Milwaukee native Jordan Poole, a standout at Rufus King High School before his time at Michigan and with the Golden State Warriors, shares a floor with the star-studded "big three" of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. And yet, Poole has been carving out a place among basketball royalty.

With 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting, Poole played a major role in his team's 126-106 win over Denver on Monday, helping the Warriors take a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference opening-round matchup. The 6-4 shooting guard added five rebounds and eight assists while hitting half of his 3-point attempts (5 of 10).

More: Jordan Poole was once a scrawny guard at Milwaukee King High School. Now he plays for one of the best teams in the NBA.

That follows up a 30-point performance in Game 1, a 123-107 win over the Nuggets two nights earlier, the first playoff game of Poole's career. With Curry coming off the bench on his way back from a foot injury, Poole has remained in the starting lineup, and he shot 9 of 13 from the field with five three-pointers in that game. Only Wilt Chamberlain and Mitch Richmond had also scored 30 points in a playoff debut in franchise history.

"What a star in the making," Thompson said of Poole after Game 1, and Thompson referred to Poole as "Baby Steph" after Game 2.

Brad Botkin of CBS Sports called Poole "Steph-Klay Insurance" in his recap of Game 2.

"On nights like Monday, when the Big 3 are rolling, Poole going for 29 of his own points, throwing 3-point darts from all over the court and smoking defenders off the dribble, becomes an embarrassment of riches, and the Warriors might be unbeatable," Botkin wrote. "But it's the nights when Curry and Klay don't have it going, when the defense is up against, say, the Phoenix Suns offense and not the very limited Nuggets, when Poole will go from luxury to necessity.

"Right now, Poole is bordering on indefensible. He can create whatever shot he wants for himself, and he's also totally in tune with Golden State's read-and-react movement."

Poole finished his third season in the league with 76 games played and 18.5 points per game, with 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds. He shot 45% from the field and 93% from the free-throw line, plus 36% on three-pointers.

Depending on how you view the newly fashioned play-in games, Poole did get some postseason experience last year, including 19 points in his team's season-ending loss to Memphis. As a rookie, he got a bit of a trial-by-fire with injury-depleted Golden State in a season truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poole came off the bench in 2014 for state-qualifying Rufus King, a squad that lost to eventual state champion Germantown in the semifinals. As a sophomore, he led King with 14.4 points per game to help his team go undefeated in the City Conference. He was first-team all state as a junior after averaging 18.2 points per game, but he transferred as a senior to La Lumiere Prep School in Indiana, though he had already committed as a junior to Michigan over offers from Illinois, Marquette, Virginia Tech, Memphis and more.

His departure coincided with that of longtime King coach Jim Gosz, who become the head coach at his alma mater, Dominican in Whitefish Bay.

At Michigan, Poole hit a deep three-pointer at the buzzer to help the Wolverines shock Houston in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The Wolverines then made it all the way to the championship game, where they lost to future Bucks draft pick Donte DiVincenzo and Villanova.

Poole joined a number of Wisconsinites to hit buzzer-beaters (or near buzzer-beaters) in the NCAA Tournament, including Arike Ogunbowale, Paul Jesperson, Korie Lucious, Freddie Owens and Bronson Koenig. After the 2019 season, he was taken with the 28th overall pick by the Warriors, and even as recently as last year, he was playing enough G-League basketball to be named third-team all-league with the Santa Cruz Warriors.

This year's Warriors also feature Milwaukee Hamilton graduate Kevon Looney and former Marquette University player Juan Toscano-Anderson. Looney started each of the first two playoff games, while Toscano-Anderson has played eight total minutes and scored six points.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee's Jordan Poole helps Golden State Warriors in NBA playoffs