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The Golden State Warriors are coming off one of the more dominating dynasty’s in NBA history. That dynasty doesn’t necessarily need to be over. The Warriors will get back to business on Tuesday night in their regular-season opener against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center at 7:00 p.m. ET on TNT. All-Star Draymond Green isn’t playing due to a foot injury, so rookie center James Wiseman is being thrown into the fire, reportedly set to start in place of Green.
Wiseman, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, didn’t play at all during the preseason. Coach Steve Kerr has seen plenty to trust Wiseman in the starting lineup. Here we’re going to be keeping an eye on Wiseman’s performance in his Dubs’ debut, including fantasy basketball stats.
James Wiseman Warriors debut recap
Final — Wiseman finished the game strong with 10 points in the fourth quarter. He finished with 19 points and 6 rebounds in his NBA debut. Wiseman only played 5 minutes in the first quarter and ended up finishing with 24 minutes. Wiseman was $4,900 on DraftKings and finished with some flames with 30.5 fantasy points.
It’s hard to take much away from this game for Wiseman with the Warriors basically done by halftime. We’ll see how he looks in more competitive atmospheres. His next challenge will be Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas Day.
Third quarter update — The Warriors are getting stomped and Wiseman didn’t do much in the third. He’s up to 9 points, but still has just 4 boards and a pair of steals. This game was basically over at halftime and the Nets led by as much as 30-plus in the third. Brooklyn is up 99-71 and the Warriors will probably need a miracle to get back into this game.
Halftime update — Wiseman is up to 12 minutes at halftime, so he played a bit more in the second quarter. The rookie has 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals, which isn’t too bad in terms of fantasy basketball. You can see Wiseman is definitely nervous, though. He’s a bit shaky finishing around the rim and has a couple of fouls. Compared to the rest of the Warriors, Wiseman looks fine. The Dubs are down 63-45 at halftime. We’ll see if Wiseman gets up to around 24 minutes. He’s on a decent pace to have a good fantasy night at least.
First quarter update — Wiseman started but only was in there in the first for 5 minutes. He had 2 points with 3 rebounds, so nothing too crazy in his first taste of the NBA. He fouled Kevin Durant, which must have been cool for him. So if this continues, Wiseman maybe gets around 20 minutes or so in his debut. Kerr said short spurts and that’s what we’re going to get. Good on you if you faded Wiseman, though at this pace, he could still come close to a double-double when it’s all said and done. The Nets lead the Dubs 40-25, which also could mean garbage time.