What we learned as Kristaps Porziņ?is returns in Warriors’ close loss to Thunder

Once again, the razor-thin Warriors nearly slayed another giant in a commendable loss, falling to the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-97 on Saturday night at Paycom Center.The Warriors never led once. But they trailed by 13 points at halftime, were down by as many as 14 and tied the game in the third quarter. Their effort deserves applause against the defending champions.Undoubtedly, the biggest story of the game was Kristaps Porziis returning for his second game in a Warriors jersey and first in the last 16 days. In 23 minutes off the bench, Porziis was a plus-6 with nine points, five rebounds, five assists and one blocked shot. He went 3 of 10 from the field and missed his three 3-point attempts. Kristaps Porzingis throws it down pic.twitter.com/uDVQtVn0tQ — Warriors on NBCS (&commat;NBCSWarriors) March 8, 2026 Gui Santos led all Warriors scorers with a career-high 22 points and added 11 rebounds for his third double-double of his career. All three have come this season. Here are three takeaways from a loss that drops the Warriors’ record to 32-31 on the season.Porziis 2.0 For the second time this season, and the first in two-plus weeks, the Warriors had the welcome sight of Porziis back on the court. The big man entered at the 7:03 mark of the first quarter with the Warriors down 17-11 and quickly missed the front iron on a pick-and-pop 3-point attempt. Less than a minute later, Isaiah Joe blew by him for a three-point play off a Porziis foul. Just like his team debut, Porziis started to find his groove in the second quarter. Porziis led the Warriors in points during the second quarter with seven in six and a half minutes. In that short span he also had two rebounds and one assist, blocked a shot, drew three fouls and took six free throws, of which he made three. The Warriors also were making a clear effort of feeding him down low.What stood out most in the third quarter was a new wrinkle for Warriors fans. Feeding Porziis and finding a size mismatch forced multiple defenders on him and that twice led to open threes for Golden State. This is another example of how Porzingis' size makes a huge difference. He has three guys collapse on him and is able to find a wide-open Podz for 3 pic.twitter.com/c3uCCldUrm — Dalton Johnson (&commat;DaltonJ&lowbar;Johnson) March 8, 2026 Malevy Leons from deep&excl; #NBAonABC pic.twitter.com/uHmxc3T13v — Golden State Warriors (&commat;warriors) March 8, 2026 Coach Steve Kerr in his pregame press conference predicted Porziis would play between 15 and 20 minutes. However, he exceeded that expectation. Porziis wound up playing 23 minutes, as the Warriors closed with a lineup of Brandin Podziemski, Santos, Draymond Green and Al Horford alongside him.The rust was there, as was the talent and the vision the Warriors see. Now it’s all about seeing how Porziis recovers and how much he can play going forward.Another Career High For Gui An incredibly enjoyable breakout season for Santos continued Saturday night. For the first time in his career, Santos scored at least 20 points. When he reached that mark on a dunk with six-plus minutes to go, the only other player to have 20 points was the reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.Santos feasted in the paint. Whether it was cutting to the basket, driving on his own or finding another way, six of his eight made shots were in the paint. The other two were threes. In a game against the best team in the league, nobody would have guessed the two 20-point scorers would be Santos and Gilgeous-Alexander. Santos’ recipe is one of success. He has grown as a shooter but led the Warriors in free throw attempts and makes, and always seems to find his way around the hoop.Finding Better Offensive Balance With the Thunder down Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, the obvious goal for the Warriors’ offense was getting to the rack and taking advantage of those major absences in the middle. Or at least it should have been. The Warriors took 27 shots in the first quarter, and 17 were behind the 3-point line. They made just five. Golden State started to strike a better balance in the second quarter, when it took nine 3-pointers of 17 total shots. Though the Warriors outscored the Thunder in the paint 22-18 going into halftime, 26 of their 44 shots were threes; they made nine for a 34.6 percent clip. Meanwhile, the Thunder shot 55 percent beyond the arc (11 of 20) in the first half. But Golden State continued to find better middle ground and outscored the Thunder 29-19 in the third quarter. Through three quarters, the Warriors were up to 37.5 percent from three, and they were outscoring the Thunder in the paint by eight points as OKC’s 3-point percentage came down to 40 percent. The final numbers tell the story of a respectable loss. More than half of the Warriors’ 88 shot attempts were threes in a game where they shot 31.1 percent from downtown. They also outscored the Thunder 42-28 in the paint, but missed seven free throws in a seven-point loss and took six fewer shots at the charity stripe than the victors. Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

What we learned as Kristaps Porziņ?is returns in Warriors’ close loss to Thunder

Trending News