Thursday night’s Warriors-Rockets game was a brash, contentious example of one of my favorite categories of regular-season NBA games: the Double Desperation game. The manner in which it was won, particularly the player who won it, gives the result more meaning than a normal regular season game. Let me explain.

The regular season is endless and every team must manage their winter efforts to be prepared for the important games in the spring. Therefore, not all 82 games will be a blast or even enlivened by extreme physical exertion or courageous competition. The schedule suggests that a significant number of games will lean one way with large break or travel differences, so not all games will be equally important to both teams. But winning still matters, and like its counterparts such as the games National TV Showcase and These Guys Want To Kill Each Other and Check This Shit Out: We Broke Math, the game Double Desperation is won because of the Circumstances of its participants took a higher risk.

The Warriors were on a five-game losing streak and were missing their two best players, while the Rockets had just suffered a pretty egregious loss in Sacramento that left their coach and their best player collapsing and their sixth man almost lost to Malice in Palace mode . There is no expected, neutral outcome, as was the case in last night’s Wizards-Mavericks game. Either Golden State would look down on Friday at the massive group of teams below them heading like piranhas toward a carcass, or Houston would have to watch as Oklahoma City cemented its place in the one spot. In summary, the circumstances of Jonathan Kuminga’s best night of his career made the 22-year-old winger’s performance seem particularly significant.

The Warriors won a defensive rock battle 98-93 behind Kuminga’s career-high 33 points on a career-high 22 shots. Both numbers are significant and necessary for the Warriors’ victory because they point to a possible solution to an existential problem: Golden State’s offense is awesome when Steph Curry sits. The everyday experience of watching this team struggle to generate shots says this more clearly than the numbers, because the specific problem is not that the Warriors lack scorers, but that they lack good scorers. When Steph is on the court, his passing and ball handling loosen up the defense, as do his shooting. When he sits, the Warriors still make a lot of passes and moves, but nothing that worries or pushes opponents away. In short, they have no one who can give them an advantage. Except Kuminga, that is.

Kuminga is a strange player. He has never been a reliable shooter and certainly isn’t currently. The violent athleticism he displayed during the Warriors’ 2021-22 title run has waned, and he doesn’t always have the positioning instincts necessary to truly exploit the space defenses available to him off the ball, when he’s on the field in the Warriors’ best lineups. He’s at his best as a slasher, and the time and space he needs to get going aren’t always luxuries the Warriors can afford. Steve Kerr has rotated him in and out of Golden State’s starting lineup to get the most out of his misshapen play, which has angered Kuminga because he sees himself as someone who should play a leading role and has said so almost publicly So. The fact is, Kuminga is probably right, and the best version of these Warriors is one where Kuminga leads the offense in the minutes without Curry. He showed how that can work against Houston, and work well.

As I said before, the 22 shots that the best player of his career made are at least as much indicative of what kind of game it was as the best player who scored 33 points. Kuminga was the Warriors’ main initiator, especially in the fourth quarter as Houston got back into the game. Against Houston’s team of extremely physical defenders, Kuminga seemed perfectly comfortable getting to the basket. He was 10 of 12 on the team and continually put pressure on the Rockets’ defense in the half court and in transition. Kuminga scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, repeatedly going after Dillon Brooks, reaching the rack and showcasing his elite finishing skills.

You can see the vision of Kuminga as a leading man here: his size and skill allow him to reliably apply pressure, which gets the defense moving and thus signals the green leafy shoots of a good offense from the relative permafrost of, for example, Brandin Podziemski , doing Steph stuff, but mostly doing the Steph stuff that involves throwing the basketball seven rows into the stands. Kuminga is also continuing to develop as a game reader and is passing better this season, although his assist numbers still aren’t impressive.

Pressure also works in the opposite direction: This was a serious opportunity for Kuminga to make his point, and if he had scored 22 times in the Warriors’ sixth straight loss, he would have missed a huge opportunity to prove his worth. That’s why, in the context of Double Desperation, I appreciate Kuminga’s performance more. The Warriors win with depth and an overwhelming defense that has less individual talent than Orlando, Oklahoma City or Houston but probably has more coordination. With all due respect to Lindy Waters III, it’s not entirely clear whether this formula will work in the playoffs. So you have to think about what would need to change with the Warriors for them to reach their peak. I always come back to Kuminga. With Andrew Wiggins looking lively again (rebound numbers are the same, but he’s looking better on the glass this year), Buddy Hield working well as a single-purpose blunt, and a confident bench full of useful players, the Warriors have one a good number of finishes and defenders who skillfully step on the spot in most situations. But a full-on Kuminga gives them something no one else can.