If anyone else needs ways to procrastinate on a monday, watch steph's highlights from last night and just watch how the player(s) defending him react every time... I love watching CJ shrug at the blazers bench like "what do you want me to do with this?" hahaha
Was watching Kerr struggle to respond to why Steph gets overlooked, and I realized that we should pity folks who don't get Steph (and Draymond) because they are two of the most unique players in history and neither one fits into the conventional NBA superstar box. What kind of player is under 6'5" and can score like Steph? What kind of player who can score like Steph is as efficient as Steph? Nobody. What kind of player can score a single point and yet be the second best player on a team (and tied first in importance when it comes to winning)? How easy is it for NBA fans with decades looking at freak giants (and Michael Jordan) conditioned to see excellence that way to overlook Steph and Dray?
We're exceptionally blessed to have both of them playing together and nights like tonight are part of the payoff.
At start of 2021/decade, at the Pantheon of NBA GOAT Scorers, Wilt and Kobe were cheering on Stephen Curry last night, as he reminded us the GOAT SHOOTER is also one of the GOAT SCORERS WITHIN a TEAM system; unselfish play revolutionized game/dominated last decade.
Kudos to Steve Kerr and staff for all the adjustments, including higher PnR, giving everyone room to operate. Kudos to Dray/Team for giving back. Kudos to the GREAT Dame Lillard, Oakland's Own, for demonstrative respect.
Curry on the season now: 34.7 pts on .636 true shooting. Turns out five-game samples are not worth bunching undies over. Who knew.
He did however tank his FT% with that one brick. He’s now at 98.0% from the stripe on the season, a fairly alarming drop-off from last season’s 100.0%.
I was and still am somewhat on the fence on whether it would have made more sense to try to extract Covington from Minnesota (along with I suppose Dieng) in the DLo deal in place of Wiggins. Covington's D and ability to be Klay-lite on catch-and-shoot 3s is very appealing; and he was killer for stretches in last year's playoffs. At the same time ... you watch a game like last night's and see how many more things Wiggins can do on the floor than RoCo, even if he does them all imperfectly: handle, pass, post-up, drive, create shots for himself and others, guard 1-4, e.g. Covington does his 3-and-D things well, but is fairly hopeless when asked to anything beyond that (e.g, execute a straight line dribble to the rim on a fastbreak without randomly picking up the ball, lol). Wiggins is just a whole different caliber of athlete and baller.
Throw in the fact that Wiggins is 25 where Covington is 30, and the fact that Wiggins' contract preserves the max salary slot we lost with KD, and I think we probably made the right call. (Not sure if the Minny first rounder would have come in a RoCo/Dieng deal, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it would have). But ask me again after the next bad Wiggins game... ;-P
Seems like the baseball matchups might be a big advantage for the Warriors this year since it gives them a chance to make intentional adjustments and see them pay off right away. Oubre knew he had to fight over screens and it showed. Wiseman did way better against drives. They went to Paschall more often while he was out there. And Steph and Draymond came through in a big way.
That’s going to give positive reinforcement to the new guys and hopefully speed up that learning curve.
I'm not happy that Chriss got injured, but it seems like the Warriors stumbled onto a surprisingly effective second unit by putting Paschall at the smallball center and Wiggins at smallball PF. Tonight they were +1 in the Curry-less minutes, which is a lot better than people were expecting for the Curry-less minutes this season. We'll see if it continues.
Currently, Kerr is letting Oubre overlap with the Curry minutes. I thought Oubre was going to help the second unit once Draymond was healthy, but I realized tonight that Oubre playing with Curry allows Oubre to guard the point guard and Curry to take it easier defensively.
This game is a great argument for the baseball-style series in the schedule this season. The Warriors adjusted, Steph adjusted, the players were motivated, lots of guys played at a high level... lots of great basketball.
Best games we've seen yet this season from Bazemore, Paschall, Draymond, probably Wiggins, maybe Oubre, and... oh yeah, that #30 guy. You can see the growth from Wiseman, too. Lee and JTA, Looney, and Wanamaker did fine. Lots of things to be happy for.
I loved the way the team fought for rebounds; Looney & Paschall's boxing out was critical to making that happen, as was other guys going in to scoop it up (Bazemore, Dray, Steph, and Lee notably ). Oubre and Wiggins were waaaay better about not just getting blown by when Lillard or McCollum attacked. It also sure helped that a bunch of Blazers ended up in foul trouble. You could see Curry and Wiggins both hunting for fouls a lot. While it wasn't exactly pretty, and they didn't get the calls nearly all the times they wanted them, the effort paid off in the long run.
