Brian Schmitz: As expected, Warriors too much for Magic.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr was introduced before the game by longtime announcer Paul Porter as a former “Magic star.”
A grinning Kerr wandered over to Porter before tip-off.
“I told my buddy P.A. announcer, ‘I believe I was here three months and scored a total of 12 points,’ ” cracked Kerr, who actually played 47 games for the Magic in the 1992-93 season and scored 122 points.
“I looked at him. Star? He said, ‘In my eyes you were a star.’ ”
Kerr knows what a star looks like since he has enough of them to walk a Hollywood red carpet.
On Sunday afternoon at Amway Center, he unleashed All-Stars Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson on a battered, beleaguered team that is desperately searching for just one great player. The alarming imbalance among the league’s princes and paupers was on full display in the Warriors’ easy 118-98 victory over the Magic.
Twenty-four hundred miles separate Orlando from Oakland, home of the Warriors, and that reflects the gap between the teams on the court. Nothing will change for the Magic until they find a star. Conversely, all Kerr has to do is wait until the next possession.
If it isn’t Curry hitting a 3, it’s Thompson hitting a 3. If it isn’t Thompson, it’s Durant. They all made 3-pointers in a 42-24 telltale third quarter that put the expected distance between Orlando and Oakland. Watching this scoring machine hum is a thing to behold.
“Very rarely will all three of those guys be cold, so if we can focus on defense that means we’re going to get out and run,” Kerr said. “And with all the firepower that we have with those guys, usually at least one of them will get going.
“And often times, two or all these guys will get their shot going.”
Curry (27 points) and Thompson (21 points) made seven 3-pointers apiece. Defenses pay them so much attention that pedestrian players like Zaza Pachulia (14 points) and JaVale McGee (13 points) can have big games.
The Warriors are a league-best 38-6. Last season they won an NBA-record 73 games but lost in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavs. The Warriors made some changes, including the controversial motherlode freeagent signing of Durant.
“I think coming back with that team wouldn’t have been that good. We’d have been bored,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “This year we got stuff to figure out.”
So far they don’t have to figure out how Durant fits in. He finished with just 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting against the Magic, and shrugged. He’s the rare global superstar who has the make-up of a selfless worker bee.
“I was just drawn to how they [Warriors] play the game,” Durant said. “All the other stuff will take care of itself. It’s a fun way to play.”
Later in an office, Kerr said of his team, “There’s no egos. That’s what makes it so easy to coach these guys.”
Perhaps the Magic’s only hope was for the noon start to throw off the West Coastdwelling Warriors — and it did for a while. They also were coming off big wins against Cleveland, Oklahoma City and Houston, and Kerr was bracing for “a natural letdown” in Orlando.
The Warriors’ arrival had the arena sizzling with a big-game atmosphere, the electricity remindful of a time when the Dwight Howard Magic were the hammer, not the nail.
Cell-phone cameras flashed repeatedly. Warriors jerseys dotted the crowd. Fans lined the roped-off areas outside the dressing room five-deep to catch a glimpse and call out players’ names. Kerr has seen such mania before as a member of the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen Bulls. “Very similar,” Kerr said. “Obviously, we got a lot of star power . ... It’s fun. Our guys embrace it.”
The Magic, watching the Warriors stars take over their building, can only imagine now what that must be like.