Tag: Warriors

2022 NBA Finals: Will Draymond Green be why the Warriors win another title, or why they’ll wilt?

Bella

BOSTON — Draymond Green is many fascinating things on and off the court, all of which combine into a potent mix capable of supercharging a championship team or making it so combustible that it can wreck those ambitions from the inside.

Green is a future Hall of Famer. An all-time great defensive player. A funny, candid, thoughtful voice on hoops, and its intersection with things much more important. A provocateur. A broadcaster and podcaster who’s effectively live streaming his own career and his team’s pursuit of basketball immortality. A bold — sometimes rash — competitor. A clutch closer who can also careen into self-destruction. A guy who loves calling out others, yet will bristle at even minor criticism.

Green has been one of the key touchstones to the Warriors greatest achievements, and to their most bitter disappointments.

That may be more true today than at any other point in his career, especially with his Golden State Warriors tied heading into Wednesday’s Game 3 of their NBA Finals series with the Boston Celtics.

Effective Draymond is a world-class winner, a player whose individual basketball impact and overall influence on his team are key to the Warriors greatness. Golden State has never lost a seven-game playoff series in which Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have started each game.

The need for Green to be great, and available, feels even starker now, with Thompson looking diminished and Green’s own output in Games 1 and 2 directly connected to his team’s respective loss and win so for far against Boston.

Take Game 2: Green’s defense on Jaylen Brown helped turn off the Boston star’s hot start, which was key in short circuiting a Celtics team that had been looking to put the series away early. Green’s mind games can also prove critical,

… Read More

NBA Finals: Warriors overwhelmed by Celtics’ athletic physicality in Game 3, and things will only get tougher

Bella

The game was already well in hand when it happened, but there was still injury to be added to insult. Stephen Curry, who had suffered a foot injury just plays earlier, attempted to defend Marcus Smart on a drive with just over two minutes remaining. Smart, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound amalgamation of muscle, grit and determination, delivered a compact elbow to Curry’s midsection, causing the two-time MVP to limp painfully to the bench as he checked out for the final time.

Resignation? Perhaps not. But surely acquiescence … at least for one night.

The Boston Celtics took a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals on Wednesday with a 116-100 Game 3 win, and it’s not one that the Golden State Warriors will soon forget. They’ll have plenty of time to think about it while soaking in the ice tub and getting full-body massages, trying to prevent bruising and inflammation from the punishment the Celtics relentlessly delivered throughout the evening.

“Game 2, they brought the heat to us. For us, that left a bad taste in our mouth because what we hang our hat on is effort on the defensive end and being a physical team. It definitely woke us up a little bit,” Smart said after the Game 3 win. ” We just wanted to come out, and if we were going to come out here and play, the last thing when we left that court we didn’t want to say we weren’t physical enough.”

Boston executed on its clear intention of getting to the rim early and often, outscoring the Warriors 52-26 in the paint for the game. The Celtics also displayed their force on the offensive glass, edging the Warriors 15-6, which led to a 22-11 advantage in second-chance points.

A trademark Curry heater made things close in the

… Read More

Warriors coach Steve Kerr praises Bulls’ Alex Caruso: ‘Happy to see him go to the Eastern Conference’

Bella

SAN FRANCISCO — Having worked himself into one of the league’s premier role players after going undrafted out of Texas A&M, Alex Caruso recently revealed that the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t exactly work hard to retain him this past offseason, leaving him essentially no choice but to sign a four-year, $37 million contract with the Chicago Bulls.

So far he’s has earned every penny of that contract, and then some, for the 8-4 Bulls. In addition to Chicago fans, one person happy that Caruso no longer plays for the Lakers is Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

The Warriors used a huge third-quarter run to throttle the Bulls on Friday night, 119-93, in Chicago’s first game this season without All-Star center Nikola Vucevic. But before the game, Kerr showered Caruso with praise when asked about his defense, particularly against Steph Curry.

“Caruso’s great. I was really happy to see him go to the Eastern Conference,” Kerr said. “He’s an excellent defender on and off the ball — tough, smart. Great pickup for the Bulls.”

Our Brad Botkin went into detail about how Caruso has been wreaking havoc on the defensive end so far this season, particularly when paired with Lonzo Ball. NBA matchup data is essentially useless when it comes to Curry, because his off-ball movement necessitates constant defensive switches that defy one-on-one battles, but the eye test shows that Caruso at least gives Curry a hard time, which is all you can really ask against one of the best offensive weapons of all time.

