Warriors beat Orlando 120-97: Brilliance from Podz and Moody gets overshadowed by Draymond drama

DNHQ After Dark features our guy Duncan, back to break down why the Warriors are the best show in town, for better...and sometimes for worse.

If there’s one thing I like as a writer, it’s a storyline. Sports function as a way to get a source of theatrics in your life, something outside of your control to care about desperately. It’s a human interest that probably replaces interest in war, or in creating your own excitement in whatever unhealthy way. It’s the best source of unscripted drama in the world. Like any drama, it’s at its best when it revolves around characters that fascinate you. For a sportswriter, having characters and ongoing sources of tension are easy cheat codes to create that drama, to boil a complicated activity down into recognizable arcs and characters.

To turn a game into a story — that’s what we’re constantly doing as fans, and why people are interested in writing and podcasts and media surrounding the game. There are more educational routes to take in sportswriting and content creation. I could not respect that more. But, for me, even in my own brain, it always comes down to narrative and storyline. My goal as a writer is to translate the narratives and storylines that develop in my brain into a medium that adds a little value and interest into your life. I think that’s also a respectable way to approach the subject.

The Warriors are, bar none, the best team in sports over the past decade in creating those storylines. Even past the dynasty era, as realistic contention faded away and younger and hungrier teams took their place, the Warriors have remained the key source of drama for the NBA media ecosystem. The Denver Nuggets, the Boston Celtics, the Oklahoma City Thunder — magnificent teams, but when you have to fill hours of airtime or write hundreds of thousands of words about them, how do you not repeat yourself?

The Warriors, if nothing else, will keep you well-supplied with takes, drama, discussion, opinion. The conflict between two generations of players, the ongoing search for trades, benchings and reentries, Kerr’s outspokenness, Steph’s flair for the dramatic, Draymond Green’s… everything. You can write about them forever, whether you love them or hate them and want them to go away.

The dark side of the narrative creation engine that is the Warriors is that it overshadows everything. Yesterday, the Warriors played one of their most complete games of the year, a game in which every player in the rotation (bar one) shined and had a moment in the spotlight to themselves. Slumping players broke out, the team looked connected and complete, they embarrassed a team with playoff aspirations that had beaten them a month ago (without Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, of course, but the win counts the same.)

This is all likely to disappear from the media’s memory because Draymond Green got in a yelling match with Steve Kerr on the sidelines, ran from the bench to the locker room to cool off, and then was benched for the rest of the game for his behavior. As an NBA writer, how do you resist tying that into the narrative of the team, the history of incidents, the future of the franchise, the Last Dance comparisons that we’ve had to hear every year for the past five?

Well, after that long preamble, I’m trying to resist it — or at least to have my cake and eat it too by airing my guilt and then moving past it. Draymond Green was a minor part of the Warriors’s win against the Magic, playing 17 minutes in total. Slightly more than Trayce Jackson-Davis and De’Anthony Melton, way less than Quinten Post, Brandin Podziemski, and Moses Moody. He did not really have a hand in this fantastic game. Why does he get to be the game story? Well, because it’s fun to write about. Alas!

This is an injustice to the players who responded to the pressure Steve Kerr put on them. This team came into the year with playoff level aspirations, and to date have played mediocre .500 basketball. There’s going to be pressure coming down from the coaching staff regarding effort and the level of play. If you don’t like it, win more games. Up and down the roster, Podziemski and Moody especially, players took the critique, upped their play and their effort. And then the one who left the bench (a move that Jonathan Kuminga was rightfully criticized for several weeks ago) becomes the dominant postgame storyline. It’s bad.

During the early period of the game, the team looked remarkably focused, intense and gritty. You can tell it was a point of emphasis for the coaching staff that the team drives to the basket more. Even against a long and defensively elite team, the strategy worked. They took more layups than I’ve seen in a minute, shot midrange pullups like it was the 90s. The Warriors looked quick, spry, and young in comparison to the Magic, which is a line I did not expect to be writing.