I love that Steph's 62 ended with him and Lillard trading long-range bombs rather than just grinding out points at the free-throw line.
There were a couple boneheaded plays that guys are gonna regret, too, of course. Wanamaker and Wiseman both "saving" it to the other team under the basket... Mulder(?) losing it off his foot... oops. On the other side, Lillard crossing up so hard he loses the ball out of bounds in the late 4th... 😬 Wiseman looked like he was fighting pretty hard with Nurkic for position and is probably going to have to learn a little more carefully the boundary where refs won't call a foul on that kind of activity.
Your glass 1/2 empty report: Steph's free throw streak was broken and outside of Steph and Lee, nobody can make a 3. How do the Warriors expect to win if Steph only shoots 95% on free throws? Watching the highlights (I missed the actual game) the defense didn't look that bad for a change. Lillard made some absolutely ridiculous shots to keep it close.
Had to watch delayed, Wife’s birthday, so I missed the game thread which must have been a hoot. What a game Steph! But I thought there were lots of encouraging signs for this team moving forward too.
I watched first half while attending to something urgent. Was Dray's defense in first half DPOY level? To my distracted mind, seemed like he nullified Nurkic.
Saw some of the best stuff yet out of Wiseman. Soaring rebounds, sound D, lob conversions, some sweet post moves. Even passed up an open 3. He may make us doubters look foolish yet.
This felt so good. Steph benefitted from the whistles and looked feisty. Wigs had nice penetration and like Wiseman and Oubre will benefit from playing with Draymond. Mistakes like Wigs missing a cutback and Kelly taking on the whole team with under 15 seconds on the clock will get ironed out. Give them some time.
Wizards beat the Nets, Bulls beat the Mavericks without Doncic. It feels that no team is safe in the Eastern Conference since anyone can beat anyone over there.
Great win by the whole team but obvious Curry's night. Steph is just getting started. This isn't even the craziest thing we will see from him this year. That is why I can't take anyone seriously who says that the Warriors won't be in the playoffs. They must have forgot who this man is.
If anyone else needs ways to procrastinate on a monday, watch steph's highlights from last night and just watch how the player(s) defending him react every time... I love watching CJ shrug at the blazers bench like "what do you want me to do with this?" hahaha
Was watching Kerr struggle to respond to why Steph gets overlooked, and I realized that we should pity folks who don't get Steph (and Draymond) because they are two of the most unique players in history and neither one fits into the conventional NBA superstar box. What kind of player is under 6'5" and can score like Steph? What kind of player who can score like Steph is as efficient as Steph? Nobody. What kind of player can score a single point and yet be the second best player on a team (and tied first in importance when it comes to winning)? How easy is it for NBA fans with decades looking at freak giants (and Michael Jordan) conditioned to see excellence that way to overlook Steph and Dray?
We're exceptionally blessed to have both of them playing together and nights like tonight are part of the payoff.
At start of 2021/decade, at the Pantheon of NBA GOAT Scorers, Wilt and Kobe were cheering on Stephen Curry last night, as he reminded us the GOAT SHOOTER is also one of the GOAT SCORERS WITHIN a TEAM system; unselfish play revolutionized game/dominated last decade.
Kudos to Steve Kerr and staff for all the adjustments, including higher PnR, giving everyone room to operate. Kudos to Dray/Team for giving back. Kudos to the GREAT Dame Lillard, Oakland's Own, for demonstrative respect.
Curry on the season now: 34.7 pts on .636 true shooting. Turns out five-game samples are not worth bunching undies over. Who knew.
He did however tank his FT% with that one brick. He’s now at 98.0% from the stripe on the season, a fairly alarming drop-off from last season’s 100.0%.
I was and still am somewhat on the fence on whether it would have made more sense to try to extract Covington from Minnesota (along with I suppose Dieng) in the DLo deal in place of Wiggins. Covington's D and ability to be Klay-lite on catch-and-shoot 3s is very appealing; and he was killer for stretches in last year's playoffs. At the same time ... you watch a game like last night's and see how many more things Wiggins can do on the floor than RoCo, even if he does them all imperfectly: handle, pass, post-up, drive, create shots for himself and others, guard 1-4, e.g. Covington does his 3-and-D things well, but is fairly hopeless when asked to anything beyond that (e.g, execute a straight line dribble to the rim on a fastbreak without randomly picking up the ball, lol). Wiggins is just a whole different caliber of athlete and baller.
