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Those supposed fouls by Steph are just plain BS.

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I do not think people who call for Kuminga realise what they are dealing with in this series. If the Warriors are to advance, they must beat both the Lakers and the referees. The league wants Los Angeles to advance and to beat them, the margin for error on defence is very slim. Kuminga is regularly in foul trouble even in games called fairly; what chance does he have in this environment?

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Don't usually like to link or even read GSoM, but this article sums up something I wanted to bring up nicely: https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2023/5/3/23709004/kings-domantas-sabonis-dodges-draymond-green-handshake-questions

I heard Green mention this when I listened to his podcast, but didn't catch that he singled out Sabonis when I listened to the podcast. I heard everything else that Green said, then heard his whole litany of Kings he thanked and gave props to at the end of his podcast, and I noticed he excluded Domas, and wondered if Sabonis had dissed him or didn't shake hands. Turns out, Sabonis didn't shake hands and just left.

Whelp. yah. Guess he was stuck in his feels about getting owned by DubLoon.

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I appreciate when a soft player plays soft and leaves lol

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Poole could learn a lot from Harden’s downhill drives through the lane.

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Man, Celtic-Sixers is almost unwatchable so far, pretty much all flops and fouls.

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Doesn’t matter who wins in the East I think we can beat them. The real team we got to worry about are the Nuggets when healthy.

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Right now, the real team the Warriors have to worry about is the Lakers. Thye can worry about the Nuggets in a couple of weeks.

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very true

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Feels like the road to the NBA Finals is the toughest for our core this season compared to 2015-2019 and 2022.

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DDV was the key imho. Hasn’t panned out.

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He's been the biggest question mark in the postseason. His postseason shooting stats through 8 playoff games:

32 points, 9/28 FGs, 6/19 threes, 8/10 FTs

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

If we had KD we’d win again though. A team with Steph and KD would still win. We’d easily beat this version of the Lakers. Is there any way Klay or Wiggins can become knockout shooters from the elbow?

Hope KD doesn’t win anymore nor Lebron.

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The difference is we don't have KD, or non-injured Andre, or OPJ, or any number of talented players of yore who'd help us space while not defaulting to a small lineup. So comparatively this is a harder climb than previous years

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yeah which sucks. Not sure if a non injured Andre could even help lol.

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Confusing? By now, we are all aware of the incredible players only motivational speech Curry dropped before game 7. The headline of the speech was something like "If you are not willing to sacrifice everything for this team to win, don't get on the bus." It has also been reported that this message was vaguely directed towards Jonathon Kuminga (for pouting about his lack of minutes) with perhaps a little left over for Poole (quit whining and play better) and DVD (sorry, but you will have to share a seat with GP2 on the bus ride to Sac., and well, everywhere from now on.) Given that the core of the message seems to have been aimed at Kuminga, I have to ask,

"what does a pouting 20 year old buried at the end of a bench have to do with getting up for a game 7 on the road?"

I mean, JK wasn't going to be playing. His head coach has locked him in the dog house without food. After working his way out of the dirt courts of Africa and showing out the last 2 months of the season, his reward is being vilified in the media as an immature selfish lottery bust who shouldn't touch the court in the playoffs if the Warriors really want to win. If that isn't bad enough, if that isn't low enough, the fucking GOAT, the Man, the Culture Setter of a Dynasty, calls him out in a team meeting as if HE was the reason they even needed to play a game 7.

By my recollection, JK played about 3 minutes at the end of game 6, which by my memory, was the most pathetic, listless, uncaring, lackluster, no show performance I have ever seen from this team, playoffs or regular season. I mean, they showed more effort in their 50 point loss to Memphis.

So, why are we so concerned about the feelings of some 20 year old kid who ain't gonna be playing anyway? Was the horror show game 6 a product of the vets not getting enough cheers from the bench? Is JK not giving Curry enough support after he throws one of his patented overhead passes to an opponent for a transition dunk? "C'mon, Steph, there is no "TO" in Curry."

I'm just asking! No, I'm not asking. I'm coming right down Curry's road. The only, and I mean ONLY, players that needed to be in that players only meeting where the dudes that stunk up the joint in game 6. But a 20 year old bundle of raw talent who is desperate to play (something kids want, remember) and who is upset he got left behind and missed the party is an easy target. A warm up 3 for Curry. It's as easy for Kerr to point the finger at JK as it is for him to forget how many timeouts he has left.

JK's in the doghouse? Fine. Don't play him until you rest all the starters in a meaningless February game in Orlando next year, good with me. But Kerr needs to cut down the grass in his own yard before he starts mowing down others and Curry and his vets need to figure out a way to get motivated for games that includes a mirror, as in, look in the damn mirror first. It's clear to the coach and the vets that JK doesn't matter, isn't that enough? Apparently not. Apparently it was necessary to bring the entire NBA world down on him for showing up his 'Master of Time Outs' coach and for not cheering on his vets while they were projectile vomiting on the court in game 6. And like the soldiers hiding in the Trojan Horse, this message to JK was hidden in the inspirational speech the GOAT made to his teammates before game 7. "No, Draymond, I got this one," adds to the Curry legend. But I am not forgetting the veiled message in that speech and who benefited and who paid the bill.