The sole factor keeping the game tight was the three point shooting. The team went 3 for 18 from three, mostly good, open looks. It’s been a pattern recently where the Warriors have been incredibly cold to start games. I don’t know if there’s anything to be done about that or if it’s random chance, but the team consistently can’t shoot until the third quarter.

Part of that is Quinten Post’s ongoing slump. The shooting numbers are starting to get concerning, especially in comparison to where he was last year and the amount of shots he still takes. But he still contributes more than he’s taking away. You have to wonder if the increased defensive activity is leading to premature exhaustion. If that’s the case, the only thing to be done is to work on conditioning. I’m sure he’s already doing that. Either way, he’s been so good as a back-line rim protector that you have to live with the shot, you can’t take him out of the game.

The saving grace was the 18 attempts. That sounds high, but the Warriors shoot an average of 44 three point attempts per game. To their immense credit, the team realized that they were shooting bricks and laid off. In a tight first half, the Warriors handily outscored the Magic in the paint. The key to the second half was simply to keep consistent and let the law of averages do its work.

Podziemski, who would be a staggering +32 in the game, looked like he was in his rookie year again, diving for balls, forcing turnovers, flopping, being a basketball rat. When he’s at his best, I love to think about how miserable he must be to play against. This skinny white kid with goofy broccoli hair is constantly in the play in little ways that don’t show up on the box score, always on the floor or in a driver’s way or tangled up with the ball or deflecting passes. On nights where he has it, you can see the confidence increase as the game wears on, the very human factor where good play induces increased faith in himself. He gets a few deflections, takes a few charges, and suddenly he’s hitting pull up 27-footers off the dribble.

I love watching Podz when he’s confident as much as I hate watching him when he doubts himself. He’s taken his benching in stride and has successfully fought off the challenge to his playing time from Pat Spencer. He’s a key, quality player when this team is going well.

Podziemski, whether he has it or not, is never invisible. Moses Moody on an off night is invisible. The quintessential fifth starter, his role is to stand in the corner and play defense. The defense has come and gone this season, leading to doubts about his playing time and his utility to this team. Yesterday, he was anything but invisible. Moody has never been good at defending guards with extreme footspeed, so Orlando’s an incredible matchup for him, with no guards that can really blow by him.

Similarly to Podz, the confidence waxes and wanes visibly. When he has a good defensive matchup, he seems more comfortable getting into his bag, driving and taking more complicated shots than his trademark corner threes. He doesn’t wait for the ball to get delivered to him in perfect position, he takes the ball and does it himself.

This was probably his second best game of the season after his 37 point explosion in New Orleans, but he did it in a more impressive way — in New Orleans, he got hot and shot the lights out. It happens sometimes, and there’s not a lot you can draw from it unless it’s consistent game-to-game. Here, he turned defense into offense, drove on defenders, made layups around elite rim defenders. In the fourth, there was an incredible sequence where he blocked a three point attempt from Jett Howard so hard that he tripped over his own feet, leading to a turnover and points. He looked like a premier young wing in the Mikail Bridges mold. I wonder if the reemergence of De’Anthony Melton will help him get into this mode more, with more suitable defensive assignments letting him concentrate on the other things that he can do. He would end with 20 points on 8-11 shooting and a +23.

In the fourth quarter, in the complete absence of Draymond Green, these players would put it all together at the same time, limiting the Magic to 14 points and running away with the game as the Magic collapsed. Steph and Jimmy did exactly what they had to do, playing a low-effort B+ game without much fuss or exertion, both playing around 30 minutes. It was the rotational players that were key here, and that’s the storyline I’m comfortable focusing on. The Warriors, for once, looked like a deep roster that could hold off other quality teams without depending on late game heroics.

It’s been a tough season for these role players with high expectations. They deserve to get the spotlight when they excel. It’s a crying shame that it will get lost in the shuffle. But this latest drama will fade. If the young players keep this level of effort and intensity up, they’ll have more moments in the sun soon.