Dub Nation HQ Comments of the Week & Open Thread
A stressful and delightful Week 1 as typed by the fauna of DNHQ
The 2-0 Warriors own Los Angeles…
The Bay reigns supreme over L.A. so far this basketball season.
crusty quips (15 ♡):
Like Dray said, Poole is playing against starters now who are keying in on him as a focal point of our offense. He will get more used to those types of defenses as the year winds on and it will make him a better and more reliable playoff performer for us down the line.
Five Alarm Freddy (13 ♡):
Watching the highlights, DLee really bailed us out at the end. Outside of Stephs heroic's DLee was critical at the end. Oh and we were a fingertip deflection by Wiggs away from this game going to OT. Glad we got the win, but they pooped the bed in the second quarter. Hopefully that sticks with them.
Not the bed poop, just the... oh nevermind.
Alex (13 ♡):
I thought we were collectively kind of underselling how big a signing he was. When you consider that Andre's been playing an old man game for years, and Kerr still played him in the 2016 finals when he looked like an old man with his back completely betraying him, it seemed like a possibility he'd play a big role. There's a LOT of trust between Andre and Kerr.
What I wasn't expecting was for the whole mood of the team to feel different in high drama games, somehow the whole team feels a little more Andre. Hell even the PR around the team sounds different since he came back!
I'll bet (or maybe just hope) he doesn't play much if at all against bad teams. More minutes to Otto/Moody/JTA.
Post Game party: undefeated Dubs run and gun…
Some magic early, and then again late from Curry juuuuust enough to get it done
Eric Apricot (12 ♡):
NOW THAT’S A RANDOM ENDING I CAN GET BEHIND
belilaugh (12 ♡):
Both of Moody's assists were made possible by his alien arms reaching over the outstretched arms of the defenders (and his vision of course).
Asher B. (12 ♡):
The whole game was GREAT OH NO TERRIBLE GREAT GREAT OH MY GOD NO YES YES
vignette17 (9 ♡):
A few thoughts:
*Poole struggled, but he had a few foul hunting moments where he didn't get a call. He's gonna have a 12-15 FTA game this season
*Bjelica/Porter are nice vets, but both need to be a bit more aggressive about getting shots up. A 3 by them is more valuable than most other shots. They need to take them and not pass to a covered guy.
*Moody has shown some flashes. I want some blowouts to see him play more.
*We killed them on the boards +15. This is after outrebounding the Lakers. Strangest stat so far this season.
*Need to really take advantage of this early schedule. 8-2 in the next 10 should be the goal.
*I've seen enough Iguodala to trust him still. Let's Captain America freeze him for playoffs.
*Dray, I had just started trusting your FTs....
*Damion looks really good. Averaging 29 MPG so far.
*Steph is fun. And I can forgive your turnovers. Sometimes.
Game Thread: Warriors vs. Clippers …
Golden State handled the big team from LA, now it's time for the team with wing defenders
belilaugh (13 ♡):
Something really beautiful about this game is that Iguodala was on the floor at the end being the best perimeter defender and making the right pass just like old times
OGG Gurl (9 ♡):
Is Curry the most entertaining player of all time? I say yes.
The Sword Of The Morning (8 ♡):
I missed my dose of Steph in my life. The best antidepressant lol.
Abaddon (7 ♡):
Crazy to think Klay beat THAT by 12 freaking points. Insane:
storytellinsabrina (5 ♡):
This season might kill me.
Warriors vs. Clippers preview…
Golden State's punchy new offense against gets another tough test
Captain Jack (21 ♡):
[On the NBA being 75 years old] Not as old as this year's Lakers team though.
Truckeeman (11 ♡):
well, that's nice, and although I like Stephen A, his prognostications are not to be taken seriously. I, on the other hand, called the chip for the Dubs on these pages a few weeks ago. Then I watched a few other early season games. Man, the NBA is tough. Did you watch the Bucks dismantle the Nets? Denver/Phoenix? This is an entertaining league, and while the most entertaining guy to watch in the whole league is on the Warriors (Kevon Looney), this is going to be a tough season. At least until Klay gets back. Then it will be a cakewalk.