There, I said it. You can find me on YouTube in a similar message, me crying (literally) and screaming, "Leave Britney, ahem, I mean, leave Jonathon alone!!!"

The Godfather, back of the car, returning form the meeting of the 5 families.

Don Corleone: "Kerr is a pimp. He never could've out-fought Jonathon. But I didn't know it until this day, it was Curry all along."

Ok ...... line 'em up. I'm open for thrashing! LOL

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Pure speculation on everyones part on who Curry was directing his message to. Nobody but players there.

Also, there is some truth to having a rotten egg (pr pouting brat) spreading stinkiness all around, no matter if these are all high level pros.

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

Most of this is pure speculation ...

We do not know what was actually said in the players' meeting nor who it may or may not have been directed toward.

All this "doghouse" stuff seems way over blown.

Coaches make decisions that they feel are best for the team, but for fans to speculate about the reasons, and conclude someone is in the doghouse does not make sense to me..

We heard about Moody being in the doghouse, and now he is playing significant parts of crucial playoff games, and playing reasonably well. JMGreen, Baldwin, etc are not getting minutes for different reasons.

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I assumed JP was the main target/audience for Steph's speech.

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Removed (Banned)May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023
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May 4, 2023·edited May 4, 2023

Everyone knows that Kuminga averaged 20 minutes a game in 67 games this year, right? Not really sure how that qualifies as not playing.

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24 mpg post all star when Wiggins was out

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I think the thing with JK is really simple. Young kid, loads of talent, players want to play, especially at his age. While many in the basketball world (pros who know better than me) think he should be playing, the only one that matters, his coach, disagrees. For a kid who left his country and family for this, it has to be disheartening to say the least. All I am saying is we don't need to brow beat a kid for having honest and justifiable feelings. You work your ass off, you show promise, and your coach and your team leader don't trust you as far as you can throw a mouth piece. It just has to suck. And that is the new Warriors culture.

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I agree whole heartedly with you. This is on coaching staff and Kerr. Over the summer there was rumor JK was not working hard - that turned out to be untrue. The "pouting" has more traction since we see his body language on the bench - it could be different from reality though!

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Would it be wrong for kerr to come out and say he's not playing kuminga because of his attitude towards not playing?

Or can we at least get some type of report to come out saying it's attitude issues? Because if it's not attitude issues and Kuminga is doing a good job at staying level headed, this narrative created about him is foul af and if you just not playing him cause you don't trust him that's foul too

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Yes, it would be wrong to call out that he's not playing Kuminga because of his attitude. Keep any and all of that internal. Even coming out and saying the opposite wouldn't change much in the social media narrative...

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If kerr came out and said kuminga has been a great teammate n kept his head about not playing, we just haven't found a way to get him in there yet, how would that not change the narrative about kumingas attitude?

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Not much, imo... he did that in response to the "Kuminga isn't doing what they want over the summer!" narrative, and it didn't really help much... I guess maybe it's a thing you do even if you don't think it'll help... but whatever, he's got more important things to address.

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Yeah, Kerr has really been really puzzling this season with how he has treated the youngsters ! Thanks to Jk we ended up being a 6th seed - Yesterday was a trial run and he did not play JK - now we are down 0-1 and dont have much leeway anymore to experiment?

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Maaaan, AD has had 7 blocks, 5 blocks, 3 blocks, 4 blocks, 2 blocks, 5 blocks, and 4 blocks in the last 7 games.

He's been dominate.

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One guy that's listed at 6"10 and I don't believe it one bit because he plays way bigger than that. The opposite of Sabonis.

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https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1653812723631951872

Hate to compliment an opposing player during a playoff series but god damn, this is amazing rim protection. Wiggs is making a clear effort to get some contact but AD dodges it and still manages to cleanly block it with his 50ft wingspan.

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Andrew needs to remember to switch hands there, imo... yes it was a great play by Davis, and not many could make it, but Andrew should have known AD was literally right there on his left hand. If he wants to win this series, he's going to need to recognize that he's going up against great players and give himself the best chance to make the shot.

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

He's a great player and the main reason they got the bubble chip. Draymond will need to elevate his play to match AD.

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The good news is historically Draymond has done a good job of guarding AD. Just need more of that matchup to actually take place.

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Knew which block you were talking about before clicking the link lol. That was a crazy good block, and the only thing to do is tighten defense and force him to make 10 more of those each quarter

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Removed (Banned)May 3, 2023
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We’ve been fprever waiting for him to stay healthy….

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Officials for Celtics vs. 76ers game tonight: Zach Zarba (#15), Kevin Scott (#24), Rodney Mott (#71), Justin Van Duyne (#64)

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Coach Nick did a breakdown of how Harden and the Sixers beat the Celtics in game 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3DeIcfk8nE

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-Celtics drop coverage against Harden allowed him to take whatever shots he wanted. It's also what allowed Trae Young to get going in the Celtics-Hawks series even though the Celtics won that series in 6 games.

-Celtics did double team him sometimes, but it allowed Harden to find a teammate who was wide open for a three. Celtics did not close out on the open shooter properly to force a miss.

