Bogut’s back, but Warriors fall to San Antonio, 111-105.
Bogut starts in his ’19 debut and Durant returns from injury, but cold shooting sinks Warriors
SAN ANTONIO >> The Warriors welcomed back a couple familiar faces on Monday night, but the team’s recent bout of with inconsistent play returned as well.
Andrew Bogut, fresh off an MVP season in his native Australia and without a full practice under his belt, started and had seven points and seven rebounds in 13 minutes, and Kevin Durant scored 24 points after missing the previous two games. It still added up to a 111-105 loss to the
San Antonio Spurs.
The Warriors were coming off marquee road wins at Oklahoma City and Houston, but reverted to the form that had seen them lose four of their previous six games before the trip, including a home loss to lowly Phoenix.
Monday, Stephen Curry (25 points) and Klay Thompson (14) could not overcome shooting slumps.
Curry shot 9-of-25 from the field and 6-of-18 from 3. Thompson went 5-of-18 overall and 4-of-9 from deep.
The Warriors (47-22) missed center DeMarcus Cousins because of a sore right foot. But the Warriors thought they would benefit from Durant’s return after missing two games with a right ankle contusion.
His 24 points came on 9-of18 shooting, but that meant little with Curry and Thompson struggling in a game that featured nine ties and eight lead changes.
The arrival of Bogut had the team in a good mood before the game.
The man had not played an NBA game in almost a year. He had not fully completed a practice, let alone a morning shootaround. And he had spent the past weekend flying from Australia, the Bay Area and then down here.
And yet there was Bogut ushered into the starting lineup with Cousins ailing.
“He burst out laughing,” War-
riors coach Steve Kerr recalled when he delivered the news.
Bogut planned to spend the beginning of this week much differently after taking a 15-hour flight from Sydney, Australia, to the Bay Area on Friday and purchasing a home on Saturday. He planned to buy toys for his two children on Monday as well as train at the Warriors’ practice facility. Then he planned to make his Warriors’ return against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday.
That all changed, though, when Cousins felt soreness in his right foot toward the end of Saturday’s game in Oklahoma City. Afterwards, Kerr texted Bogut with what Bogut described as a “call me ASAP kind of thing.” Then, Kerr informed Bogut he wanted him to fly to San Antontio on Sunday evening. Cousins took an MRI on Monday that came out clean and the team has since listed him day-today, which leaves his availability for today’s game in Minnesota in question.
“I’m going to start him to allow us to keep our same rotation off the bench,” Kerr said.
There were other reasons, too. Kerr wanted the 7-foot-0, 230-pound Bogut to match up against San Antonio center Jakob Poeltl and forward LaMarcus Aldridge as opposed to forwards Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell or Jonas Jerebko.
With Bogut also playing with the Warriors for four years (2012-2016), Kerr argued the “best chance to give Bogs success is with the guys he’s familiar with,” including Curry,
Thompson and Draymond Green.
“All of the stuff is the same. There hasn’t been a whole lot of changes,” Bogut said. “But there are some new things. Hopefully the guys like Draymond don’t get too mad at me if I’m in the wrong spot. We’ll get it figured out.”
Bogut has not had much time to figure things out. He attended a team dinner on Sunday night. Then Kerr spoke with Bogut on Monday morning about the team’s slightly updated playbook to accomodate Durant’s presence and the team’s increased use of switching on defense. Bogut skipped morning shootaround so he could complete his physical.
“A little tired but it is what it is,” Bogut said. “A little jetlagged. It usually takes about a week.”
Bogut collected regularseason MVP and defensive player of the league honors with the Sydney Kings of Australia’s National Basketball League. Then, Bogut impressed Warriors assistant general manager Larry Harris with his improved conditioning and health. As opposed to the NBA’s 82-game schedule, Bogut played only 30 games in Australia.
“You still have to grab rebounds, still set screens and do what I do whether it’s for a minute for 15 and 20 minutes. At the end of the day, that doesn’t change,” Bogut said. “Once I’m out there and will play to my strengths playing physical, setting good screens and getting the splash brothers and KD and those guys open as much as I can and then crashing the boards. If I don’t play, I’ll be wearing the towel and being a good teammate and make sure I’m being positive with guys.”