Postgame thread: Win by the buzzer beater, lose by the buzzer beater
Green ejected, Poole late turnover, but it was still within reach
Rough ending for a gritty Golden State Warriors team tonight. Coming in super short-handed yet again, the Warriors took it down to the wire, but ended up losing to the NBA’s worst team, the Detroit Pistons.
In crunch time, there were a few critical miscues that cost the team dearly. Draymond Green picked up his second technical foul and was ejected. Neither one seemed especially egregious. The first tech came as he calmly disputed a call earlier in the game. But then just as the game was coming down to a thrilling end, he was on the receiving end of an extremely questionable double technical foul.
First, there’s a weird interaction that goes uncalled. Green and Isaiah Stewart are fighting for position. It goes just near the baseline, then it looks to me like maybe Stewart gets away with a bit of extra circular judo. Stewart then grabs the rebound and kicks it out for a critical made three.
Then it’s the next contact down at the same end that gets Green ejected. I don’t want to start a “flame the refs” movement here - well, maybe a bit - but more to point out that if you want to get mad at one specific play as how the referees impacted this game, take a look at Green’s two technical fouls. His reputation precedes him.
Ugh. But even without Green, the Warriors made it interesting. Despite another ugly unforced error from Jordan Poole, some late game heroics from Kevon Looney and Klay Thompson almost stole this one to keep the win streak alive.
Here’s the Poole turnover. Looks like he started slipping before anything else went wrong. Poole relies on his crazy acceleration to be effective, but combined with his sloppy ballhandling, it can (and has been) a problem under the more intensive late game defensive pressure.
Still, there’s absolutely no quit in this Warriors team; and no shortage of moxxy.
This is a beauty of an inbounds play, and an even more glorious shot from Thompson.
Sadly, it wasn’t enough.
This is was another fun game, but the miracles ran out tonight. Warriors will be back in action on Saturday against the Orlando Magic - hopefully with an Andrew Wiggins return to look forward to.
As always, this is just a short thread for our community. Pray to the rain Gods and maybe we will be fortunate enough to get some Gold Blooded infusion to help us all through these dark and rainy days.
Lakers are guaranteeing contracts for Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel. Nets will guarantee contracts for Yuta Watanabe, Edmond Sumner, and Markieff Morris.
So, two days ago, Mrs. Goofus and I were playing long toss with the Frisbee on the beach, like we do 3 or 4 days a week for cardio. I reached up with my left hand to make a catch and immediately felt pain shooting through my shoulder, grabbed it and knew something was wrong. I’ve been in a sling and it’s getting better, but I think I curry’d myself with a subluxation.
The bad news: Unlike Curry, this is my dominant hand.
More bad news: Unlike Curry, I don’t have a highly-trained medical staff to micro-manage my recovery.
Even more bad news: Unlike Curry, my track record of faithfully following rehab programs is pretty dismal.
The good news: Unlike Curry, this injury will in no way affect your quality of life, unless you’re eagerly anticipating exciting whale footage from me as stand-up paddling is out for a bit.