After Kevon Looney suffered a sprained ankle on Tuesday night, the Golden State Warriors were left without a traditional center for the second half against the Boston Celtics.
With limited options, Steve Kerr called on Juan Toscano-Anderson to play small ball center off the bench. The Bay Area native didn’t waste his opportunity, scoring 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field with two boards, an assists, steal and block in 27 minutes. While tying his career-high in scoring, Toscano-Anderson drilled a trio of triples on three attempts.
Prior to entering the game against the Celtics, Toscano-Anderson last recorded minutes on Jan. 23 against the Utah Jazz. The Marquette product has been inactive at times to limit games on his two-way contract.
Following his impressive performance off the bench, Kerr had high praise for Toscano-Anderson.
Juan is just a fantastic competitor. He’s one of our smartest players in terms of just having a feel for the game at both ends. I love Juan. In my book, he’s not a two-way player, he’s a big part of our team and he showed why tonight. What a skill to be able to not even be active for 10 days or so and to come in and prepare day after day for his chance, and his chance comes and he goes out and kills it. That’s who Juan is. That’s why we love him.
Listen to Kerr’s full postgame presser via Warriors SoundCloud.
With James Wiseman and Looney expected to miss a couple of games, the Warriors will need to lean on Toscano-Anderson in the frontcourt. The 27-year-old forward will likely see an expanded role during Golden State’s upcoming road trip that features a pair of two-game series in Dallas and San Antonio.
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