The Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets just finished the first matchup of the season, and the Warriors came out with the victory. Once again, the Warrior’s depth really showed its prowess in tonight’s game. The Warriors saw contributions from all the starters, however, two players on the bench provided 50 points of the Warriors’ total score tonight.

Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga rose to the occasion once again with Steph Curry still sidelined. Hield finished the night with 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists on 64/60/75 shooting splits. Not to be outdone by his teammate Jonathan Kuminga who finished with 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist on 58/67/70 shooting splits.

There has been a lot of talk around Steve Kerr sending Kuminga to the bench, with many critics of the Warriors using it to deface Kuminga’s skill. Draymond Green took to the post-game interview to praise his teammate for being able to strive in his new bench role.

“I don’t want him to love coming off the bench,” said Green.” He believes he’s a superstar, I believe he’s a superstar. So as long as you believe you shouldn’t be ok coming off the bench. But how you respond is important. You can respond by sulking, or you can just go do what it is that you can do to help the team win and that’s what he’s doing. Credit to his maturity as well as his play.”

The Warriors had two starters foul out of the game tonight: Draymond Green and Brandin Podziemski. Having teammates like Kuminga and Hield helped lessen the blow and solidify the 127-121 win tonight. The Warriors have now pushed their current win streak to three and with the absence of
Steph Curry, it’s just all the more impressive.

The Golden State Warriors will take on the Washington Wizards on November 4, at 7:15 p.m. EST.