Preview: Klay in, Green out (Porter, Payton …

Golden State has entered Phase Two: 43 games until playoffs

• DFiB (10 ♡):

  I could not, would not, on a boat

  I will not, will not, with a GOAT

• Trogdor (formally pengpeiyi) (10 ♡):

  Eeesh, Memphis, Milwaukee, Chicago... brutal stretch.

  Grizzlies are for real. They worry me more than any other teams in the West right now. Regardless, worst case scenario is hitting the half way mark of the season at 30-11. At the beginning of the season, I'm sure any of us would have been thrilled about that.

• Goofus (9 ♡):

  Great preview, DDD. But then again, I expect…no DEMAND nothing less.

  Is Phase 2 the rest of the season, or does Wiseman coming back take us to Phase 3? (And does Phase 4 begin when we trade Wiggins, JFK and Wiseman for Ben Simmons?)

  Also, with Green out, Will Kuminga rejoin the team? I was kind of surprised he didn’t get any run vs. Cleveland.

  Man, is Porter the oldest 28 year old in the league? I really do wonder if he’s capable of going somewhere else for big money to start and play big minutes, or whether he should take the Livingston route and be a 20/minutes per game guy who only plays once in B2B’s. If it’s the latter, GSW seems like the place to do that. He’s already made $126m in his career this far 🤷🏼‍♂️

  I keep hoping there’s some way to keep Looney or Bjelly, GP2 and Porter beyond this season. I’m figuring Iggy retires (unless he wants to come back at the Min again) and Lee is gone.

Warriors destroy Cavaliers in Klay Thompson return…

He's baaaack.

• crusty quips (19 ♡):

  I was at last night's game, and the atmosphere was electric. A buddy of mine and myself have not gone to any games so far this year to make sure that we could afford to go to this one and it did not disappoint. Fans teared up at the tribute video and roared during the player introductions. Every time Klay came back on the court, he was greeted with a boisterous ovation. I don't know if it was audible on the TV feed but Chase was rocking yesterday and it felt a little bit like the Oracle days of old. And Klay looked damn good on the court, too. That dunk was filthy and his defense was sharp, not to mention the exhilarating sight of him shooting from deep once again. Other teams were put on notice last night. Klay's back and all is right in the world, if you're a Warriors fan.

• Trogdor (formally pengpeiyi) (18 ♡):

  Culture matters:

  Curry bouncing up and down in excitement with and for Klay says it all about this team. Think of the relationships of some of the other great NBA duos:

  If Pippen had been injured like this, would Jordan have been bouncing up and down in excitement at this return?

  If Shaq had been injured, would Kobe have pranced around like a school boy with glee?

  If Parker had returned from two career threatening injuries would Duncan have been bursting with excitement when he came back?

  If Stockton had missed almost 1000 days of playing time, would Malone have been whipping Ostertag with a towel out of uncontained excitement?

  If Westbrook had been injured would Duran.... BAHAHAHAHAHAH, sorry, I couldn't even finish that one.

  Not that those other pairs all didn't like each other (although some didn't), but the Klay-Steph relationship is just special, as is the culture of this whole Warriors team. Even though this team may never match the Jordan era Bulls for rings I'd say that by and large the journey is so much more fun than it was for many of those other fan bases because the excitement is about so much more than just winning.

• stopnpop (14 ♡):

  Steph GQ article. A lot of non-basketball stuff and clothes I can't (won't?) afford but a fun one!

  https://www.gq.com/story/stephen-curry-february-cover-profile

  > “When I got drafted to Golden State, my grandma had no idea what city it was in,” Curry says with a laugh. “Everyone on the East Coast thinks L.A. is all of California.”

  > the transplanting of the team from Oakland back to San Francisco, which Curry admits has been a bit of a challenge. He loved Oakland, he says. The team's identity was anchored there. “It feels a little bit like I got traded, but within the same organization

  > “Well, it's also weird because when we won our first championship, in 2015, Jordan Poole was 15 years old,” he says. “Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody were like freshmen in high school, and now they're here. It's weird to think they were watching us like we were almost basketball gods.”

  > Curry, for his part, dreams of a future five years from now where Poole is an all-star, Kuminga is an all-defensive player, and Wiseman is an MVP candidate. He and Green will be fulfilled then, he says.

