Category: Golden State Warriors

Photo credit: (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ June 19, 2015

OAKLAND– Around 500,000 fans repping the blue and gold with different slogans, signs and jerseys, showed up for the Golden State Warriors’ first championship in 40 years, with a parade, followed by a rally.

It has been four and a half years since the Bay Area had a similar championship void filled, that being the San Francisco Giants. Mentioning the Warriors’ past woes, co-owner Joe Lacob said,”I’m not sure many people can say they’ve been booed by 20,000 people and cheered by millions.”

At 10am, the San Jose Mercury News reported, the top Bart station of entry so far was Fremont with 9,717 entries. The Fremont Bart line for tickets wrapped around the parking lot before it split into two, some people waiting an hour. Then suddenly, without notice, fans were allowed to pass through the without a ticket, as people scrambled excitedly to get on their way to Oakland.

Chants of “Warriors!” were interspersed throughout the day.

During the parade, which began at 12th and Broadway, signs with names were put on the different modes of transportation, as blue and gold confetti filled the air. For the players, that included their number and their Twitter account names. It was usually two players, one in the front and one in the back of the open-air high-rise vehicles. Not sure if it was intentional or not, but David Lee and Shaun Livingston were sitting opposite their names. Adonal Foyle was also there. Stephen Curry, accompanied with daughter Riley and wife Ayesha among others, entered to the chants of “MVP!” and “Curry!” repeatedly.

Non-Warriors notable appearances were MC Hammer on Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s famous fire-breathing snail car and Marshawn Lynch rolling with Draymond Green on his float.

After the parade, fans made the at least 2 mile trek to the rally, according to a newscast, because of road closures. Musical performances could be heard alongside car honk cheering and sausages, some covered with bacon, looked like the popular choice for hungry fans.

The rally was held at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center next to Lake Merritt, where an audible splash was heard.

Big screens were put up showing interviews being given before the rally, which started at 12pm, fans impatient for it to start.

At 12:11pm, there was a shooting incident blocks away where three people were hurt.

Mayor Schaaf gave the team a key to the city made at the Crucible, a nonprofit industrial arts school.

Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty lauded the Warriors style, “work hard, be humble and get the job done.”

Coach Steve Kerr started talking at about 1pm and traded jokes with Draymond Green. “I had to teach Draymond in nine months to become confident, rational, talk trash to the other team, his coach, his mother, to be a general pain in the butt…Sorry, I got carried away.”

Green said, “Every time I take a shot, Steve Kerr complains. Every time I make a shot I look at him. Twenty-four percent, but I got a ring.”

Andre Iguodala was not too behind with the levity. “What an amazing experience. I canceled my tee time this morning, so it must have been something important for me to cancel my tee time.

Riley made an indistinguishable sound at the podium and Curry said, “We’re going to suit up in three more months and try to do it again.”

On the way back walking to the Bart, a balloon simply expressing ‘Thank You’ could be seen and a guy announced, “when I say Dub, you say nation, Dub, nation!”

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–With the Golden State Warriors first NBA title in 40 years, and second since they move from Philadelphia, the Bay Area has enjoyed great success in sports.

Once Oakland was called “City of Champions”and we can see why below with all their titles. In the recent past the San Francisco Giants have been winning and have joined the 49ers who are the cunningest team in the bay as far as championships.

Oakland:

Athletics (4)four World Series titles (1972,1973,1974,1989)

Raiders (3)NFL Superbowl tittles (1977,1981,1984)*

Warriors (2)NBA Titles (1975,2015)

49ERS (5)NFL Superbowl titles (1982,1985,1989,1990,1995)

Giants (3)MLB Three World Series titles(2010,2012,2014)

San Jose Sharks: zip

San Jose Sabercats (3) 2002, 2004, 2007

Earthquakes (2)MLS Soccer titles(2001,2003)

*That Superbowl (1984)was won by the Raiders while their short stay in Los Angeles, but we all agree when you talk Raiders, you think of Oakland not Los Angeles. Although the Warriors first played in San Francisco/Daly City, the Cow Palace, and San Jose Arena while they were building what is now known as the Oracle Arena, they have won both of their titles playing in Oakland.

How many more could be in store? Maybe the San José Sharks would win their first Stanley Cup next season, then we could say that all of our professional sports teams are truly champions.

Amaury Pi-González, will be covering the Warriors Victory Parade this Friday Live from 10AM on Telemundo Network Bay Area, KSTS CH 48 San José.
Pearl Lo will be covering the Warriors victory Parade with Amaury for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

AP Photo/Ben Margot

By Jeff Hall

OAKLAND –

The Warriors lead this series 3-2 with a 104-91 win because when the Cavs ran out of strength in the game the Warriors got stronger and Andre Iguodala was once again a strong presence for the Warriors The Warriors went on a 17-5 run in the final four minutes of the game. Stephen Curry scored 17 fourth quarter points and finished the game with 37 points. The Warriors have so many weapons and they proved again they have more weapons than the Cavaliers.

