Golden State Warriors: Grading each player in the first round
JaVale McGee: C
JaVale had a pretty solid first round against the Spurs. Appearing in each of the five games, McGee averaged 8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks on 64.3 percent shooting.
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He started the series off strong with a 15-point, +16 performance, which he followed up with a 10-point, +3 performance.
Then he kinda just…dropped off from there. He had a solid Game 3, but he was clearly not as effective, reportedly having suffered from a left quad injury the night before.
He bounced back offensively in Game 4, but he just didn’t have the same energy on defense that he displayed in previous contests, failing to disrupt San Antonio’s early momentum. He was also relatively nonexistent in Game 5, going just 2-of-5 from the field.
In hindsight, the Warriors wouldn’t have had such a great start to the series were it not for JaVale, and it was great to see him flourish in the place of Zaza. In fact, had he proven a bit more consistent in the latter end of the round, there’s no doubt JaVale would have been a grade higher.