Surprising Game 1 result raises all kinds of questions
Burning questions while we wait to find out whether that was the real Warriors we saw breezing to a win Saturday in Game 1 of the playoffs . ...
Game 1 against the Spurs might have been the Warriors’ most impressive performance of the season. When Stephen Curry returns, will he be able to make this team?
That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever asked myself. Of course, he’ll make the squad. The question is, can he break into the starting lineup?
Steve Kerr opened with Andre Iguodala at point guard because the Warriors’ head coach wanted his best defensive team to start. What if that’s a sound strategy against, say,
Portland?
Stay ready on the bench, Steph, we might need you at some point tonight.
We’re being silly here, but how would you like to be the Warriors’ next opponent and see you’ve got Steph Curry coming off the bench against you? That’s a pretty good sub.
If that ever happens, Curry could get some solid advice from his dad about playing off the bench. Dell Curry spent 16 seasons in the NBA and started an average of six games per season.
Whose idea was it to start Iguodala?
It wasn’t Nick U’Ren. Steve Kerr’s special assistant and “chief of staff,” U’Ren famously convinced Kerr to start Iguodala in Game 4 of the 2015 NBA Finals, and Iguodala became Finals MVP.
I checked with U’Ren on Sunday at the Warriors’ practice, and he said it wasn’t his idea this time. However, U’Ren is so modest, he wouldn’t take credit if it was his idea.
Whoever’s idea it was, it was borderline brilliant. And not without risk. Had the Spurs won Game 1, my story line would have been easy: “Kerr’s panic move costs Warriors dearly.”
Do the Warriors have a chip on their shoulder because we — the media and the fans — accused them of being lazy the last month of the season?
“I don’t listen to (that chatter), to be honest,” Klay Thompson said Sunday. “I didn’t even know that until you told me.”
But you read the newspaper, Klay.
“I do read the paper,” Thompson said, “but I read box scores, mainly, I don’t really read people’s opinions. I know what to think of myself.”
That hurts, but it will inspire me to raise my game so I can earn Klay’s readership. Either that or I’ll start writing the box scores.
Was the chip on the Warriors’ collective shoulder what motivated them in Game 1?
That’s tricky territory. On Sunday, Kevin Durant played down the Chip Theory.
“Sometimes you could let the chip get too big, and let it get in the way of what’s really important,” Durant said. “That’s an emotional thing. We can’t have all the emotion and not execute.”
In other words, if you cash in all your “chip” chips, you might not leave yourself enough capital to ante up for your execution.
Is it amusing the way San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich embarrasses the TV sideline reporters who are forced to do those stupid in-game quickie interviews with him?
No. It’s old and sad. Popovich hates those interviews. We all hate ’em. They are Western Civilization at its worst. But why shoot the messenger? Popovich should use his pulpit to tell Adam Silver to end those interviews. If Silver tells the TV people, “Our coaches aren’t doing those things anymore,” what are the TV people going to do? Take their cameras and go home?
Is fo-fo-fo-fo (a perfect 16-0 run through the playoffs) now a reasonable possibility for the Warriors?
Good God. The Warriors have had one good game, against a badly overmatched team that also had a bad day shooting and rebounding. Let’s not get carried away.
And yet, Game 1 did change the way we look at the Warriors. In 48 minutes, they evolved from dysfunctional slackers to revved-up superstars.
A 16-0 run is dreamland. But the smart play for any playoff team is to minimize the number of games played. Fewer games, fewer injuries, less fatigue.
Exhibit A: The Warriors last year, 16-1.
Also, a short series means more practice time for the Warriors before the next round, and thus more time to ease Curry back into the flow.
Is JaVale McGee the first NBA player to play wearing a grill?
I’m not sure what McGee was wearing in Game 1. It looked like a grill. And his bite was worse than his bark.
McGee likes stuff. He wears a headband, and full leggings. When he’s on the bench, he wears a big wide belt, like a wrestling championship belt, but it has lights on it. Maybe some kind of stim belt.
Whatever works. You know what ZZ Top sings, “Every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.”