The Golden State Warriors are going to master the art of the unnecessarily lazy turnover. Like the Pablo Picasso of their time, this collection of high-wire, highlight-stacked arsenal of talent are almost made to live life on the hardwood this recklessly. And similar to last year’s iteration of Top-10 chasing players, adding Kevin Durant has made the margin of error even greater on any single possession. As the crowd ooh’d and ahh’d on nearly every tic-tac-toe pass in anticipation of the dagger 3, the Warriors kept searching and probing despite the lack of a live play.
Kerr is trying to find the perfect way to have his team mesh together in what Steve Nash believes can be the greatest offense of all time. The players on the floor are trying to find the greatest highlight, the greatest illusion of perfection amongst the tangled web of this feeling out process. So around and around they go, seemingly throwing the ball around without a care in the world. Last season, this problem arose due to the system that relies so much on feel and continuity. Boredom settled in way too often.
This time around, the turnovers are piling up due to the evolution of this perfect concoction of players put together to create what everyone believes is the pinnacle of basketball.
It’s preseason, we know. None of this matters, we can mostly all agree. And ultimately, not much of this will rear its ugly or slightly sufferable head until the later stages of the postseason. For now, it’s the beautiful struggle of the gunslinging Warriors that make this team so similarly great and at times frustrating to watch.
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As for the game itself, Kevin Durant did his best Stephen Curry impersonation of carrying the team when the offense stagnated, dropping 25 points in 18 minutes. He completely dominated getting to the rim and getting to open spots on the floor at all times. Whereas last season, Curry would step up and will his team to a win, this year’s version was content to pass up open (and by open, I mean the contested highlight shots Steph normally takes) shots after open shots for more ones for Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Zaza Pachulia. It took nearly 8 minutes into the game for Steph to get into his rhythm and drain a step-back 3 in transition.
Speaking of Zaza Pachulia, he was completely overwhelmed by Demarcus Cousins (someone Andrew Bogut routinely shut down). To make it worse, it bled into the offensive end as he couldn’t catch a pass, make a free throw, and even airballed a short jumper. Things will get better for the veteran big man but for tonight, it was not pretty.
For everyone else, this was the sort of game that permeated through last season’s 73-win affair where the Warriors came out sluggish, sloppy, and would still beat down the opponent with a single surge in the second half. Except this time, the surge came late and from the likes of Ian Clark and Patrick McCaw. The alt-Splash Brothers were back at it again as they erased a small deficit with 4 minutes to go and the show climaxed with a hilarious James Michael McAdoo (who has been bad, to say the least, this preseason) corner 3.
Steve Kerr’s Warriors can do no wrong, apparently. Just another night.
Leftover Observations:
1. Klay Thompson can shoot the basketball from literally any angle from whence the ball hits his hand. He caught a ball in the first quarter that was a foot under his preferred shooting pocket and he simply dipped once and rose in one motion with a flick. Of course it went in.
2. Dray is the biggest hype man on the Warriors and has saved his best celebrations so far this preseason on the court for KD made shots.
3. The Warriors are force-feeding Zaza the ball at the left side, FT-extended line so he can have cutters come off of him and pindowns on the other side as passing options. It’s Bogut-esque.
4. JaVale McGee got some run and made a nice block on a jump shot and got a Festus Ezeli-esque dunk from a Dray lob in transition. He was mostly out of position all night and caused a bit of a kerfuffle when Cousins hit him with a hard foul.
5. Speaking of the scuffle, it seems like Dray and Cousins are talking quite a bit. And not so much as rivals but friendly cohorts. Perhaps that is the next recruiting mission…
6. James Michael McAdoo is not good.
7. Kerr threw out a MUSCLEWATCH lineup with Curry, McCaw, and Clark as part of a 3-guard attack. Who benches more?