Explain One Play: Warriors rookie Moses Moody makes first start, drains threes, plays fierce defense
Explain One Play: Warriors rookie Moses Moody makes first start, drains threes, plays fierce defense
three and dee
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The Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the 2022.01.31.GSW-HOU game, thanks to Steph Curry looking like Steph Curry for the first time in several weeks. But you can find plenty of highlight packages about Steph doing Steph things. I'm going to focus on Moses Moody, the rookie who got his first start.
In the end I thought Moses Moody did okay. Definitely some mistakes on defense, but also some good plays on defense, both one-on-one and in a team context. He hit about half of the wide open threes he got. So we’d take that. And he ran the court really hard and he got the Warriors several advantages, even if he wasn't the one to score.
And he also kept the ball moving. He played the set plays correctly and wasn't a black hole on offense and he swung the ball from one side to the other. The rookie broke even, which is what you want in a game like this. You want someone to eat the minutes. If Moody can hit a lot of the open threes, be a bulldog on on-ball defense, switch well, and stay on the court with good defense, then he can be a role player and contribute. So promising stuff from the young man.
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Nitpicking: This was Moody’s 2nd start. His other was 12/17/21 vs. Boston.
Props on making the kind of content that's way more educational than just "holy shit Steph Curry" moments.
I thought Moody made a lot of good plays but I was concerned that the team seemed to lose ground in the score whenever he was in compared to how well they played when he was out. I think maybe he's just being cautious and trying not to make mistakes, but I get the feeling that every other player on this team has some "X-factor" where they can really impact the game in a unique way, and we didn't see Moody's X-factor this game.
I remember at least one amazing drive + dunk from the baseline that Moody pulled out of nowhere earlier this season though, so he probably has more to give than we saw this time.