Jordan Poole was the Warriors' lone bright spot in their blowout loss to the Heat on Friday.
The rookie guard matched his career-high with 20 points, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and a career-best 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. Poole finished plus-2 off the bench on a night the Warriors lost by 17, and the 20-year-old impressed teammate Steph Curry.
"I think so," Curry said Friday on "Warriors Postgame Live" when asked if he thought this was Poole's best NBA game so far. "He understood part of the moment, too. We were down 20 going into the second quarter. He needed to get hot, get some offensive contributions. The way that he was getting his shot moving off of the ball, being decisive with his moves, confident with his shot -- that's something that is only going to continue to get better for him as he goes through these experiences in his career."
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Poole, a 2019 first-round draft pick, has had an up-and-down start to his NBA career. Entering Friday, Poole was shooting just 27 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from deep.
The Michigan product shot 40 percent from the field or better in just three of his first 19 games, shooting worse than 30 percent from the floor 10 times. You wouldn't have known that watching Poole on Friday.
"I think a lot of it is just ... understanding how much space you actually need in the NBA to get your shot off, and just being decisive," Curry said of Poole's performance. "You saw that when he made a simple move, had an open look and knocked it down. ... [You can] see how aggressive he is running out in transition, expecting that he's gonna get the ball and that's just feeding into the momentum of him being able to get in balance and knock down a shot."
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Golden State Warriors
Though the Heat handed the Warriors a double-digit loss and their 16th defeat of the season, Curry thought Poole wasn't the only teammate to show signs of improvement.
"You look at Game 1 [of the regular season] film to tonight, it's drastically different," Curry said of the Warriors. "They're getting confidence, and the patterns are starting to show. That's exciting in terms of where we're trying to go as we build."
Curry's broken hand won't be re-evaluated until February, but he thinks Poole and the rest of his teammates are trending upward in the meantime.