Gamethread: Warriors are at .500 and in Detroit to face the Pistons
After six games the Dubs have a 3-3 start to the season, but we all know the best players show up in Game 7's.
The Golden State Warriors couldn’t get the job done in Charlotte last night, losing 120-113 in overtime to a shorthanded Hornets team missing quality hoopers like LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier.
That loss dropped the defending champions to 3-3 on the season, but thankfully the NBA’s scheduling gives the Dubs an opportunity for a quick bounce back. The Warriors play again today, squaring off with the Detroit Pistons in Michigan.
That’ll be at 3PM PT on NBC Sports Bay Area, and here’s the Athletic’s Anthony Slater with your Golden State injury report:
Status update: Jordan Poole is available for the Warriors tonight. He will start. https://t.co/e1eVIqWmLi
Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater
Happy Sunday, hope you get some trick-or-treatin’ in!
Things I would like to see more of.
Moody working on his small forward game in our system. He has the open 3s down, but would like to see him in a vet heavy lineup cutting more and exploring a pull up elbow 2. His 2pt% is awful, but I believe some of that is the ill-advised shots and drives he gets stuck with in 2nd unit lineups. To be a good small forward in our system, you need to hit open 3s, cut hard to the rim and have something reliable in between. Playing in a vet heavy rotation should create more of those opportunities for Moody and will allow Wiggins to lend more support to the 2nd unit.
At this point, if I was JK, I would be watching a bunch of GP2 tape. Attack defender, make the quick simple pass and be sneaky moving without the ball. GP2 was one of the sneakiest off-ball movers I have ever seen. It was like a magic act watching him pop up in the dunker's spot out of nowhere. And of course, rebound and run, run, and run. If we are missing anything this year, it's what GP2 brought, a unique skill set that was able to attach itself to the Warriors system. If JK would only stop thinking about scoring, the scoring would come.
Wiseman. Stop messing around. Steph & Dray need to learn how to work with Wiseman and get the most out of him. He is going to be a part of the franchise moving forward or he is not. In other words, he is going to play well with Steph and Dray or he is not. So, play them. If Steph-Klay-Wiggs-Dray can't carry a young Wiseman, if that group plays together and has a negative +/--, is that on Wiseman? That's 3 HoFers, 4 All-Star starters. You saying y'all can't make music with one weak link in the rotation? They will never develop together without playing together and there is no better way for Wise to learn than to learn from the masters in real time, especially on the defensive side. Just sayin'. It's still the regular season. It ain't Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals.
Of the three, Wiseman has the most potential upside for the post-season. (I'm saying this because we pretty much know what to expect from Moody and JK hasn't carved out a specific role.) I would like to push him and just make sure he gets equal playing time between vet heavy and youth heavy rotations.
Cup of Dubs 2022/23 basketball. Half full or half empty? Everyone gets to choose.