Seldom-used Omri Casspi has big night in rare start for Warriors

Draymond Green drew up a special play for Omri Casspi.

It was a backdoor play in which Casspi was supposed to catch an alley-oop pass and jam the ball. The only problem was Casspi knew he couldn’t get up that high.

In the Warriors’ 129-83 win against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, Steve Kerr told the players to coach themselves. Green, who was sidelined because of a sprained left index finger, spent a lot of time leading the team’s huddles. And Casspi, who has played scant minutes recently, started in place of Green and finished with the second-highest minutes total of all the Warriors.

In a sense, it was a win-win.

Casspi had a season-high 19 points on seven-for-10 shooting and 10 rebounds in just under 27 minutes. And Green impressed his teammates with his coaching abilities.

“Draymond is a very, very special human being,” Casspi said. “Smart and he has a lot of things going for him. He knows the game better than anybody I’ve been around.”

For Casspi, Monday was a much-needed breath of air following what’s been a rough stretch. Since Dec. 29, the 29-year-old forward has missed nine games and has pretty much fallen out of the rotation. He fought the flu, a back strain and extremely painful back spasms.

“The last month or so, I’ve been dealing with a lot on and off the court with injuries and being sick,” Casspi said.

After Monday’s game, Kerr praised Casspi’s energy, saying that he just needed an opportunity to gain back his rhythm.

“I’ve hardly played him to no fault of his own,” Kerr said. “He just hasn’t had much of a chance. I think it’s great for Omri to have a night like tonight.”

Casspi has spent the last month trying to hone his skills. He focused on 3-point shooting, cutting and moving. It showed against the Suns. He scored his first 3-pointer since December 14.

“He played amazing,” Steph Curry said. “It was nice for him to get almost 27 good minutes of run, get his feel. Obviously rebounded the ball well, shot well from the field, was aggressive and took advantage of Draymond’s absence. He’s obviously a very smart player, and when he has his opportunities to just play off of the other four guys that are out there on the floor, that’s when he’s at his best. He was just assertive tonight, so that was good to see.”

Casspi is averaging 5.9 points and four rebounds in 14.8 minutes a game this season. In the Warriors’ last four games, he’s averaged fewer than five minutes a game.

“You guys that come to practice see me over there in the corner trying to shoot a lot more and being more of what I used to do,” Casspi said. “I’m trying on the run and on the fly. It’s been tough, but it is what it is. It’s part of the game. I’m happy that coach trusted me today to go out there and compete.”

With the Warriors’ players calling all of the shots, things were a bit different Monday. At one point in the third quarter, Casspi and Zaza Pachulia started joking around with each other because they were surrounded by three future Hall-Of-Famers on the court, yet they were passing the ball to each other and taking shots.

Casspi said knowing that his teammates wanted him to shoot and get involved made a huge difference for him.

“It’s amazing,” Casspi said. “They’re so good and how amazing of human beings they are. A lot of people see us on TV and think maybe it’s fake, maybe it’s not.”

According to Casspi, the Warriors’ bond and support is very real.

“They made the game easy for me and for all of us,” Casspi said.