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Watching the highlights it looks like we won by ~20, but the highlights don't show free throws.

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Some of JP's thoughts on his opportunity and the game.

"Golden State is happy to let it fly from 3, especially if Poole is feeling it. He found his scoring rhythm early when the Lakers stuck a sub-par perimeter defender Russell on him to start. Even with Dennis Shroeder guarding him at times, Poole was far more measured in his shot selection and efficient than in the previous series."

“Got the opportunity to play more out there and catch my rhythm,” Poole said. “I think that’ll be a big thing. Only so much you can do when you play 15 minutes."

“It’s huge. Being able to catch a rhythm early and see how they’re guarding us, guarding me personally.”

“We had a day off, these guys had a couple days off and their starters all played 40 minutes,” Poole said. “It’s a long series. We got a lot of guys like me, Steph and Klay — who move so much off the ball and have good pace and we’re all in good shape. We can use it as an advantage if they want to play the running game with us."

Source:https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/03/why-the-warriors-need-jordan-poole-to-let-it-fly-against-the-los-angeles-lakers/

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There were several times last night where Poole made a great pass to a wide open shooter instead of chucking up an ill advised shot or dribbling too much. Thought he showed some progress yesterday and it showed with 20 and 6 with 1 turnover. Looked more in control than he normally does

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I was glad he had a good game and he was rewarded for it. Just have to keep playing that way, to play more.

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Removed (Banned)May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023
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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

He still doesn't know how to create great looks on a regular basis for himself yet. Right now JP thrives in chaos. If I'm an opposing fan I'm not worried about him dissecting a defense consistently but just hoping he doesn't get on a hot streak. *fingers crossed* He'll figure it out one day.

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Maybe so in regards to somewhere else. I like the Dubs having youth, but at this point in the season you would hope it would be about nothing else but winning. That may not be the main objective for every Dub right now tho. JP has been given the longest leash of them all (kids), I thought he was sulking about his play in the Sac series, not the amount of mins Steve was playing him.

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Poole thinks:

-DLo is a subpar defender

-Schroder is a good(?) defender

-Felt better shooting the ball last night compared to how he was in the Kings series

-Wished he played more minutes

-Lakers were more prepared thanks them getting more days of rest

-However, their starters played a lot of minutes, which the Warriors can use to their advantage

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Clearly upset about playing time, lol...

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After the series he just had against the Kings, idk how he thought seeing more minutes was an option. He was averaging 22+ mins before Game 7. I do believe this should be a good series for him.

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Eh, he can be upset and understand why at the same time...

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I think Poole will eventually start seeing lengthy defenders like Vanderbilt or Hachimura and double teams if he starts shooting better in the series. Hope he's ready for that.

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

I'll take Poole forcing Hachimura into the rotation over Schroeder or DLo or Reaves... that's a great tradeoff for us.

EDIT: it’s gonna be hilarious if they double JP with AD in the paint and Steph on the floor…

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Ugh I'm nervous about tmrw, somebody talk me off the ledge

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The last 14 times the home team has lost Game 1 of a series, it has won Game 2.

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

They’re not panicking and neither should we. If the lakers do go up 0-2 then I’ll join you on the ledge

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May 3, 2023·edited May 3, 2023

Well teams don’t win every year and some haven’t won in decades. Look at the Spurs they were a great team and won every other year at their peak but never repeated. As long as we stay competitive that should keep us entertained for the foreseeable future. Whether we win or lose against the Lakers, it’ll still be entertaining and memories for us to keep.

I think a lot of our anxiety and stress from our playoff runs as a fan stems from our desire or even to a certain extent our expectation of winning. We’ve come to expect the Dubs to win every year when we’re healthy, however, our mindset should be just to have fun in all of this, we won’t die if we lose. We also don’t have much stake in all of this. Just hope for the best and talk shit like the rest of us here. Whatever happens happens we’re not the GM or Coach just join in on the complaining and entertaining basketball and just enjoy it while it lasts.

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This is definitely the approach i try to take

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❤️

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Have a chat with Crocodile Dundee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1FiZxQo7k

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Called it in the game thread: l2m says that the only incorrect call was that Klay fouled Schroder before the timeout was called. Despite the fact that pretty much every jump call possession in existence has exactly that type of contact and it is almost never called anything but a jump ball. Thanks, NBA.

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Just hoping for better refs in Game 2 and hope I don't have to see Malloy or Marc Davis for the rest of this series at least.

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That was a terrible call.

The late "charge" on Wiggins was also a terrible call. Took two points off the board.

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Honestly, that's the one that baffled me the most in real time.

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That one was rough... super rough... barely contacts the guy...

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The problem with both was in real time they looked like they missed it. It looked like they had Schroder tied up for jump ball. It looked like Wiggins got moving sideways to make his shot.

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Why bother looking at that rigged ass shit. Refs are rigged and will cover their own tracks.

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What a joke

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Shocking... utterly shocking...

If the refs had called a jump ball on the floor, it would gone down as a "CC - Schroeder doesn't establish possession before he and Klay simultaneously grab the ball"

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