The Warriors have been touting their depth throughout the young season and it showed up big time Tuesday night in OKC.
Following a dismal first-half performance, the Warriors received a huge spark from Damion Lee and Otto Porter Jr. off the bench in the third quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Golden State rode the momentum to an ugly 106-98 win to move to 4-0 for the first time since they won 24 straight to begin the 2015-16 season.
Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins struggled to provide much scoring support for Steph Curry in the first half and the Warriors trailed by 11 at half time.
Lee entered the game for Poole with 6:29 remaining in the third quarter and Golden State down by 11. He quickly scored five points on a swift drive and a splash from long range.
Porter capped off the third quarter by hitting a pair of huge 3-pointers. It punctuated a 17-2 run for the Warriors and they led the rest of the way.
Lee finished the night with a season-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Through four games, he’s averaging 14.3 points in 26.7 minutes per game.
“I pride myself on being ready,” Lee said. “Just a matter of being in the right mindset. I’m in a great mindset right now. Got great teammates, everyone’s empowering. Just going out there and being aggressive.”
The Warriors needed Lee’s juice on a night when Curry wasn’t at his best. Steph scored 23 points on 6-of-14 shooting and 4-of-9 from long range.
“It’s huge for us to have a spark like that off of the bench,” Curry said of Lee, his brother-in-law.
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Curry and Lee both said the Warriors suffered from a “lack of focus” in the first half as the offense sputtered and the team gave up some easy transition buckets. Ugly wins are still wins, though, and the Dubs are undefeated, thanks in large part to Lee and the bench.
Coach Steve Kerr said assistant Kenny Atkinson came up with a nickname for Lee after the game.
“I thought Damian was fantastic,” Kerr said. “Kenny Atkinson just called him Rod Carew. For all you old-time baseball fans -- just every game he gets a couple of hits. He’s just so rock solid in every way.
“The ball moves when he’s out there, he makes the right cut and he makes the right pass and he’s a big-time shooter. And his defense is really solid. Damion has been fantastic and he’s having a great early part of the season. It’s not surprising given that he was fantastic every day of training camp and probably our most consistent player throughout. Great to see, he’s earned this.”
