Jordan Poole of the Wizards is prepared for his anticipated return to Golden State
December 22: When the Washington Wizards take on the Golden State Warriors on Friday night in San Francisco, Jordan Poole and company will try to double their joy—in more ways than one.
Washington is looking to finish its four-game Western swing with consecutive victories.
Poole’s 13 points and six assists were hardly impressive, but teammates Kyle Kuzma and Tyus Jones scored a combined 56 points to lead the team to an exhausting 118-117 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
The victory, which followed defeats at Phoenix and Sacramento to start the trip, occurred one night before Poole’s eagerly awaited return to Golden State. During his first four seasons with the Warriors, Poole contributed to the team’s 2022 NBA championship win.
But Poole’s preseason incident involving then-teammate Draymond Green’s punch left him disappointed last season, as he alternated between the starting lineup and the bench. By year’s end, he was only shooting 43.0 percent overall and 33.6 percent from three-point range.
Ultimately, he was the main victim of a season that saw the reigning champions fail to advance past the second round of the playoffs, and as a result, he was traded to the Wizards along with two other players and two draft picks in exchange for the seasoned Chris Paul.
When asked about his impending reunion, Poole has consistently stated, “I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”
This week, he made an effort to elevate a night that is expected to elicit conflicting emotions from Warriors supporters.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to go back and play somewhere where I used to play,” he stated. “So yeah, kind of just going in, and it should be cool.”
Some predicted that Poole, who shot relatively poorly last season but averaged 20.4 points per game, would do well in a low-pressure setting in Washington. That hasn’t been the case in reality. In fact, this season he is shooting worse than last, averaging just 17.2 points and 41.2 percent overall and 31.7 percent on 3-point attempts.
Supporters of the Warriors who cheered Poole’s debut on Friday are probably thinking back to his role in the team’s 2022 championship. Before playing a smaller role in victories over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals and the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, he had big games early in series victories over the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies.
Klay Thompson, a veteran of the Golden State, is aware of his reaction if he were present in the stands on Friday.
“We would not have won a championship in ’22 without him,” Thompson stated. As easy as that. I thus hope Dub Nation gives him the proper standing ovation.”
In his first two months as a Warrior, Paul has blended in well with Golden State’s second unit, something that Poole found difficult. Even though he is only scoring 8.5 points per game on average, he has already outperformed Poole in terms of assists (7.6 to 4.5) and turnovers (1.3 to 3.1).
On Tuesday, Paul helped the Warriors defeat the Celtics 132-126 in overtime. With 13 seconds left in the extra session, he stole a missed 3-point attempt by Stephen Curry, and just as the shot clock was about to run out, he got the ball back to Curry for the game-winning 3-pointer.
The Warriors had won three straight games.
