The season came to an end for the Santa Cruz Warriors following a 131-127 loss to the Valley Suns in the first round of the NBA G League Playoffs at Kaiser Permanente Arena on Tuesday night.
Two-way forward Braxton Key led the Warriors with 30 points, 12 rebounds and a pair of steals, while teammate Blake Hinson recorded 24 points and seven rebounds. Two-way forward Jackson Rowe contributed 17 points and six rebounds, while guard Yuri Collins recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists for the Sea Dubs.
Two-way guard Taran Armstrong followed closely behind with 14 points and eight assists for Santa Cruz, while guard Alex Gil-Fernandez provided an offensive spark off the bench, rounding out the Sea Dubs’ scoring effort with 12 points.
The Suns were led by two-way guard TyTy Washington Jr., who finished with a game-high 40 points to go along with nine assists and six rebounds. Teammate Jaden Shackelford put up 21 points, while forward Mamadi Diakite finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Two-way forward Jalen Bridges scored 18 points, and both Moses Wood and Alex Schumacher each tallied 15 points for Valley.
Washington Jr. had a game-best 16 points in the opening frame but Santa Cruz matched their efforts with 16 points in the paint, entering the second quarter with a 41-34 deficit.
Johnson opened the second frame with a midrange jumper followed by an electrifying dunk to get the offense rolling for the Sea Dubs. However, the Suns went on a 12-2 run to extend their advantage and took a 78-67 lead going into halftime.
Key was a man on a mission coming out the break, scoring on three straight possessions to chip away at the deficit. After allowing the Suns to pull ahead once more, Santa Cruz ramped up its intensity tenfold, holding Valley to just four points for more than five minutes in the third quarter.
Gil-Fernandez then went on an offensive surge that gave Santa Cruz its first lead, 97-94, since the first quarter. Back-to-back finishes at the rim from center Seth Maxwell and Rowe put the Warriors ahead, 105-101, heading into the final stanza.
The Sea Dubs’ defense proceeded to hold the Suns scoreless over a three-minute stretch, and notched 11 straight points of their own to extend the lead at 116-104 with 8:29 remaining in the contest.
But after tying the score at 120-all, the Suns closed it out in the final minutes, sending the Warriors packing home for the rest of the season.
Braxton Key named DPOY
Key, who signed a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors on March 4, was named the 2024-25 Kia NBA G League Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday. He appeared in 33 regular season games, including 30 as a starting player, for both the San Diego Clippers and Santa Cruz Warriors this season.
Key had an average of 22.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.4 steals in 31.5 minutes played over 11 appearances—10 starts—for the Warriors. The 6-foot-8 forward led the G League with 96 steals in the regular season, the second-most steals in a single season by any NBA G League player since 2020-21.
Key is the second player in Santa Cruz’s history to appear in at least five regular season games and have an average of more than 3.0 steals per game after Kent Bazemore, who averaged 4.4 steals across five appearances in 2012-13.
It’s also the third time in franchise history a Santa Cruz Warriors player was named Defensive Player of the Year since the NBA G League—formerly known as the NBA Development League—began play in 2001-02.
Santa Cruz guard Stefhon Hannah won the award during the team’s inaugural season in 2012-13, and guard Aaron Craft earned the same honors in 2014-15.