Once again Warrior’s coach Steve Kerr decided to start Andre Iguodala for defensive purposes.

Neither team shot well at the beginning of the game. The Warriors scored the first points after a Klay Thompson lay-up three minutes into the game. The Cavaliers turned the ball over four times in the early minutes. The Warriors scored their first three baskets in transition all on the turnovers of the Cavs.

Draymond Green got off to a hot start scoring 9 points in the first 7 minutes of the game.

Carried on the back of LeBron James the Cavs took their first lead of the game mid way through the first quarter.  James scored eight points in the first quarter. J. R Smth scored eight points for the cavs. Smith had been struggling scoring earlier in the series.

Green led the Warriors in scoring in the first with 10 first quarter points. Stephen Curry had 7 points in the first.

Despite the slow start by the Cavs, the game was even at 22 points at the end of the first quarter of play.

In the second quarter J.R. Smith continued the hot hand in scoring. Smith was 4 of 7 from beyond the Arc and provided the Cavs with much needed scoring from someone besides LeBron. Speaking of LeBron he was just shy of a triple double in the first half of action in the game. James scored 20 first half points. He had eight rebounds and eight assists in the first half. Matthew Dellavedova was held to just two first half points.

Curry responded with what the Warriors needed. Curry was 3 of 4 from 3-point land and 15 first half points

The first half of play was wild on both sides and there were 12 lead changes in the first half.

On the final play of the first half, Curry drove to the basket and led the ball to Harrison Barnes who followed the ball dunking it into the basket and was fouled giving the Warriors a 51-50 lead at the end of the first half.

Igoudala scored just three points in the first half but played well. He had 7 rebounds and six assists in the first half.

“Andre was brilliant for us tonight. He does everything for us. He’s our best defender on LeBron. He’s a Brilliant defensive player. He missed some free throws down the stretch, but it didn’t matter.”

The Warriors shot 54% from the field in the first half. The Cavs shot 42% from the field.

After the first half, The primary question of the game would be will the Cavs have enough gas in the tank to finish the game in another hard fought game at the Oracle Arena.

In the third the Warriors were the stronger team and went on a 13-4 run in the final minutes. The Warriors increased their lead to seven and took advantage when LeBron James was sent to the bench to get a much needed rest. James began to show struggles and signs of fatigue.. James scored just four third quarter points. And was just 9 for 21 from the field.

With 6:47 remaining in the Game, James had scored nearly half of the Cavs total points as a team. James had 34 points and the Cavs had 80 points total and trailed the Warriors by five.

With five minutes to play it was a another nail biter with the two teams with the Warriors holding onto a one point lead. The game took a turn after James made a long distance 3-point shot. Seconds later Curry responded with a 3-point shot of his own.

“That was big, because that was he first three of the fourth quarter and we didn’t let the momentum slip. “said Curry

Next it was Klay Thompson that made a 3-point shot and the Warriors lead began to grow and they started to pull away from the Cavs and increased their lead by 10 points.

James scored 40 points, had 14 rebounds and 11 assists for a his second triple double in the finals.

This game is just a reminder that Cleveland does not have enough to get their offense going consistently. J.R. Smith who had a great start in the game did not score a single point in the second half. Dellavedova had just five points in the game.

Game Six returns to Cleveland and the Warriors need one more win to win the championship.

Kerr talked about the difficulty of winning the deciding game. “It’s going to be hard, we are going to have to play better then we did tonight”

The Warriors stuck with the small line-up and Andrew Bogut did not get any action in this one. “It’s a small series and It works well for us, we’re comfortable with this style..” said Kerr regarding the line-up adjustment to stay small.

The Series returns to Cleveland for game six on Tuesday.

Notes:

Curry has made 16 of his last 23 3-point attempts.

by David Zizmor

In the first three games of the NBA Finals the Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James dominated those games and the Golden State Warriors strategy going into those games was they were going to let LeBron have the ball and not let him distribute the ball to anybody else. That wasn’t working in game three and LeBron scored 44 points for his highest post season total in his career.

LeBron just dominanted in the first three games and he scored more points than anybody ever in the first three games in the NBA Finals. He was just killing everybody and everything was working for him. Granted he was also playing 44 minutes a night he was wearing himself out in the process. He was dominating and had LeBron continued like that the Warriors would have been in a lot of trouble.

What happened in game four on Thursday night at Quick and Loans was the Warriors had a complete shift in strategy and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr lied to everybody which later he admitted he lied to everyone and pulled Andrew Bogut out of the starting lineup for game four. Kerr ened up putting Andre Iguodala in.

It was a small group for the Warriors and that small group just dominated the game but what it did it gave the Warriors the mindset to get into their particular style of game instead of the Cavaliers style of being down 20 seconds until they shoot the ball offense. The Warriors by going with their small ball group their just faster and they get up and down the floor more and they get into a rhythm.

That was the game plan and they’ve done it all season long and with Bogut on the floor their able to do that as Cleveland has some answers for Bogut in preparing for the Warriors with a counter move. That counter move was to put Iguodala in the starting line and he’s done it 100 games and he gets in there and he’s a fantastic defender and he’s been amazing in this whole series even though LeBron has done so well.

