Category: Basketball

Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga reportedly told Steve Kerr to coach him harder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

It is no secret that Jonathan Kuminga and Steve Kerr’s relationship has been rocky over the years.

But after Kuminga signed a two-year contract with the Warriors this offseason, the two appeared to be on the same page moving forward. It even reached a point where Kuminga actually encouraged Kerr to coach him harder, per ESPN’s Anthony Slater.

“Kuminga, team sources said, had voiced to Kerr a desire to be coached harder,” Slater wrote. “There was even a meeting about it in their Sacramento hotel prior to the ninth game of the season and Kerr appeared to make it a point during the Kings game to call Kuminga over and get on him constructively several times.”

Kuminga, at that point, was playing the best basketball of the season. He was doing the things Kerr and the Warriors had been asking of him for years.

The young wing was averaging 17.2 points on 51.4-percent shooting from the field and 41.4 percent from 3-point range through the first nine games, with 7.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists in 30.9 minutes.

But then Golden State suffered ugly consecutive road losses to the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks and short-handed Indiana Pacers.

Then the Warriors’ skid reached three straight losses with a deflating defeat to the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. After that loss, Kerr changed things up and pulled Kuminga from the starting unit.

“We’ve got to put Steph, Jimmy and Draymond in a position to succeed,” Kerr said. “That’s what wins in this league. Everyone has their best two or three players. How well can you support them and enhance them?”

Kuminga has missed the last four games with bilateral knee tendonitis.

But the Warriors still are focused on getting him back into the mix once he returns.

And whenever that might be, he can expect the hard coaching that he once encouraged to continue.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

How Draymond changed Steve Kerr's mind about Jonathan Kuminga lineup decision originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steve Kerr turned heads with his starting lineup against the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night of the 2025-26 NBA season.

Jonathan Kuminga, after four up-and-down seasons with the team and a frustrating restricted agency that lasted the entire summer, was in the starting lineup for Game 1.

The Warriors ended up beating the Lakers 119-109, as Kuminga scored 17 points with 9 rebounds and 6 assists in 32 minutes. He looked like the player Golden State has challenged him to be ever since he was selected with the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and through one game, it appeared as if his offseason work had paid off.

Then came another huge test two nights later against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center, which presented Kerr a difficult lineup decision.

ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported in a story published Thursday that Kerr, when deciding in between games who to start against Denver, called veteran forward Draymond Green, who started as the small-ball center against Los Angeles on opening night, and told him his gut feeling was to start second-year big Quinten Post against the Nuggets.

“Dray, this is the big center thing that we’ve talked about,” Kerr recalled to Slater about his conversation with Green.

“Well, who does that take out?” Green asked, according to Kerr.

“Probably Kuminga,” Kerr said.

“Let me start at center,” Green said. “I want JK to keep the momentum.”

Kuminga indeed kept the momentum, scoring 14 points with 5 rebounds and 3 assists while posting a plus-8 plus/minus in 36 minutes in a thrilling overtime win vs. Denver.

There was nothing eye-popping about his performance on the stat sheet that night, but Kuminga’s hustle, aggression and improved decision-making were on display for a second consecutive game, which earned him the opportunity to close out the game with Green, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Al Horford.

“He’d done everything that we asked him to do,” Green told Slater about Kuminga’s performance up to that point. “And when someone’s doing everything you ask them to do, the reward can’t be [pulling them from the starting lineup].”

Kuminga then started 10 more games before he was removed from the starting lineup on Nov. 12 against the San Antonio Spurs, where he only played 12 minutes before being pulled mid-game with bilateral knee tendonitis, which has sidelined him for Golden State’s last four matchups.

In 13 games (12 starts) this season, Kuminga is averaging 13.8 points, a career-high 6.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game on 47.8-percent shooting from the field and 32.4 percent from 3-point range.

Kerr and the Warriors had hoped the 23-year-old would return for Wednesday’s 110-96 loss to the Miami Heat before he, and four of Golden State’s veterans, were inactive, but it appears that he and the rest of his star teammates now all have a chance to play in Friday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Chase Center.

However, whenever Kuminga does return to the floor, what role will he have moving forward?

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Jonathan Kuminga reportedly ‘feels like the scapegoat again' with Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Even after agreeing to a contract with the Warriors that ended a months-long stalemate, Jonathan Kuminga‘s fit with the team continues to be sorted.

Issues about his fit alongside Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green were put to rest to begin the 2025-26 NBA season. So much so that Warriors coach Steve Kerr, one of the toughest critics of the four on the court together, was confident enough to plug Kuminga into the starting lineup for the first 12 games of the season.

