What a game. You gotta give the Warriors and Curry a ton of credit. They’ve built a solid squad around Curry’s gravity and executed down the stretch. Can’t blame officiating this go-around. Yes Pod 3 call was terrible, but we should’ve challenged.
The Warriors are one of the toughest if not THE toughest matchups for us. We are a terrible 3pt defense team. We were last year. Adding Fox Kornet Okynyk Waters isn’t going to change 3pt D this year. Adding Harper will, but he’s in a boot. Bryant would’ve been taken to school, as in like kindergarten.
Blanket statement - we are going through a ton of good growing pains. Too many to list across Mitch and the players, but feels like we’ve covered them on this thread.
HOWEVER, there are some callouts I want to make that I feel are unacceptable.
Mitch - how does it take 3 HALVES to figure out we shouldn’t be forcing French Vanilla? We all get the concept of those two. But if there ever was a team and player to NOT play them together it’s the Warriors and Curry. I’m not a Sochan Stan, but he is a mobile defensive wing to be used in certain situations. These last two games were them.
Sochan - I thought he played well. Yes he had a bad turnover and botched dunk, but he also played above average D on Butler when we needed him, hit a 3, and made a couple smart plays + easy dunk. He’s played 87 min TOTAL this season, including last night. Y’all remember last year when he was crushing on D and making cuts, passes, and back-downs on O? He can be a valuable tool on this team if we give him sufficient minutes to get back into his groove. Again, not a Sochan Stan, but I do think he needs more minutes so he’s ready when called upon.
Fox - back to the callouts. His D on Curry was absolutely unacceptable. Meandering, no energy, no effort. My brain was short circuiting. No he wasn’t tired. I’m chalking up his offensive struggles including lack of penetration to rust. If it’s not rust, we’re in big trouble, because without the penetration he’s just another scorer. Not a max player who alters the geometry.
Victor - encouraging stuff in the 2nd half. He finishes with 26/12/4/3 with 3 TO and 1 PF on pure talent. He could do so much more if the coaching staff (and HE) give him better starting position. It was excruciating watching the Warriors deny him the ball, even beyond the 3pt line. What are we doing?? Lots of words have been typed on this topic - but at the end of the day, Victor needs to learn to establish + demand the ball in the paint.
Champ / Vassell - it’s funny, these two players are so alike. Streaky shooters who can save us when we’re down, but can also kill us (is someone working with Champ on his OOB issues?? For the love of god). What’s not funny? One makes $27M, the other makes $3M.
Rapid fire - KJ was due for a bad game, but our coaching staff didn’t help him much either. Castle doing the lords work but he needed help - this was a game we really could’ve used Harper’s perimeter D and on-ball penetration on O. Kornet looked better defending and rebounding down low, but again, coaching staff.
All in all, a team and player designed to murder us. And they did. Not expecting similar results against good teams in the future (HOU game as example). Lots to grow from, but also a few red flags to keep a watchful eye on.
Would be fun if we meet GSW in a playoffs series. Curry probably averaging 50s