Goofus (8 ♡):
Assuming it’s true, this really points to the FO being a lot more focused (and less haphazard) in their planning than fans often give them credit for.
While we’re bitching that they didn’t get a “BIG big” or at least re-sign Chriss, they’re sitting their feeling good about having a former euro league MVP they’d been trying to get since last season.
We see a guy with legs that Athletic Alchemy said “looks like he spent his childhood in a wheelchair”, while the team knows he’s the kind of guy who isn’t afraid to clobber LeBron if he goes after one of ours.
Explain One Play: Steph Curry dominates LeBron…
All the way to a triple double, with lots of help from his teammates
crusty quips (16 ♡):
Apricot imbued with that Steph Swagger. From the Youtube comments on the short version -
some dude: Great analysis Bro. You should be a coach yourself
Apricot: You are too kind! But I’m not smart enough to be a coach and I’m too handsome
belilaugh (12 ♡):
The way you can start to justify being a lottery pick at age 24 is by scoring 27 on 15 shots in your NBA debut. Credit where credit is due to Duarte.
stopnpop (10 ♡):
I effectively double-consume E1Ps now: the free version appears on youtube before I go to bed and then the subs version when I wake up. Are there adverse side-effects for taking double the daily recommended amount?
Being (9 ♡):
Man, Bjelly really loves playing here. "I know they're happy here with me. But trust me, I'm more happy to be part of this franchise."
Asher B. (8 ♡):
On Westbrook's first play diagrammed, he is so focused on finding a way to work it into the post with AD that he doesn't even look at LeBron and Bazemore, both of them wide open at the three. That's the exact opposite of how the Warriors play. Every Warrior in that position is thinking swing-swing-three.
My main takeaway from another great E1P: Bjelica's basketball IQ minus Westbrook's basketball IQ = Bjelica's basketball IQ
The road to 82-0 begins …
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
pengpeiyi (18 ♡):
So my favorite part of the game was that I don't think the Warriors played great, but I think that they executed their system very well which allowed them to win. What's the difference? No one had a spectacular shooting night, or just went off, or was unstoppable. All of the Warriors (including Steph) looked human shooting the ball. No one just took the game over and torched the Lakers.
The individual parts played well (but not great) but the system worked great! The individuals stayed within the system, knew their assignments, and aside from some bad passes (which are to be expected this early in the season, and well, at any time with this group) played a very sound game. No hero ball was needed. The win felt much more inevitable than incredible because the team was just methodically sound the whole way through. If this is what the Warriors are showing in game one, I can't wait to see how the machine will be humming by the end of the season!
On the other side of the ball, the Lakers are going to have issues. It's not so much that the Lakers as a whole played poorly (which they did) but that they clearly have no clue how to play together at all. To be fair it's literally a brand new team. Did they say only three returning players from last year? It's insane that they have five players who have finished third or better in MVP voting in the past decade. But Davis and Lebron aren't going to combine for 60+ every night. Who else is going to step up and score?
The problem with the Lakers is not that there's any question about who the top dog is (LeBron) and who their 1.a. option is (Davis); their problem is that it's incredibly unclear how everyone else fits in. Is Westbrook their PG and facilitator? He played 35 minutes and I barely even noticed he was there! What's DeAndre even there for? Just to take up space? He only attempted a single shot. Looney scored as many points as Jordan and Howard combined in roughly the same amount of time on the floor as either of them individually.
Who can be a bench scorer for the Lakers? Carmelo felt like he might get going, and I thought he showed a bit of what could be possible from him, but like Westbrook he also just kind of disappeared for the rest of the time. In fact, the only players who felt like they were working hard and could make a difference outside of the top two were Bazemore and Bradley. I think the Lakers will be better than they looked last night, but I'm certainly one who thinks it's extremely premature to try and think of them in title terms at all. I think they'll be lucky to be a top 4 seed in the West with so many other teams built better than them to withstand the regular-season grind.
