No Stephen Curry, no problem as the Golden State Warriors improved to 3-1 after defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 124-106 on Tuesday. Besides Curry, out with a sprained ankle, Andrew Wiggins also missed this game due to a back injury. Still, the team relied on their depth and terrific second-half shooting to beat the Pelicans. After the game, offseason acquisition Buddy Hield revealed that he received some halftime advice from NBA legend and TNT commentator Reggie Miller that helped him catch fire for the Warriors.
“He told me to shoot the blanking ball,” Hield said in his postgame interview. “Sometimes you need someone like that to come to you, and I responded well.”
Warriors def. Pelicans, go 3-1
The Warriors may have whiffed on Lauri Markkanen, but at least this early into the season, they may have found the additional shooting they needed to make up for Klay Thompson’s offseason departure.
After some words with Reggie Miller, Buddy Hield scored 25 second half points, pouring in 19 in the fourth to finish the game with 28 points on 9-18 shooting, with 7-11 from beyond the arc.
After the Pelicans game, Hield became one of two Warriors players–the other being Curry–to make at least 20 threes in their first four games with the team, via Colin Ward-Henninger for CBS Sports.
Moreover, the journeyman shooter has averaged a team-best 21.3 points on a blistering 56% shooting percentage from three.
Still, it remains unclear whether Hield’s shooting is sustainable, but just the threat of him lurking around the three-point area has given Curry enough space to operate.
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As of now, while waiting for their star to return, the Warriors should ride the hot hand and force Buddy Hield to shoot until he misses, or until opposing teams have watched enough tape on him playing in the Warriors’ offense.
In the meantime, though, the team should stack up wins especially this early in the season to maximize their playoff chances.
They’ll need to lean on him heavily, too, since their vaunted young guys like Brandin Podziemski haven’t exactly measured up to the front office’s outsized trust in him.
So far, Podziemski has averaged only 9.5 points, on shooting splits of 37.8% from the field and 18.2% from three. Likewise, Steve Kerr even benched Kuminga against the Pelicans, though he did put up 17 points in the win.