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"When you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him." If one is to attain enlightenment, at some point that one must let go of all desires to attain enlightenment. All year, the Warriors have been the Monk so obsessed with his goal of enlightenment, he can't find his own feet. They have been playing like they are waiting for the spirit of last year to suddenly enter their bodies and lead them to victories. I see a team gripping the past so hard they can't hold onto the ball that is in their hands today, here and now. Last year was a bookend, it was an ending. They will not find the light until they extinguish that old flame and sit in darkness and face their own mortality. The 4 Championship Warrior's team is standing in the road between our team today and any future enlightenment (or good defense). "When you meet the Championship team in the road, kill it." The desire to be that which has past will lead, as one Sage once told me, to a horrible free throw disparity.

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The Warriors forgot the main job of a championship team: sign a ring chasing Vet that’s going to keep the pressure on for the title run. By committing to the youth movement publicly the Warriors weren’t able to sign the Drexler type that pushed the Rockets to their second title when the rest of the guys didn’t have their edge anymore.

The young guys are still so young they are in it for themselves and not titles yet.

The Vets and Primes are satisfied with their accomplishment last year and are waiting til after the asb to turn it on (hopefully?)

DDV is closest, he already has a ring but still has something to prove.

JMG sure didn’t start the year out playing like he was hungry, but his infection seems to have made him reflect and unlocked something within.

After the team wins this year I hope they bring in a serious ring chaser over the summer.

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Has anyone noticed all the quality ring chasers signing with other teams over the last couple? Despite the David Blaine crazy shit they pulled last year, I don't think ring chasers see us as a destination sensation, especially if you are a big. As much as guys want rings, none of them want to hear, "We think you could give us Beli minutes." I just think they have to stop trying to be last year's team. This team reminds me of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, like we are stuck waking up to Sonny & Cher every day. Gotta let go and let JK. ;-)

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Yeah the Warriors ring chaser skills seem to have peaked with Durant, then held strong with David West and Boogie. I notice that aside from Durant and guys joining up with the Durant Warriors, the Warriors don’t seem to have a top tier pitch. Especially in the buyout market. The Warriors aren’t bad. It’s just strange with how good of a teammate Steph seems. And even Bjelica who flat out said it was all about playing with Curry left the NBA instead of sticking around and defending the title. (Which I don’t think the Warriors planned on and actually might be a major cause of the roster imbalance this year.)

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And yes I know peaking with Durant is an all time top ring chaser signing.

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Ring Chaser. Sounds good to me 👍🏽

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

Right attitude, but it’s not the FT disparity… that’s a feature of the Kerr system… though I saw players seeking contact a lot more last night

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Was traveling during the trade deadline but I am grateful they traded Wiseman and cut their losses. Think he has to go down as the most disastrous pick in Warrior history given the stakes and the production, no?

I have never believed in the "you are mortgaging the future by trading Wiseman" takes, honestly I think the future looks better now without him. I like both PBJ and Kuminga better as big men prospects and he would have cut into their playing time. Also in the immediate future they can improve their backup center position which would have been great these past few seasons.

Also I think the Warriors had to go through with the trade because Wiseman's value was only going to be lower in the offseason, I'm sure part of the appeal for the Pistons is that starting Wiseman down the stretch of the season will help them tank for Wembanyama.

The worst thing that could have happened to Wiseman was the Warriors drafting him (except in terms of his bank account), so it's great that he's getting a shot on a franchise with less expectations and a simpler scheme. That said, I don't actually know if Detroit is a good spot for him? Duren is a way better center prospect and I don't think Wiseman enjoys going against his old rival Stewart that much. Maybe the practices against Stewart will force Wiseman to be less soft in his playing style? If that could happen he would get much, much better. Good luck, kid.

Lastly, hard for me to feel great about the trade though because I would have traded Wiseman in the summer and re-signed GP2 then. Could have had a healthier GP2 (since Celebrini>>>Portland's set of trainer geniuses) and also likely more than Bey or 5 second rounders. I do love me some Monday Morning QBing but this was my position back then too (https://dubnationhq.com/p/perks-on-2022-warriors-potential/comment/7473489 ). Oh well, I also would have dumped Poole before his second season so my lack of patience would not have paid off then.

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It was a big miss, but I don’t have any angst about it. A gamble I wouldn’t have made, but an understandable one. My preferred path (trading down for Haliburton) relies on me making up trades that may never have been available. The closest you could get me to draft regret is Kuminga over Wagner, until I remember that my team is the actual champion so there was literally no better outcome last year.

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Always worth remembering that it was a pretty weak draft. Looking back at the names, Anthony Edwards was a stud the Warriors weren't going to get, in retrospect LaMelo would have been better, and while a bunch of us wanted to trade down and get Halliburton, ultimately he went #12. If no trade were available and the Warriors had picked Halliburton #2 there would have been a lot of screaming about it being a horrible overdraft. The rest of the board consists of good players that are probably never go to be stars or even starters.

