Getty Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors.
In their first playoff game of the season, the Golden State Warriors couldn’t get things done against the Sacramento Kings. The game came down to the wire, but while the Kings were able to make a couple of clutch shots, the Warriors couldn’t match them.
On the bright side, the game did see Andrew Wiggins make his return to the court for the first time after over two months of inactivity. After the game, head coach Steve Kerr seemed to pull Wiggins aside and speak to him. Wiggins revealed his message post-game.
“Oh, just welcome back,” Wiggins said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “That was it. He’s just happy to have me back.”
Wiggins played fairly well in his return, but he was cold from deep. He finished the night with 17 points, three rebounds, one assist, and four blocks on 7-of-16 shooting from the field. Unfortunately, he shot just 1-of-8 from behind the three-point line.
Despite that, Kerr was pleased with Wiggins’ performance after the game.
“Wiggs was great,” Kerr said via 95.7 The Game. “So awesome to have him back… First half he was amazing. Second half he wore down a bit but that was expected.”
Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins on Missing Clutch Shot
All that being said, Wiggins also missed a clutch three at the end of the game that could have helped Golden State pick up a victory. He spoke about his disappointment after the game.
“That last one felt amazing. It did. Didn’t go in though,” Wiggins said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “It’s only up from here. I know I’ll make my shots. I mean I’m here to compete. I believe in myself and what I can do. You know, I missed that shot tonight, but I know the next one’s going in.”
In addition, Wiggins spoke about the different feeling coming off the bench.
“I approached it the same way, didn’t really switch nothing up because I haven’t came off of the bench before,” Wiggins said. “But, I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do and then when I go out there and step on the floor I compete.”
However, Wiggins did admit that it felt great to be back.
“I felt good, I felt good. I feel like I made some good plays early. Second half, I didn’t make as many shots, but still competed,” Wiggins said.
De’Aaron Fox Sounds Off on Stephen Curry
In other news, after the game, Kings star De’Aaron Fox spoke about the difficulties of guarding Stephen Curry.
“Did you all see that clip with JR Smith talking about Delly guarding Steph? That sh— real,” Fox said, laughing, via the Kings’ official YouTube channel. “It’s real. I mean honestly I didn’t guard Steph the entire game, but most of the first quarter, most of the fourth quarter I guarded him. Yeah, that clip is real. Obviously, my team wants me to do things offensively. Mike [Brown] talked about it as soon as he got here, he’s not worried about what I can do offensively. He wants to see me be better defensively. And that’s something I want to take the challenge of doing. I think we’ve all seen it in spurts, but I want to do it throughout the course of a game. Playing 40 minutes and scoring 38 points is cool, but just trying to be as disruptive as possible while guarding the best player to ever shoot a basketball, not just off the catch but off the dribble. Guy’s probably one of the craftiest players to ever touch the ball. Just being able to be try and be disruptive for me is the biggest step and I think that’s kind of something that… I want to prove to myself that I can go out there and just try to hound some of the best guards in the league.”
