SAN FRANCISCO — Dorian Finney-Smith being a late scratch Saturday ensured Cam Thomas would stay in the lineup, but Jacque Vaughn said he wanted to keep experimenting with the young guard as a starter to see if it works.
Thomas repaid that faith with a stellar slump-busting 41-point outing, going 15-of-24 from the field in a 124-120 loss at Golden State.
“Yeah, just the way I was … just my feeling out there, the way I started the game off. I felt good coming in, feeling better, getting there by the day,” Thomas said. “In transition when I did a little floater, that’s when I really felt like I was good. I felt good. So my rhythm is coming back, getting there where I need to be. So you know, I just wanna keep it up and keep going.”
“I saw that we needed it in the first half a little bit. I mean, we had great looks, but we wasn’t making them so I knew I had to be a little extra aggressive. I had it going, so I just wanted to keep the team in the game. That’s what was required for the game in the first half today. So I just tried to keep us in the game a little bit. So that was all there was to it.”
Thomas had shot just 35 percent over in his past six games, having supplanted Finney-Smith in the lineup.
Finney-Smith sat with a sore left knee, but Vaughn was intent on continuing what is, in essence, a fact-finding mission anyway.
“When I made the choice to put Cam Thomas in the starting lineup, I [said] I wanted to collect data, and that’s what we’re doing right now,” Vaughn said. “That group has played about 63 minutes together, and Doe’s unit had played when he was starting 100 or so minutes together. So it’s on me to collect the data, because … What I want to do is collect the data, make it human and then give it to the athlete. … When I told Doe that I was going to make the change,I want to see what this unit looked like, offensively.
“Could we be such a powerhouse that it would cover up some of the sins defensively? And I’m still looking at it and collecting data points. … But I told Doe that doesn’t mean that’s going to be the finishing lineup or that’s going to be the lineup that starts the rest of the year. … What I want to do is when I come to you as a man and say this is the best choice that we’re going to make for the team and here’s the data points behind it, then it’s hard to fight that decision when my decision-making is always for the best for the team.”
Vaughn said they won’t know any more about Ben Simmons’ rehab from a nerve impingement until they return to Brooklyn.
Draymond Green remains suspended for punching Jusuf Nurkic.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr on what kind of help the volatile Green is seeking: “I can’t really share that, that’s really private. What I can tell you is that Draymond has our full support, that Draymond is himself very much committed to creating the change that he wants to see.”
Read more
