49 Comments
Nov 17, 2021Liked by Eric Apricot

Part of the joy of watching the Warriors is one or two times a game Stephen Curry will do something and I just go "bfffffttt, STEPH" because what else can you say? So this video is a great reminder that yesterday it was a bit more than "one or two times".

One of the things I've noticed with Poole is he's impressively copied a bunch of Steph's tricks and craftiness, especially with handling and finishing, but it feels like he's also trying to copy Curry's ability to pull up from anywhere and make it look easy... except Steph is superhuman and Poole is just a guy. So sometimes Kerr has to remind him, "That's not a great shot (except when Steph takes it)."

Crazy thing is Steph going nuts on offense is just part of what blew the Nets up, the other part being the stifling defense. It's probably harder to find the clips to use for it, but I wish we could have gotten a view of how *that* happened. Steph has been having some of his best defensive games lately. He's staying with people without fouling (I mean, yeah, he got a kind of early 4 fouls this game, but at least half of those were BS) and he's not falling asleep or over-helping so much. His increased strength definitely seems to be helping there. On the other hand, the team kicked a lot of Nets ass even when he was sitting.

Oh, and good highlight on Moody's rotating signboard of 👌's. With how much of Dub Nation was apparently in the building you gotta make sure they all get a piece of it.

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by Eric Apricot

I saw a post on reddit re: the play at Q1 7:12 saying it was just like old times: Steph to Dray to KD for the touch pass back to Steph for three 😂

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🤣

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by Eric Apricot

Great breakdown but it's almost unfair. It IS unfair. Steph iso'd on Blake or Aldridge is like your dad posting you up when you were five and you thought he was actually good. Brooklyn consistently had no other ideas that worked, as seen in the breakdown. Then again, when Steph is cooking, no one has good ideas. But I think if you'd had, say, Kawhi and Pat Beverly trying to manage the situation, it would have been a lot harder for Steph.

It's hard to overstate the *persistence* and confidence that Steph, and most great offensive players have. By persistence I mean that when one move doesn't work, he doesn't think "dang it, I couldn't shake him, I'm passing it." No, he moves into a second, third move until he finds something or really can tell it's time to pass. And then, to be super persistent he keeps sprinting after passing in order to relocate, get the ball back and do it again. There are ball hogs who won't pass but should. That's not Steph. He'll keep the ball and try many moves until he can tell it's time to pass, but he's also a willing passer. He's shown a million times that if a good play develops and someone gets open, he'll pass it. (Otherwise, Klay would have had like two threes in his career). Amazing persistent play -- but it does help to be able to get shots up at lightning speed from the logo and hit them.

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> But I think if you'd had, say Kawhi [...] trying to manage the situation, it would have been a lot harder for Steph

Friendly reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Dc5zI5sU4, specifically 2:16.

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Very friendly! But I think we can agree that if you asked Curry if he'd rather face Blake or a healthy Kawhi, we know what he'd say. Obviously Curry can cook anyone, but not always. One thing about being a 45% shot from three, more or less, is that you miss 55% of the time. Maybe because you're being guarded well, or just miss. That tends to not show up in the highlights. This is one of those situations where Kawhi and any NBA player would trot out cliches like "Trying to make it hard for him, you can't stop him but you try to contain him, he's gonna get his, etc." That is, if Kawhi were a speaking type human. He tries not to be.

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I left out Beverly because I think Beverly and similar can definitely impact Steph. I don't think Kawhi is a very good defender of Steph, to be honest, and I think how Steph does against him depends more on Steph and less on Kawhi. (Added to the fact that Kawhi is rarely matched up against Steph to begin with, and Kawhi teams don't really try to get him switched onto Steph, probably because of that reason).

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Fair. Beverly is a pest on the ball. Kawhi is a pest in general but if too close, Steph can shake him.

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I don't know why but I'm always looking for Iguodala's approval every time the Warriors complete a magic trick. His reactions are worth more than anything and I'm so glad he's back here to finish off his career.

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So do the Nets really not have any fans or did they all go back to rooting for the Knicks?

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SAS is freakin livid and going off on Kyrie lol

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What's to get livid about? Kyrie is doing what he always does -- his own thing. How can SAS act like he's seeing it for the first time?

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Kyrie who remind me

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Watching some Ja Morant highlights . . . he plays like Chris Paul in Derrick Rose's body. He's going to be one hell of a special player.

