Golden State Warriors guard De’Anthony Melton was due for a big game this season and he finally got one.
De’Anthony Melton helps Warriors beat Thunder thanks to season-high game
Melton was huge for the Warriors as they picked up a decisive 127-116 win over the formidable Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday. The 26-year-old talent scored 19 points on an efficient 5-11 shooting from the field. All five of his makes came from three-point range. However, it was his work on the glass that stood out.
The USC product collected 10 rebounds in Oklahoma City. That fell just one rebound shy of his career-high 11 boards corraled on Jan. 8, 2022, against the Los Angeles Clippers back when he was a member of the Memphis Grizzlies. This marked the seventh time in Melton’s career that he has brought down double-digit rebounds in a game.
This surely came at the right time. He helped the Warriors ride momentum into a Western Conference-leading 8-2 record on the year while making a statement for the first time in his young tenure in the Bay. Both his point and rebounding totals on the affair are season-highs for the California native.
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Melton will be a key role player for the Warriors this season
The Warriors have been getting contributions across the board from players who have stepped up at varying times in the year. Buddy Hield has carried the Warriors at their helm while coming off the bench. He got great help from Andrew Wiggins to start the year, as well as Moses Moody in a limited capacity before superstar Stephen Curry began coming alive over Golden State’s last handful of games.
Now it was Melton’s turn to get busy, and his performance against the Thunder proved that he did not have time to fit anything else into his schedule that didn’t include giving Oklahoma City the business. The Dubs are hoping that Melton can play up to this standard consistently throughout the campaign whether he starts or not, and make good on the one-year, $12.82 million contract he signed with the franchise ahead of the current campaign.