• Sleepy Freud (12 ♡):

  Ugh. I guess it’s best not to mess with calves given their history with them. Hopefully nothing major.

  Would love to see them run out a Steph-Poole-Klay-Wiggs-Porter SHOOOOTERS death lineup, if even for 5-10 minutes…

• invo.k.shen (12 ♡):

  Ducan may have expressed his Duncan love for Parker in a very... Duncan way but I'd imagine the love would've been there. Those spurs were an extremely functional team, both as basketball players and as human beings.

• storytellinsabrina (11 ♡):

  Hubs: So that's why Draymond is out tomorrow.

  Me: Calf tight-

  Hubs: His eyes are infected.

  Me: What?

  *Hubs points to DNHQ page*: His eyes are glowing yellow.

  Me: 😅😅😅😅

• Doc (11 ♡):

  Had the wife and kids gather round to watch the intros. Cried when they announced him. So emotional. Kids were convinced he was going to get injured every time he drove to the basket. What an event, a memory for a lifetime. Great lesson in overcoming adversity, in persistence, in the effort it takes to just have a chance to be great again.

• Backpack23 (10 ♡):

  Klay looked so plucky last night. I love it. Greenest of green lights.

  And Loon was just outstanding. He has taken such excellent strides in skill development and read of play this season. If Milojevic is in some way responsible for this, I can’t wait to see what he has been working on with Wise. What an exciting couple of months for warriors basketball.

Explain One Klay: Thompson vetoes Kerr for h…

He ain't sacrificing... diddlysquat

• stopnpop (4 ♡):

  Oh this was awesome Eric! Hilarious and really cool to see you reverse engineer what Kerr and Steph were talking about.

On Anger at Danny Green

• Abaddon (7 ♡):

  Screw him. He didn't take any ownership that it was a reckless play with basically no chance of stopping the score. He just "wishes it hadn't happend".

  Fuck Danny Green.

• pooryorick (7 ♡):

  That hit was the glaring culmination of a Finals defined by hits, the Raptors whole defensive philosophy for countering Kerr’s elegant style was shoving, grabbing, whacking and ultimately injuring the other team, the refs let it go because of the whole Dynasty is so unfair to the rest of the NBA narrative

• Five Alarm Freddy (5 ♡):

  I appreciate him saying this.

  But, I am still angry at him. I can't point out why, but I feel there were other plays that were reckless as well. I don't wish anything bad on him, but it may take me a while before I am not pissed at Danny F'n Green.

• stopnpop (5 ♡):

  I'd go further and say that it's a problem with the league in that they allow it... and have been allowing it since the '16 Finals.

  [rant]

  Stop allowing dangerous, non-basketball plays. No more sliding under to take charges (tech/flagrant), enforce the damn landing zone rules, no more intentional/hard fouls to stop a clear breakaway or dunk/layup. In the case of Klay's injury play, a foul on a trailing defender should be 2-shots and possession, at least. So if you want to make a chase-down block, you better be sure you're not gonna foul the player.

  [/rant]

• Freddie (3 ♡):

  Let's move on. Go win another championship. Life goes on.

• Goofus (3 ♡):

  Eh, might be time let go of the anger. Read the full quote and see if you feel he hasn’t expressed contrition:

  The origin of Thompson’s 177-game absence occurred in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals between the Warriors and Toronto Raptors. Green was a member of that Raptors championship team, and he was whistled for a foul after he attempted a chase-down block on Thompson. The collision caused the five-time All-Star to land awkwardly on his left leg, tearing his ACL.

  “If I can take that play back, I would,” Green told Yahoo Sports on Sunday night. “No one wants to see a great player go down, and no one wants to be the cause of that. It wasn't intentional. I’m glad that he’s back. The game has missed him.”

  Green, a three-time NBA champion, said he felt bad about his role in Thompson losing significant time. Initially, there was a sizable sector of Warriors fans who believed his contact with Thompson in the air was a dirty play.