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I'm not racked with angst either, but I don't think you have to feel bad/good about it to understand the case for him being the worst pick in Warrior franchise history. To be fair, I still can't believe they picked Hal Lear in 1956 when KC Jones was right there.

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

For me the Joe Smith pick was another obviously awful pick. I was in college with a hopeful team so I paid a ton of attention to every college basketball game I had time to watch that year. UNC was scary. Stoudamire was tearing up the Pac-10. Ed O’bannon looked like a prototypical modern NBA player. Arkansas had Williamson. And Joe Smith was completely meh for a mid level Terps team that didn’t do much in the tournament (Am i west coast biased? Yep.) I’d never been a college hoops fan before getting to college, but was a big NBA fan watching games with my dad every night growing up. So I’d never really thought much about the draft process beyond the Lakers took the best player from the best college team, and the Celtics took the best player from the second best college team, and they dominated my childhood.

I was absolutely shocked when the Warriors took Joe Smith #1. And at that point it sort of started to make sense how bad teams stayed bad.

And then I thought Tim Duncan was a chump when Mark Madsen and the freshman Collins twins were able to bump him around enough to bounce him out of the tournament. Sooo not the greatest at identifying draft talent here either.

But I do believe in the DNHQ process and discourse of the EA draft tournament.

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So many options when you look at the history of the franchise.

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My angst is a proxy for how bad I think the pick was. :)

The simplest thing to say is “He was a #2 pick and he was a bust with GSW”. There, that’s the case and it’s true and it hurts. But it’s not very interesting either.

The context is important… it was a famously terrible draft (so no one wanted to trade up) in the middle of a deadly pandemic (so no one could properly scout) and the only alternative (LaMelo) came with big question marks on shooting, strength of competition, toxic family, fit with Kerrball, and ball dominance, and he plays the same position as two beloved hall of famers and also would have blocked the development of Poole. And NOBODY was taking Haliburton at #2.

Given that it’s not even clear there is a right draft pick at #2, I can’t call this even exactly a bad pick. Just a big gamble that I wouldn’t have made that missed big.

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> My angst is a proxy for how bad I think the pick was

Fair enough, but then we are talking about different things.

> The simplest thing to say is “He was a #2 pick and he was a bust with GSW”. There, that’s the case and it’s true and it hurts.

That's the most boring way to put the case imo, I don't think it captures what makes Wiseman the most disastrous pick in Warrior history. Ike Diogu was not the crown jewel of the "two timeline" approach after 5 of the last 6 seasons in the NBA Finals, you know? You don't have to find that interesting but I do.

> And NOBODY was taking Haliburton at #2.

Nobody was taking Josh Giddey at #6 before Kuminga until someone actually did it. Nobody was taking Paolo Banchero #1 before Holmgren and Smith before it actually happened. I still can't believe that Presti reached for Westbrook at #4 either. Taking Haliburton at #2 was certainly an option for the Warriors, just like every other player except Edwards.

> The context is important

You can add context to any situation of course, you can add context to why the Wolves didn't take Steph Curry (including that Dell Curry told the Wolves that Steph didn't want to play there). I don't actually think that stuff really matters though when we are talking about the impact/influence of a decision. And I personally don't find it as interesting either.

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I think this is boiling down to personal emotional reaction. I just don’t see it as a disaster and I can’t get too upset about it. Draft picks miss. The Warriors won the championship. My team was epic last year. You think it was a disaster, and I don’t think we will convince each other to change our feelings about it.

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I have no problem with anyone making peace with the Wiseman pick and enjoying the Warriors, but that's just not what I'm talking about. The effects of a decision and how we deal with those effects are two separate categories as far as I am concerned, I think you have been talking a lot about the latter (which is not to say you did not address the former too) while I was not talking about the latter and that is the disconnect.

For a non-Warrior example, I'm sure Pistons fans enjoyed that epic 2004 championship a ton but would concede that Darko Milicic was the most disastrous pick in franchise history (NBA history)? Two separate discussions.

But yeah you are right that our back and forth has probably ran its course. Good E1P by the way.

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Danny Ainge Literally did what the Warriors could have done twice: Jaylen Brown who absolutely nobody was taking there and Trading down and taking Tatum.

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Scottie Barnes over Jalen Suggs is another recent example, people didn't see it as plausible until it happened.

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Wiseman nailed it. He got max earnings, was in one of the most patient franchises at dealing with injuries, got a ring, and still has time to show out, show he’s the next KAT and earn that max contract.

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

Patrick O'Bryant comes to mind. But, it certainly joins our list of futility.

