Warriors outlast Pelicans at home, get to see old buddy Kevon Looney for first time back at Chase

Sometimes, it's really just about the journey as Warriors dispatch feisty, bottom-dwelling Pelicans on Kevon Looney Appreciation Night.

Editors Note: I love watching our community’s voice be revealed more and more through the joy of studying Warriors basketball. This next piece is a great example of how the HQ is blossoming through your kindness and enthusiasm. Show some love for Riley G, someone who just has a great knack for letting you know what’s going down with Coach Kerr’s hoopers and beyond. Happy holidays, gang!

In life and in sports, change is inevitable. And in some ways, the accelerated aging and turnover that happens to athletes and teams helps the fan to prepare and accept the slower yet equally inevitable change that will happen in their every day life. But in the paradise of basketball beauty and success that has been Golden State for the last 15 or so years, change has been held at bay far longer than could be reasonably expected. Our 37 year old all-time great PG is playing like he is 29, his basketball soulmate may have more gray hairs in his beard but he still anchors the defense with ferocity and prescience, and they’re both still flourishing under the same coach running the same playbook for his twelfth year, still with his youthful grin.

Warriors fans have been spoiled that Father Time and the business of basketball have been gentle to the Bay and allowed the greatest period in franchise history to wind down somewhat gracefully. But this isn’t to say that things haven’t changed. The other Splash Brother is fading towards retirement down in Texas. Their Swiss army knife of a 6th man has long since moved on investing and Silicon Valley enterprise. The architect of those championship rosters left for TV and now runs a multi-sport empire including a different basketball team. And the most recent reminder of the certainty of basketball entropy returned to Chase Center on Saturday night in the form of a 6’9” ironman center from Milwaukee via UCLA.

Kevon Looney’s illustrious, understated Warriors career was a testament to reliability, loyalty, poise, wisdom and contradiction. Reaching 10 years and winning 3 titles in the same uniform is unheard of for almost any NBA player, let alone a ground-bound backup who underwent two debilitating hip surgeries before even cracking a professional rotation. His perseverance and willingness to fill any role were almost as impressive as the emotional importance he took on in the locker room. Despite being in his eleventh NBA season Loon is still not 30 year old, and yet he was an invaluable leader on a team with numerous veterans and strong leadership. He was not overly vocal or demonstrative on the court, nor a grizzled sage, but his former coach called him, “The Moral Compass” of the team.

He came into the league as a versatile, bendy athlete with a polished offensive game and a track record that pointed to star potential. By the time he had solidified himself as an NBA player, his jump shot abandoned him and his lateral mobility was almost nonexistent, yet he engulfed James Harden and other stars in isolation and found clutch buckets when the Warriors needed them most. His regular season career high in points was 18, and yet he was deservedly serenaded with thunderous MVP chants by his hometown fans. He could barely jump over a playing card, yet he worked himself to become one of the best per-minute rebounders in Warriors, and maybe league history in the playoffs. While Steph Curry’s playoff scoring exploits have powered some of the greatest victories in team history, many of those performances would have been meaningless without accompanying heroics from Kevon (especially an 11 point, 22 rebound Game 7 in 2023 against Sacramento).

He took less money to stay in the Bay, never complained when the coaches yo-yoed him from DNPs to starting back to the bench, changed his body to play out of position and was always in the right place at the right time. With all of these paradoxes about Looney’s Warriors tenure nevertheless proving true, it was fitting that a player who has never been an All-Star or earned name recognition from casual fans received a hero’s welcome. There was a touching tribute video, and the team distributed a delightful commemorative pin to honor the contributions of a role player to a dynasty full of stars.

It was a bittersweet acknowledge of the love Dub Nation has for Loon, and sign that nothing can last forever, not even the relationship between a champion and the only basketball home he had ever known.

But for at least one more night, even with their ageless PG held down with a quad contusion and their former talisman getting lost on his way to the visiting locker room, the Warriors were able to forestall the end by beating the hapless New Orleans Pelicans.

It was a game that should not have been closed, particularly if the Warriors truly do still have their old magic, given the Pelicans’ 3-16 record and general aimlessness this season. And yet, both teams looked equally inept during a first half so aesthetically offensive that it needed a content warning. Both the Warriors and the Pelicans shot an abysmal 33% from the field in the first half, and they combined for 21 personal fouls and 13 turnovers. Without Steph, the Dubs lack of proven shooting looked nearly fatal as they threw up 22 threes and made only 2. This was the same ratio as the Pelicans, accept New Orleans limited themselves to a relatively modest eleven attempts. The problematic role players of late (Podz, Moody and Buddy) combined to miss 13 attempts and generally look lost without Steph’s gravity.

It’s becoming a theme in both the games and my recaps, but Moses’ trepidation about and limitations when shooting at point blank range if threatened with any opposition is bordering on a crisis.

Even the pleasant surprise of the season, Will Richard, fell back down to earth a bit, missing all his first-half attempts. The only redeeming part of the opening 24 minutes was the return of Johnathan Kuminga. He wasn’t dominant, but he immediately showcased the determination and ability to pressure the rim and the athleticism to finish while there.

He also had an excellent cut and assist to GPII while playing off of Jimmy Butler, a welcome glimpse of the kinds of action and IQ that is required to counteract spacing concerns with 3 non-shooters on the court.

As we’ve been saying for years, if JK can rediscover the selfless, forceful play he was showcasing early in the season, it would be franchise changing. He would hit two massive 4th quarter 3’s and was a winning player for one night at the very least.

When the Pelicans threatened to pull away in the 2nd quarter, Jimmy did his best tribute to Kevon Looney by steadying the team through multifaceted, understated contributions in nearly every statistical category. He drew fouls, racked up assists, stole 4 offensive rebounds and generally asserted dominance as the most impactful player in a game that also showcased a slimmed down Zion Williamson, who would go on to score a game high 25.

Late in the first half, echoes of last year’s gravity-based trauma scared the team and the fans alike when Jimmy took a massive fall after being undercut near the basket. In a postgame quote he testified that the fall was, “Straight ass,” and it looked extremely dangerous, but Jimmy toughed it out and held the Pelicans at bay.

Jimmy’s presence in a Warriors Jersey in the first place represents the passage of time and changing of the guard. But he would unite with two stalwarts of championships past to secure victory down the stretch. Finally awakening to the importance of the paint as a bad-shooting team, Jimmy and GPII lead an interior assault on the rim in the 4th quarter that tested a bad New Orleans defense, opened up shooters and earned trips to the charity stripe. They used their greater knowledge and focus compared to the Pelicans, and what athleticism they still show on occasion to great effect on the highlight of the night:

Draymond, the other wining veteran left, was mostly useless on offense, finishing 0 for 9. But on defense, his chosen domain, Green smothered Zion in the clutch, shut down the Pelicans actions and gave Gary and Jimmy the momentum to take over. GPII finished with a massive 19 point, 11 rebound line and Jimmy dished out 10 assists for the night. The three oldest active players for the evening refused to let an underwhelming opponent hand them an embarrassing defeat at home, and proved that as much as things change, for the time being, winning is still on the table in Golden State.