The Third Splash Brother Has Arrived

Inside look at Jordan Poole’s emergence in the NBA playoffs.

So, last week, we tackled the sudden late-season resurgence of Klay Thompson, and what it potentially meant for him and the Warriors getting back to the promised land.

But since then, both Thompson and even two-time MVP Stephen Curry have been outshined at times by third-year guard Jordan Poole, who’s averaging 29.5 points per game through the first two games of Golden State’s series with Denver. And the Warriors, in large part due to Poole’s dominance, are comfortably up 2–0 in the matchup so far.

If the Dubs end up back in the winner’s circle at the end of this season after a four-year absence, we’ll end up rightfully declaring that there’s a third Splash Brother, one who coincidentally goes by the name of Poole. And while no one would be misguided enough to compare this group’s dominance to that of the run with Kevin Durant, there are key, favorable differences here in some cases. Poole, a fantastic passer and shooter, is still on a rookie deal rather than a max one (though he’s eligible for an extension this summer). He also has one of Curry’s best tendencies in the sense that he moves extremely well without the ball, leaving defenses uneasy and confused about where he’ll be on the court at any given moment.

That plays into the way the Warriors have always approached offense under Steve Kerr: utilizing off-ball screens, making use of misdirections, cutting backdoor, forcing hard choices on the defensive end because of the overcommitments aimed at Curry 35 and 40 feet out.

Poole’s emergence helped allow Curry the time he needed to get his footing after missing several weeks at the end of the regular season. The former MVP came off the bench in each of the first two games of the series, but exploded Monday for 34 points in just 23 minutes. At one point in the second quarter, he launched one of his patented “I don’t even need to watch my shot in the air; I know it’s going in” triples from the wing. It was perhaps the clearest sign that he was back to being Steph again.

“Curry is the greatest sixth man ever in the playoffs,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

Taken together, Golden State’s offensive attack appears to be far too much for Denver, who has little to consistently throw at the Warriors aside from Nikola Jokić, the soon-to-be two-time MVP who’s been neutralized by Draymond Green, the best defender in basketball.

Without Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Will Barton have been Jokić’s secondary options. Barton logged 12 points on 15 attempts Monday, while Gordon—who seems to miss Murray and Porter even more than Jokić—finished with seven points, marking the fifth-straight playoff contest he’s failed to score in double digits, dating back to last season’s series loss to the Suns. For Gordon, who’s still just 26 years old, it’s a far, disappointing cry from the first few weeks after he was traded to Denver, and the Nuggets immediately reeled off seven wins in a row with him as the team’s fourth option most nights.

Meat and potatoes: Good SI reads and listens from this past week

Benny Sieu/USA TODAY Sports

• Rohan Nadkarni has a great read on the quiet importance of Phoenix’s Deandre Ayton.

• Chris Mannix tackled Kyrie Irving’s incredible performance in Boston over the weekend.

• Michael Pina wrote on the amazing chess match between Nikola Jokić and Draymond Green.

• I wrote a Daily Cover piece yesterday on the long-limbed Raptors and how they might be the most beautifully weird team in the NBA—even if that style of play might turn them extinct in the coming days.

• Howard Beck, in contrast to my piece about a team with abnormally long limbs, did a podcast with hoops legend Muggsy Bogues, who at 5'3" was the shortest player in NBA history.

• Lastly, if you missed our NBA staff picks for awards and first-round matchups, you can find them here.

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