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I don't think O'Bryant or Fuller or any of them would come close tbh. The Warriors were nothing back then, fuck up a pick and they would just get another high pick the following year. This was a very rare opportunity for a dynasty to get a #2 pick, the stakes were much higher and the route they chose was probably the worst of any of the possibilities.

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Ugh seeing this brings back the whole tenure. I hope you don’t mind if I just let it all out in one go (in an attempt to move on and root for Wiseman to be successful with the Pistons.)

I said before the draft that it was literally the only pick I would be actively angry about for all the obvious reasons we’ve been over.

And then Lacob started talking about generational player this and that and they started him with zero practices under his belt making Curry’s passing of Reggie Miller happen in a non-competitive blowout because they were “developing” a HS center by having him play chopsticks in the middle of an orchestra. Which led to incandescent fury seeing a team that obviously had the ability to compete for a title throw it away because they didn’t believe in their returning players enough. (Talk about the ultimate front running mentality: If we aren’t virtually guaranteed a title why even try to compete.)

Then they won the title the very next year when the two anchors from the previous year didn’t play a minute for them and instead they brought in good supplementary players.

The wait til Wiseman gets back threats were annoying but ultimately harmless until the championship off-season. We saw what it meant at the start of this year and by then everyone saw the obvious, and harping too much about the foolishness of the whole situation would just be piling on.

Glad it’s over, actually think Wise can have a great career like KAT or Embiid if things break his way from here on out. Looking forward to the possibility of Kerrball being fully embraced in the roster building going forward so the W’s can squeeze out some more runs in the ever competitive west before the youth movement turns into the prime movement.

Go Warriors, the remaining F’ing Giants need to help this group get the job done and get this ship to shore for a fully healthy playoff run and a real attempt to defend the championship.

✌️

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Todd Fuller? Although they did manage to trade Fuller and some 1st round picks for one year of Chris Webber.

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13 minutes again for JFK. Once GP2 gets back on the court, we won't have to see him again. Thank goodness. I can't stand all of that unbridled athletic ability.

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He hasn’t been able to catch the ball lately for some reason.

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Vintage Klay on Wiseman ''Wiseman and me''...Poignant and spot-on. Thought it is important to share it...I think y'all understand when you hear it... AND much more postgame on win ''Bench won the game for us''...thoughts on DDV, TY, JMG, MENTORING, and ''looking forward to game'' vs Clips, ''love to play in that building''....5 min vid

https://youtu.be/9v22WJjl0nY

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Klay might hate doing the interviews, but is he one of the best ever? He’s so good at making real comments, like his friendship with Wiseman, and doing the regular game analysis stuff. He might be the goat of the post game. Plus his signature sign-off is awesome.

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He is the most real person doing interviews. He says what he thinks.

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Now I know what Duby looks like, but who’s the dude in the glasses?

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Definitely his twin brother...identical, to boot. I wish my ophthalmologist will finally come through with that appointment....two years is a long time to wait, even by European standards....

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To encourage more PIP next time they practise they need to make it 3pts for shots in the paint, 2pts for outside and 1pt beyond the arc. We will finally see the emergence of Wilt Chamberloon!

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Feb 14, 2023Liked by punk basketball

Alex Espinoza IV

@AlexEspinozaIV

Ty Jerome said “Draymond kinda lit into us in a timeout. From there Donte was picking up full court, JK was picking up full court.”

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Yep, ahem...mentoring...

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Let’s see, my favorite moments from the game:

Klay diving to the basket for a 2 hand slam.

Moody comes in, pulls a GP2 and takes the ball away from the Wiz, off and running.

Wiggins facing up and stopping Porzyngas. Some big boy defense.

Wiggins abusing defender after defender.

All kinds of crazy balls and players flying everywhere, turns into a DDV 3.

Klay draining it.

4th quarter, the answer to ‘where is scoring coming from?’ is LOONEY of course.

40 assists, and 50% 3 point shooting.

FT differential only -6.

JMG playing ok. Not missing layups or 3s. Proving my doubts wrong!

Wizards never giving up, even down a bunch with 2 minutes to go and Warriors don’t crumble. YAY!

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4th quarter scorer being Looney means the Warriors finally figured out who their best clutch scorer is?

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Clutch scorer... rebounder... everything-er

Keveon is the best. I'm stealing this from the stupid chatbot.

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Excellent recap please do them every game. Well, only the wins... Which will be all games of course, of course.

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Feb 14, 2023Liked by punk basketball

Cool picture, Triple D, and rad that your kid got a shirt!

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Thoughts on the game (I was napping through the 4th):

1) Moody came in and made an instant impact to the good. Wider base on D and way better balance an movement. His length is a killer tapped a ball for the rebound over Porzingas I believe.

2) when you score on a Keystone cops sequence, it might be your night.

3) Klay is still channeling his inner Steph (including being bad vs the Lakers, but he forgot that’s only at Staples.)

4) Attacking the paint is good!

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It was under Porzingis, but yeah, that was an awesome play!

