Warriors drop another late season bummer, this time to the Sacramento Kings
A career-high 30 that meant nothing in the standings and everything for one of the most scrutinized players on the roster; plus a KP problem.
On Friday night, with only four and a half seconds on the clock and everything hanging in the balance, Brandin Podziemski stepped to the line. He took a deep breath and… missed the first free throw. A raucous Sacramento crowd erupted, both at Podziemski’s humiliation and the potential for free pizza. But neither of those goals was accomplished yet, because Podz was shooting two. So he returned to the line, took another deep breath and sank an incredibly clutch second free throw. And then the Kings inbounded the ball, and the game was over and the Warriors had lost.
When Podz made that second free throw, he had zero effect on the outcome of the game or the season or even the draft lottery. Put most harshly, all he had done was reach the arbitrarily round number of 30 for the night. As far as the basketball world is concerned, the biggest thing that changed was that a niche Twitter account escaped a self-imposed hiatus.
Yet setting a career high, especially in the wake of endless criticism and online mockery, is a significant achievement for any player, let alone one under as much scrutiny as Podziemski has been lately. And the most important part of Podz’s scoring binge was how he achieved it. His outside shot certainly looks better, and he made three threes on eight attempts which is more than respectable. But it was his relentless sprints towards the hoop that really stood out.
Far too often Podz aborts a foray inside the three-point line and spins helplessly looking for an outlet. Against the tanking Kings however, he was aggressive and singleminded about scoring. Some players are too selfish and only look to pass when they have no other choice. For Podz, leveraging his straight-line speed — his best athletic attribute — and looking to score every single time he gets downhill has him looking like a completely different player. He ignored the midrange completely and as a result earned himself five different layups and ten trips to the charity stripe. Here are all his paint finishes from last night.
Those driving lanes won’t always be there against better teams, and he will eventually need to find the balance when presented with viable rim deterrence, but against the Kings he blew past defenders over and over again with stampede cuts and finished nearly everything inside. The benefit of this mindset is that he’s drawing way more contact, and his free-throw shooting has improved to the point that putting him on the line is actually a threat to opponents’ chances.
Unfortunately for Podz, his career night and finally paying off of a Twitter gag were overshadowed in a couple of ways. Firstly, for the third time this season, it seemed like an injury was going to further bury any meaning or joy left for this beleaguered Dubs squad. Steph Curry appeared to injure his already gimpy ankle on some contact from Devin Carter early on in the game. When he came up hobbling and Steve Kerr needed to take an immediate timeout, there were held breaths from Sacramento all the way to the Bay. Fortunately, this was a familiar and relatively trivial ankle tweak, and Curry eventually started to move like himself later on. After the game Steph downplayed the significance of the injury and seemed confident he’d play his normal minute allotment in the regular season finale against the Clippers on Sunday.
While his movement eventually returned to normal, the injury certainly appeared to rattle Steph and therefore much of the team for much of the game.
He made a number of uncharacteristic mistakes, turnovers born not out of carelessness or risk-seeking behavior but indecision. Steph is almost never stuck between passing and shooting, and he almost always makes the right choice between the two, but purgatory in between those options is where he found himself repeatedly on Friday night.
He also had a step-back three blocked by Malik Monk in emphatic fashion, an occurrence rarer than astronauts visiting the moon. That isn’t to say he was a complete negative. Just by existing (and having previously traumatized the Kings and their fanbase) he was able to generate open shots for teammates. On this play, the threat of a Draymond/Steph flare screen pulls promising Kings center Maxime Raynaud away from the hoop just enough to allow Al Horford an easy slip to the basket.
Compared to Kristaps Porzingis, Horford’s fellow returning big man, Al looked incredible. His comfort and seamless ability to inhabit the Warriors’ system pop off the screen. Kristaps, on the other hand, had a night to forget. After starting with a deep three, he went ice cold from the field and his presence seemed to be actively gumming up the Warriors’ flow.
Adjusting to the Warriors’ ecosystem is admittedly a monumental test of IQ and patience, and the process needs more time. Porzingis has shown flashes of understanding, mostly by making smart cuts. He’s clearly a talented player whose size and skill should augment everyone around him in an offense designed to leverage the talents of its stars into communal benefit.
The issue comes with his desire to operate in the post as a scorer. Jimmy Butler’s integration into the team was so seamless because he was content to find offense in the cracks, upping his usage only when the moment or lineup necessitated creation. Porzingis doesn’t come across as selfish, but is more steadfast about operating in his preferred spots and being given opportunities to isolate. The question is if he’s a good enough post player to merit that deference to preference. He has incredible shooting touch, and he’s not going to finish 4 of 12 from the field very often, but the tail on his shooting distribution is threateningly fat because he prefers to fade away, and doesn’t use his size against mismatches with enough physicality.
Tuesday’s game felt like a negotiation about the direction of the offense between the existing veterans and Porzingis. There was a give and take that lacked cohesion but showed promise for compromise. Last night felt more like a game of acquiescence on behalf of Draymond, Steph and Steve. KP took 50% more shots than Steph despite playing fewer minutes. Having another player who can create shots and score in the midrange, an area the team doesn’t access enough to have healthy shot diversity, is critical to any competitive hope Golden State has in the play-in tournament.
But the predictability of forcing the ball to KP made it easy for the Kings to defend, and the lack of chemistry and rhythm for any of the stars was made clear as day by contrast with the bench mob. This is just one play, but it showcases the kind of simple, multiplicative basketball that Dub Nation has come to know and love. Interrupting everything for a missed KP middy may eventually prove to be worth it, but it certainly wasn’t in Sacramento.
All in all, the Warriors didn’t seem to care about winning this game. Integrating players old and new is complicated and trumps a win or loss in significance by a massive margin, particularly when it makes no difference in the standings. Combined with an injury to Steph Curry, Warriors attempts rattling out over and over while Sacramento got every lucky bounce and shot over its head, you had a perfect recipe for an upset.
Furthermore, the Kings were playing in their final home game of the season, in front of one of the most loyal fanbases in the league, and the players clearly showed extra pride and determination. While the wins have been scarce, the Kings have a collection of promising young players with useful skills, and those players were extremely motivated to beat Golden State. Devin Carter ran through a Draymond Green screen to prove a point. Dylan Cardwell was so hyped the entire Warriors sideline literally barked back at him, earning Steph Curry a technical for leaving the bench to celebrate. Steve Kerr pulled the plug early to protect everyone’s health.
All told, it was like much of the past few months of Warriors basketball: a disappointing result that contained flashes of brilliance and ultimately didn’t matter much beyond what it revealed about the team’s development. In that regard, if this Podz breakout sustains itself, all we’ll remember from Friday is Podz’s clutch free throw and 30-ball. Not a bad consolation prize at all.