Really excited for how things go against the Clippers on Thursday. Two wins against LA to start the season would feel very sweet indeed!
Eric Apricot (17 ♡):
Even when I thought GSW was going to lose, the team was still way more fun to watch than last year. I remember last year I made a whole video in the middle of the year congratulating the players for executing a pin in screen.
In Game 1 we probably had more successful screens and read and react plays than in the first ten games of last season total, and that was against a really good Lakers defense.
Sleepy Freud (15 ♡):
Proposed Warriors 2021-22 motto from a poster on the Fastbreak blog:
“They’re real … and they’re spectacular.”
MySarunas (14 ♡):
My favorite couple of minutes of the game were when Poole was splashing away, and LeBron decided to shove him hard into Avery Bradley to show him who was boss. No foul called, of course. But next play, LeBron drives on Bjelica and Bjelica takes him down with a hard foul. Of course Bjelica gets the flagrant called on him, but, message delivered.
That was such a Daniel moment, I'm shocked it wasn't featured prominently in the recap!
Post Game Thread: proof of concept! Small ball…
Golden State opens the season with a Curry triple double in a win
Emmerick (31 ♡):
We Bjelieve
belilaugh (25 ♡):
I know people might get excited after this win, but I think we should just wait until the Warriors play a championship contender before making that assessment.
Fuck you, Bazemore.
Eric Apricot (25 ♡):
I feel like this is the first opening game in a long time where GSW did not look like complete crap
Klaymation (20 ♡):
Just finished the game (thanks for the outage, XFINITY), and WOW Bjelica! What a monster out there, he totally salvaged the game. I have no idea how he was so badly misused by other teams.
The guy was everywhere and didn't set a foot wrong until a couple of booboos in the 4th.
That play where he elevates, looks back to DLee(?) in the left corner, looks at the basket then dishes to Wiggins for an open right wing 3? Say what?? Amazing stuff. David Lee just turned into Larry Bird.
DFiB (19 ♡):
I want to call out the moment that Bradley had after the game with JTA, Lee, and Moody. Lotta love going around. Gotta remember it’s a job and a coworker community with ALL these guys. In a high stakes cutthroat business like the NBA, the bonds these guys form have got to be so strong.
Asher B. (19 ♡):
Bjelica's play was no fluke. I think he's been underused or in the wrong systems in the NBA. The guy is a former Euroleague MVP. I think we'll see a lot more of that this year.
Nadav (18 ♡):
Someone needs to make a bobblehead Lebron with his arms out complaining to the refs.
DraymondWantsItMore (18 ♡):
Haven't had time to read any comments yet and I'm sure this has been said but I was extremely impressed with Bjelica tonight. I knew he could shoot but his defense was more palatable than I was expecting and his passing was excellent. Reminded me of a poor man's Jokic which would be amazing. Lots of other great things to comment on but his play stood out to me.
Game Thread: Green, Wiggins on minutes limit…
Small ball proof of concept game against one of the biggest teams in the NBA
Airgetlam (12 ♡):
Don't worry, he'll turn it over to Belly.
Airgetlam (12 ♡):
pretty much peak LeBron and AD game, and losing to Warriors with Steph playing a C- game.
No overreacting from me, but that's a very bad omen for the Lakers.
Captain Jack (9 ♡):
The beautiful basketball that you imagined when the Warriors signed Bjelica took place
Klaymatic37 (9 ♡):
Bejlica is such a great pickup! I love seeing what we saw in the preseason continuing into the first game.
He is going to get lots of minutes playing like this.
BadlyBrowned (8 ♡):
Bjelica to me seems like if we took David West, David Lee, and Speights and mashed all their games together.
Like, West toughness, David Lee handle and playmaking, and Speights 3pt range.
