The Warriors are shaking up the first five on Wednesday night, and the move comes with a clear message: they want more size against Houston.
Golden State is starting Al Horford for the first time this season against the Rockets at Toyota Center, slotting him alongside Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Yaxel Lendeborg and Draymond Green. Horford’s addition gives the Warriors a much bigger look than the version that usually opens games with Gui Santos.
The alignment is straightforward. Horford will handle the 5, Green shifts to the 4 and Lendeborg slides to the 3.
That choice makes sense on paper, because Houston is rolling out a starting group loaded with length. The Rockets have four starters listed between 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-11: Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun. Fred VanVleet, at 6-foot-0, is the lone smaller starter.
Golden State’s usual starting five with Santos has been strong, posting a plus-24.8 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass. But the Warriors have been even more dangerous when Green and Horford share the floor. That big-man pairing has produced a plus-35.8 net rating, which ranks in the 100th percentile.
Still, the specific group taking the floor Wednesday has not been as effective. The Green-Horford-Curry-Podz-Lendeborg lineup has a minus-4.2 net rating.
So there’s real intrigue here, especially after the Warriors opened games so well in recent first quarters with Santos in the lineup against the Magic and Pelicans. This will be the eighth different starting lineup Golden State has used this season.
The matchup also puts a spotlight on Stephen Curry, who is off to a blistering start. In nine games, he’s averaging 30.6 points while shooting 50.3 percent overall and 44.7 percent from three.
Houston coach Ime Udoka was asked how the Rockets plan to slow Curry down, and Amen Thompson figures to be a big part of that answer. Thompson is one of the league’s best defenders and spent plenty of time matched up with Curry in the seven-game 2025 playoff series the Warriors won.
The Rockets bring the sixth-best defensive rating in the NBA into the game, so this isn’t exactly a soft landing spot for Golden State’s latest lineup experiment.
The Warriors are also riding a nine-game winning streak, their first since the second half of the 2021-22 season, when they went on to win the championship. Six of those wins have come at home. If they can beat Houston on the road, it would stand as arguably their best win of the season so far.
And they’ll need to earn it the hard way. Wednesday night is the opener of a demanding five-game road trip that also includes stops against the Spurs, Pelicans, Mavericks and Grizzlies.
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So the Warriors may have to look elsewhere for a workable path, and that likely means teams dealing with financial pressure rather than teams chasing the lottery. The Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic stand out as possible partners in that kind of framework, but the broader point is clear: this is no longer just about finding a team willing to trade, it is about finding one with the right mix of need and flexibility. [Read more 🡒]