SAN FRANCISCO — Play 81 more games like that and the Warriors will be just fine.
No, Golden State didn't win their season opener on Tuesday night — they fell to the Suns 108-104 — but the positives of the Warriors' performance were unmissable.
They moved the rock. They played, at times, tight defense. They rebounded as a team. They only turned the ball over 11 times. They saw strong contributions from young players Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. They went 10 deep.
This is, unquestionably a better team than last year's edition.
There were some tough performances in the mix, too. Andrew Wiggins was sub-par, as was Klay Thompson. The team's final-minutes execution left plenty to be desired.
But you can't knock the hustle — the Warriors played hard and smart on Tuesday.
Do that every night and you're going to win many more than you will lose, even if the Warriors did lose Game No. 1.
"We're all getting used to each other," Chris Paul said after the game. "We have so many different units that can play… It's promising because one thing about teams is you can tell the spirit. The spirit is right."
Here are my three takeaways from the game:
Kerr trusts Kuminga
Jonathan Kumgina's preseason success carried over to the regular season.
More importantly, that preseason success has Warriors coach Steve Kerr trusting Kuminga in big spots.
While the third-year forward didn't cover himself in glory in the final minutes when he missed two free throws with 1:32 remaining in a 100-99 game Phoenix led, he did have a great tap-out rebound to Steph Curry to keep the Warriors in the contest inside the final minute, and he was the Warriors' point-of-attack defender.
Ultimately, he was the right choice to close this game, which speaks volumes to his development.
"Whoever is playing best will finish the game," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
What a concept.
Size issue
While, yes, there were positives, the Warriors were done in Tuesday by their lack of size. Not only in the offensive rebounds the Suns pulled late, but throughout the game.
Coming into the season, we knew that the Warriors would have to make due with only one true post player — Kevon Looney. And with Draymond Green out of Tuesday's game with an ankle injury, that was one less big man for the Dubs.
And the Warriors' lack of size — or, more specifically, their lack of length — proved critical in this contest.
Curry found himself in disadvantageous defensive situations early and often on Tuesday, as he was not the smallest player on the court for the Warriors.
In fact, he was the third-most capable defender in the Warriors' starting lineup.
Paul is a straight-up liability on defense. That was expected.
But Thompson's breakdown is tough to watch.
Put all three of them on the court together, and you have a real issue for the Dubs. You can't switch anything because that'd create glaring mismatches. But you also can't play straight-up because it's not advantageous for the Dubs off the ball.
Tuesday, the Warriors' lack of size came to a head when Curry picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter. It sparked a 9-0 Suns run to take the lead. They never fully relented that lead.
Green will help with this. Kuminga, when he doesn't have to chase the ball, will help, too.
But the Warriors will play all season from a position of disadvantage — leaving Kerr with no choice but to call for double-teams and over-helping.
Some teams will not be able to handle that from the Dubs.
The Suns were not one of those teams on Tuesday.
Bizarro world
All the social media shaming worked — Warriors fans were uniform and raucous for their ovation of Kevin Durant pregame.
Yes, Durant — a two-time NBA Finals MVP — deserved adulation from Golden State's crowd in the first game he's played in front of them since he left for Brooklyn all those years ago.
But seeing as Durant left the Bay on his own volition, I'm not sure 100 percent positivity was warranted.
Alas, after weeks of talking about this subject and the consensus on social media being "if you don't root for KD, you're a bad person," that's what he received. Now, we can move on from that ridiculous story and talk about something even more important:
Those "C-P-3" chants from the Chase Center crowd Tuesday.
Paul has made his transition to the Warriors far too easy for everyone.
And yes, Paul deserved love for his third-quarter performance Tuesday.
But can we ease into the Paul-on-the-Warriors era a bit?
Even the Warriors' new point guard had to chuckle about the chant, which came with him on the free-throw line.
"Dario looked at me and started laughing, and I couldn't help but laugh," Paul said. "That was a first."
No comments:
Post a Comment