Jonathan Kuminga comes in clutch in fourth to help fend off Hornets

SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Kuminga has shifted his focus from packing the box score each night to honing in on the little details.

“Just making winning plays,” he said his mindset has been.

That’s exactly what he did in a gutsy fourth quarter Tuesday night that helped the Warriors fend off the Charlotte Hornets, 110-105.

Klay Thompson scored a team-high 29 points, Jordan Poole added 24 and Kuminga came in clutch down the stretch to help the Warriors win back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 2 and 3.

Playing without two starters for the sixth straight game, the Warriors opened the second half with a 5-0 run to go up by 18 and force the Hornets to take a timeout and regroup. Charlotte trimmed the deficit to seven in the third but the Warriors expanded it to 11 before heading into the final 12 minutes.

That’s when the momentum started to shift. Charlotte went on a 17-4 run early in the fourth, capped off by a P.J. Washington 3, to make it 96-95. Gordon Hayward hit a 3 to knot the game up at 101 with 4:19 left.

But it was Kuminga who took matters into his own hands, stepping up in a major way on both ends of the floor. With the game tied up, he cleanly ripped the ball from Washington in the corner in a play that mirrored a move by Kuminga’s mentor, Andre Iguodala.

“That was will, that was I want the ball more than you,” Draymond Green said of Kuminga’s fourth-quarter surge. “That was our backs are against the wall, we lost the lead, let me make the play myself. And so he took the ball, he gets a dunk, he goes and snatches a rebound in traffic. He made every single play down the stretch. And I think it all started with that play with PJ Washington, just taking the ball. He man-handled him.”

Kuminga grabbed three defensive boards and scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth. His two-handed slam put the Warriors up six with 21 seconds left and came off a feed from Poole who carved through traffic to find the 6-foot-7 forward.

Tuesday’s two-way effort was another example of the 20-year-old’s growth as a defensive stopper over the last month.

“I’m just that type of player who comes in and [is] trying to help this team win,” he said. “I don’t like anybody scoring against me. Just watching the way Draymond, Klay, Andre, the way they play defense, that just inspires me to go out there.”

Kuminga wants to keep up the legacy established by the veterans. But he’s also carving out his spot, alongside Poole, to be a cornerstone in the Warriors’ next core group.

“I feel super comfortable at this point,” he said. “It’s just getting those reps every single day. Sometimes when I play, I do [make] some mistakes, not as much because Steve won’t let me do that. But just being there every day, coming out here, working every single day, getting better, being around the guys that we have, the team just kind of helps me to be more confident on the floor.”

The Warriors overcame a shoddy shooting night, going a paltry 8-of-37 from 3, to win a game they should’ve cemented in a more commanding fashion. And they have Thompson to thank for getting things going offensively. He scored 14 points in the first quarter and made four 3s. He finished the night with five triples, five rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile, the rest of the squad went 3-for-25 from downtown.

“This was a night where we couldn’t put the ball in the basket to save our life,” Kerr said. “We were getting some good looks, which is one of those nights where the ball wasn’t going in.”

The Hornets didn’t shoot the 3-ball much better, finishing 10-for-38 from behind the 3-point line.

The Hornets’ scoring was more evenly distributed, with five Charlotte players finishing in double figure scoring. LaMelo Ball led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The Warriors shot the ball well in the first quarter, converting at a 54.2% clip from the field. But after making six of their first 10 attempts from beyond the arc, Golden State went uncharacteristically cold from deep, missing 17 consecutive 3s from the end of the first to late in the third. Thompson ended the drought, draining a 3 with at the 1:22 mark of the third to put Golden State up 89-75.

Thompson started the game well, finding a good rhythm early and scoring 14 first-quarter points that included four made 3s. But he joined the rest of the team in having offensive lulls throughout the final three quarters.

“I definitely want to finish better than 5-for-12 but I’ll take the W,” he said.

Thompson praised the team on another “great team effort.

“A lot of fun to build a win streak here at home after a nasty road trip, so it’s definitely something to build on,” he continued. “But it’s a quick turnaround, we play [Wednesday], and I think we’ll shoot much better. But just a gutsy win, performance all around.”

Though Stephen Curry remains out indefinitely with a shoulder injury, Andrew Wiggins’ return is on the horizon. He’s been cleared to come back, but is out sick and expected to miss Wednesday’s game against the Jazz, too. Thompson’s status for the backend of the back-to-back is also up in the air, though he said he’s hopeful to play.

“It would be fun,” Thompson said.