Call it the do-all lineup.
Kerr added newcomer De'Anthony Melton to the group of regulars – Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Trayce Jackson-Davis – and watched as that quintet set the tone and paced Golden State to a 127-116 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night at Paycom Center.
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The victory, their eighth in their last 10 games, improved the surging Warriors to 8-2 in the Western Conference, half a game behind the Phoenix Suns.
On a night when Curry had his usual superstar performance with 36 points and Andrew Wiggins aggressively piled up 18 points, Melton stepped up for his first start in a Warriors uniform and made up for slow scoring nights by Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis by pouring in a season-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Afterward, Kerr told reporters that the he plans to stick with the same starting five when the Warriors return home Tuesday to face former Splash Brother Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center.
“I think it gives us a really good two-way lineup,” Kerr said. “You saw what [Melton] could do at both ends. He’s a really good passer, an excellent 3-point shooter [and] a really good on-ball defender as well.
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“Melt in the starting lineup is something we’ve talked about a lot in camp and here in the early going. Really liked it. I think it makes a lot of sense for us.”
Steve Kerr details what he saw from De'Anthony Melton in his first Warriors start pic.twitter.com/WhIOnWLKeS
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The Warriors didn’t sign Melton so much for his offense as they did for his defense. The 6-foot-2 guard has a massive wingspan, has twice finished in the top 15 for individual steals and currently sports a defensive rating of 96.
“It’s exactly kind of what you expected,” Curry said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s "Warriors Postgame Live" show. “He’s been around the block. He’s a gamer. When we played against them when he was in Memphis and we were in that [2022] playoff series, he was a difference-maker on both ends of the floor. [Tonight] that third quarter was huge. He was hitting big threes, playing great defense.”
Curry, Green and Jackson-Davis are the only players Kerr has started in every game this season. Wiggins has started eight of the 10 games, but that fifth spot in the lineup has had a revolving door.
Jonathan Kuminga had sporadic success as a starter earlier in the season but has thrived since being moved to the bench, averaging 17.4 points while shooting 51.7 percent (45 of 87) from the floor.
That’s one of the reasons why Kerr feels comfortable about finally settling on a starting group.
“I would like for that starting group that was out there tonight, I would like for that group to be our group going forward,” Kerr said. “JK has shown how important he is to us off the bench … he seems to really fit into that role well.
“We’re looking for really good defense to start the game, and that lineup gives us two on-ball defenders with Wiggs and Melt, and then two bigs with Draymond and Trayce. I think we’ll stay with it and see how it goes.”
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