Jonathan Kuminga’s night ended with a steal and the kind of defensive sequence that can change a series. With seven seconds left Thursday, he was switched onto Josh Hart, left him open to close on Jalen Brunson, and then picked up the ball for the game-ending steal in the Warriors’ 109-108 victory over the New York Knicks.
The win gave Atlanta a 2-1 series lead, and Kuminga was central to it on both ends. He scored 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting in Game 3 and spent much of the night guarding Karl-Anthony Towns, who did not score in the final 7:45. A game earlier, Kuminga had 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and made another defensive play late by pushing Nickeil Alexander-Walker into better position. When asked after Game 2 about that kind of work, he said, “It’s just instinct,” then added, “I give my praise to Draymond … I’ve seen him do that so many times.... Like I say, I watched Draymond do it; it’s little things that don’t go on the [stat] sheet that help you.”
The sequence on Thursday showed why that matters. Brunson drove baseline on Onyeka Okongwu with seven seconds left, Kuminga left Hart to run at Brunson, and Dyson Daniels rotated over before the pass reached Hart. Kuminga then got his hands on the ball to seal the game. It was the kind of read-and-recover play that has started to give him a different kind of value in the series, one that goes beyond scoring bursts and into the details coaches notice immediately.
That is a meaningful turn for a player whose defensive perception was not especially positive when the Warriors traded him and Buddy Hield for Kristaps Porzingis. He had been criticized for fouling too much when guarding the ball and for not always being alert on defensive rotations. Over the last two games, though, his impact has looked more complete, and the Hawks-Knicks series has exposed a familiar problem for New York: when Kuminga is engaged, he can affect the game in ways that do not fit neatly into the box score. That is why his performance has drawn attention in the same way as a previous look at his role in this matchup, as seen in the linked analysis on his all-in effort and the series swing he could create.
The bigger question now is whether that two-way version of Kuminga holds when the pressure rises again. If it does, the Warriors have a player who can score, defend Towns, and make the final possession look easy. If it does not, the margin in a series this tight may disappear just as quickly as it arrived.
