3-Dot Lounge:
Could Warriors be better without Durant?
Strange question being tossed about the 3-Dot this week: Are the Warriors better without Kevin Durant? Proprietor’s reply:
“What? Of course not.” Followed by: “But sometimes it seems that way, doesn’t it?”
We must be getting to that super-drag final stretch of the regular season. There’s a hint of craziness in the air.
The topic is at least worth discussing, for several reasons. The Warriors stormed through Houston and San Antonio in vintage form, calling up the very best of the past two seasons. Their 10-game winning streak, retained with a flourish against Houston on Friday night, coincides with
Andre Iguodala’s caseclosed statement on Sixth Man of the Year, a more clear definition of bench contributors and consistently astounding defense when it matters most.
And, most significantly to the opposition, Curry is at the center of it all. The leader, the final answer, the most mind-blowing longrange shooter of them all. Clippers coach Doc
Rivers said it best a while back: When Curry leads the Warriors on a heavenly three-point barrage, turning deficits into runaways, “it becomes a mental thing for our guys. They just keep thinking about it.”
And that’s not the entire story. Curry means steals, fastbreak poetry, floaters in the lane, shots of his own invention. There’s a visible collapse in the opponents’ body language when Curry paints a masterpiece and they call timeout, just to get him off the damn floor.
Curry seems to embrace none of it, knowing that Klay Thompson and Durant are equally spirit-crushing in their own way. And never forget that in the eyes of many, Durant is the most dangerous scorer in the league. But it was a bit awkward for Curry when Durant arrived and the crunchtime scripts became garbled. It was clear that Curry was making sacrifices for the sake of cohesion. Best talent in the league? Without question. But not a finished product.
Durant was well aware of the potential issues. Only a few games into the season, he called Curry aside and told him (via ESPN), “Don’t worry about me. Just play your game. I’ll figure it out around you. You’re the engine of this team, and I know that.”
It was the voice of genuine concern and humility, which makes us believe things will be different the second time around. This never was a crisis, rather a desire for the perfect blend. As a non-confrontational sort, Curry expects things to turn out right. There’s too much talent on the team, too much understanding of fundamental ball movement.
Just remember these two words: Curry and
sacrifice. They cannot be linked again.
Father knows worst
The Lounge embraced UCLA as the most entertaining college team in the country this year. Didn’t miss a game from the third week on. That’s all done now, and not strictly because Lonzo
Ball and 6-foot-10 forward T.J. Leaf are turning pro. Plenty of talent remains. It’s just that Ball’s father, LaVar, will be stepping all over the outsiders’ perception. No matter what the old man said, Lonzo’s play was so transcendent as to render all else irrelevant. Now comes the next brother, LiAngelo, out of the Balls’ den (Chino Hills High). He’s said to be a potentially highscoring shooting guard, but there are plenty of those. The Bruins won’t be special, while the dad loudly proclaims that they are. Not promising ... If you’ve never been enthralled with the men’s national soccer team in major settings, it deserves a fresh look with a kid, 18-year-old
Christian Pulisic, as its most talented and dynamic player. He grew up in Pennsylvania but moved to Germany when he was 15, and the priceless European exposure (he now stars for Borussia Dortmund) really shows. He consistently produces those creative, instinctive moments reserved for the very best ... Meanwhile, the world’s most famous and enthralling player,
Lionel Messi, draws a four-game suspension during Argentina’s World Cup qualifying for berating an assistant referee. Messi didn’t even draw a yellow card at the time, and the head referee later said he wasn’t aware of any insults. Only a tone-deaf organization defined by sheer incompetence, FIFA, could come up with such a ruling. Argentina should be able to get through the qualifying with the likes of Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain, but four games? What if you take out somebody with a really vicious, illegal tackle — hanged at dawn? ... Good call by the A’s, hiring Dallas
Braden for studio analysis. Dave Stewart doesn’t have a voice for broadcasting, but his candor is always refreshing. Jose Canseco, handling it from a studio in Las Vegas? I’ll go with ESPN’s Keith Law on this one: “You have no idea if what Canseco says will be appropriate for television, or accurate. The way he comes off on Twitter is like a crazy person. He’s a tinfoil-hat/conspiracy theorist/nut job.” Perhaps that, sadly, is the appeal.