The Kings are two games back of Memphis, and hold the tie breaker (H2H is tied, Kings will have better conference record if they have same record). The Kings and Grizzlies will both have something to play for when they play the Pelicans, and the Kings will almost certainly have something to play for against the Warriors.
The Suns, meanwhile, play the Spurs next, and a win clinches the 4 seed for them. Their last 3 games will be effectively meaningless, two of which are against the Lakers, then Clippers. Probably they'll rest the main guys against the Clippers in that last game.
“I still feel like we can [keep everyone together]," Curry said on 95.7 The Game's Steiny & Guru. "Obviously, we understand how important Bob is, we understand how important Coach is, our core, Draymond, Klay [Thompson], myself, Andre [Iguodala], even though he's had a rough year with injuries and whatnot, he's been extremely valuable behind the scenes in helping maintain our culture.”
In honor of national championship tonght, I was trying to think of Warriors who have won NCAA titles and have a ring with the Dubs. The only ones I could think of are Quinn Cook and of course Dub legend Mo Buckets! Am I missing anyone from the current run? What about 1975?
Random Rant. Kerr doesn’t like playing bigs because he and the team changed the league by running small ball lineups that ran big men out the gym.
These days big men are more mobile and can shoot so we don’t have that same advantage anymore. The rest of the league’s counter to this was the use of lengthy athletic wings who can run with good pace, shoot, and defend and kept Big Men who can do the same with passable mobility.
Obviously Kerr knows this and his counter to that is to play even smaller players who are faster and can shoot slightly better than that. So he is doubling down on going even smaller and plays a 4 guard lineup like yesterday where the tallest player on the court was 6’7 guard Thompson. Before GP2 got here he often went with 3 guard lineups. He wants to shift the game to an even faster pace and hopefully he can get that same advantage they had years ago.
Problem #1 our core is aging and are slower.
Problem #2 is we have to hit our 3s to win games that’s our bread and butter. When we don’t, we lose, it’s simple.
Problem #3 we give up on rebounding and interior defense. Then when you try to remedy the first by sagging off the perimeter, we give up open or poorly contested 3s.
Regardless if we win or lose this season, I feel like this off season our Roster will be playing catch up to mirror other Rosters and not the other way around for the first time in a long while. Bigs are serviceable now and they can run against small ball lineups, Bigs getting drafted these days fit that mold otherwise they wouldn’t be in the league. Basically we need 5 more Kumingas or 1 Wemby or somebody like JJJ or a whole team of Kumingas with 1 Steph and 1 Dray. If we want to dominant again we’ll have to adapt. DDV won’t be back next season most likely. His replacement should most likely be a combo Big who can defend interior decently, grab rebounds, run the floor, and have a reliable offensive weapon or maybe hit a 3. You know somebody like JMG but better haha.
👋 Long time no see, all. I went to Japan for a couple weeks at the start of February and I've been playing catch-up/avoiding spoilers since coming back. Took a lot longer than I thought to finally get up-to-date with how fast the games have been coming!
To summarize how I'm feeling on basketball things: I'm in an uneasy ground between worry and acceptance. Wiggins missing time has, in some ways, made it easier to excuse the Dubs underperforming, although when you think about how it's almost exclusively road/home splits it gets maddening again. GP2 being back has been a pleasure; in particular, I'm loving how the pressure he adds has turned out to be not redundant but actually complements DDV's. I'm disappointed Klay's toasty Jan/Feb mode couldn't last forever, nervous about every Draymond bump and fall, sad that we've probably seen Iguadala's last game already, relieved that Steph and many others on the team seem to be as near full health as you can be at this point in a basketball season, and hopeful that Wiggins won't need past the first round to get in game shape if he's indeed back.
The thing that makes me most concerned right now is that we are gonna need some road wins throughout the postseason, and those have been way too hard to come by so far. Oh yeah, and the Western conference standings are about as nerve-wrackingly volatile as putting your life savings in crypto, so that's... "fun".
