Jordan Poole will face his former team, the Golden State Warriors, at his new home when the Washington Wizards host them on Tuesday night.
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Jordan Poole will face his former team, the Golden State Warriors, at his new home when the Washington Wizards host them on Tuesday night. Despite the Wizards’ 11-game losing streak, they came close to surprising the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. They held a six-point lead with nine minutes remaining, but ultimately lost 114-105.
Poole’s sixth 3-pointer of the game gave Washington a 94-88 lead, but the Wizards missed 11 of their last 15 shots. Poole himself only took one of those shots, a 3-pointer that he missed when the score was tied at 94, during his 31-point performance. This impressive performance came off the bench, a role Poole has had in the Wizards’ last three games. He’s been averaging 23.3 points in those games.
As a rookie, Poole came off the bench 39 times for the Warriors last season, but he didn’t really like that role. He was much more effective in the 43 games he started, averaging 24.6 points per game, compared to 15.9 points per game as a reserve. Poole expressed his frustration with his new role after shooting just 4-for-17 in a loss at Denver in the Wizards’ first game after the All-Star break last Thursday.
For the Wizards, Avdija (heel injury), Coulibaly (pelvis injury), Kispert (illness), and Livers (hip injury) will not be playing the game. As for the Warriors, Paul (hand injury) and Santos (knee injury) will be sitting this one out.
Poole has improved his shooting in his two recent games coming off the bench. He went 7-for-19 at Oklahoma City last Friday and then had an 11-for-21 performance against the Cavaliers on Sunday.
The 24-year-old, who was the Warriors’ first-round pick in 2019, scored a team-high 25 points in his return to San Francisco in December but struggled with his shooting, going 7-for-21. The Wizards ended up losing that game 129-118.
In the offseason, the Warriors decided to trade Poole to the Wizards as part of a deal for Chris Paul, a seasoned player who’s okay with being a bench player. Before he injured his left hand in a game against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 5, Paul came off the bench in 21 out of 32 games. Despite this, he still led Golden State in assists per game with 7.2. Paul is set to make a comeback after missing 21 games, as Golden State starts a four-game trip on Tuesday.
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