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SAN FRANCISCO — Returning from a one-game absence due to a sore left calf, Marquese Chriss continued to show why the Warriors view him as a long-term answer at center.
In Tuesday night’s 112-94 loss to the Kings at Chase Center, six of his eight made field goals were dunks or layups in the restricted area, providing easy buckets for the Warriors in a season when such shots have been hard to find.
When the Warriors (12-46) signed Chriss to a training camp deal, they did not expect Chriss to emerge, quite possibly, as the team’s starting center of the future. But Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has come to appreciate Chriss’ ability to run the floor, finish at the rim and facilitate on the perimeter.
And yet, he was one of the lone bright spots in a game the Warriors trailed from start to finish, falling behind by as many as 20 points in their seventh-straight loss.
“I thought Marquese was great again,” Kerr said. “He’s strung together a really good couple of months here for us and he’s playing with a lot of energy and confidence and he was great again tonight.”
Hours before going for 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting, 10 rebounds and three assists, Chriss told KNBR that, once he knew there was a chance he could return to the Warriors after being waived earlier this season, he prioritized re-signing over guaranteed money elsewhere.
It was in the locker room after a Jan. 6 loss to these Kings (24-33) in Sacramento when Chriss was informed the team was going to waive him in order to make room for guard Damion Lee, whose previous two-way contract was set to expire.
“So much for hometown feeling,” Chriss, who grew up in Sacramento, said after Tuesday’s loss. “But I enjoy playing them.”
However, the front office told Chriss that, if he were to clear waivers, they would bring him back on a two-way contract of his own.
Eventually, Chriss’ patience paid off. After playing nearly a month on a two-way contract that prevented him from practicing as to maintain as many NBA days of eligibility as possible, he was re-signed to a rest-of-season contract after Feb. 6’s trade deadline. It was the fourth contract he signed with Golden State this season.
In Chriss, the Warriors believe they have a former lottery pick who not only can put up big numbers in a lottery-bound season, but also fit seamlessly next to a healthy Stephen Curry (left hand surgery) and Klay Thompson (left knee surgery).
Curry is expected to return in time for March 1’s game against the Wizards at Chase Center, giving him and Chriss 20-or-so games to rekindle the chemistry they flashed in preseason that is partly responsible for Chriss making the team in the first place.
Over the first four years of his career — which included stints in Phoenix, Houston and Cleveland — Chriss was mostly used out of position and asked to stretch the floor. In Golden State, he has found a team that encourages him to use his strengths, and is putting up career-bests in shooting percentage, rebounds, assists and blocks.
This is something the No. 8 pick in 2016 has come to appreciate, and prioritized when he was briefly a free agent earlier this season.
In addition to Chriss, the Warriors have several reclamation projects who played Tuesday, including recent acquisitions Andrew Wiggins (16 points on 6-for-14 shooting in 30 minutes) and Dragan Bender (0 points on 0-for-4 shooting, five rebounds and an assist).
This season is no longer about wins or losses. Rather, the Warriors are focused on finding players who can contribute for a team that aims to vault back into contention next season.
Wiggins may be the most important of the newcomers, but Chriss is nearly as consequential. His emergence allows the Warriors to enter this upcoming offseason with less urgency to fill the center position in the draft or free agency.
Despite mounting losses, finding contributors like Chriss is what can make the Warriors’ season a productive one.
“We wanted him back for a reason,” forward Eric Paschall said. “I’m very happy for him and I feel like he continues to just keep getting better every day.”
A few more thoughts…
1. Dragan Bender’s second game as a Warrior wasn’t as encouraging as his first. Bender finished with zero points on 0-for-4 shooting, five rebounds and three turnovers in 25 minutes.
For someone pegged as a floor-spacing big, he has now made just one of his last 10 shots.
With Chriss back and Kevon Looney (five points, three rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes) coming off the bench, Bender played exclusively at power forward after playing center on Sunday.
Because of that, he was often forced to guard forward Harrison Barnes, who finished with 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting. Tuesday night showed that Bender may be limited to guarding other centers.
Bender will have three more games — the Lakers on Thursday, Suns on Saturday and Wizards on Sunday — to make the case he should be re-signed to a second 10-day contract.
2. The last time these teams played, Buddy Hield and De’Aaron Fox combined to score 42 points on 14-of-31 shooting, while the Kings shot 50% overall from 3-point range.
So this week, defensive coaches Ron Adams and Jarron Collins worked with the team to improve their closeouts on shooters. Those lessons did not materialize on Tuesday, as Golden State’s young players missed several rotations.
They allowed Sacramento’s guards to score 68 points and allowed the Kings to shoot 52.6% overall.
“In this league, you can’t really completely stop anybody,” Paschall said. “You play against good players and you try to game plan the best we can against them.”
It didn’t help that the Warriors went just 4-for-28 from 3-point range.
“Just one of those nights where the shots didn’t go down,” Kerr said.
But they have also struggled to defend 3-pointers all season, giving up the largest differential — teams shoot 2.6% better than their average against the Warriors — in the league.
3. Having missed the last two games with a right pelvic contusion, forward Draymond Green is expected to play Thursday against the Lakers.
“He tried to go through shootaround this morning and he was still hurting and we just want to make sure we are smart about it,” Kerr said.
Green will be key in guarding both LeBron James and Anthony Davis — providing a valuable barometer of how he and Wiggins can combine to stop perhaps the best duo in the Western Conference.
