Player grades: Warriors vs. Lakers Game 3

Yikes. That’s pretty much all I have to say after the Golden State Warriors self-sabotaged and self-destructed during their blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals. The Warriors last 127-97 and, while the first 15 or so minutes were lovely, it really wasn’t as close as the 30-point blowout would suggest.

Bad game. Shake it off. There’s basketball to be won on Monday.

Until then, let’s run through the entire Staples supply of red pens grading the players. I’ll try to make it short and sweet sour. Because we all want to think about Monday, not Saturday.

As always, grades are weighted based on my expectations. A “B” grade represents the average performance for that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. League-average TS this year was 58.2%.

Draymond Green

23 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 5 fouls, 1-for-4 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 25.0% TS, -27

Dray didn’t have a turnover! That’s awesome.

If you want me to find something else positive to say about his game, I’m sorry, I don’t really have it.

He was done no favors by some very quick whistles, but none of his five fouls were outright bad calls. He played the game on the margins and sometimes that means ending up on the wrong side. He flew close to the sun and ... however that parable goes.

He had more fouls than points. More fouls than rebounds. More fouls than assists. His defense on Anthony Davis wasn’t nearly good enough to warrant the small ball lineups, especially since he wasn’t contributing to their offensive success in any way. He got an ill-timed technical foul that was pretty clearly part of the team losing composure, not gaining energy.

Just a bad, bad, bad game.

He’ll bounce back.

Grade: D-

Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.

JaMychal Green

11 minutes, 2 points, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 1-for-5 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 20.0% TS, -10

JMG starting in place of Kevon Looney worked brilliantly in Game 2. It did not work in Game 3. He really didn’t do anything at all. And even if the Warriors don’t have him guarding the opposing team’s center, they need him to at least rebound a little bit when he’s on the court.

I’ll be curious to see if Steve Kerr sticks with Green in the starting lineup in Game 4. The spacing is definitely helpful, but they could also get that by going much smaller and starting a guard or a wing. Or they could just go back to Looney.

Grade: C-

Andrew Wiggins

28 minutes, 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 2 fouls, 6-for-11 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 67.3% TS, -16

I feel bad that Wiggins wasted one of the best plays of his career on such an awful game. If this had come in a win, we’d be replaying it for years to come ... maybe even decades.

As is, it was just a lone highlight in an awful game. But it was only an awful game for the team, as Wiggins himself had a very strong showing. He got torched by LeBron James in the third quarter, but I don’t think anyone in the NBA is stopping LeBron when he gets in that mode.

On the whole, Wiggins played really well, which I don’t think you can say about any of his teammates.

Grade: A-

Post-game bonus: Led the team in rebounds.

Steph Curry

32 minutes, 23 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 2 fouls, 9-for-21 shooting, 4-for-10 threes, 1-for-3 free throws, 51.5% TS, -26

Give credit where credit is due. For a team that is sorely lacking in quality perimeter defenders, the Lakers have managed to play Curry incredibly well this year. Hats off to their defenders and to the coaching staff.

But at the same time, Curry just wasn’t Curry in this game. Just as you can’t blame Wiggins for not defending LeBron well when he was in LeBron Mode, no defensive scheme can stop Curry when he’s in Curry Mode. And no defensive scheme can cause him to shoot 33.3% on free throws, either.

Curry just wasn’t really himself. He didn’t have his touch around the rim, or his explosiveness springing free or rebounding. After being the ultimate quarterback in Game 2, he struggled to make the right reads or passes in this game.

I’d expect big things from him Monday.

Grade: C-

Post-game bonus: Led the team in points.

Klay Thompson

33 minutes, 15 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 6 turnovers, 3 fouls, 5-for-14 shooting, 3-for-9 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 50.4% TS, -23

Speaking of players I expect to have big bounce back games on Monday ... Klay was the first to guarantee that he will, and he’s usually right when he calls these things.

He was just off in this one. I liked how committed he was to defense and rebounding, even if the defense wasn’t particularly good. But the shooting was mediocre and the turnovers were inexcusable.

Grade: C-

Jonathan Kuminga

9 minutes, 10 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 3-for-4 shooting, 1-for-1 threes, 3-for-4 free throws, 86.8% TS, -4

Kuminga once again played a decent chunk of minutes, and once again it was only due to playing in garbage time. Two straight blowouts will do that.

He still hasn’t played a meaningful minute in this series, and barely any in the playoffs. Is it time to give him a chance? If Game 2 was an audition, he sure didn’t do well. But if Game 3 was ... well, gotta love the aggression, energy, and athleticism.

Grade: Incomplete

Kevon Looney

16 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 1 foul, 1-for-1 shooting, 1-for-2 free throws, 79.8% TS, +1

If you want to know how disjointed the Warriors were, Looney only played 16 minutes off the bench ... and still turned the ball over three times for just the third time all season.

Still, there were good things in Looney’s game, and it’s impressive to finish with a positive plus/minus when you lose by 30, even if that’s not at all how the stat works.

Not Looney’s best game, but he was far from the reason they lost.

Grade: C+

Post-game bonus: Led the team in plus/minus.

Anthony Lamb

6 minutes, 3 points, 1-for-2 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 75.0% TS, -4

Just garbage time for Lamb, who remains firmly outside of the rotation at the moment.

Grade: Incomplete

Patrick Baldwin Jr.

5 minutes, 0 points, 0-for-2 shooting, 0-for-2 threes, 0.0% TS, 0 plus/minus

PBJ was inactive for the first two games of the series, but got to play in this one. Don’t expect to see him play meaningful minutes until next year, though.

Grade: Incomplete

Gary Payton II

13 minutes, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 1 foul, 4-for-7 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 57.1% TS, -15

Payton only played garbage time in Game 2, but got a tiny bit of run in this game before finishing up in garbage time. He just doesn’t have as much of a role to play in this series given LA’s personnel, and Payton doesn’t seem quite right. I’m looking forward to seeing him next year after a full season to heal up.

Grade: C+

Donte DiVincenzo

22 minutes, 5 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 2 fouls, 2-for-8 shooting, 1-for-5 threes, 31.3% TS, -8

Might we see DDV in the starting lineup on Monday? Crazier things have happened. He rebounds so well from the guard position, and would give the Warriors some extra playmaking and floor spacing, even if his jump shot isn’t falling at the moment.

This certainly wasn’t his best game, but his offensive rebounding was really impressive, and he did some good things as a passer.

Grade: C+

Jordan Poole

22 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 turnovers, 1 foul, 2-for-9 shooting, 0-for-4 threes, 1-for-2 free throws, 25.3% TS, -3

I thought Poole had pretty strong decision making in this game, relative to much of the playoffs and season. Unfortunately the execution wasn’t there, and there’s no way to sugarcoat shooting so inefficiently or having four turnovers in 22 minutes.

Grade: C-

Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists.

Moses Moody

20 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 fouls, 1-for-3 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 38.7% TS, -15

Moody had some stretches of doing really good things in this game, and then some stretches of just entirely disappearing. But he’s in the rotation, and that seems to be a good thing.

Grade: C

Saturday’s inactives: Andre Iguodala, Ryan Rollins