The Sword Of The Morning (8 ♡):
Play Westbrook you cowards.
The MVP has showed up tonight. The Euroleague MVP.
Explain One Play: Steph Curry and Nemanja Bj…
The new guy is an actual stretch 5 (on offense)
Run_TMC (9 ♡):
I dunno. I could respect sacrificing a paycheck for a real principle like "I cannot accept this paycheck if I have to sleep with you for it" but this more like "I am not convinced of the efficacy of your new penicillin (despite all the evidence), and I must therefore, on principle, rely on the application of leeches instead..."
MySarunas (8 ♡):
Bradley is way too young for the Lakers. It'll never work.
Speaking of which...
Friday, my boss announced to my group that he's retiring. Today, he was picked up by the Lakers.
crusty quips (8 ♡):
Great video. Bjelica fits so well with both Dray and Steph's game, I think he will be a frequent focus of E1P videos this year and I am all about it. I think we will see more depth to his game than the last several teams he has played on have afforded him to show.
Run_TMC (6 ♡):
[Response to video wisecrack to screen anyone guarding Steph, including Ayesha]
The scene: Curry Family pickup BB game in the near future. Steph, Canyon, D Lee, Callie (Seth’s wife), and Sonya, vs. Seth, Dell, Sydel, Aisha and Riley. Games to 10. Current score is 9-9. It’s been a back and forth battle with Sydel repeatedly blowing past D Lee for easy layups alternating with Riley’s suddenly deadly outside shooting countering Callie’s unstoppable post up game, mainly on assists from Canyon. It’s devolved to a 4 on 4 matchup as both Dell and Sonya have fouled out without scoring any points as each seemed entirely focused on stopping the other.
D-Lee inbounds to Callie who swings it to Steph and then heads down to receive the return pass in the post again, but Riley knows that trick and drops to double team. As Steph moves toward the top of the key, Aisha runs to cover for Riley, but Canyon comes from the other side and sets a vicious screen knocking Aisha hard to the ground. Play stops.
Steph: Canyon, you should know better than to set a screen on your mother!
Canyon: But, dad! She’s on the other team, and, you know, the Apricot rule …
MySarunas (5 ♡):
I didn't get JTA last year at all. They signed *that* guy - but, but, but, he looked terrible in preseason!
(Now I get it.)
We see these guys for like 5 minutes in preseason, and then maybe highlights or lowlights on Twitter. Front office sees them for hours and hours in practice. I tend to give the FO the benefit of the doubt on talent evaluation, and I'm really crappy at it myself, TBH. For almost 2 years, I saw nothing of value in Jordan Poole's game, thought Looney would never make it, liked Steph, but oh, those glass ankles, etc. etc. So when there's a signing like this that makes me shrug my shoulders, I try not to be Dowtin it too much any more.
I shut the video down at "LeBron continues to enjoy his vacay with Andre." Couldn't stop laughing.I miss the 2020 E1P leitmotif, and it was so nice to hear it again during the part of the video that covered the original version of the play (with Klay).
DFiB (5 ♡):
EA is on 100% impulse factor. I’m worried he’s not pacing himself for a real 98 game E1P season…
Eric Apricot (5 ♡):
Hey I think I got it right… look at this incredible site of NBA players pronouncing their own names. https://nbakankei.blogspot.com/p/nba-pronunciation-guide.html
To support this community and keep the web lights on, please consider pressing this button:
Looking forward to watching Davion Mitchell in this game. He’s had outstanding on ball defense last 2 games. I’m hoping our screen heavy offense will counter his impact. JP will have to be careful not to force anything otherwise he will find himself getting stripped and running to the rim without the ball
From the AP: “The Lakers will observe a moment of silence before tonight’s for Gen. Colin Powell, who passed away after battling cancer and Covid-19. The Lakers are said to be devastated by the loss of the 84-year-old Powell, having recently signed him to play shooting guard.”