Gui Santos reminds the Warriors how they need to win games
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Gui Santos reminds the Warriors how they need to win games

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

DETROIT – About 10 minutes after the Golden State Warriors narrowly escaped the Detroit Pistons with a 107-104 road win to open this momentous four-game road trip, their unlikely hero, the bustling Gui Santos, finally finished his postgame media duties the pitch and returned to the dressing room. The ovation that awaited him could be heard from the hallway. His teammates erupted in cheers.

“Deserved,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

Santos is the 14th man in a rotation that Kerr once made to 13. He’s the odd man out if enough injuries and absences don’t force him into action on the wing.

On Thursday evening they did. Jonathan Kuminga has ditched crutches but wears a walking boot and is still in the early stages of his recovery from a severe ankle sprain. Moses Moody was on the front end of a back-to-back race with knee problems. Brandin Podziemski and Gary Payton II remain out. Andrew Wiggins is temporarily away from the team for personal reasons.

So Santos assumed his number would be called, and he was right. Kerr brought it in with 3:54 left in the first quarter with the Warriors trailing 17-14. Within 18 seconds, he scored a corner 3, tying the score.

Santos made a nifty assist for Trayce Jackson-Davis a few minutes later and opened the second quarter with two more three-pointers. His third of the first half gave the Warriors a 45-35 lead. Santos has worked tirelessly on his 3-point shooting over the past few seasons in the Warriors’ program. It’s the skill that will determine whether he has a long NBA career ahead of him.

“Today was the day where you can see that I’m working on it,” Santos said.

Santos made four of his six three-pointers in the win. Lindy Waters III went 3 of 7. Buddy Hield, in desperate need of a breakout night, got off to a good start in place of Wiggins, making five of his 11 throws from deep. These 12 players carried the offense adequately on a night where Steph Curry had no chance, going a combined 5 of 21 and 2 of 14 from 3.

But there’s a reason Santos was singled out by his teammates after the game. It wasn’t the four from three balls. It was the quick rebounds, the sneaky steals, the rush in transition and the loose ball wins.

“This game is about so much more than whether you make or miss a shot,” Kerr said. “It’s defense, it’s rebounding, it’s hustle, sprinting. Everything Gui did tonight is what wins games.”

Here’s an example of this in the third quarter: Curry gets an open look on the right wing and misses. When Curry kicks in, neither Warriors are able to get an offensive rebound. Three pistons are closer to the rebound.

But keep an eye on Santos, starting in the left corner. He tosses Malik Beasley aside and then dives to the ground to swat the ball away from Isaiah Stewart before he can grab hold of it. The loose ball trickles to Kyle Anderson, who is credited with the offensive rebound. But that possession was entirely thanks to Santos, who didn’t record any stats during the sequence but did give the Warriors two extra points. A few seconds later, Waters jumped.

Here’s another example from the second quarter. The clip begins with Hield missing a shot from the right wing. Here, too, Santos is not in a good position for a rebound. But he outmaneuvers Simone Fontecchio and Tobias Harris, deflects the ball away from both of them and then chases it. He then immediately finds Hield for a reload 3. He gets the second chance, 3 extra points due to Santos’ extra effort.

Kerr rewatched the tape of that ugly home loss to the Miami Heat two nights earlier and didn’t mention the 6-of-31 shooting line from Warriors players not named Curry. He believed they lost that game in the hustle categories.

“It’s about losing all these little battles,” Kerr said. “It’s not about rotating, not boxing out, not making an extra pass, not making a good, sharp pass. Anything that creates rhythm and momentum is something we didn’t do the other night.”

Santos did those things against the Pistons and Kerr gave him 26 minutes because of them. He’ll likely get another rotation opportunity Friday night with the Indianapolis Pacers as the Warriors’ roster is still depleted.

“We talked about it before the game: ‘How many battles can you win?'” Kerr said. “Small battles in the game. He won a million battles tonight. That’s what wins games. He waited all year and finally he got his chance and he delivered. That’s what this league is about. Ron Adams talks about it all the time. It’s a production league. You get your chance and you have to take it.”

(Photo by Gui Santos and Ausar Thompson: Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)

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