Ahead of the Golden State Warriors' Friday night contest against the Washington Wizards, they learned that they would be without Steph Curry for a little longer, as he was announced to be re-evaluated in a week due to his knee injury.

Despite that disappointing news, along with the rest of the players listed as out on the injury report, including players like Al Horford and De'Anthony Melton, the Warriors would not let it stop them from picking up another win.

Gunning for three in a row, the Warriors came back from a quiet third quarter to drop 39 points in the fourth and come away with a home victory against the Wizards, 131-126.

This game was led by a trio of Warriors: Gui Santos had 27 points, and Brandin Podziemski had 22, but leading the entire game in points was none other than Kristaps Porzingis with 28 points.

The big man has now played 9 of the last 12 games after missing time due to an illness and Achilles tendinitis, and this is the second time he's led the team in scoring, with the first also coming against the Wizards last Monday.

After the win, Steve Kerr talked about how Porzingis has been fitting into the Warriors' offense and his role as a focal point.

"We're going to him a lot when we need a basket, and he's capable of that. Probably hasn't done a ton of that in recent years — Boston has a number of guys who will have the ball in their hands late. But right now, we're going to him a lot. Generally, he takes care of the ball, he gets a shot for either himself or someone else. He's a great weapon at any point in the game and it's really fun to watch him play."

Porzingis' 2025-26 season has been rocky with different injuries, even just going back to his time with the Warriors since the trade deadline. Over the past handful of games, though, he's been finding his stride and playing well as one of the primary players for the Dubs, even under a minutes restriction.

This 28-point performance from Porzingis saw him shoot an efficient 9-17 from the field and 5-11 from three — a huge uptick over the previous Warriors single-game-high of 2 three-pointers — to accompany 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 0 turnovers.

It was Porzingis' 7th game of his last 9 games played with 17 or more points and his third such game in a row. He's now started his last five games and continues to shoot better and better, all while playing just 23 minutes per game in this stretch.

Though it is a small sample size, in Porzingis' 158 minutes not in garbage time, he's established himself as both a positive player on offense and defense, resulting in an overall on-off net rating of +2.2.

The Warriors will hope he can remain healthy and continue impacting the game in a great way.