‘Aggressive’ Wiggins a telling sign Warriors warmly welcoming

‘Aggressive’ Wiggins a telling sign Warriors warmly welcoming originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SALT LAKE CITY – The Warriors’ search for a second-leading scorer behind Steph Curry took center stage throughout the offseason, especially after they weren’t able to pair him with an established star like Paul George or Lauri Markkanen. Coach Steve Kerr quickly pointed to Andrew Wiggins, stating that the 2022 NBA All-Star is a 20-point scorer on a nightly basis in the prime of his career at 29 years old.

And in the Warriors’ season opener, Wiggins looked ready to take on that role, scoring an efficient 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and 4 of 7 from 3-point range. But in the Warriors’ second game of the regular season, Wiggins couldn’t buy a bucket.

He took four shots in the first quarter and connected only once. Wiggins then had three more shots attempts in the second quarter, and missed all three. His first-half scoring numbers were a lowly two points on 1-of-7 shooting. When Wiggins is at his best, however, his game is about far more than just scoring.

Another factor from that 2022 All-Star campaign that led to a Warriors championship showed up Friday night in Golden State’s 127-86 blowout over the Utah Jazz on the road: Rebounding.

Wiggins in the first half alone came down with 10 rebounds, five offensive and five defensive, which is his most ever for a half in his career.

“You feel it,” Draymond Green said to NBC Sports Bay Area. “You know right away when Wiggs is being aggressive. And when he’s not, we’re all on him, to understand that we need him to be aggressive. He made his presence felt right from the gate, which was huge for us, because they were coming to the board hard to start the game.”

Kerr’s new starting lineup of Curry, Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis struggled early for the second straight game. The Jazz were outworking them, too. When Kerr called his first timeout, the Warriors were down 15-6 at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter and the Jazz (12) already had seven more rebounds than the Warriors (five). Wiggins was replaced a little more than a minute later, and he didn’t return until there were seven minutes left in the second quarter.

In those seven minutes, Wiggins was a beast on the boards. Though he was held scoreless, Wiggins was a plus-6, in large part because he had eight rebounds in those seven minutes.

“I loved Wiggs’ first half, because he was attacking but nothing was going,” Kerr said. “He wasn’t making shots, but he kept playing so hard. And again, that tone, that’s what I’m most pleased about through the first two games and the preseason, is how hard our guys are playing from the first minute to the last, and Wiggs is a huge part of that.”

The game rewards heart and hustle. Wiggins’ first shot attempt of the second half was cash money, a result of Curry busting his tail defensively that led to Wiggins hitting a 3-pointer from the left wing.

He missed his next attempt, though that didn’t deter him from doing the dirty work. After yet another Wiggins defensive rebound, basketball at its purest with the ball zipping across the court and barely being dribbled turned into three more points for Wiggins.

“He was getting loose balls, he was active and I think that carried over into the second half where he was able to make a couple shots and get to the rim,” Kevon Looney said to NBC Sports Bay Area. “We just want him to be aggressive in all facets of the game, and he can impact the game with more than just scoring.”

The Jazz’s starting lineup features two 7-footers in Markkanen and Walker Kessler. The Warriors don’t feature a single player taller than 6-9. Propelled by Wiggins’ nose for the ball, the Warriors outrebounded the Jazz 60-45.

Wiggins’ 13 rebounds weren’t only a game-high for both teams, but his new career high for the regular season, topping his previous best of 11. The last time Wiggins rebounded at a clip like that was in the 2022 Finals, when he averaged 8.8 rebounds in the six-game series.

With the Warriors down two games to one, Wiggins went off for a 17-point, 16-rebound performance in Game 4 against the Boston Celtics to even the series at two games apiece. Curry was the hero of Game 5, though Wiggins wasn’t far behind. To give the Warriors a series lead, Wiggins not only scored 26 points but also had 13 rebounds.

Until Friday night in Utah, he hadn’t reached those rebounding totals in any of the past two seasons.

“That’s huge. It’s huge for this group,” Green said. “Sometimes we are a little height challenged, so to know that our wings are rebounding like that … it’s a telling sign of his aggression. This team has always needed him to be aggressive, but I think that’s even more so now.

“So 13 rebounds, that is a signal of a great amount of energy that he’s bringing to the floor, which is huge.”

There’s no bigger telling sign of where Wiggins is mentally on the court than how he’s attacking the rim and the glass. The way he did both against the Jazz says everything, and the Warriors will keep pushing the reserved, soft-spoken Wiggins to never turn the volume down on making his presence heard and felt in every which way.

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