The Golden State Warriors entered their Thursday night matchup against the Houston Rockets in need of an ambulance… but not for them. Despite missing Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, who are dealing with knee and calf injuries, respectively, the Warriors managed to snap their five-game losing skid by defeating their longtime nemesis, 99-93, behind Jonathan Kuminga’s career night.

Kuminga has faded into the background for the Warriors to begin the 2024-25 campaign, but on Thursday night, he took center stage with the team missing its number one option. He poured in 33 points on 13-22 shooting from the field, and he made perhaps the biggest shot of the night for the Warriors. Leading by just three, 113-110, with around 20 seconds remaining in the ballgame, Kuminga took the ball all the way to the basket and scored a tough layup over the contest of both Dillon Brooks and Fred VanVleet.

This was the highlight moment for Kuminga that got both Curry and Green hyped up on the sidelines as the Warriors returned to winning ways behind the stellar play of the 22-year-old forward.

Kuminga clearly had the Warriors bench hyped up, with Curry taking the role of lead cheerleader as he continues to deal with a bilateral knee injury. Even after the ballgame, the Warriors’ star man gave Kuminga his much-deserved flowers, posting a hype message on his official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Kuminga, indeed, did take over for the Warriors and flourished as the first option on a night where the team needed him to pop off. What the 22-year-old has to do from now on, however, is to figure out how to carry over this level of play even when Curry and Green return.

Jonathan Kuminga was the star of the Warriors’ show in major slump-busting win

Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga (00) drives
© John Hefti-Imagn Images

Jonathan Kuminga was truly a force to be reckoned with on Thursday night; from the get-go, Kuminga left his imprint on the game, impressively scoring from all three levels while displaying a confidence that hasn’t been seen as much from him this season. He was efficient from the field and was aggressive in getting to the basket, and the Warriors will want to see more of this from him moving forward.

But Kuminga could not have done it by his lonesome. Andrew Wiggins pitched in with 23 points of his own, while the Warriors’ defense came to play, holding the Rockets to just 37.6 percent shooting on the night.