Last week, the yearslong saga of Jonathan Kuminga took some unexpected twists. In the aftermath of Jimmy Butler’s season-ending knee injury, Kuminga, exiled to the bench for more than a month, reemerged in the Warriors’ rotation, scoring 20 points in 21 minutes in a loss to Toronto. The next game, Kuminga injured his knee nine minutes into a loss to Dallas. Officially, the Warriors say it is a bone bruise, with Kuminga out indefinitely. “Such a shame,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He was playing great.”
Before the Butler injury, the Warriors were cooking. They had won 12 of their last 16 with the fourth-best offense in the NBA during that stretch, a reversal of the meandering, inefficient offense that ranked in the bottom third early in the season. Butler averaged nearly 21 points per game over those 16 games (on 52.2% shooting), reviving the dynamic combination with Stephen Curry that powered Golden State into the playoffs last season.
