NBA scores: Buddy Hield leads Warriors to 124-106 win over Pelicans

It looked rough after one quarter for the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. Playing on TNT and missing the injured Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors fell behind by 17 points after one quarter to the New Orleans Pelicans. But after that, the Warriors turned up the defense and Reggie Miller sacked Buddy Hield to inspire Golden State to a 124-106 victory.

Hield was the star with 28 points and seven three-pointers, including 19 points in the second quarter. He didn’t miss a shot after a halftime conversation with Miller, who awkwardly refused to share what he told the Warriors’ new sharpshooter. All we know is that he was a different player after the break, sinking all six of his triples. For the season, he is now 20-for-36 from deep.

The Warriors got 19 points and five assists from their interim starting point guard Brandin Podziemski, who exemplified Golden State’s effective hands-on defense Tuesday night with several deflections, two blocks and a steal. Demoted starter Jonathan Kuminga came alive with 17 points and three assists, one of which was a really good feed to Trayce Jackson-Davis for a dunk.

Per the charter of this site, whenever we mention “Kuminga” and “dunk” in the same sentence, we are contractually obligated to include footage of Kuminga dunking. So here a very nice reverse dunk from JK on a breakway.

On the advice of my lawyer, here’s another angle.

But the really surprising play came from Lindy Waters III, who did everything for the Warriors in 31 minutes, scoring 21 points with a plus/minus of +26. Not only did Waters score, but he grabbed nine reobunds, dished out four assists, had a block and a steal and made an improbable defensive rebound drive back off a missed corner three.

Draymond Green had the unenviable task of slowing down Zion Williamson, who had 31 points for the Pelicans and is essentially unstoppable one-on-one. But Green made his night difficult, drawing two charges on the All-Star forward, one changed from a blocking call after a Kerr challenge. Yes, Draymond convinced his coach to call a foul and he was right! It accounted for two of Williamson’s seven turnovers, three of them on charging fouls.

Green also had seven assists and hit a huge three to stop a 6-0 Pelicans run and get the Warriors within four points at the half.

That led to a 40-point third quarter, then a 19-point Hield fourth quarter, and finally to Kerr clearing his bench with 2:43 left, a true Strength In Numbers moment that also let Pat Spencer on the court and Moses Moody to pad his three-point shooting numbers with two late triples.

Steve Kerr moved Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody into the starting lineup and moved Jonathan Kuminga to the bench. The first result? Confusion.

The Pelicans absolutely blew the Warriors out in the first quarter, which they won, 31-14. New Orleans ended the quarter on a 13-0 run. The duo of Williamson and Brandon Ingram looked spectacular, and for the game they finished with a combined 61 points on 24-for-36 shooting. But crucially, it was just five combined assists while the Warriors finished with a huge 34-22 advantage in dimes.

Jose Alvarado added four assists and a steal for the Pels in a strong rebuke of Tony Hinchcliffe.

Usually when you see a team give up a huge run to end a nightmare quarter, the Warriors would constantly turn the ball over or give up fast breaks. Instead, the Warriors simply couldn’t make a shot while also struggling to communicate on defense in rarely used player combinations.

Some of this was the Pelicans’ defense, as when Yves Missi blocked Jonathan Kuminga at the rim. But for the most part, it was the trajectory of every hot three-point shooting team: Regression to the mean. Hield was making over 50% of his threes entering the game, but all of his shots were clinking off the rim before halftime. Overall, the team shot 6-for-23 in the first half — then hit six of seven to start the third quarter.

The problem was clearly Hield not coming off the bench. His nascent Sixth Man of the Year campaign cannot survive if he is in the starting line-up. Kerr corrected the oversight at halftime and started Lindy Waters III in the second half. Hield responded in the second half, making five straight shots spanning the third and fourth quarters, four of them from behind the arc.

The Warriors scored 40 in the third, but the quarter break didn’t cool Hield, who lined up 13 in the 4th quarter as the Dubs tried to run away with the game. He made all six of his three-point attempts after halftime and scored 19 points in the 4th.

He also seemed very animated in front of the announcer’s table, where Reggie Miller sat with Kevin Harlan. Near the end of the game, Miller admitted that he “had a conversation” with Hield at halftime, which tells me that Joe Lacob should use whatever it takes to get Miller to badmouth Hield in crucial moments .

Golden State also got nine tough rebounds from Kevon Looney and a staggering five steals from Kyle Anderson, who was as bad at shooting as he was at forcing turnovers. “Slow Mo” shot 0-for-9 from the field and 0-for-6 from behind the arc (one was a desperation heave), and airballed a corner three. But he’s so good at everything else that he still finished +9 in his 20 minutes.

These teams will do this again Wednesday night, when the Warriors might get a minute restriction for Williamson. Maybe they don’t need luck with their twin flamethrowers of Hield and Waters.