What we learned as Jimmy Butler, Gary Payton II lead Steph-less Warriors to win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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SAN FRANCISCO – Warriors fans near and far showed Kevon Looney an immense amount of love Saturday night in his return to Chase Center as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.

There wasn’t much else to cheer for, even in a 104-96 Warriors win.

Jimmy Butler was the main bright spot in a game where the Warriors badly missed Steph Curry, who is out because of a quad contusion he sustained last game. Butler was the Warriors’ offense. Making the Pelicans pay in the paint and at the free-throw line, Butler was a plus-22 and barely missed a triple-double, finishing with 24 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists.

Second on the medal stand for the Warriors was Gary Payton II. The Warriors’ best offense when they’d go completely stagnant was Payton sneaking behind the Pelicans’ defense, running the baseline and converting for two points. Payton played 25 minutes off the bench and was a plus-13 with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Draymond Green took nine shots and missed all nine, including seven 3-point attempts. His only two points came from two late free throws.

The Warriors as a team shot 40.9 percent overall and 25.5 percent behind the 3-point line.

Looney in his return to the Bay Area was a plus-8 in 10 minutes off the bench, scoring four points and securing five rebounds.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win. 

The loudest ovation of the day belonged to Looney. The second-loudest was for Kuminga making his way back from knee issues that held him out for the last two weeks. 

How Kuminga scored his first two points of the game is exactly what the Warriors want from him. Kuminga screened for Brandin Podziemski on a dribble-handoff, got the switch, forced Derik Queen to jump on a pump fake and laid it off the glass for an easy bucket. Later in the first quarter, Kuminga rebounded a missed three and went straight up for his next two points. 

Kuminga then went scoreless in the second quarter, but was a plus-10 over a stretch of four and a half minutes where he had two assists. He was bad in the third quarter when he again was held scoreless and committed two rough turnovers.

Then in the fourth quarter, Kuminga made back-to-back 3-pointers with Looney guarding him. Those were his only shot attempts of the fourth quarter, and they proved to be big 3-pointers. Kuminga after missing the last seven games played 19 minutes and was a plus-2 off the bench with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting, but had just one rebound.

Giving the Warriors’ offense a D-plus after 20 games felt generous with the product they put on the floor without Curry. The offense went missing like Will Byers early on, but the Warriors didn’t have their superhero to bail them out. The numbers don’t even do it justice to how bad the Warriors’ offense was to begin the game. 

They scored a lowly 17 points in the first quarter, going 6 of 25 from the field and 1 of 14 on 3-pointers. That means the Warriors in the first 12 minutes of the game made five of their 11 two-pointers but kept taking 3-pointers, and kept missing them too. Quinten Post was the only Warrior to make a three. 

The Warriors then missed their first five threes in the second quarter before Moses Moody snapped the streak halfway through the period. Moody’s three was the Warriors’ lone triple of the quarter, but they outscored the Pelicans 25-20 from second-chance points, points off turnovers and free throws to hold a four-point halftime lead. Both teams were shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 9.1 percent on threes in the first half.

Offense for the Warriors and Pelicans decided to show up in the third quarter. Podziemski scored 10 points in the quarter and Butler added eight, but the Warriors were outscored 34-31, cutting their lead down to one point entering the final 12 minutes.

Without a doubt, the sequence of the game for the Warriors happened with a little under four minutes left when Podziemski made a huge three to take back the lead, and Payton on the next possession threw down a dunk in traffic off a perfect pass from Butler. Starting with that Podziemski three, the Warriors outscored the Pelicans 17-8 the rest of the way.

Former Warriors assistant, and now former Pelicans head coach Willie Green, did Looney wrong when he didn’t play him at all two weeks again in New Orleans against Golden State. Current Pelicans coach James Borrego knew better than that, putting Looney in for the final minute of the first quarter in front of Dub Nation.

Looney in the first minute of the second quarter stole a bad Buddy Hield pass and pulled up for an 18-foot jumper to a handful of “Looooon” chants. He played five and a half minutes in the first half and was a plus-9 with four points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal. Looney sat the entire third quarter before starting the fourth on the floor.

Forever a Warriors fan-favorite, Looney played the first five minutes of the fourth quarter where he came down with two rebounds. His Pelicans were outscored by one point in those five minutes. Whether he watches from the bench or plays 10 minutes in reserve like he did Saturday night, it always will be weird and feel wrong to see Looney playing for a team that isn’t the Warriors.

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