Throw in the fact that Wiggins is 25 where Covington is 30, and the fact that Wiggins' contract preserves the max salary slot we lost with KD, and I think we probably made the right call. (Not sure if the Minny first rounder would have come in a RoCo/Dieng deal, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it would have). But ask me again after the next bad Wiggins game... ;-P
Seems like the baseball matchups might be a big advantage for the Warriors this year since it gives them a chance to make intentional adjustments and see them pay off right away. Oubre knew he had to fight over screens and it showed. Wiseman did way better against drives. They went to Paschall more often while he was out there. And Steph and Draymond came through in a big way.
That’s going to give positive reinforcement to the new guys and hopefully speed up that learning curve.
I'm not happy that Chriss got injured, but it seems like the Warriors stumbled onto a surprisingly effective second unit by putting Paschall at the smallball center and Wiggins at smallball PF. Tonight they were +1 in the Curry-less minutes, which is a lot better than people were expecting for the Curry-less minutes this season. We'll see if it continues.
http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20210103&game=PORGSW
Currently, Kerr is letting Oubre overlap with the Curry minutes. I thought Oubre was going to help the second unit once Draymond was healthy, but I realized tonight that Oubre playing with Curry allows Oubre to guard the point guard and Curry to take it easier defensively.
This game is a great argument for the baseball-style series in the schedule this season. The Warriors adjusted, Steph adjusted, the players were motivated, lots of guys played at a high level... lots of great basketball.
Best games we've seen yet this season from Bazemore, Paschall, Draymond, probably Wiggins, maybe Oubre, and... oh yeah, that #30 guy. You can see the growth from Wiseman, too. Lee and JTA, Looney, and Wanamaker did fine. Lots of things to be happy for.
I loved the way the team fought for rebounds; Looney & Paschall's boxing out was critical to making that happen, as was other guys going in to scoop it up (Bazemore, Dray, Steph, and Lee notably ). Oubre and Wiggins were waaaay better about not just getting blown by when Lillard or McCollum attacked. It also sure helped that a bunch of Blazers ended up in foul trouble. You could see Curry and Wiggins both hunting for fouls a lot. While it wasn't exactly pretty, and they didn't get the calls nearly all the times they wanted them, the effort paid off in the long run.
I love that Steph's 62 ended with him and Lillard trading long-range bombs rather than just grinding out points at the free-throw line.
There were a couple boneheaded plays that guys are gonna regret, too, of course. Wanamaker and Wiseman both "saving" it to the other team under the basket... Mulder(?) losing it off his foot... oops. On the other side, Lillard crossing up so hard he loses the ball out of bounds in the late 4th... 😬 Wiseman looked like he was fighting pretty hard with Nurkic for position and is probably going to have to learn a little more carefully the boundary where refs won't call a foul on that kind of activity.
Your glass 1/2 empty report: Steph's free throw streak was broken and outside of Steph and Lee, nobody can make a 3. How do the Warriors expect to win if Steph only shoots 95% on free throws? Watching the highlights (I missed the actual game) the defense didn't look that bad for a change. Lillard made some absolutely ridiculous shots to keep it close.
Had to watch delayed, Wife’s birthday, so I missed the game thread which must have been a hoot. What a game Steph! But I thought there were lots of encouraging signs for this team moving forward too.
Woooooow!!!
And here we go! Beautiful performance tonight
I watched first half while attending to something urgent. Was Dray's defense in first half DPOY level? To my distracted mind, seemed like he nullified Nurkic.
Saw some of the best stuff yet out of Wiseman. Soaring rebounds, sound D, lob conversions, some sweet post moves. Even passed up an open 3. He may make us doubters look foolish yet.
This felt so good. Steph benefitted from the whistles and looked feisty. Wigs had nice penetration and like Wiseman and Oubre will benefit from playing with Draymond. Mistakes like Wigs missing a cutback and Kelly taking on the whole team with under 15 seconds on the clock will get ironed out. Give them some time.
Wizards beat the Nets, Bulls beat the Mavericks without Doncic. It feels that no team is safe in the Eastern Conference since anyone can beat anyone over there.
Great win by the whole team but obvious Curry's night. Steph is just getting started. This isn't even the craziest thing we will see from him this year. That is why I can't take anyone seriously who says that the Warriors won't be in the playoffs. They must have forgot who this man is.