Player grades: Warriors vs. Hawks

Wow. Everyone catch their breath? The Golden State Warriors played in an absolute thriller on Monday night, blowing a 21-point lead against the Atlanta Hawks, then overcoming a late eight-point deficit, all to win 143-141 in double overtime. It gives them a five-game winning streak, which is a season best, despite the fact that Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins have been sidelined for all five games.

Now let’s grade the players after the intense game. As always, grades are weighted based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” representing the average performance.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a measure of scoring efficiency that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Monday’s games, league average TS was 57.7%.

Draymond Green

45 minutes, 5 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 2-for-5 shooting, 1-for-1 threes, 50.0% TS, +9

Dray is being asked to carry a huge playmaking load with Curry sidelined, and only having two turnovers despite playing 45 minutes is wildly impressive. As was the defense in this game. Don’t let the 141 points that the Warriors allowed fool you (they came in an extra 10 minutes of action, after all) ... Dray’s defense was sensational.

He also had one of the biggest plays of the game, hitting a shot clock buzzer-beating three with about 43 seconds left in double OT to push the lead to five.

Grade: A

Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists.

Kevon Looney

32 minutes, 14 points, 20 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 4 fouls, 4-for-8 shooting, 6-for-8 free throws, 60.8% TS, -20

Looney’s plus/minus is rather shocking, and by “shocking” I mean a reminder that you shouldn’t read too much into single-game individual plus/minus. Still, the lineups with Looney work best when the Warriors don’t need to push, and for many stretches of this game they really needed to push.

But Looney grounded the defense, and gobbled up a massive 20 boards, which helped the Warriors win the rebounding battle by 16. His presence on the glass can’t be understated, especially with JaMychal Green, James Wiseman, Andrew Wiggins, and Jonathan Kuminga sidelined.

Most importantly, though, was the fact that Looney had the game-winner on a walk-off put-back.

What an amazing moment for a player who deserves all the flowers. You hit a buzzer-beating game winner, you get an A+. That’s the rule.

Grade: A+

Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds, worst plus/minus on the team.

Klay Thompson

46 minutes, 54 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 4 fouls, 21-for-39 shooting, 10-for-21 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 67.7% TS, +13

If Donovan Mitchell hadn’t become just the seventh player in NBA history to score 70 points in a game just a few hours prior, then Klay would have been the talk of the NBA town on Monday night.

Instead, he’ll have to settle for an absolute vintage Klay night, in which he had the second-highest point total of his career, managed to fire 39 shots while A) being super efficient and B) not forcing anything, and looked like he was having the time of his life.

You love to see it.

Grade: A+

Post-game bonus: Led the team in points, best plus/minus on the team.

Donte DiVincenzo

44 minutes, 8 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 3-for-9 shooting, 2-for-8 threes, 44.4% TS, +7

DDV had an inefficient scoring night, but we can overlook it since he had the most important shot of the game: a game-tying three-pointer with 0.6 seconds left in regulation.

He was pretty awesome in every other area of the game, as he crashed the glass, helped run the offense, and played some sweet defense on Trae Young.

Grade: A

Jordan Poole

45 minutes, 28 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 6 turnovers, 2 fouls, 11-for-31 shooting, 2-for-12 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, 41.6% TS, +7.

A bit of an odd game for JP. He scored a bit, and there were plenty of times in this game where the Warriors desperately needed a bucket and Poole delivered.

On the other hand, he was pretty darn inefficient, and he had a few really rough plays in the closing moments. With about 15 seconds left in regulation, and the Warriors trailing by a point, Poole rushed when he didn’t need to, and dribbled off his thigh and out of bounds. And at the end of the first overtime, he was unable to get a good look off, and ran the clock out instead of passing to a teammate.

I don’t think the Warriors win this game without Poole, but it still was a sub-par performance by his standards. Poole has really struggled with turnovers since being asked to carry more of the offense. He’s had more assists than turnovers just twice during Curry’s nine-game absence, and during that time has turned the ball over 46 times to just 33 assists.

Grade: C

Anthony Lamb

33 minutes, 17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 4 fouls, 7-for-12 shooting, 2-for-6 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 66.0% TS, +1

Lamb played huge minutes in the first half when the Warriors build up a 21-point lead. He made some clutch shots and some big time hustle plays. I thought he fell off a bit in the second half, and tried a little hard to be the hero down the stretch.

But on the whole, it was a very strong performance from him, and he helped the Warriors go small when they desperately needed to.

Grade: A-

Patrick Baldwin Jr.

11 minutes, 8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 3-for-7 shooting, 2-for-6 threes, 57.1% TS, -3

Baldwin is starting to look more and more comfortable on defense, which allows Steve Kerr to play him more and more. He’s still unlikely to be a rotation player until next year, but he’s firmly at the point where the Dubs can play him when they’re shorthanded, which they might be for a while. He had an awesome second quarter.

Grade: A-

Ty Jerome

22 minutes, 3 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-for-6 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 1-for-1 free throws, 23.3% TS, +2

Jerome just kind of existed in this game. You didn’t really notice his contributions, good or bad. Rough game shooting the basketball, and couldn’t put many stats up in 22 minutes. But I thought he defense was really good in this contest.

Grade: B-

Moses Moody

12 minutes, 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 2-for-4 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 2-for-5 free throws, 48.4% TS, -6

Moody had a few big plays in this game, but he continues to just not do quite enough. He’s still very passive at both ends of the court, and whatever Kerr is asking him to do he’s not doing, because he’s not getting any notable minutes.

Grade: C

Monday’s DNPs: Ryan Rollins

Monday’s inactives: Steph Curry, JaMychal Green, Andre Iguodala, Jonathan Kuminga, Andrew Wiggins, James Wiseman