Why Warriors’ Gui Santos is playing with ‘more joy’ in new role – NBC Sports Bay Area & California
While the harm bug has bitten the Warriors laborious this season, with Jimmy Butler struggling a season-ending ACL tear and Steph Curry lacking the previous 9 video games due to a knee injuryone factor it has executed is open a window of alternative for gamers.
One of these is Gui Santos, who has seen his assists tick up as of late. On the season, he is averaging 1.7 per sport, however in his previous 5 showings, he has boosted his dimes as much as 4.6 per contest.
“Man, I’m loving it,” Santos advised reporters Friday when requested about his elevated ball-handling role. “Yeah, I’m loving it because not that I don’t like the other part. I love to just be on the NBA floor, but when you’re on the NBA floor and you’ve got a little bit more freedom to find teammates and either go to the basket and do all that, that gives you so much more joy to play. So, I really love it, the momentum.”
And the workforce has felt the vitality from the ball motion. In the Warriors’ final 5 video games, they’ve had 37 or extra assists 3 times – together with a season-high 42 in Sunday’s win over the Denver Nuggets. In the workforce’s first 54 video games, that they had 37 or extra assists simply twice.
Still, Santos understands his role will change as soon as the workforce will get Curry again, in addition to massive man Kristaps Porziņģis.
“Of course, we know when we have Steph and Kristaps that we’re going to be a lot different, but we still have a great team,” Santos stated. “Everybody [has] been playing together, everybody’s been playing well. In the last couple games, we had a lot of players score more than 10 points, so that’s a big step for us right now.”
The Warriors face the Lakers on Saturday as eighth-seeded Golden State will attempt to make up floor on sixth-seeded Los Angeles.
Golden State trails LA by 3.5 video games with 23 left to play this season.