Golden State began the season 4-1. The vibes were vibing.

Until they weren’t.

The Warriors then went 2-5 over their next seven games. The last one of the seven, a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, prompted Kerr to make a change to his starting unit. Among those changes was pulling Kuminga out and having him come off the bench.

One team source told ESPN’s Anthony Slater that Kuminga “feels like the scapegoat again.”

With the lineup change, the Warriors won a close one against the San Antonio Spurs. Kuminga was ruled out for the following game and has been sidelined ever since as he continues to deal with bilateral knee tendonitis.

This sparked speculation and conspiracies about Kuminga’s fit and future with the team. Again.

But Warriors players feel differently about the situation.

“Him not being in the lineup ain’t the reason that we’re winning,” Butler told Slater. “We’re just playing better basketball. Roles are clearer. We’re making shots. We’re guarding. That ain’t got nothing to do with him. If he was in the lineup, I still believe that we win these games.”

Slater also stated that if the Warriors want to reach their goal this season, there’s an “internal belief” that Kuminga must “shake off some of his built-up resentment” and focus on making an impact, even if, as Slater writes, the “long-term benefit for both sides is more about a bump in trade value than a partnership.”

Kuminga, who signed a two-year, $48.5 million contract extension that includes a team option for the second year, doesn’t become trade eligible until Jan. 15.

There still is time to figure things out internally, but in the meantime, speculation likely will continue externally.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Why Warriors splitting six-game road trip was about more than wins, losses originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

There was a feeling to the Warriors’ six-game road trip that was about more than wins and losses. 

Better than a 3-3 record. Not by a ton, but better. Certainly not worse.

“There’s plenty of data, there’s plenty of film. I was just most pleased with after that OKC game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Just felt like our level of fight and competition was where it needed to be. We were able to obviously split the six-game trip coming off that beatdown in OKC. 

“I like where we are now better as a team, but we have a lot of work to do.”

The Warriors started their longest road trip of the season with a 24-point loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder and ended it with a 14-point loss to the Miami Heat. But those two were as different as can be. 

Embarrassed, humiliated and humbled. That was the feeling of a subdued locker room when the defending champions waxed the floor with the Warriors in Oklahoma City. The Thunder were ahead by 25 points when Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green went to the bench for good halfway through the third quarter, and the lead was as big as 36 points. A fully healthy Warriors team was beaten before the game even began. 

You can say the game was over before it started in Miami, too; however, that’s because none of Curry, Butler or Green played. The Warriors also were without Al Horford and Jonathan Kuminga. Though team-wide issues turning the ball over continued, the Warriors’ role players and backups competed until the very end, looking like they might even pull off a stunner in South Beach. 

The story of the trip, as Kerr mentioned, was how the Warriors responded to that thrashing by OKC. How the veterans of Curry, Butler and Green in particular responded after using words like “sacrifice” and “commitment to win” in a message to the team. 

Curry with his 46 points on the second night of a back-to-back, and then 49 two nights later. Butler, giving body blows to Curry’s haymakers as his running mate, scoring 28 and 21 points while attacking the glass and keeping the offense going. Green climbing Mount Wembanyama and showing us once again how he’ll never back down. 

Outside of them, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Gary Payton II had big contributions in those two wins – either the first or the second. The fact of the matter is, the Warriors also needed all 95 of Curry’s combined points to beat the Spurs. They didn’t need anything from him to beat the Pelicans. 

The sorriest team in the league was taken to school by Moody for 32 points and eight 3-pointers. Moody then only scored 15 points over the next two games, both being losses. Which also is part of the story from this six-game road trip. 

When the Warriors get 67 points between Curry and Butler on 56.4 percent shooting, as well as 12 points from Draymond and all the other things those three provided, they should win the game. Yet they couldn’t against the Magic on a night where Moody and Richard, their two other starters, scored six points each. Podziemski (five points) and Buddy Hield (two points) scored just seven points off the bench in the loss. 

With the six-game trip and the start of the season in general for the Warriors, there’s context to judging them. The Warriors played 17 games before any other team played more than 15. The road trip featured two back-to-backs, and the Warriors played five of them when no other team had more than three. The Rockets haven’t even had one back-to-back, and the Warriors played their 12th road game on the same day Houston had its 13th game in total. 

