With Steph Curry set to overlook the following month or so with a shoulder damage, everybody on the Golden State Warriors should step up in his absence, however particularly Jordan Poole. The younger guard did simply that on Sunday, main the Warriors to a much-needed 126-110 win over the Toronto Raptors.
Poole completed with a career-high 43 factors on 14-of-23 from the sphere and 5-of-11 from 3-point land, and added six assists in 34 minutes. After 15 profession 30-point outings, Poole lastly reached the 40-point mark for the primary time.
“He is performed numerous nice video games for us,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr mentioned. “If it is not the perfect, it is positively one of many few greatest. He was nice at each ends. His protection was glorious, I assumed he was affected person offensively, received us into our offense nicely. He simply set the tone and he carried us.”
Poole received off to a little bit of a gradual begin this season for all kinds of causes. Firstly, he was punched within the face by Draymond Inexperienced throughout coaching camp, which set an odd tone for the Warriors’ title protection. He additionally led some very younger bench teams early within the season and was a a lot larger a part of opponents’ scouting studies given his breakout efficiency in 2021-22.
Nevertheless, he is been significantly better because the calendar flipped to December partly as a result of he is moved again into the beginning lineup because of accidents. Whereas he will not get the advantage of enjoying with Curry for the following few weeks, he’ll now have the ball in his fingers way more.
The upside of that state of affairs was apparent towards the Raptors. Poole was in a position to get right into a rhythm early and stored it going all night time lengthy. His versatile offensive skillset was on full show, as he rained in deep 3-pointers and sliced via the lane to attain and create for others.
Poole cannot be anticipated to match Curry’s consistency, however he’s able to these massive nights and the Warriors will take as a lot of them as they will get till their MVP returns.
