This is such a strange season. All season long, up until the trade deadline, this team has struggled, and it seemed they were missing multiple pieces if they wanted to contend. Then, all of a sudden, they not only don’t need any additional pieces via trade but are suddenly playing incredible basketball, incredible defense, and coming together.
The surprising thing for me in this game was not the Warriors shooting 55% tonight. It was the Warriors holding the Pacers to 48% shooting. Pacers have the #2 offense in the league (#1 is Celtics), and the fact that we held a team with really good offense to below their average shooting tonight was pretty darn impressive. The Warriors were also playing their 5th game in 7 nights straight as well! They looked like the team with more energy tonight.
Meanwhile, Utah and Memphis both lost tonight 👍. Hopefully, Lakers follow the same fate (they’re down 8 right now). Mavs lucked out with a decimated Knicks team.
Moody doesn't always show up on the stat sheet, but I always feel good about the team when he's out there. He's long and moves his feet well on defense, doesn't get lost, moves the ball around, and can hit the corner 3 when he's called upon.
Such a satisfying game. Indiana is fun to watch. But the Warriors having so many games compressed together forcing them to play all their guys is the best thing for this team. Kerr now playing Podz and Gui real rookie minutes?
Who wants to pick up a game on Utah and the Lakers tonight? Because whether you wanna or not, it's coming. And with it, the dreaded *virtual tie* with Utah, one of the more peculiar phrases in sports. It's the ONLY correct way to say "Same number of games behind the leader but we haven't played the same number of games as each other." Don't say "tie," don't say "comparable record," don't say "even," say "virtual tie."
Man, they've been building some monster mercenary teams in the West to try and keep us out of the Finals....a lot of TALL hired guns have moved West....Dubs still mostly homegrown to shoot them down....
Since the restart, the Warriors are 6-3 with a point differential of +11.22. According to this site which uses an exponent of 16.5, the Warriors expected winning percentage is 82%, which means they've been on a 67 win pace over this stretch.
To be fair though, I think part of the current run is that the Warriors got a long break in the middle of the season whereas a lot of teams are probably sputtering toward the All-Star break.
This may be the best I've felt about the team in a year and a half. Steph is sublime. Kuminga is coming on. Wiggins finally looking consistently more like himself. Draymond since he came back looks excellent. Podz is such a great rookie. Looney Saric Moody contributing; soon enough GPII then CP coming back. Gui and Quinones raising serious eyebrows and helping out. Kerr making a lot of sense with the three forward lineup and some new schemes to make things easier for Kuminga and Wiggins, which in turn makes things easier for shooters.
You'll notice I didn't mention Klay yet. I loved his last game, but his trend hasn't been great. I think if he can just manage the shot selection better, and not play when tired, he too can be a close facsimile of his former self.
5 East Coast cities in 7 nights, the only blemish that stupid overtime loss to Atlanta. We look very ready to do some damage. Let's GO!!!
Sorry folks, substack bugs on mobile prevented me from posting the postgame until now. Please meander that way.
https://dubnationhq.com/p/post-game-warriors-blow-out-pacers?r=3lm3s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
This is such a strange season. All season long, up until the trade deadline, this team has struggled, and it seemed they were missing multiple pieces if they wanted to contend. Then, all of a sudden, they not only don’t need any additional pieces via trade but are suddenly playing incredible basketball, incredible defense, and coming together.
12-2 February baby!
The surprising thing for me in this game was not the Warriors shooting 55% tonight. It was the Warriors holding the Pacers to 48% shooting. Pacers have the #2 offense in the league (#1 is Celtics), and the fact that we held a team with really good offense to below their average shooting tonight was pretty darn impressive. The Warriors were also playing their 5th game in 7 nights straight as well! They looked like the team with more energy tonight.
Yeah they are really surging and it's amazing to see. Especially with all the reliance on young guys.
Meanwhile, Utah and Memphis both lost tonight 👍. Hopefully, Lakers follow the same fate (they’re down 8 right now). Mavs lucked out with a decimated Knicks team.