“We’ve been bickering about it a little internally. We’re a little bit older. I think we’ll be grateful at the end of the year that this isn’t the stretch that we have at the end of the season,” Pat Spencer said. “We like where we’re at. I think, obviously, we have liked to grab these last couple on the road. But to be where we’re at with the number of games that we played, to knock on wood, have a really healthy team at this point in the season, I think we’ll be grateful we’re not doing this on the back end of the year.”

A 5-1 or 4-2 trip was in hand. It also wasn’t the main point. 

Golden State’s three-man show of Curry, Butler and Green proved they still can bring it when challenged. The Thunder are far and away better than everyone. Consistency continued to be a problem for others, as well as some trends that need cleaning up. 

The feeling of the Warriors’ 3-3 road trip is that of unsatisfied success. Next up is taking advantage of being home for five consecutive games at a place the Warriors haven’t lost once this season.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

It was hardly an artistic masterpiece of a game for the Knicks, but when the buzzer sounded, it was recorded as a 113-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday, their first road victory of the season. 

“Finally. Finally,” Jalen Brunson, who scored a team-high 28 points, said about snapping the four-game losing skid. “We’re happy, but we got a lot of work to do.”

In the beginning, it was anything but beautiful: 9-for-25 from the floor, including 3-for-11 from behind the arc in the opening quarter. Down the stretch, it looked like New York was going to squander the hard work put in on the defensive end – holding Dallas to 16-for-42 (38.1 percent) from the floor in the first half to stay in the game – and a three-point edge Landry Shamet provided when he knocked down back-to-back threes with 31 seconds remaining. Why? Because of free-throw line ineptitude: 19-for-35 (54.3 percent) for the game and 3-for-10 in the fourth quarter.

After Brunson made 1-of-2 at the line with 3.8 seconds remaining to put the Knicks up a pair, Dallas' inbound to mid-court quickly found the speedy Brandon Williams driving on Shamet. After a little contact, his off-hand hooked the Knicks defender as he went up for the lay-up. The ball went in, but the referee whistled for an offensive foul with 0.7 seconds left.

“Tough call,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. “He had a good look, but they called a foul.”

Mike Brown said Shamet was the team’s defensive player of the game for doing a “fantastic job on the ball” all night.

“I give [referee JT Orr] credit, it was a hook,” the Knicks coach said of the call. “And a lot of people would not have called it down the stretch, but it was the right call. And Landry busted his behind to get down there to create that.”

“I mean, chaos,” Brunson said of the game's final moments.

Shamet acknowledged it was a tough way for a game to end. 

“That was a good call by the officials,” he said. “Tough way to see the game end on a call like that, but I think they made the right call. I want that one, as a defender, I want that one.”

But even in victory, Shamet focused on how he escaped culpability for mistakes down the stretch.

“We don’t want it to come down to that, though,” he continued. “We gotta do a better job of playing 48 minutes and find a way to create some more separation earlier in the game.”

BRANDON WILLIAMS' CLUTCH BUCKET IS RULED AN OFFENSIVE FOUL.

KNICKS WIN IN DALLAS 😳 pic.twitter.com/JDw9nGSxe8

— ESPN (@espn) November 20, 2025

And it wasn’t all bad for the visitors. New York shot 21-for-43 (48.8 percent) from the field in the second half, including 9-for-20 from behind the arc after going 3-for-22 from deep in the first half. And Shamet, who was 1-for-4 in the game’s first 46:58, knocked down the big shots when late, when his team was down two and then 30 seconds later with the score tied.

“The ball found me, I didn’t find any open looks early," he said. "Stayed composed, and knew, had a feeling some would come in the fourth and they did. Just step in, ready to shoot, good plays by my teammates, and I’ll take them.”

Even though Shamet made the clutch shot to put the Knicks ahead for good before what can only be described as a game-winning defensive stop, the two he missed at the line up by three with 22 seconds left remained a thorn in his side.

“I gotta make two free throws,” he said. “A wild finish down the stretch. It’s a road win, they’re not always gonna be pretty. That was not 48 minutes of basketball that we would like to play.

“But you’ll take the road win, and we can build on it.”

Brunson echoed the sentiment.

“Found a way to win,” he said. “It was ugly, but when you win ugly, it’s the signs of a team learning, getting better.

“So no matter what the situation is, we gotta find a way to win.”

In the end, the Knicks made just enough plays to get the job done. Proving, once again, it is better to be ugly in victory than pretty in defeat.

The Knicks held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks, 113-111, on Wednesday night for the first road victory of the season after dropping their previous four.