Here’s an example from Friday night, when Curry was attempting to create the last

… Read More

Warriors re-establish home-court advantage in dominant homestand, setting foundation for tougher road ahead

Bella

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry in MVP form. Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala throwing down breakaway dunks. Devastating third-quarter runs that debilitate the opponent while driving the Bay Area fans into a frenzy. If you squint with a reasonable amount of force, you might just mistake this season’s version of the Golden State Warriors for the 2014-15 bunch that announced themselves to the basketball world with an NBA title.

But no matter how raucous the Chase Center crowd gets and how fun the atmosphere becomes, make sure you keep the Oracle Arena comparisons out of your mouth.

“It’s an unfair comparison to Oracle, honestly,” Curry said earlier this week. “We’re trying to put ourselves in position where we’re winning games, protecting home court, where we can develop a new identity of what this building means in terms of home-court advantage. We had three championships in that building. We want to try to get one in here, but it’s a work in progress.”

Similarities between this year’s Warriors and the championship dynasty aside, there is a distinct cohesiveness and confidence to this group that began in training camp and has carried all the way through their league-best 11-1 start. Friday’s matchup with the Bulls was supposed to be a test — a barometer against one of the NBA’s best after a cupcake schedule. Sure, the Bulls were without All-Star center Nikola Vucevic, but they were methodically transmuted into delectables during a thorough 119-93 Golden State victory, in which they blitzed Chicago to grow their six-point halftime lead to a laughable 24 at the conclusion of the third quarter.

Just like the good old days.

Considered one of the biggest mysteries heading into the NBA season due to the uncertain status of Klay Thompson, the Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better

… Read More

Warriors’ seven-game win streak comes to end: Stephen Curry, Golden State shooters lay an egg in Charlotte

Bella

The Golden State Warriors raced out to an 11-1 start behind the top-rated defense in the league and an MVP start to Steph Curry’s season. They’ve also played the league’s softest schedule thus far. They’ve gotten away with some sloppy showings against inferior competition; a couple big runs was all it took to quell their turnover demons.

But you can’t get away with throwing the ball all over the court forever, particularly when Curry — who’s a central part of the turnover problem himself — doesn’t bail you out with a personal fireworks show. 

On Sunday, Curry had what was probably his worst game of the season as the Warriors fell to the Charlotte Hornets 106-102 (box score). The loss snapped Golden State’s seven-game win streak, all of which had come over more than a two-week home stand vs., again, some pretty soft competition. 

The Warriors are opening a four-game road trip, and it didn’t start well. They turned it over 15 times against the Hornets, and that number does not do justice to how lazy and shaky they were with the ball. 

Turnovers are something you have to accept with the way Golden State plays on the edge, forcing the issue in the half-court with never-ending cuts and needle-threading assists, and always pushing the pace in transition. But every game there are a handful of giveaways that just make you shake your head. Curry is never going to fully stop making those one-handed flip passes over double teams that are just waiting to be deflected and/or picked off. 

After posting 50 and 40 points in two of his last three games, Curry shot just 3-of-13 from 3-point range and 7-of-22 overall on Sunday. He still put up 24 points, 10 assists, six rebounds and three steals, and to be

… Read More

Draymond Green and Warriors’ veteran ‘dogs’ lead NBA’s best defense, creating blueprint for title contention

Bella

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry’s logo 3-pointers. Klay Thompson’s unfathomable hot streaks. Draymond Green’s borderline telepathic passing and anticipation. For the better half of the past decade, the Golden State Warriors have been the embodiment of modern basketball offense. Fast. Precise. Accurate. Deadly.

The graceful beauty of that offense, particularly after Kevin Durant joined the fray, made it easy to overlook the rugged, disciplined effort taking place on the other end of the floor. During the Warriors’ three title runs in 2015, 2017 and 2018, their postseason rankings in defensive efficiency were first, second and first, respectively. The two times they didn’t win the championship during their stretch of five straight NBA Finals appearances, they finished the playoffs seventh and 11th defensively.

With that corporate knowledge safely secured in their collective hippocampus, it’s easy to see why defense has remained the top priority for the Warriors, who own the NBA’s stingiest defensive rating during their 7-1 start to the 2021-22 season. Green said that Warriors defensive coordinator Mike Brown “challenged everyone” to be accountable defensively, and so far — it’s working.

“What they have in their favor is, they’ve had success when they’ve defended. They have that in their history and their experience. Steph understands that. Draymond understands that,” said Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego, whose team recently suffered a 114-92 loss to Golden State. “When you have your two best players leading the charge on the defensive end, there’s got to be buy-in, and they understand that. They’re a smart group. It’s probably pushing the younger guys to defend at a higher level much quicker than they expected,

… Read More