It still feels possible for this team to win a championship, but realistically this is about the most "underdog" they've been going into the postseason in a long while. Hopefully that's a motivator that'll propel the Dubs to play up to the moment.
Gotta wonder why they didn't just say that it was a family related health issue... that's pretty much the only acceptable excuse anyway, it's kinda what everyone assumed, and it's totally understandable. Instead Wigg's GF had to go through the wringer for no reason... to each their own I suppose!
Welcome back Wiggs! Glad to have the help, I agree he won't solve everything, but man some of the commenters really don't seem to appreciate how much he contributes to making the whole thing work even if he isn't the peak playoffs 2022 version.
Also, if he can ramp up quickly enough to keep us in it, he'll be fresh for the later rounds.
Like last year, seems like the longer they can last, the better the team will be, so the first and second rounds might be a bigger danger than the WCF or finals. But, it also seems like there isn't that much separation 1 to 8, is there any team you can say yeah, those guys are the clear favs in the West? So, playing the Suns, Kings, or Grizz (ok, even Denver but hopefully we don't fall to eight) in the first round all have challenges but also limitations.
Klay's would-be game winner last night was almost a mirror image of the one he hit to put us ahead for good in Game 4 of the finals last year. After fifteen hours of angst, I'm at peace with that trade-off.
Postgame die by the three thread: Ice cold Warriors lose by two
For those scoreboard watching:
The Kings are two games back of Memphis, and hold the tie breaker (H2H is tied, Kings will have better conference record if they have same record). The Kings and Grizzlies will both have something to play for when they play the Pelicans, and the Kings will almost certainly have something to play for against the Warriors.
The Suns, meanwhile, play the Spurs next, and a win clinches the 4 seed for them. Their last 3 games will be effectively meaningless, two of which are against the Lakers, then Clippers. Probably they'll rest the main guys against the Clippers in that last game.
As per Steph
“I still feel like we can [keep everyone together]," Curry said on 95.7 The Game's Steiny & Guru. "Obviously, we understand how important Bob is, we understand how important Coach is, our core, Draymond, Klay [Thompson], myself, Andre [Iguodala], even though he's had a rough year with injuries and whatnot, he's been extremely valuable behind the scenes in helping maintain our culture.”
https://apple.news/AuDQXbmkGTVeYi-CAsFRT0A
I just want to give Wiggs a hug. Thank you Dubs organization for the support you showed this man. We love you Two-way.
SDSU down 12 at the half (could've been worse). If only there was precedent for a comeback from that large of a deficit.
In honor of national championship tonght, I was trying to think of Warriors who have won NCAA titles and have a ring with the Dubs. The only ones I could think of are Quinn Cook and of course Dub legend Mo Buckets! Am I missing anyone from the current run? What about 1975?
EDIT: Jamaal Wilkes
Frustrating to have "one of those games" when a win would've meant so much. One the one hand . . .
WIGGINS IS BACK, who cares about the other hand?
Random Rant. Kerr doesn’t like playing bigs because he and the team changed the league by running small ball lineups that ran big men out the gym.
These days big men are more mobile and can shoot so we don’t have that same advantage anymore. The rest of the league’s counter to this was the use of lengthy athletic wings who can run with good pace, shoot, and defend and kept Big Men who can do the same with passable mobility.
Obviously Kerr knows this and his counter to that is to play even smaller players who are faster and can shoot slightly better than that. So he is doubling down on going even smaller and plays a 4 guard lineup like yesterday where the tallest player on the court was 6’7 guard Thompson. Before GP2 got here he often went with 3 guard lineups. He wants to shift the game to an even faster pace and hopefully he can get that same advantage they had years ago.
Problem #1 our core is aging and are slower.
Problem #2 is we have to hit our 3s to win games that’s our bread and butter. When we don’t, we lose, it’s simple.
