After six games with at least one out, the Golden State Warriors have their Big Three back against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.
Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green will start, and they will be joined by Moses Moody and Quinten Post.
It’s the Warriors’ 15th different starting lineup of the season.
Big Three Lineups Have Been Dominant
The Warriors are 13-13. That would suggest they are average, and maybe that will turn out to be true.
But you wouldn’t know it if you looked just at their net rating when Curry, Butler and Green are on the floor.
Golden State is plus-13.2 points per 100 possessions when its Big Three is on the court, per Cleaning the Glass.
Getting off to a good start will be critical against a Portland team that is 2-0 against the Warriors this season.
Why Moody over Spencer Makes Sense
Pat Spencer started with Curry on Friday, and the results varied with both 6’2″ guards on the court. It certainly wasn’t a rousing success, and Steve Kerr is already going away from that experiment to get more size in the first five.
That’s a wise choice.
The Warriors have had all sorts of issues contain 6’8″ wing Deni Avdija. He would have been licking his chops trying to force switches so Spencer is guarding him.
Moody has a better chance of staying in front of Avdija.
Also, there’s less of a need for Spencer’s ball-handling and passing with Green back in the lineup.
Expect Spencer to play the non-Steph minutes.