Warriors are heading closer to All-Star break with some good mojo after beating Grizzlies

BIG COMEBACK!

The cruelest thing about professional sports isn’t failure. It’s watching potential walk out the door wearing someone else’s jersey. I’ve still been processing that Jonathan Kuminga is gone. Traded to Atlanta for Kristaps Porzingis and the fading echo of what could have been. The former lottery pick wing with generational athleticism just became someone else’s project to solve or celebrate.

And you know what the Warriors did in response? They won anyway.

Against Phoenix on Thursday, hours after trading away three rotation players, the Warriors should have folded. They were emotionally drained, physically shorthanded, staring down a Suns team that had been rolling. Instead, they authored a 22–5 run in the fourth quarter to steal a 101–97 win.

Then Monday against Memphis, down 113–103 with 4:17 left, they did it again. Another 11–0 run. Another improbable 114–113 victory. Spencer with 17 and seven assists. Al Horford, 39 years old and defying mileage, posting 17 points, nine rebounds, and a team-best +24 in just 26 minutes.

These weren’t games a shorthanded team is supposed to win. But here’s the thing about playing with house money: sometimes it spends better than the currency you’ve been hoarding. These back-to-back comebacks aren’t just about grit or next-man-up mythology. They’re more about what happens when a team stops trying to manage conflicting timelines.

The “Two Timelines” strategy sounded brilliant in theory. In practice, it meant Kuminga flashing 30-point upside in May and then drifting in and out of consistent rhythm as roles shifted. It meant young players living in that uneasy space between “you’re the future” and “we need you to be ready right now.”

Trading Kuminga doesn’t mean the Warriors abandoned youth. Brandin Podziemski is still here. So are Moses Moody and Gui Santos. But it does mean they’ve accepted a harder truth: you can’t chase a championship while also running a full-time development program for players who are still figuring out who they are.

Steph Curry is 37 and recently stepped away from the All-Star Game because his body needs preservation more than pageantry. Jimmy Butler is recovering from ACL surgery. Draymond Green is 35 with a decade of playoff mileage. The championship window isn’t closing. It’s already halfway down.

Let’s be clear about what the Warriors acquired: a seven-foot-three floor-spacing big who, when healthy, gives them the exact archetype they’ve chased for years. Ya know, rim protection without sacrificing spacing, size without clogging Steph’s gravity. Porzingis hasn’t suited up yet and the fit is theoretical for now. And that’s the gamble.

The Warriors are betting that his talent, even with availability questions, is worth more than Kuminga’s long-term upside in a system that never quite found a stable role for him. They’re betting that Steph’s window is measured in months, not seasons. They’re betting that fit matters more than projection.

There’s a version of this story where Jonathan Kuminga becomes an All-Star in Atlanta, and every time the Warriors visit, someone pulls up the highlight reel and asks why they gave up too soon. There’s also a version where the flashes remain flashes, where potential never quite hardens into consistency.

We won’t know for years which version is true. What we know right now is that the fit wasn’t clean. Steve Kerr wanted connective tissue while Kuminga wanted expansion. Neither vision was unreasonable. They just didn’t align cleanly with Steph Curry’s timeline.

Sometimes the hardest truth in sports is that good players don’t always fit. Talent alone doesn’t solve chemistry and ceiling doesn’t guarantee cohesion. And cohesion is what this version of the Warriors is chasing. While Super Bowl LX swallowed the Bay Area whole, the Warriors were quietly figuring out who they are post-deadline. They’re not the team banking on Kuminga’s explosiveness anymore. They’re a veteran group that knows exactly two things: how to survive imperfection, and how to close when games tilt late.

Let’s keep it going Warriors!