DETROIT — Before the Warriors’ game against the Pistons, Steve Kerr told his team that they needed to start winning the individual battles. Basketball is a team sport, but it’s made up of hundreds of micro games within the game. The box-outs, the loose balls, the contested boards, the ability to stay in front of your man.
Too often over the past six weeks, the Warriors have lost the majority of those battles. After starting 12-3, they went 6-12. They lost their competitive spirit, edge and confidence. Injuries and shooting slumps didn’t help.
But it all comes down to those individual battles. The details.
The day started with Kerr giving his team that message. It ended with a raucous celebration for Gui Santos in the Little Caesar’s Arena visitor’s locker room after a 107-104 victory.
“He won a million battles tonight,” Kerr said. “That’s what wins games. He’s been waiting all year, and he finally got his chance, and he delivered. Ron Adams talks about it all the time. It’s a production league. You get your chance, you’ve got to take advantage of it. He was brilliant. This game is about so much more than whether you make a shot or miss a shot. It’s defense, it’s rebounding, it’s hustle. It’s sprinting. Everything you saw Gui do tonight.”
Santos chased down one offensive rebound, battled in traffic for another and dove on the court for a third. He added three assists, including a nifty interior touch pass after drawing a defender with a head fake.
The Warriors added Santos to the game plan because they were without almost all of their rotational wings. Andrew Wiggins (personal reasons), Jonathan Kuminga (ankle sprain) and Moses Moody (knee) were unavailable. So were Brandin Podziemski (abdominal strain) and Gary Payton II (calf strain).
That gave Santos an opportunity. When he was watching the Warriors get embarrassed by the Jimmy Butler-less Heat on Tuesday night from the bench, he visualized himself injecting energy into the team. Against the Pistons, he put his plans into action.
“I always tell guys you don’t get out of a rut by hitting 25 3s,” Draymond Green said. “You get out of a rut by making the little plays. Hustle plays. Getting 50/50 balls. And Gui Santos brought that to the game, changed game.”
Santos matched his career-high with 13 points, adding five rebounds, three assists and two steals. He buried four 3-pointers in 26 minutes, including one shortly after an airball.
“It’s just how many extra possessions he gave us,” Steph Curry said. “That’s contagious. It’s deflating for the other team. Usually it happens to us, like a Josh Okogie — it’s the same kind of impact. He’s just everywhere, you get tired of him by the end of the game. He did that to them tonight. It was awesome the way he made his presence felt. The 3s are a bonus.”
Just because Santos’ energy was exactly what the Warriors have needed doesn’t mean he’s suddenly their starting small forward. Wiggins is going to return — likely after the Friday Pacers game. Kuminga is a couple weeks away from coming back and Payton is on the mend. Moody will be back imminently. The Warriors have always liked Santos, but he’s still low on the pecking order.
What the Warriors need, though, is for other players to embody what Santos brought against the Pistons. Wiggins can bring that, and so can Kuminga when he returns. Podziemski is an energy guy. Green can bring more of the type of edge Santos provided.
Everyone can. It doesn’t need to be Santos. Realistically, it needs to not be Santos.
Before the Detroit win, the Warriors dropped two extremely winnable games at home — a drubbing to the Kings without De’Aaron Fox and another against the Heat without Jimmy Butler.
“I was watching the last couple games and said, okay, when I get in the game, I’m going to change the energy,” Santos said. “Go there and dive on the floor. If I’ve got to push somebody on the other team, if I’ve got to fight with somebody, I’ll do it. But I’m going to change the energy on the floor. And that’s what I had in my mind going into the game.”
They were already reeling, and missing an opportunity to pick up victories in a soft part of their schedule felt ominous for the direction of the season. Kerr described the moment as a “crisis of confidence.”
The Pistons game doesn’t change that. The Warriors are still trying to re-establish their identity. Santos showed them a way to do it. If their coach’s message about individual battles wasn’t clear enough, Santos demonstrated.
“Watching the tape (from) the other night, it’s losing all those little battles,” Kerr said. “It’s not rotating, not boxing out, not making the extra pass, not making a good sharp pass. Everything that leads to momentum, we didn’t do the other night.”