The Warriors' core continues to be a glitch in the NBA system

Kuminga still out for Warriors. Zion Questionable, but Pelicans missing Poole, others

The Golden State Warriors got smoked by the OKC Thunder, but then spent the rest of their week beating the San Antonio Spurs - not once; but twice. The main concert might be over, but the Warriors are continuing to show that the encore is just as entertaining. More importantly, you cannot be sure that this show is all the way over till the performers finally walk away.

For now, the Warriors have rebalanced themselves, finding that old familiar comfortable cadence with Steph Curry and Draymond Green delivering staccato kidney punches on either end of the court.

Up next: another week of road games - the final slog before coming back home on Friday. They’ll take on the rudderless New Orleans Pelicans tonight; then off to Florida: Tuesday will be in Orlando as the first game of another back-to-back, with Miami on Wednesday.

Jonathan Kuminga will remain out for the Warriors, as he continues to deal with some knee soreness. The timing is unfortunate, as the Warriors could always use the extra set of young legs, and Kuminga was hoping to become a more established, reliable player in the Golden State system after starting for the season’s first 12 games.

The Pelicans are pretty beat up. Dejounte Murray and our old friend Jordan Poole are both out, and Zion Williamson has only managed to play the first five games of the season before succumbing to injury (he’s currently listed as Questionable after missing the last six for the Pelicans). Oh, and they also fired their coach yesterday, which is an odd coincidence for the Warriors, who faced the Blazers and their interim coach recently.

Importantly, this will be our first glimpse of Warrior-for-life, Kevon Looney in another team’s jersey. Expect a lot of warm hugs… at least prior to the game and afterwards. Looney spent a decade with this franchise, playing no small part in the historic run. I miss him.

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GAME DETAILS

WHO: Golden State Warriors (8-6) at New Orleans Pelicans (2-10)

WHEN: Sunday, November 16th, 2025; 4pm PST

WATCH: NBCSBA

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Curry and Green are still basketball freaks - and nothing works without it

Maybe this is getting boring, and it’s certainly not cutting edge analysis, but I am absolutely awestruck by what we all just saw Stephen Curry and Draymond Green do to Wemby and the Spurs. They have no right to still be this elite. The NBA is teetering on the brink of a new era - one featuring kids that are not 37 years old. But as has always been the way of the NBA, these things don’t happen easily. Michael Jordan had to take his lumps in getting past the Pistons and Lakers back in the early ‘90s, and then we saw the Spurs and Lakers share an era between Kobe and Tim Duncan - both of whom had incredible supporting casts over the years.

When Curry and Green entered the league, it was supposed to next belong to LeBron James. He was the natural progression after Kobe. A hyper-athletic phenom gifted with the perfect basketball body and mind, he’d been pre-emptively anointed prior to even graduating high school. The King.

And then the unthinkable happened to The King. Some skinny kid came into the league with a promise to figure it out.

A decade-and-a-half later, Curry is still keeping that promise.

And that’s really the paradox of watching this era age in real time: every season feels like it should be the final chapter, yet somehow the story keeps widening instead of closing. The Warriors aren’t just extending their relevance - they’re rewriting what longevity looks like for stars who were never supposed to survive the physical tax of modern basketball. In a league obsessed with what’s next, Golden State keeps dragging the conversation back to what still is. This most recent installment was a two-parter. Like the movie director simply could not fit all of it into one movie.

On Wednesday night, Curry scored 46 points as an opening salvo. A shot across the league’s bow to let them know that the Chef is still cooking, so please, stay seated. And then - because yes, the message did need to be repeated - he served up another. This time, it was a massive 49-point clinic with nine made threes on his way to ultimately securing the win with some of the most cold blooded free throws you’ll ever see knocked down.

Curry was the engine of victory in a way that has become familiar, but will never be taken for granted.

No way. Right? But yes way!

In basketball, there’s a huge gap between the good players and those that are truly elite. In Curry’s case, it’s not just a matter of how extremely excellent he is at basketball, but that he does it so reliably that’s the amazing part:

Curry scored 31 points in the second half – exactly half of the 62 points Golden State managed after intermission. His 49 points came on 16-of-26 shooting from the field, including 9-of-17 from beyond the arc and 8-of-8 from the line, including a pair of clinching free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining.

Curry scored 14 consecutive points for the Warriors to close the third quarter, which ended with them trailing 79-77. He scored 10 in a row in less than two minutes midway through the fourth quarter.

But dominance, even the kind that bends eras, never happens in a vacuum. What made this particular performance weekend so riveting wasn’t just the shot-making or the absurd scoring bursts - it was the sense that Golden State briefly found the version of itself that once terrified the league. The ball hummed, the pace sharpened, and you could almost feel the edges of an identity snapping back into place. It wasn’t vintage Warriors, but it was close enough to stir that old, familiar adrenaline. It felt like the kind of surge only a scarred, veteran core can summon - the sudden reminder that a team with this much mileage and this many reps in the fire is still fully capable of flipping a game, a week, or a whole narrative on its head.

Now before we get too far into this next section, it’s important to take a moment to point out that Curry isn’t doing this alone. Podziemski and Payton played big minutes - and though not exactly consistent throughout the process, both came up huge in the biggest moments. Both hit two monster threes each towards the end of the game, that helped keep the dream within reach. Will Richard continues to deserve more minutes as his hustle and nose for the ball shine for a team just looking for their best options.

And this is a theme for Curry and the Warriors: not having to do literally everything on your own. Much like Curry, Draymond Green is a player that defies expectations. Standing at just 6’7” he’s not the stereotypical “lock down the center of the paint” player type. And yet somehow, Green continues to not-so-quietly shut down opponent’s best offensive options. He’s done it time and time again over the course of his career, but this recent showing against Wemby feels like it bears a closer look - after all, putting Wemby on ice for two games in a row is Draymond’s version of putting up a 40- and near 50-point night up in two consecutive games.

According to someone on Reddit, Wemby when defended by Draymond Green, last 2 games: 8/21 FG (38.1%) 2/5 3PT (40%) | 6 Turnovers. This is the same Wmeby that has been breaking offensive records left and right. More points than LeBron, more threes than Curry (at similar points in their careers). Against Draymond Green though? Different result. Go figure.

Now, this would seem significant. The images of the two players next to each other is comical - and thank goodness that the whistle saved Draymond from a lifelong replay of Wemby twisting out of his grasp and hammering down a huge one-handed alley oop off the inbounds pass.

One might imagine that the guy on the left wouldn’t get his shot blocked by the guy on the right…

How does Green do this? The same way Curry does what he does; it’s just a bit of everything all at once. The mental acumen, the resiliency need to keep fighting for positioning against a guy that could quite literally step over you, it all matters. And for the Warriors, having Curry and Green on this roster is the start of everything that matters.

So now, the team has once again shown that Curry and Green can carry them. And once again, the answer is (unfortunately) “only most of the time.” For Golden State, this team just got a notice from Curry and Green - much like the rest of the league - they’re still here, and the show is still going.

Prediction

Looney misses us, we miss Looney. Still beat his new team. Warriors don’t cruise to an easy win, but this is another win.