When Iguodala is on him LeBron has struggled and in this game with LeBron covered by with Iguodala for most of the game LeBron had his worst game of the series he scored 20 points in game four and the Warriors got their mojo back it’s really kind of simple as that and they played the style that they liked and they were comfortable and they really got it going.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Photo credit: (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ Andre Iguodala made his first start with a season-high of 22, as Golden State did what they did in Memphis, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday in Game Four, 103-82.

Iguodala started instead of Andrew Bogut, as the Warriors came back from a 2-1 series deficit on the road.

Cleveland’s Timothy Mozgov led all with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Lebron James had a double-double as well, below his usual performance though, with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Golden State’s Stephen Curry had 22 points.

The Cavaliers’ coach David Blatt replied during the postgame conference that he did think his team was tired. They disappeared in the fourth quarter.

Iguodala after the game, said, “It’s hard to keep up with us, and we’re going to try to keep it going.”

The game started out with more Cleveland momentum, though, as they got off to a 7-0 lead.

The Warriors responded quickly after the timeout.

Later, Golden State’s Draymond Green made an aggressive jumper, resulting in a foul shot. That foul shot tied the game at 20 with 4:29 left to go.

The following possession, Klay Thompson gave Warriors their first and final lead.

Golden State’s David Lee came into the game early, with 3:57 left in the first..

With 2:13 left, the Cavs’ missed four straight shots, while the Warriors made three, Iguodala with two of those baskets for a nine-point lead and coincidentally, a game-high nine points in the first for him.

Green had a game-tying 13 points at the end of the first half with Mozgov. Green got six of those starting with 6:51 left in the second, scoring three of the four plays that led to the Golden State’s largest lead of the first half with 4:25 left, 48-33. All of them were different types of shots, including one from the foul line and one beyond the arc. After the latter, Green could be seen saying, “I’m back.”

Meanwhile, during and after, James went 1-of-4 from the free throw line. With 4:43 left in the second, he was fouled by Andrew Bogut, lost his balance and hit his head on one of the cameras, causing bleeding cuts, but did not leave the game.

In the first half, Cleveland’s Matthew Dellavedova was 0 of 5 from beyond the arc with only one basket. In fact, the team missed 11 straight threes.

Both teams traded off quarters in the second half.

Iguodala made a three to start the third and make it a 15 point lead again. However, Dellavedova then made two straight threes, assisted by James. James also made both of his free throws, had an assist and two consecutive baskets, to make it 62-65 with 5:11 left. After 9:46 left, the Warriors had no non-foul shots until 4:54 left in the quarter.

Dellavedova had to leave the game temporarily due to cramping.

In the fourth, Curry and Iguodala had one and two threes respectively. The Cavs only scored 12 points. J.R. Smith was the only player other than Mozgov in the quarter, to score a non-foul shot. The other five of Mozgov’s seven points came from free throws. Golden State’s largest lead became 23 with 1:17 left.

Game notes: With the series now even at 2-2, the teams travel back to Oakland to face off Sunday at 5pm.

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–There has never been an NBA Finals that has seen two overtimes in it’s history. By the way the ratings are huge for this Finals and we spoke about this on the show and the ratings have been very good. The Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James everyone knows LeBron and how people are discovering the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry.

They all know that Curry is a great player but the whole world already knows who LeBron is and it’s been a great series and it’s a getting a lot of ratings worldwide. The ratings are high because of Curry’s MVP year and the excitement that the Warriors have had and also they haven’t been here since 1974-75 and 2006-07 for the Cavaliers.

This is a good story and that’s why so many who are following this series on TV have given this series a high ratings boost. This is good to see teams who don’t make it and it’s good to see the Warriors going up against a city like Cleveland and it’s good for the game. Oakland we know the problem here with unemployment and housing Cleveland is going through the same thing. Cleveland is known as the rust belt and Cleveland has lost a lot of industry and it’s good news and it’s positive news for Cleveland and for Oakland.

A’s switcher pitcher Pat Venditte all the rage: Venditte’s father taught him to throw from both sides and he’s a lefty and a righty and Muzuno has developed a six fingered glove for Venditte where he could use it on either hand. When he throws left handed the thumb is on one side and when he throws right handed the thumb is on the other side.

It’s the same glove with six fingers, this is a great story I don’t think he’ll make that much of a difference having said that the bullpen is very bad for the A’s. So Venditte could be the bandit. The A’s bullpen is not good right now but they have some starters and their top ace is Sonny Gray who started Tuesday night’s game came in 7-2 ERA 1.65.

Gray has the lowest ERA in baseball he’s a great starting pitcher and it’s tough to win without your bullpen but the A’s still have a chance their still a young team and they have time to figure it out. This is Ben Zobrist’s first year in Oakland, they haven’t jelled as a unit yet and it’s very dangerous. If the A’s are not out of the cellar in about 35 days A’s general Billy Beane will be making move if this team doesn’t improve soon.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below