Forget the timeline talk, Curry and the Warriors are the real deal
Forget the timeline talk, Curry and the Warriors are the real deal
Preview: Sacramento looking for revenge as they host Golden State less than a week after Curry's 47 point explosion
The last time these two teams faced each other, it was less than a week ago. In retrospect, maybe that was the start of something for a Golden State team that skidded out of the gate early. When the wins were not coming in, all eyes were on a youth movement that wasn’t working yet. Now coach Steve Kerr has tightened the rotation to allow the team to chase some wins for a bit.
This game will be a good chance for both teams to settle into the matchup. Having ex-Warriors coach, Mike Brown on their side helps the Sacramento Kings out some; but only one team has Stephen Curry. In that last game against Sacramento, Curry’s stat line will be mostly remembered for his 47 point explosion, but I’d argue that the nine points in the final two minutes (or so) were more important than that final tally. The man has been on fire lately.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (5-7) at Sacramento Kings (5-6)
WHEN: Sunday, November 13, 2022 // 6pm PDT
WATCH: NBCSBA
Blog Buddy: Kings Herald
Injury update: Everyone is playing tonight. The presumption is that Klay Thompson will likely rest for tomorrow’s game against the San Antonio Spurs
Forget about the timelines for now
There’s a rhythm to rooting for a team. The click through rates on this stuff will surprisingly tell you that it’s actually the intrigue around free agency and the draft that generates the most interest, when it comes to NBA news. But at some point, it just is what it is. Multiple timelines are in play, but only one is for real right now. Which makes sense even from a multiverse perspective; you can only actually ever be in one timeline at a time.
The Warriors are on a two win mini streak because they’ve stuffed the second timeline talk back into the background. Maybe it pans out, maybe it doesn’t. It is what it is. Turning back fully towards the current timeline is reflected in coach Steve Kerr’s substitution patterns - with the whole entire second timeline pushed way to the back burner. But what matters is that the team spent some time taking a good look. The cake is for sure raw in the middle still though, so let’s push that back in for a bit. And so it pivots back to something that looks a little too close to a playoff rotation for the current timeline.
But does it really matter all that much? Curry is averaging a whopping 35 minutes per game; the most since 2013-2014 (that’s nearly a decade ago, for those of you that are bad at math). However, last season, the one where the team had the bench we are all wistful about? Curry averaged 34.5 minutes per game. The net impact of the team chasing wins as it pertains to Curry’s workload is fairly minimal.
So yeah. Let those thoughts of other timelines melt away. Enjoy these incredible games that Curry and the rest of the Warriors have been gifting us. If Golden State can steady the ship well enough, there’s going to be time to experiment more later. Remember that development is rarely a stable slope.
As someone who spent all of my formative years rooting for really, really bad teams, I can assure you that having Curry is a once in a lifetime joy. Don’t worry about others not hanging, sometimes a player of Curry’s caliber flat out carries his squad. While the team has been getting plenty of notable contributions around the edges, the story here is still about the Curry show.
Lord help me, I love the Kangz
Kings fans have a certain listless love of their team that is really endearing to me.
The last time these teams met, it came all the way down to the wire. A heroic effort from Curry, and some luck from the NBA Gods of Random Endings were all that stood between the Kings and victory. Since then the Kings have added to their successful (super duper) early season returns. They won the game before playing the Warriors, and both of their games since then.
Prediction
This is another game that the Warriors should win on paper, but only if they can get their act together. Well, mostly together. Golden State still has the one advantage that matters most: Stephen Curry.
Last season I got the sense early that even if Curry wasn’t on we had players who could score wide open threes or otherwise score. This year I’ve gotten the sense very early that outside of Curry we really have nobody (particularly off the bench) who can step up consistently.
Feeling like the ceiling this year is six to eight seed this year, don’t think we are title contenders at this time unless something drastically changes with wiseman, kuminga, moody development or a trade.
OT this schedule has been one of the worst I’ve seen. Already two road B2B and another B2B tomorrow??
Only 18 TOs and we cleaned it up in the second half but the ones we did have were momentum killers... also a couple bad transition possessions where we don't seem to understand stopping the ball