Problem #3 we give up on rebounding and interior defense. Then when you try to remedy the first by sagging off the perimeter, we give up open or poorly contested 3s.
Regardless if we win or lose this season, I feel like this off season our Roster will be playing catch up to mirror other Rosters and not the other way around for the first time in a long while. Bigs are serviceable now and they can run against small ball lineups, Bigs getting drafted these days fit that mold otherwise they wouldn’t be in the league. Basically we need 5 more Kumingas or 1 Wemby or somebody like JJJ or a whole team of Kumingas with 1 Steph and 1 Dray. If we want to dominant again we’ll have to adapt. DDV won’t be back next season most likely. His replacement should most likely be a combo Big who can defend interior decently, grab rebounds, run the floor, and have a reliable offensive weapon or maybe hit a 3. You know somebody like JMG but better haha.
Wiggins. Hope grows.
Regular Season: 5-Man Combinations
S. Curry | D. Green | K. Looney | K. Thompson | A. Wiggins
330:55 minutes played
+24.3 net points per 100 possessions
In honour of his return... a little homage to Wiggs from The NBA Storyteller (if you didn't catch it 6 months ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBtGoMw33TI
👋 Long time no see, all. I went to Japan for a couple weeks at the start of February and I've been playing catch-up/avoiding spoilers since coming back. Took a lot longer than I thought to finally get up-to-date with how fast the games have been coming!
To summarize how I'm feeling on basketball things: I'm in an uneasy ground between worry and acceptance. Wiggins missing time has, in some ways, made it easier to excuse the Dubs underperforming, although when you think about how it's almost exclusively road/home splits it gets maddening again. GP2 being back has been a pleasure; in particular, I'm loving how the pressure he adds has turned out to be not redundant but actually complements DDV's. I'm disappointed Klay's toasty Jan/Feb mode couldn't last forever, nervous about every Draymond bump and fall, sad that we've probably seen Iguadala's last game already, relieved that Steph and many others on the team seem to be as near full health as you can be at this point in a basketball season, and hopeful that Wiggins won't need past the first round to get in game shape if he's indeed back.
The thing that makes me most concerned right now is that we are gonna need some road wins throughout the postseason, and those have been way too hard to come by so far. Oh yeah, and the Western conference standings are about as nerve-wrackingly volatile as putting your life savings in crypto, so that's... "fun".
It still feels possible for this team to win a championship, but realistically this is about the most "underdog" they've been going into the postseason in a long while. Hopefully that's a motivator that'll propel the Dubs to play up to the moment.
Gotta wonder why they didn't just say that it was a family related health issue... that's pretty much the only acceptable excuse anyway, it's kinda what everyone assumed, and it's totally understandable. Instead Wigg's GF had to go through the wringer for no reason... to each their own I suppose!
Sleepy Freud
7 hr ago
Man, I miss Wiggs. Today would be a good day for a return announcement.
Welcome back Wiggs! Glad to have the help, I agree he won't solve everything, but man some of the commenters really don't seem to appreciate how much he contributes to making the whole thing work even if he isn't the peak playoffs 2022 version.
Also, if he can ramp up quickly enough to keep us in it, he'll be fresh for the later rounds.
Like last year, seems like the longer they can last, the better the team will be, so the first and second rounds might be a bigger danger than the WCF or finals. But, it also seems like there isn't that much separation 1 to 8, is there any team you can say yeah, those guys are the clear favs in the West? So, playing the Suns, Kings, or Grizz (ok, even Denver but hopefully we don't fall to eight) in the first round all have challenges but also limitations.
WGBC? WGBC! We Believe!
WIGGINS!
WIGGINS!
WIGGINS!
WIGGINS!!!
"Yeah hooooo! You're all clear, Steph. Now let's blow this thing and go home!"
Klay's would-be game winner last night was almost a mirror image of the one he hit to put us ahead for good in Game 4 of the finals last year. After fifteen hours of angst, I'm at peace with that trade-off.