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Well, they did it. The Golden State Warriors saved their best for last, ending a three-month run of uninteresting play, and emerging from their first play-in tournament game with one of their most entertaining games of the season.
More importantly, they emerged with a win. The Warriors ended the season leaking oil, and faced off in the first round of the play-in tournament against an LA Clippers team that had some tangible momentum. On top of that, the game was in Los Angeles.
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No matter. The Warriors used multiple double-digit comebacks — including one in the fourth quarter — to beat the Clippers 126-121, and advance to the second round of the play-in tournament, where a spot in the NBA Playoffs will be on the line.
That’s a worry for another day, though. Friday, specifically. For today, we judge the players who took the court and pulled off the epic victory. And to do that, we assign grades. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.
Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. This year, league-average TS was 58.1%.
Gui Santos
32 minutes, 20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 5 turnovers, 2 fouls, 9-for-13 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 76.9% TS, +16
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We saw a lot of the good and the bad with Santos in this game. There was a reason he got the start, and there was a reason he was the lone player to get subbed out of the game less than three minutes in, with the Warriors already down double digits. There was a reason he came back in not long after that. He had the most turnovers on the team, but also the best plus/minus. He had some of the biggest, most clutch shots, and some of the most back-breaking turnovers.
And yet, as is almost always the case with Santos, the good far outweighed the bad, and it’s hard — virtually impossible — to envision the Warriors winning the game without his contributions.
If you’re frustrated by the difficult moments, just remember that Santos is a 23-year old who entered this year having…
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Publish date : 2026-04-16 07:17:00
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