Oklahoma City – The the Warriors They spent 50 regular season games looking for signs on themselves. Because of the inability to maintain any level of consistency, the veterans became skeptical. One game – even a long series of decent performances – doesn’t move them.
“Verse” Draymond Green He said. “we will see.”
The Warriors dominated Monday night’s game in Oklahoma City. They went up 38-20 in the first quarter, led by 21 in the second half, and settled for a young comeback. thunder He walked away with a convincing enough victory 128-120. It’s the first time this season that he’s won back-to-back road games.
“Damn it,” Green said, grumbling about the negative connotation of positive stats.
It’s too early to announce that the Warriors’ issues have been resolved. But there are at least hints of some momentum building. Their last seven matches have, on the whole, been encouraging. overpowered wizards On the road, they lost in overtime in Boston, went to Cleveland without starting and stunned Cavaliersdawn leads late to networks He has now won three times in a row grizzlyAnd wild birds and thunder.
That’s a 5-2 stretch, enough to climb the ladder in a non-critical conference. At the end of the night, by defeating The Thunder and Minnesotaloss’s home Kingsthe Warriors flipped with the Timberwolves in the standings and somehow found themselves as the fifth seed, only half a game out of fourth.
Klay Thompson dunks against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. (Alonzo Adams/USA Today)
“I can’t really get the swings,” Steve Curry He said. “Because you are one or two losses away from being ranked tenth with the ranking order now.”
Still, the veterans fear that one bad night could slip into the bad habits that destabilized this season from the start. It was a trend. But there have been at least shades of their better selves lately.
“The assist-to-turnover ratio was special tonight,” Clay Thompson He said. “This could be an indication.”
The Warriors had 37 assists and a reasonable 15 turnovers against a Thunder team that entered eighth in the NBA in defence. In the first quarter, they caught 15 assists on 15 field goals. This game comes after they had 40 assists, only 12 turnovers and 129 points in an easy win over the Raptors.
“I think so,” Thompson said, offering the highest level of veteran optimism when asked about potential momentum. “We’re complete. I absolutely believe the big nights are on the horizon.”
all is the key. Curry is nine games into his return and starting to produce like himself at the start of the season. During this three-game mini-win streak, Curry scored 34, 35 and 38 points on 19, 21 and 20 shots. After Toronto’s win, Steve Kerr said Curry looked like he had a “pop” back. In Oklahoma City, he scored 38, made eight seconds, sprinkled about 12 assists and combined with Thompson, who scored 28 and made six three seconds, has Thunder fans haunting memories of the past.
But it was Andrew Wiggins’ quiet quiet night that was the most famous. Wiggins had missed the previous two games due to another illness, meaning he had missed 18 of his previous 26 games and looked rusty on the nights he appeared.
“When he first came back, he seemed a little shy,” said Green. “I don’t know if shy is the right word. But you’re just trying to find your legs, find your rhythm, find your spots.”
Wiggins made 3 to open the game against the Thunder and then went 6 of 9 the rest of the game inside the arc, getting some of that touch back on a float and hook against smaller defenders. It also carries some challenges Gilgos Alexander Tea task, handle it decently and add 2 blocks and a steal.
“He looked just like him,” Kerr said. “He’s been through a rough patch between injury and illness a few times. He’s lost some conditioning, he’s lost some rhythm. He had a great workout yesterday. You can see this coming.”
Since Wiggins was out early in the season, Jonathan Cuminga appeared. This will be the first set of plays Kerr can deploy together as a versatile defensive group on the wing. Kuminga caused Gilgeous-Alexander trouble in the first half of Monday. Gilgeous-Alexander pushed him some buckets in the third quarter. But Kerr’s increasing defensive selectivity was apparent. Donte Divincenzo I also got a crack.
Kuminga and DiVincenzo are the established seventh and eighth men in a stretching rotation behind the established sixth. Anthony Lamb He was the ninth man on Monday Night vs. the Younger Thunder. Jamical Green Heading into rotation against bigger teams after several good performances lately.
“This was a key match for us,” Kerr said. “To start winning gives us a good chance to rest tomorrow, get ready for Minnesota, attack that game and see what happens. The game in Denver is going to be tough with the travel. So we needed that tonight. Now we have to go get greedy.”
The Timberwolves are half a game behind the Warriors in the standings. They play Wednesday night. the Nuggets They are the first in the West. The Warriors play them Thursday night in Denver. It’s fair to wonder if the Warriors will choose to rest their veterans against the Nuggets, even as they try to keep up that elusive momentum.
“I campaign to play every game,” Curry said. “That’s the misconception about managing loads. It’s not the player who usually says, ‘Hey, I want to sit.’ So for all the people worried about our league all that, it’s not usually the player who goes to the coaching staff and says, ‘I don’t have that tonight.'” It’s usually different and there’s a lot of science involved. So, yeah, I’ll campaign to play. But we’ll see how that goes.”
Does he expect success?
“I do, actually. I do.”
(top image from Andrew Wiggins: Ian Maule/Getty Images)