{"id":21438,"date":"2024-12-29T07:39:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T07:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21438"},"modified":"2024-12-29T07:39:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T07:39:22","slug":"breaking-kuminga-takes-giant-leap-toward-turning-a-corner-in-warriors-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21438","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Kuminga takes giant leap toward \u2018turning a corner&#8217; in Warriors&#8217; win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 It is becoming apparent that Jonathan Kuminga is a thrill ride, by turns delightful and upsetting, incredible or unwatchable, with the Warriors hanging on and hoping and perhaps praying the highs become frequent enough to obscure the lows.<\/p>\n<p>They got their wish Saturday night, as Kuminga\u2019s game-high 34 points and nine rebounds rendered his errors irrelevant and allowed the Warriors to walk out of Chase Center with a 109-105 victory over the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was fantastic,\u201d coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cThis is exactly what we\u2019re looking for. And it\u2019s fun to see him deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If ever the Warriors wanted Kuminga to shine, it is now. He was coming off a dazzling performance Friday night \u2013 career-high 34 points, 10 rebounds \u2013 in a road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Every shot-caller and supporter on the Golden State payroll wanted nothing more than a satisfying encore.<\/p>\n<p>Kuminga\u2019s pattern of inconsistency is high among the factors keeping him from stardom. The internal belief his ability will level off will dictate his future with the franchise and, perhaps, his career in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so impressed with JK,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI just think he\u2019s turning a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Draymond Green has been a Kuminga booster from Day 1 and nothing has changed. He does not seem surprised with the ascent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most talented guys on this team by far,\u201d Green said of Kuminga. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see him playing the way he\u2019s playing. And we just need him to stay that aggressive. When he\u2019s on the court, we\u2019re going to feature him. It\u2019s on him to do the rest. And he\u2019s doing it. He more than capable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd he\u2019ll continue to get better and continue to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coming off the bench for the sixth consecutive game, Kuminga was a revelation throughout but turned nuclear in the fourth quarter. He played all 12 minutes, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">JK\u2019s jam cuts the deficit to five \ud83d\udca5\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Oi7yJOIXkt\">pic.twitter.com\/Oi7yJOIXkt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSWarriors\/status\/1873212223600116217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 29, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes, Kuminga embraced the role of closer. And succeeded at both ends, as he often does defending Suns superstar Kevin Durant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe took on the challenge and made it difficult on [Durant],\u201d Kerr said of Kuminga\u2019s defense. \u201cThat\u2019s all you can do. I thought he was great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kuminga\u2019s 34 points came on 12-of-20 shooting from the field, including 2 of 5 from distance. His efficiency more than offset a couple miscues, such as dribbling into traffic and losing the ball and failing to spot an open teammate when driving into the Phoenix defense.<\/p>\n<p>The lows don\u2019t matter when the highs are so stratospheric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody in the organization has been a big part of it, helping me throughout every situation\u201d Kuminga said of his surge. \u201cIncluding my coaches, including Steve, including my teammates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just feel like I\u2019ve just been trying to win. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If ever the Warriors needed a win, a game to possibly launch momentum, it was this one. Having lost three in a row and 12 of their last 15, they were opening a six-game homestand realizing this is their best chance to salvage a season taking on water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an important stretch for us for sure,\u201d Kerr said before tip-off. \u201cWe\u2019ve kind of come back from that hot start. We\u2019ve cooled off obviously considerably and we\u2019re kind of back in the pack again. You look at it big-picture wise, we\u2019re only a couple games out from being in the four or five seed, so we\u2019re not in a bad spot at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is all about us really rediscovering our identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kuminga took a huge step toward locking himself into that identity. With the Warriors struggling as they have been, It gets no better than to see the youngster they\u2019ve invested in produce career games on back-to-back nights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Kuminga\u2019s game-high 34 points and nine rebounds allowed the Golden State Warriors to earn a 109-105 victory over the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9,95,96],"class_list":["post-21438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-draymond-green","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-steve-kerr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Kuminga takes giant leap toward \u2018turning a corner&#039; in Warriors&#039; win - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=21438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Kuminga takes giant leap toward \u2018turning a corner&#039; 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