  “When it first happened, I thought I blocked the ball,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “I thought it was a clean block and then he went down, I was like, ‘Man, he’s hurt. Let me make sure he’s OK.’ Some of the guys on the sidelines were upset. A lot of fans were upset. Obviously, I got a lot of backlash for it. But I'm trying to make a clean play on the ball, and I just wanted to make sure he was good. ... And then he came back on the court to shoot his free throws, and that's when I thought he was fine.

  “I didn't know that he tore anything until after the game, which was a tough blow. It was tough to hear what was being said, but I didn't look at myself as the victim. My concern was for him. Their fans are great fans. They’re going to encourage their team. And anybody that tries to hurt or do anything to the other 10 or 13 players, they're gonna fight for them. So, I got some heated emotions from some of the fans, but every time I've spoken about the incident, I've stated that it was not purposeful at all.”

• g8tgod (3 ♡):

  Agree. I'm not saying he did it on purpose, and he seems to feel genuinely bad about what happened to Klay. But he doesn't acknowledge that it was a reckless play. Maybe he can't do so publicly. Bottom line: He cost Klay (and all of us) two full years of Klay's prime, and he ensured the championship for the Raptors. I don't think I'm ever going to be 'fine' with that, but no one can change the past, so we move on.

• GlueAndBold (3 ♡):

  I feel like there is some truth in this. Sports become a precarious house of cards when the focus switches to giving the opponent a physical beating. There are coaches that encourage that route, and they are a bigger problem in some ways than players like Danny Green, whom I do not like but if I'm being honest, that same kind of "recklessness" has been exhibited by some of our players at times. Thankfully, it is not something that Kerr encourages.

Post Game: A joyous Klay Day to all!

Thompson returns, Curry gets hot, Looney inhales rebounds... Dubs win

• belilaugh (26 ♡):

  Happy Klay Day to all who observe, but I just gotta say that watching Looney dominate a team of 7 footers gave me an immense amount of joy. What a player, he really might have been KD 2.0 like the high school mixtapes foretold if those hips didn't fuck him.

• Asher B. (25 ♡):

  The emotion of a night like this is hard to put into words. Certainly I've never experienced a sports moment like this, and rarely been more excited other than say a championship win. Thinking about why it's such a big deal tonight, as I was explaining it to a non-fan. I think if there had not been a pandemic this might have been less emotional. But what we've had since Klay first got hurt has been two years of a difficult time for the world, on an almost unprecedented level: and simultaneously, a very difficult time for Klay. For Klay and for his fans -- and how could anyone not be a Klay fan? -- it has been at times a bleak situation, with hope far on the horizon or not even visible. And slowly, over time, one rehab day at a time, he came back. Two injuries that might have ended a career, back to back. A player who lives for basketball, but can't play. The real Klay plays with genuine joy, and brings our memories all back to feelings associated with dynasty winning, and to see him merely step on the court was magical. But then to see him score, defend, block a shot, contribute, WIN was ... hard to put into words.

• pooryorick (22 ♡):

  To all my fellow Dub Nation members who weren’t at Chase tonight just let me assure you that the Warrior Nation in attendance gave that returning legend absolutely everything we had in welcoming him back to the fold and cheering him on at the top of our lungs, it was loud, it was joyful and we nearly lifted him up and carried him out of there on our voices
  
  It was Roaracle loud and intense like that first roar you hear from a crowd that breaks over a big moment and it was all focused right on Klay, you just knew it was going to go down like that when he came in for pre game and the crowd stood and cheered and then kept on cheering and yelling after every single practice bucket he sunk (and he sunk almost every one), people came running in from the entrances and refreshment areas and cheered as soon as they realized he was on the floor, just incredible

• Richard (16 ♡):

  Amazing night! I drank a bottle of champagne to toast the Captain and he didn’t let me down. This was a statement night for Klay. Not just “I’m back” but “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” And that poster dunk will be in my dreams.

  I loved that Klay scored 17. Not just a couple of buckets on 5 minutes of play but a serious rotation opportunity.

  And yes the rest of the team did great work. Looney, OPJ, Wiggs, GP2. Hah yes Mr. Curry doing everything. Andre and JTA just savage on D. Oh my. The overall team defense was excellent even without Draymond. How??

  WTF?!??! Can’t get too exited. It’s a long season but things are looking up up and up.

• Sleepy Freud (16 ♡):

  Wiggs needs some love for putting the absolute clamps on Darius Garland.

