Gui Santos delivered a career-high 31 points as the Golden State Warriors edged the Brooklyn Nets 109-106 at Chase Center on Wednesday.
Speaking after the win, Santos acknowledged the challenge of the schedule, saying, “It’s always hard, you know, when you travel a lot, play a lot of games like we did last week and now we came back. We have one day in between the games at home. That’s really great. That helps us. But at the same time when you come here you feeling like kind of tired, especially long trips.”
The Brazilian guard discussed the team’s turnovers, noting fatigue as a factor. “I think the turnovers were not because of that, you know, but because we kind of tired and taking decisions that we should not take and you usually don’t take it. That combines in a lot of turnovers for us,” Santos explained.
Santos highlighted the confidence boost from his first 30-point game in the NBA. “It’s a good feeling. I was talking to my family right after the game… I think that was just three or four [Brazilians]… Leandro Barbosa, Anderson Varejao, and Nene Hilario. So all of us had 30 points. It’s special, especially today was Latino night, so it was very, very good to do that.”
He also spoke about the emotional impact of Moses Moody’s season-ending injury. “It’s a really tough moment. Especially the way the injury happened, I was more like even a big shock for us… Moses is one of the greatest human beings that I know… when you lose a guy like that in the season, especially what he brings for the team, it’s really tough.”
Comparing his NBA career night to a 31-point G League performance, Santos said, “In the G League it was way more off the ball… here I had the ball in my hand and I got to go and score. That was the biggest difference.”
He described the work behind his low-post footwork. “Before every game I play one-on-one in a low post with my coach. Every time I just beat him. I really work on that every day… a lot of times I don’t even think about it. I just do it and it works.”
Santos also discussed mastering the gather step and step-through rules. “That was one thing I always had when I was playing back in Brazil… Now I’ve just learned when I have the opportunity, I do it… either to score or find passes… I can find passes, I can go straight through or give the ball away. It’s way easier to get into the paint and take decisions because I have way more time to do it.”
With Draymond Green’s clutch free throws and Brandin Podziemski’s 22 points, the Warriors snapped a road-weary slump and secured a play-in spot.