Healing Warriors get Anderson back; Curry, Podz, Payton will be on hand to host Lakers
plus: tales of trains and old friends on a Thursday night
The Golden State Warriors found some interesting options in the most recent win over the Chicago Bulls, and will now test their mettle against the familiar crucible of LeBron James. The Los Angeles Lakers are a much better team than the Bulls, and will serve as a much more insightful proof of viability for Golden State’s new look with a young stretch five.
Curry will play tonight, his first back-to-back appearance in a while. Reportedly, his knees are feeling better - maybe because there was a noticeable lift from the rest of the roster last game. Gary Payton, Brandin Podziemski, who came back last game and will be in tonight as well, alongside another returning player: Kyle Anderson.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (22-22) vs Los Angeles Lakers (24-18)
WHEN: Saturday. January 25th, 2025; 5:30pm PST
WATCH: ABC / ESPN2
Reporting not-so-live from Post’s big night
Walking down the hallway at work on Wednesday afternoon talking about the Warriors, I made a little quip about one of the silver linings to the team being bad was that tickets were going to be cheaper. We had discussed getting a work crew together for a game in November but balked at the ticket cost. Still, it’s a fun little distraction for us to talk about.
So I was super happy to see a text from one of the GOATS of friendship with an offer of free tickets.
I took the train in from the south bay for the first time.
As a long-time fan that frequently took the Warriors up on their offer of a Great Time Out - four tickets, each with a voucher for a free drink, hot dog and chips. The upper deck in Oracle was full of the most boisterous bunch of fans. Club 200. San Francisco never felt the same. They pipe in the WAAARRRRRIIIIIIOORRS chant on the PA. It helps keep the fans organized, but there’s something organically lacking about this place for me.
Waiting for my buddy to show up, there was one lone hero in that cavernous concrete courtyard who lifted up the Warriors call. I wasn’t ready and left it hanging. No one else called back to him. Sometimes the mosh pit doesn’t have enough people and I’m not ready to go in. This felt similar.
There’s something almost childlike in the feeling I still get walking into the inner sanctum of a Warriors game - especially on a night like Thursday, when I knew we had sweet seat after we climbed just one mild escalator ride before being directed around the corner. You walk down and there’s a blossom of input to the senses. The lights, the familiar sounds of basketball, but cooked into a tapestry of background chatter and the aromas of food that probably isn’t as good as it smells.1
We walked in late, the Warriors already down big. “It’s early,” I said hopefully. But these days you never know if you’re about to sit through one of those especially painful nights. Play stopped and we were allowed to file in, finding our seats and looking up at the 20-6 score. From there though, the Warriors clawed back into it.
First it was Kevon Looney coming in to stabilize the middle. Then Moses Moody and Gui Santos. Then Dennis Schroder in for Buddy Hield. It was funny to look at a Bulls team that I was so unfamiliar with going up against a Warriors lineup that surely looks equally unknown to those on the other side of the fandom.
But it worked. The Warriors found something worth exploring. Quintin Post shared the court with Curry for the first time on Thursday and served up an eye-opening 20 points in 20 minutes stretch (7 of 12 overall, hitting 5 of his 10 threes). If necessity really is the mother of invention, then it’s a good thing that the Warriors have been so desperate for answers and finally gave Post a real chance. Via Anthony Slater:
Post, drafted 52nd in June and shoehorned into the roster on a two-way contract, had shown promise in his most recent G League stint, scoring 30, 30 and 27 in three early January games. He’s a true 7-footer who made 40-plus percent of his college 3s at Mississippi State and Boston College and impressed Green, Kevon Looney and the coaching staff in camp enough with his toughness and physicality to warrant an opportunity.
There were even people in the organization a little annoyed that the front office didn’t get him to Minnesota in time for that shorthanded game against the Timberwolves to close the previous road trip. The staff has gained increasing belief in recent weeks that Post, an older rookie at 24, might be able to fill an obvious void as a floor-spacing center.
There was a palpable sense of joy in the win. Maybe it was the overall experience, sitting next to one of my oldest friends, not a worry in the world except timing the halftime beer run and helping the few brave souls that were chanting for defense or heckling the ref.
Post isn’t a normal rookie. From that same Slater article, Kerr’s postgame comments regarding Post’s performance were telling. Pointing out that Post played five years of college basketball and calling him “an old school rookie,” Kerr called out an improved defensive ability - citing his time in Santa Cruz working on defending pick-and-rolls. Post mentioned Zaza Pachulia as someone within the organization that he speaks with regularly.
Post would be a perfect fit. A young stretch big on a favorable contract that just so happened to get his one opportunity almost by accident as the Warriors preferred options all fell by the wayside and the team grew desperate for something - anything - to help conjure up some of the old fading magic.
And for a night, it worked.
That’s good enough for now. As the fans started filtering out, the game well in hand, I felt at ease; lucky to be there. Hope was back for Dub Nation. Something fun to talk about.
Prediction
As our own Eric Apricot broke down, rookie (and DNHQ favorite) Quintin Post had quite a game last time, his first appearance with Curry. I predict he gets attacked a bit more, but will create some spacing chaos that helps the Warriors win.
asd
We both got the Bakesale Betty’s fried chicken sandwich. Was shockingly good.
Post-game thread up.
Promising stuff from QP. I don’t trust that 3PT shot in the corner though. It’s on Kerr to keep QP at the top of the arc.