Warriors Announce 6th Different Starting Lineup of Regular Season vs. Clippers

The Golden State Warriors are giving Charles Bassey his first start of the season against the Clippers on Sunday.

He joins Brandin Podziemski, De'Anthony Melton, Georges Niang and Yaxel Lendeborg in Golden State's starting lineup.

This is the Dubs' sixth differenet starting five in seven games.

The Warriors (3-3) are without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, who are both resting on the front end of a back-to-back.

Gui Santos is available to play despite being listed on the injury report with knee tendinitis. He had started the Warriors' last four games.

Warriors Choose Melton over Williams

The last time the Warriors didn't have Curry playing, they started Brandon Williams at point guard. On Sunday, they will go with Melton.

Williams has more offensive talent, but Melton is coming off one of his best games of the season with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Melton is also a much better on-ball defender.

The Warriors figure to give Williams a good amount of run off the bench.

One thing to keep an eye on is how Melton and Podz mesh vs. how Williams and Podz mesh.

So far this season, the Melton and Podz lineups have a minus-4.5 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass. Meanwhile, the Williams and Podz lineups have a plus-27.8 net rating.

Bassey Gets the Nod over Horford

I did not get my starting lineup prediction for this game correct, but I did have Bassey starting over Al Horford.

Bassey has played just 26 minutes this season, but he's been very productive in that time. He's averaging 22.2 points and 16.6 rebounds per 36 minutes.

Meanwhile, Horford is averaging 8.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per 36 minutes.

Horford is a better shooter, and he's a solid team defender due in large part to his experience, as this is his 20th season in the NBA.

But at some point you can't deny the player dominating the glass the way Bassey is.

Niang Rewarded with Start

Niang started the season 0-of-13 from three, leading some to question whether he was worth a roster spot.

In the last three games, he's shown his worth.

He's made seven of his 12 threes and 10 of his 18 shots overall.

Niang figures to have a big minutes load Sunday. Santos isn't 100 percent, and Green isn't active to take some forward minutes.

That leaves Niang, who will probably set a season high in minutes total, which was 23:12 coming into this game.

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