The protégé pulled off the improbable and beat his mentor Tuesday night in perhaps the Warriors' most impressive win of the season in San Antonio.
Golden State was without its superstars in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The list didn't end there, too. They also were without All-Star Andrew Wiggins, as well as Andre Iguodala, Otto Porter Jr. and more. All the backups did was erase a 17-point deficit to beat the Spurs 124-120 at AT&T Center.
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The crazy comeback gave the Warriors seven straight wins and improved Steve Kerr's all-time record coaching against Gregg Popovich to 12-12.
It didn't help that the Spurs shot the lights out from the floor. Coming into Tuesday night, the Warriors allowed an NBA-best 102.1 points per game. The Spurs' offense was ninth in the NBA by averaging 111.3 points per game. Through three quarters, they had scored 104 points while making it rain from outside.
The Spurs came into this contest shooting 46.4 percent from the floor. They shot 56.1 percent against the Warriors, and went 16-for-33 (50 percent) on 3-pointers. For the season, they were shooting 35.1 percent from long distance.
All game long, the Warriors went shot for shot with the Spurs but it looked like they had ran out of gas in the third quarter. But in the fourth, they scored 35 points and held the Spurs to 16. Without the Splash Brothers, the Warriors shot 48.4 percent from the field and went 20-for-46 on 3-pointers, good for a 43.5 percent clip.
They also made all 18 of their free throws.
Jordan Poole led the way 31 points thanks to driving to the hoop and making all nine of his free throws. His go-ahead 3-pointer with 17.9 seconds left didn't hurt, either. This night, though, belonged to the Warriors' top two draft picks.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors' star-less win, improving to 39-13 on the season.
The Moody-Kuminga Game
Moses Moody made a surprising start Monday night against the Houston Rockets and again was in the starting lineup against the Spurs. He rewarded Kerr and the Warriors with the best game of his young career. The No. 14 pick in the 2021 draft scored a career-high 20 points and played a team-high 37 minutes. He made a career-high six 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds.
With Steph, Klay, Wiggins and others out, Moody found ways to give the Warriors instant offense. He was a real catch-and-shoot threat and continued to show he could earn real minutes as the season goes on. It also needs to be mentioned his hustle paid off and was a big reason why Poole was able to hit the game-winner.
Moody started off scorching in his start. Jonathan Kuminga, who has had a much bigger spotlight on him as a rookie, came off the bench and saved his best for last. The longer the game went on, the better Kuminga played. He exploded in the fourth quarter and finished with 19 points in 29 minutes off the bench.
Kuminga was a plus-15 and his competitiveness was clear as the game went on.
Iron Man
The Warriors' starting lineup featured only one regular at AT&T Center. That was center Kevon Looney, a player whose career was slowed by injury frequently before this season. Now in Year 7, Looney has turned into Golden State's biggest guarantee.
Going into this game against the Spurs, Looney was one of only six players in the NBA to start every game this season. He now has appeared and started in all 52 of the Warriors' games. His availability has been huge for himself and the Warriors, as was seen against the Spurs.
Looney played 23 minutes in the win on the second night of a back-to-back. He scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. It was his fourth double-double of the season.
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For how much was made of the Warriors making trades or free-agent signings in the past for players like Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins, Wiggins, Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and many others, Golden State is rare in the case that its Big Three is homegrown. Curry, Thompson and Green will go down as three of the greatest Warriors draft picks of all time, and ever at their spots by any team.
Tuesday night's lineup was another testament to the Warriors' development staff. With Curry, Thompson, Green, Wiggins, Iguodala and many more all sitting in San Antonio, the Warriors turned to a team that at some point has spent time in the G League. And with the Warriors' Santa Cruz affiliate to be specific.
That wasn't just true for the Warriors' starters, it was true for all nine of their available players.
Poole went to the G League last season and averaged 22.4 points over 11 games. He returned to the Bay Area an entirely different player. Moody has averaged 27.4 points in nine games for Santa Cruz this season. Looney, the veteran of the group, last played for Santa Cruz in the 2016-17 season when he averaged 12.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in four contests.
Kerr gave minutes to all nine players in the first quarter, an example of both how depleted the roster was Tuesday night and how great of a job the staff in Santa Cruz has done in developing players for a long time now.