  
  Season plus-minus

  LeBron +26

  Curry +404

• SoCalJusticeWarrior (15 ♡):

  Right before a commercial break, there was a shot where Klay was sitting on the bench and a member of the staff came up and, I’m guessing, asked him how he was doing. Was able to lip read and Klay said, “I feel great.” Music to my goddamn ears. Absolutely love having this guy back. Now, let’s go get that fucking ‘ship for Captain Klay.

• Five Alarm Freddy (15 ♡):

  Ahh... I am emotionally exhausted. The feelings were all over the place. I realize I love basketball, I love these players, and the joy I get from watching these guys play gets me through hard times. I need to make it an early night. I am spent. Be well all. Happy Klay Day.

• Olsonist (13 ♡):

  No one ever expected Livingston to come back. No one was even waiting for Livingston to come back. When he came back, he had to carve out a new place for himself in the league. It was the Warriors where he finally made his mark. What a tough hombre.

Klay watch thread (and our first DNHQ merch!)

Klay Thompson is expected to play tomorrow, which means the first inklings will come today

• Asher B. (20 ♡):

  Attention all members of this site: TOMORROW NIGHT'S GAME IS MANDATORY. I don't care if you're at work, if you're up against a deadline for a doctoral thesis, if you're giving birth or whatever. You must watch from somewhere and check in here. Thumbs this up if you will watch, and if you will not, have fun cleaning out your desk. PS. I'm PUMPED BABY PUMPED I WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP just had to mention

• alv66 (15 ♡):

  Phoenix lost, Jazz lost, Clippers lost, even the Bucks lost. Not a bad evening.

• Chasing Rings... (13 ♡):

  GROUP HUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• DFiB (11 ♡):

  Way pre pandemic… sheesh. Perhaps Klay shall end the pandemic too

• storytellinsabrina (10 ♡):

  It would be sweet if Klay tweeted out....Lock In Dub Nation.

• Run_TMC (9 ♡):

  I'm gonna be the contrarian here. The magic of Warrior basketball is that it doesn't use so many isos and PnR. The beauty of it is that all 5 guys are part of the offense all the time. I'd be willing to bet that those percentages are the same when the offense is humming and Curry is on fire. The problem isn't that we don't play the boring/simple way for simple basketball minds that everyone else does (There's a reason that we always lead the league in assists). The problem is that we aren't playing well. The solution is not to abandon our beautiful way of playing basketball. It's to keep working harder until we manage to put it together again.

• Nadav (9 ♡):

klaythompson

A post shared by Klay Thompson (@klaythompson)

• Perfect. lol...

  klaythompson

  How I’m pulling up to chase tomorrow, Bill Murray is my spirit animal .

  IM SO EXCITED TO SEE YALL DUBNATION ! LETS GET IT

• JamesHardon (8 ♡):

  Ladies and Gentlemen it has been building for 2.5 years. Prepare yourself for the Klaymax

• Janet (8 ♡):

  I know I have to wait but I can’t wait! This has been the longest week…

• Asher B. (7 ♡):

  Steph assist to Klay in practice: Klaygasm

• DFiB (7 ♡):

  Ahhh… we’ve finally reached the part of Steph slump that the iso demands come from the media. Usually a sign that the end of the slump is near. Not sure what took them so long this time.

• WarriorsGoldenGirl (7 ♡):

  [To Apricot] Are you going? I’ll be there, too! Section 121. I got a Klay autograph 2 years ago when I had seats near the team tunnel. You need to get there as soon as they open the doors; hour and a half before game time. Be warned, the usher for that area is a fierce little mama. She’ll let kids near the railing, but is pretty strict with adults. I made sure to have my tiny daughter (17 at the time) be the one to hold out the shoes for an autograph. We got D-Lo’s, Marquiss Chriss and Willie Cauley Stein. (I think we were the kiss of death! 😆) Klay just happened to see that they were his first Anta “Rocco” shoes and came over to sign them for her. Achievement!!

• Nadav (7 ♡):

  Who's this Klay fellow everyone keeps talking about. I've been a warriors fan for two years and have never even seen him in the lineup. Is he some sort of G-league call up or something?

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