Jalen Brunsonscored 28 points after missing the past two games with a right ankle sprain and earned his first victory in Dallas against his former team.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- The Knicks took a quick 5-0 lead, but soon found themselves down 11-6 after Brunson turned it over and Klay Thompson hit a pull-up three-pointer, forcing Mike Brown to call timeout. Brunson made a floater out of the timeout for his first make in three attempts, as that jump-started a 7-0 run. 

Dallas soon got hot from beyond the arc to take a five-point lead with about two minutes remaining in the quarter. Brunson then found a rhythm and hit two straight three-pointers after the team had started 1-for-9 from deep. Naji Marshall countered with his third three, and Dallas' seventh, with the clock winding down to take a 25-24 lead after the first quarter.

-- The poor shooting continued into the second quarter for the Knicks, especially for Miles McBride (0-for-6 from three in the first half), while the Mavs stayed hot and made their eighth three-pointer to stay in the lead. Mikal Bridges sank back-to-back mid-range shots to keep it close, but Daniel Gafford continued to find ways to score inside and gave the Mavs a 44-37 lead with about four minutes left in the first half.

Brunson connected with Karl-Anthony Towns for a one-handed slam to tie the game, giving the Knicks a spark. Dallas turned it over for a tenth time as Bridges took it in for an easy dunk and the lead. Marshall's big first half continued for the Mavs with an and-one floater, but then Brunson came right back with his own version to put the Knicks up 52-50 at halftime.

-- Despite leading, the Knicks shot a rough 3-for-21 (14 percent) from three in the first half and missed six free throws. However, the Mavs made just two three-pointers in the second quarter, going 9-for-23 (39 percent) overall in the half. Brunson led the way with 15 points and Bridges had 11 on 5-for-7 shooting. Marshall scored 19 points for Dallas in 17 minutes off the bench.

-- Josh Hart provided energy for the Knicks in the third quarter, blocking Brandon Williams' layup, leading to a Brunson bucket. He then grabbed a defensive rebound and found Towns for his first three of the night to go up two. Brunson went on to make his next three jumpers, giving the Knicks their biggest lead of the night at the time, 69-64, with 5:13 left in the third quarter.

After a D'Angelo Russell floater cut the Knicks' lead to six, Towns was called for an offensive foul against Gafford, leading to a Russell three-pointer to keep it a close game. Russell's hot quarter continued as he and McBride traded makes before Max Christie scored on a wild layup just before the buzzer. The two teams both scored 35 points in the third quarter with the Knicks still leading, 87-85.

-- The back-and-forth affair continued in the fourth with both teams making three-pointers after early struggles. Christie gave the Mavs a lead with two straight threes and Thompson hit a jumper before McBride countered with his third three-pointer, as the Knicks still trailed, 98-96. Robinson scored on a tip-in to make it a one-point game, but then Bridges threw a poor pass that led to a fastbreak dunk for Marshall, extending the Dallas lead.

Bridges made up for the mistake with a corner three-pointer two possessions later to tie the game at 106-106. After Dallas made two free throws, Hart stole the ball from Marshall and Brunson found Landry Shamet in the corner for three, giving the Knicks a 109-108 lead with about a minute remaining. Shamet came through with another three with 31.4 seconds left, putting NY up three points. An offensive foul call againstWilliams with the clock winding down caused some drama, but was upheld as he hooked around Shamet, ending the game.

-- Brunson scored 28 points, including 12 in the third quarter, to go along with five assists, three rebounds, a steal, and a block. Towns flirted with a triple-double, putting up 18/14/6 with two steals. Bridges scored 16 points with three steals and two blocks. Marshall and Russell both scored 23 points off the bench for the Mavs.

The Knicks were able to hold on for the win despite shooting 19-for-35 (53 percent) from the foul line and 12-for-42 (29 percent) from three-point land.

Game MVP: Josh Hart

Hart's energy off the bench was the difference and was especially noticeable in the second half. He finished with 16 points, going 3-for-4 from three, with 10 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block in 30 minutes.

Highlights

KAT SLAM pic.twitter.com/hUW8NiRDCu

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

KAT slam again! pic.twitter.com/Bn2FEn0gXR

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

Jalen Brunson with 15 in the first half pic.twitter.com/n1DXUtjKR3

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

Jalen Brunson up to 27 in his return! pic.twitter.com/B48rRtHs7T

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

LANDRY. LEAD. pic.twitter.com/wP57NmXXDp

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

Landry Shamet another clutch Q4 triple! pic.twitter.com/EnWuR6TuOU

— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) November 20, 2025

What's next

The Knicks continue on their road trip, heading to Orlando to face the Magic on Saturday at 5:00 p.m.