Other stats:
Quinones: (+12)
6 points, 2/7 FGs, 0/3 threes, 2/2 FTs
5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block
Moody: (+8)
5 points, 2/3 FGs, 1/1 htree
3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 2 steals, 1 block
Jackson-Davis: (+4)
6 points, 2/3 FGs, 2/2 FTs
2 rebounds (1 off.), 1 turnover, 1 block
Nembhard: (-9)
10 points, 4/8 FGs, 2/4 threes
1 rebound, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 steal, 1 block
Haliburton: (-9)
5 points, 2/7 FGs, 1/4 threes
1 rebound, 11 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 steal, 1 block
Toppin: (-8)
7 points, 3/5 FGs, 1/3 threes
1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 turnover
Mathurin: (-13)
11 points, 2/11 FGs, 0/3 threes, 7/8 FTs
1 assist, 1 turnover
Sheppard: (-11)
8 points, 3/5 FGs, 1/3 threes, 1/1 FT
1 turnover, 1 block
McConnell: (-13)
6 points, 3/7 FGs
8 assists, 1 turnover, 1 steal
Notable stats:
Warriors:
Curry: (+13)
42 points, 15/22 FGs, 11/16 threes, 1/2 FTs
2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 block
Kuminga: (+20)
18 points, 9/16 FGs, 0/2 threes
2 rebounds (1 off.), 4 assists, 3 turnovers, 2 blocks
Santos: (+5)
13 points, 5/8 FGs, 2/2 threes, 1/2 FTs
8 rebounds (2 off.), 1 assist
Saric: (+12)
11 points, 4/6 FGs, 2/3 threes, 1/1 FT
7 rebounds (2 off.), 3 assists, 2 turnovers
Wiggins: (+9)
11 points, 5/10 FGs, 1/3 threes
4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal
Green: (+13)
8 points, 4/8 FGs, 0/1 three
8 rebounds (2 off.), 5 assists, 5 turnovers, 2 steals
Podziemski: (+23)
9 points, 3/9 FGs, 0/1 three, 3/4 FTs
7 rebounds (1 off.), 7 assists, 2 turnovers, 2 steals, 1 block
Pacers:
Smith: (+3)
14 points, 6/6 FGs, 2/2 threes
5 rebounds (3 off.), 1 steal
Siakam: (-16)
16 points, 6/11 FGs, 2/4 threes, 2/4 FTs
8 rebounds (2 off.), 2 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 steal, 1 block
Nesmith: (-9)
13 points, 4/7 FGs, 1/3 threes, 4/6 FTs
4 rebounds (1 off.), 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 5 steals, 1 block
Turner: (-13)
15 points, 5/12 FGs, 2/5 threes, 3/6 FTs
7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 block
Man, they really missed out when they didn’t trade kuminga for siakam.
Final stats:
Warriors:
55.9% shooting (52/93 FGs), 17/32 threes, 10/13 FTs
49 rebounds (10 off.), 33 assists, 17 turnovers, 7 steals, 7 blocks
Pacers:
48.1% shooting (39/81 FGs), 12/31 threes, 19/27 FTs
30 rebounds (7 off.), 31 assists, 14 turnovers, 11 steals, 6 blocks
Points in paint:
Warriors: 64
Pacers: 44
Fastbreak points:
Warriors: 9
Pacers: 15
Points off turnovers:
Warriors: 12
Pacers: 26
Bench points:
Warriors: 43
Pacers: 50
https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2016/4/3/1123540.gif
Big advantage in rebounds and points in paint, huh, I thought the Dubs were too small.
The Pacers are what Chuck thought those Warriors teams were tbh
Moody doesn't always show up on the stat sheet, but I always feel good about the team when he's out there. He's long and moves his feet well on defense, doesn't get lost, moves the ball around, and can hit the corner 3 when he's called upon.
Such a satisfying game. Indiana is fun to watch. But the Warriors having so many games compressed together forcing them to play all their guys is the best thing for this team. Kerr now playing Podz and Gui real rookie minutes?
Steph doing Steph MVP version.
Beating the Pacers at their own game?
Bring it on!
Guess I'll post the postgame stats here.
Who wants to pick up a game on Utah and the Lakers tonight? Because whether you wanna or not, it's coming. And with it, the dreaded *virtual tie* with Utah, one of the more peculiar phrases in sports. It's the ONLY correct way to say "Same number of games behind the leader but we haven't played the same number of games as each other." Don't say "tie," don't say "comparable record," don't say "even," say "virtual tie."
"comparable virtual even"
Man, they've been building some monster mercenary teams in the West to try and keep us out of the Finals....a lot of TALL hired guns have moved West....Dubs still mostly homegrown to shoot them down....
Somewhere, John Hollinger is not watching basketball games and thinking up more clickbaity garbage headlines.
Wrong, you said “thinking”
Well played, sir!
Since the restart, the Warriors are 6-3 with a point differential of +11.22. According to this site which uses an exponent of 16.5, the Warriors expected winning percentage is 82%, which means they've been on a 67 win pace over this stretch.
To be fair though, I think part of the current run is that the Warriors got a long break in the middle of the season whereas a lot of teams are probably sputtering toward the All-Star break.
Dubs now with +1.3 point differential - 7th in the west. Wouldn't be surprised to see them finish in that position when the regular season concludes.
This may be the best I've felt about the team in a year and a half. Steph is sublime. Kuminga is coming on. Wiggins finally looking consistently more like himself. Draymond since he came back looks excellent. Podz is such a great rookie. Looney Saric Moody contributing; soon enough GPII then CP coming back. Gui and Quinones raising serious eyebrows and helping out. Kerr making a lot of sense with the three forward lineup and some new schemes to make things easier for Kuminga and Wiggins, which in turn makes things easier for shooters.
You'll notice I didn't mention Klay yet. I loved his last game, but his trend hasn't been great. I think if he can just manage the shot selection better, and not play when tired, he too can be a close facsimile of his former self.
5 East Coast cities in 7 nights, the only blemish that stupid overtime loss to Atlanta. We look very ready to do some damage. Let's GO!!!
OOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fire it up!
JK is coming on? Don't you mean, already clearly the best young player in the Association?
I didn't feel like getting into another fight about it.
Who's disputing it?
It's not that it's disputed, it's that people inform me that they're tired of hearing me in particular saying it.
You're usually OK until you use the phrases "Godlike demeanor" and "Buy Kuminga Savings Bonds"
Postgame thread?
right, I was waiting, but finally made my post win post