SAN FRANCISCO – Nate Williams crouched low in his defensive stance, sized up Kawhi Leonard for a brief moment, and slid his feet the full 94 feet from one Chase Center baseline to the other.
Leonard did not even have the ball. Not that it mattered to the Warriors guard, whose intensity never waned for even a single moment.
Facing one of the greatest players of the generation in isolation? Williams – on a two-way contract – saw no reason to fret.
“He’s a great player, but he bleeds just like I bleed,” Williams said of Leonard postgame. “I don’t fear no challenge.”
Now, he might have an unexpected opportunity to showcase that dogged determination after scoring 18 points in the Warriors’ loss Monday night to Leonard’s Clippers.
Moses Moody jammed his shooting right wrist and injured his shoulder during the game.
If the Warriors’ everyday starting wing will need to miss time – or even if Moody is good to go come Thursday’s showdown in Houston – coach Steve Kerr expressed confidence in the team’s newest addition.
“I think he’s important anyway, given all the guys who are absent right now,” Kerr said. “I think Nate has played really well. It’s fun watching him, a young player, pretty live body, can make a shot.”
It isn’t the first time Williams has wowed in the Bay Area. The Rochester, New York native spent his senior year of high school in Napa at Prolific Prep in 2017. Having found his way back to the Bay Area, Williams, now 27, has made a solid first impression with the Warriors.
With Jimmy Butler out for the season with an ACL tear, Kristaps Porzingis still ailing from a mysterious illness and Steph Curry still at least a week away from returning, the Warriors need some firepower.
Williams, who has played in 47 NBA games across the previous three seasons for Portland and Houston, is nowhere in the same stratosphere as the Warriors’ stars as a scorer.
He has averaged just 3.9 points per game in the league.
But through sheer hustle on the glass and with a streaky catch-and-shoot jumper, Williams does bring an unpredictable dimension to a stagnant Warriors attack.
Against the Clippers, he grabbed two offensive boards and drew six foul shots while playing far taller than his spindly 6-foot-5 frame.
It capped what had been a hectic last four days for Williams, who, according to Kerr, also recently became a father.
He played 36 minutes Friday in Santa Cruz and scored 26 points for the Warriors’ G League team against San Diego.
Then he made the commute up the coast and the most of his 15 minutes against the Lakers on Saturday, scoring seven points and dishing out two assists.
Williams turned around just 18 hours later and put in 10 points in 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon, facing the G League Clippers again at Chase Center as part of the SeaDubs’ yearly showcase in San Francisco.
Finally, he played 18 more minutes in Monday’s loss as one of the few bright spots for Golden State.
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It is a heavy workload for a player who just signed with the Warriors on a two-way contract two weeks ago. But Williams sees it as no big deal.
After all, all he has wanted is an opportunity. Now Williams is ready to make the most of it.
“They’re just teaching me, telling me the plays and throwing me in the fire,” Williams said. “I’m loving it.”
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