emergence of rookie Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> and the growth of others have made it easier for players to fit into proper roles.\u00a0<\/p>\nDe\u2019Anthony Melton describes the Warriors\u2019 second unit as \u201cfast and disruptive\u201d with the bench taking \u201ca lot of pride\u201d in proving naysayers wrong and providing help to an already undermanned Warriors team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, everybody sees what we see too,\u201d Melton said. \u201cBut early on, I’ve talked about the depth we have, and I think we have a lot of guys that can contribute in various different ways. Some nights you’re going to see some guys do more, some guys do whatever it is. We’re going to do it as a committee, and we keep tracking along.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Warriors\u2019 road loss to the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 24, their third straight loss and the second night of a back-to-back without Curry, Green and others, Melton scored 25 points off the bench. His former high school teammate Brandon Williams dropped 20 in his first start of the season. The two have brought their chemistry to the Warriors and it shows in the stats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melton and Williams have played 37 minutes together and have a 17.5 net rating with a 117.5 offensive rating and a 100.0 defensive rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Lendeborg\u2019s 37 points against the Clippers was the story Sunday night, so was Melton scoring an efficient 21 points in the starting lineup, Williams scoring 17 off the bench shooting at a highly efficient clip and Brandin Podziemski giving them 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists as Melton\u2019s starting backcourt mate. That\u2019s strength in numbers on a night where numbers aren\u2019t supposed to be a strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lendeborg in two games without Curry has scored 63 points for an average of 31.5 points on 57.9-percent shooting (22 of 38) and a 54.5 3-point percentage (12 of 22).<\/p>\n
The Warriors need Melton and Williams to be reliable in games Curry plays. That becomes even more paramount when Curry is in street clothes. Melton and Williams in the two games Curry has missed to rest have scored a combined 83 points on 60.1-percent shooting (26 of 43).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to tell everybody, like, we don\u2019t have a player like him,\u201d Melton says of Williams. \u201cHe can just get downhill and his shiftiness and his flair and stuff like that, he needs that just to get the crowd involved and just to get the excitement of everybody. We all love it, and we\u2019re all fascinated with the way he can finish. We\u2019ve seen it as opponents, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When told in the locker room of Melton\u2019s comments at the podium, Williams turns to his right and says \u201cWho said that? Melt said that? My dog.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The oohs and aahs rang throughout the Chase Center crowd as Williams raced past his defender and flew to the rack for crafty layups to beat the Clippers. A season removed from giving the Warriors 26 points in San Francisco on Christmas, Williams already has become a crowd favorite of Dub Nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man, I love it,\u201d Williams told NBC Sports Bay Area. \u201cI love it. I’m glad. I’m glad everybody’s starting to recognize it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Williams could, he would tell the fans to get on their feet every time he has the ball, feeding off the vibes from thousands of fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m a rhythm player, so like every time the crowd gets going, I feed off of it for sure. And then I bring it out to my team as well,\u201d he said. \u201cSo once the crowd gets into it, I feel like that\u2019s our sixth man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors\u2019 win against the Clippers came one game after one in which Curry scored 31 points and made Luka Don\u010di\u0107 touch earth. But it also was a game where the Warriors\u2019 bench outscored the Lakers\u2019 bench 50 to seven. Golden State through Sunday night now ranks sixth in bench points per game (43.0).<\/p>\n
Georges Niang in the win vs. the Lakers was a perfect 3 of 3 from 3-point range and now is shooting 47 percent beyond the arc during the Warriors\u2019 four-game win streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Niang showed some fire against the Lakers, too, going nose to nose with Colin Sexton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not out there to make anyone feel like it\u2019s a walk in the park,\u201d Niang told reporters in the locker room after.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr had to use five different starting lineups in the Warriors\u2019 first five games. Consistency couldn\u2019t be part of the Warriors\u2019 equation, but connectivity still was.<\/p>\n
The Warriors coach said Sunday night\u2019s victory was won in the summer, praising young guys like Lendeborg, Will Richard, Charles Bassey and Graham Ike for being around throughout the summer and buying into who the Warriors want to be, as well as Melton for rehabbing in the facility and digesting offensive tweaks and Frank Vogel\u2019s defense. The oldest team in the league is getting energy from their young role players and stability from their veterans to bring balance to the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams is new to the Warriors\u2019 slogan but always believed this is who they would be, as seen in taking both games against the Southern California foes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that would be our strength, for sure,\u201d Williams said. \u201cObviously with 30 [Curry] and Dray out, everybody’s gonna have to step up, all of us all around. So BP did. Obviously, we saw what Yax did. Mel as well. G came in with a good spark, as well as Will. I think everybody kind of contributed in their own ways, and I think everybody’s starting to see now that\u2019s how deep we are as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
With numbers not on their side, these Warriors are finding improbable ways to bring \u201cStrength In Numbers\u201d alive.<\/p>\n
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Steve Kerr coined the phrase as a motivating tool. There was no way Kerr could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85,76227],"class_list":["post-950445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-warriors-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}