Pelicans knock off Warriors as GSW'S Two-Timelines era gets picked apart

Moody rises, Podz scraps, Poole searches, Kuminga soars and the Warriors feel every part of it during road defeat without Curry, Butler, Horford, and Porzingis.

Tuesday night wasn’t just a 113–109 loss in New Orleans. It was one of those NBA evenings where the game itself almost feels secondary, like the real action is happening in the subtext. The Warriors walked off the floor with another mark in the loss column, sure. But what lingered was something heavier: the sense that the past, present, and alternate futures of this franchise were all playing out at once.

Because while Golden State was fighting uphill in the Smoothie King Center, four names were orbiting the night like satellites pulling at the same emotional tide: Moses Moody. Brandin Podziemski. Jordan Poole. Jonathan Kuminga.

And depending on where you let your eyes settle, you could convince yourself the story was hopeful. Or haunting.

Let’s start with Moses Moody, because what he’s doing right now no longer qualifies as a cameo. He’s a guy you can count on to make quality basketball plays with increasing consistency. He scored 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field, not hunting for his offense but operating with some veteran polish. Don’t look now, but per Stat Muse he has averaged 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his last 5 games. And that’s on 53% shooting from the field, 40% from beyond the arc.

What makes Moody’s ascent resonate isn’t flash; rather it’s accumulation of quality performances. You can see the hours in his footwork. The way he relocates without drifting. How he rises into catch-and-shoot threes like the outcome has already been decided. He’s shooting 40% from deep for the season and it doesn’t feel like luck. There was a time when “Moody scores 24 points for the Warriors in a loss ” would have sounded like a developmental footnote. On Tuesday his presence was sorely needed and almost tilted the balance in GSW’s favor.

And right behind him, doing something that doesn’t always make noise until you really look, was Brandin Podziemski, who pulled down 15 rebounds FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT GAME. 30 rebounds in two games from a guard is absolutely bananas. It was also the second straight game that a teammate was demonstratively ready to scream at him for not making the extra pass (Al Horford on Sunday, Quinton Post against the Pelicans).

Here’s the part that matters: Podz missed 5-of-6 from 3PT range and still found ways to keep the Warriors in the game. That’s a wiring thing. When the jumper doesn’t cooperate, he doesn’t disappear. He crashes. He sneaks inside bigger bodies. He extends possessions that should’ve died quietly. Those rebounds aren’t cosmetic. They’re sheer will from a guy determined to put his fingerprints on the game.

He finished with 16 points in 31 minutes, and the numbers almost undersell the tone. There’s a relentlessness to him that feels older than 22. A refusal to float that the franchise can definitely use. You can trust that on random Tuesday nights when rhythm is scarce and legs are heavy.

Then you glance across the court and see Jordan Poole in a different uniform, and the emotional temperature shifts. He put up 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in 22 minutes off of the bench. Not mind blowing, but a solid performance in the win against his former teammates.

A quiet Jordan Poole performance wasn’t what Dub Nation had come to expect by the time the 2022 playoffs rolled around. The 30-piece in Denver to open the series. The way he kept the offense humming when Steph was out. The Warriors absolutely do not win that surprise title without Poole balling out. Then the big money extension. The Draymond punch. The fracture you could feel but never fully name. Traded outta nowhere for Chris Paul to the Washington Wizards. A couple years later, he was shipped to N’awlins. The league moves fast, and sometimes development doesn’t get to finish its sentence.

There isn’t a cartoon villain here, just a championship window that demanded clarity and a front office that made a choice. But watching Poole come off a Pelicans bench and shoot 30 percent from deep against the team that drafted him carries a specific kind of melancholy. He’s 26 and he has a ring. He has time on his side, I truly believe. It was just weird seeing him battling for minutes with that bottom feeding franchise.

And as if the basketball gods wanted to press the point, 1,900 miles away in Atlanta, Jonathan Kuminga was detonating. Twenty-seven points in 24 minutes in his Hawks debut. He shot 9-of-12 from the field and drilled 3-of-4 from downtown. He also added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. OFF OF THE BENCH. He streaked down the court looking and feeling good in his debut, carrying a relaxed, fun loving expression that I remember from the parade he celebrated the ‘22 championship with us.

No rotation tug-of-war. No nightly parsing of fit next to Steph and Draymond. Just space and the green light. Finally the former #7 overall pick with nuclear athleticism finally told to go without glancing over his shoulder.

I have to stand and applaud because that’s a player showing you exactly who he is the moment someone removes the weight of expectation from his shoulders. No championships to chase or legacy to preserve. No history to protect or Steve Kerr rotation decisions to decode. Just that hooper JK, unleashed, grinning after scoring like a kid who finally got the keys to the car.

There’s a bittersweet truth buried in that stat line, and Dub Nation knows it. This is the same player who spent his final weeks in Golden State watching games in street clothes. The same player whose Warriors tenure ended not with a farewell, but with a trade deadline exit while nursing a bone bruise. And his first night of freedom? He looks like he’s been waiting to do that his whole life.

Golden State flipped him for Kristaps Porzingis which is a move with real logic if health cooperates. But logic doesn’t mute emotion. Not when Moody is blooming, Podz is grinding, Poole is searching, and Kuminga for one night was soaring somewhere else.

Last night that felt like a time-lapse of every decision made over the last four years. The Warriors’ window absolutely isn’t closed, but it’s no longer expanding either folks. On nights like this, you can feel every hinge.