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Curry and GP2 on the bench putting the joy back into the team.

One thing this team needs is better vibes going forward. GP2 adds to that even when he's injured.

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GPII was pretty subdued tonight. No bounce, intensity.

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lol Steph was whispering in his ear most of the night ''save it, we'll come back together, let it all loose, and they'll never know what hit them''....

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It's weird that this is true. They're professionals and all that, ten championships in, but it matters. Wiseman was not inspiring anyone, poor kid. GPII is like walking inspiration.

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You've been voted captain of a lifeboat with dwindling supplies. You have one seat left in the boat but one too many people. You can throw either Ty Jerome or Anthony Lamb overboard. What do you d --

Wait! Complication! Dario Saric and Kevin Love are treading water by the sharks. You can pull one in and put him in the empty seat, tossing Lamb and Jerome overboard. What do you d --

Wait! Complication! You could also throw Andre overboard, although you've just fed him a lot of your remaining food and you remember that he actually built this boat. You could throw him overboard, making two empty seats to be taken by any two of Jerome, Lamb, Love, or Saric.

What do you do?

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

Cannibalism isn't an option in this scenario?

#NoLimits

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I like Ty food too

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LMAO...

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LOL :)

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I like Lamb.

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Luv them both....so do the Dubs....Figure it out BOB, we expect a FEAST...LOL

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

THE Captain of the boat, KERR, shouts from the helm, ''anyone who tries to throw TY over is shark bait, ANDRE will see to it, and, then we recover TY, AND, Love, or, Lamb, or , Saric, whoever is closer''.

I grab my seat firmly, and in awe defer to the real deal's judgement, relieved....

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Suddenly Little Mac emerges in the distance.....

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Fortunately, he was a general and stuck to horses (aside from the Peninsular Campaign).

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MUTINY TIME...I'd throw the CAPTAIN overboard, ANDRE, too....lol

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Either Love or Saric. But Ty over Lamb for sure.

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Interesting. For a dozen games in a row there, Lamb was the call. Harder to say now.

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Ty became my fave after this game; calm and focused, keeping his handle under control when things were hectic, and that soft little floater at the right time was the cherry on top. Like to see him signed if a good buyout big doesn't fall into our laps.

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I don’t think Lamb was ever the call. The two things he brought to the party were being an emergency “big” when everyone was hurt and 3-point shooting, but he’s not an actual big and Ty is just as good a 3-point shooter but brings Iggy/Livingston leadership and backup PG skills that makes the party much more enjoyable. Ty is a proven winner…and a keeper.

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Well-stated....

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Yup... then JMG took his minutes (and/or he got stuck with only 9 games of eligibility left and Steph got injured).

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I think more B than A

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 15, 2023

Andre, because he's a team-first, sacrificial kind of guy, announces his retirement and frees up a spot. I think I keep Lamb and Love. I'd love to keep Jerome, but we just have so many guards. (Note: After the Clippers game, I flipflopped. I really want both of these guys...)

I wish the NBA had injured reserve. Rollins shouldn't cost a roster spot.

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Damn, you *almost* got to "Sacrificial Lamb"...

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Iphigenia in the Iliad. But, the Greeks, who know something about Lamb and sacrifices, had it that the gods/Artemis saved her and took her to Tauris where she became her High Priestess. She was later freed by Orestes, her brother and son of King Agamemnon , who had been willing to sacrifice her. Agamemnon, btw, returned victorious from Troy, only to be slain in the bathtub by Aegisthus, his unfaithful wife's, Queen Clytemnestra's, lover, and both seized the throne. Orestes avenged his father's murder and killed them both; unfortunately, committing matricide in doing so. Endless tragedy....lol

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Sounds like a movie i saw recently

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Feb 14, 2023Liked by punk basketball

Here's a highlight of the final possession by the Mavs where the Wolves defense discombobulated Kyrie and Luka.

https://streamable.com/4f031u

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That was a comedy of errors! That was the first game Kyrie and Luka played together, so I’m sure they’ll be better bit that was funny as hell. Doncic looks like he gained weight.

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

That is glorious! Shaqtin candidate there

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Lol...BEST START/BAPTISM of the new MAV Backcourt I could have ever imagined....

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Talk about a team effort! 7 Dubs players had 4 or more assists tonight, and Dubs had 40 total.

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Feb 14, 2023·edited Feb 14, 2023

I loved, loved, loved the repeated head tap attack. I’m gonna call it Canadian Water Drop Torture

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Feb 14, 2023Liked by punk basketball

Klay excited about playing tomorrow.

Anthony Slater

@anthonyVslater

Klay Thompson expects to play tomorrow in a back-to-back for the first time: “Yes. I’m so excited.”

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Enter B2B Splash Bro Klay to the rescue....

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Hopefully not back to back 4th Qs.🙃

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