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Ja and Anthony Edwards are sure going be fun to follow

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Great win and we are a damn good team that will compete for championship this year.

For the nets, did anybody think KD was not on full throttle especially on the defensive end? There were few possessions where KD didn't put up any fight to us getting a bucket at the rim even though he was right there.

Not a news but I hate watching Harden play. He is and will kill the beauty that can be Nets offense built around KD (and Kyrie).

For Dubs, we have the greatest showman in sports on earth. Part magician, part circus performer, part feel good movie actor - pure unadulterated fun.

WGBC again!!

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I thought the Nets' plan was to outscore people. They didn't sign Irving and acquire Harden because of their defensive talents or effort. Durant has the goods, but it's got to be frustrating to try to defend when other guys barely try, and since he has the weaponry to outscore the opposition, maybe he's just bought into that game plan.

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I noticed that too, but I don't watch enough Nets games to know if he's just in the habit of not trying that hard or if it was something about this game in particular.

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I was looking at his stats this year and wondering if his defense has regressed since the time he was a Dub.

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Not playing with Draymond will do that

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Fun bit of Steph data via Statmuse - The +/- gap between Steph and 2nd place is bigger than the gap between 2nd and 27th place.

https://twitter.com/statmuse/status/1460809066347839489?s=20

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Illustration of greatness

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One interesting feature of the game is that the non-Steph shooters had a horrible day from beyond the 3 point line. Wiggins had a very efficient low volume day and Green made 1 or 2, but everybody else on the team was ice cold. Aside from Curry, that shows you what good defense can do something that kind of fell out of fashion when the Warriors started the 3 point revolution.

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Jeeez, I though it was bad but not this bad.

Between Moody Moose, DLee, Poole, Belli, Joku and OPJ they were 0-19 on 3 pointers. Yikes!

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This is a real problem. Steph can't be Thermonuclear Steph every night, and classically bench guys shoot much worse on the road. But that bad is ... really bad.

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They also turned the ball over 21 times... I'm pretty ok with rolling with a team capable of blowing out the championship favorite on the road shooting obscenely poorly from 3 and turning the ball over a lot. It means the Warriors are capable of winning in a lot of ways.

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Is it a real problem? I mean, those guys were as bad as it gets and we still clobbered the Nets. Defense doesn't slump.

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A win is a win but against a more complete team this could have ended ugly. Are there more complete teams? I think so. Brooklyn is just not good on defense at all. I think against an elite team like Phoenix Utah Bulls or healthy Bucks or 76ers, this might have been a bad night.

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Right. A great night by Steph, some timely Wiggins, and very good defense all around buried the Nets in the 3rd quarter w/out anyone else hitting from 3.

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It's amazing how good these Warriors can be *without being their best*

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author

[Klay head poking out from bench.gif]

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That might be bad... but it's still not Rockets playoff bad.

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Watched a Nick Friedell interview after the game that had a snippet of Klay practicing 5-5 and I noticed Alan Smailegic and Mychal Muldur were playing. Nice to see some of those guys still around and helping the team even if they're not on the roster.

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I like this post very much, because Smiley and Mulder aside, hearing about Klay playing 5-on-5 makes me warm in the tummy. Not just because he's closer to playing NBA ball, but because I'll bet he just feels better getting to play those 5 on 5s. He's been going nuts wanting to play basketball so I hope he enjoys that practice time. Yeah, we talkin' practice, I know...

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As long as he doesn't find some other ligament to tear in 5-on-5 practice...

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Not a game?

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Derp - thanks for the correction all. Carry on…

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I do miss Smiley though, I had high hopes for him.

No, Joe Lacob's not my dad....

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I had high hopes for him too, for a while anyway. But he never seemed to improve, and that was... a problem.

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There may have been a moment before the second injury

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Old footage: At the 3 min mark or so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7UpaQKaxc4

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Eh? Pretty sure Smailagic is playing in the EuroCup with KK Partizan right now.

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Smailagic is going to play today in Eurocup at 11.30

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I think they must have recycled an old clip as Smiley is under contract in Serbia and Mulder is on a 2-way for the Magic.

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Every shot Blake or LMA takes is one that Durant or Hardon doesn’t.

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Nov 17, 2021Liked by punk basketball

Love the commitment to your choice of spelling.

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Haha yep … it’s is my email address too. You should see the reactions when someone ask for my email.

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