Category: Golden State Warriors

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHIEM–It’s big huge day for the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry who was awarded the NBA MVP for 2014-15, anybody who follows the NBA this was not a surprise he’s by far the most valuable player in the league or on the Warriors. There was no way they were going to win without him, these days you don’t have dominant teams in the NBA. I’m here in L.A. with the Angels and we talked the other day in the L.A. area in the beginning of the season you could buy tickets for the Lakers because they were always in the playoffs with Shaq and Kobe way back in the day.

The Warriors are living in their best days now, they could very well win it this year. If they win it one of the main reasons will be the MVP. I know that LeBron is the most popular guy in the NBA and there are some other stars. This season there is any doubt that Curry is the most valuable player in the NBA. This is very good news for the Warriors and Bay Area fans.

The chances of the Warriors going all the way with Curry that’s paramount with Curry’s talent, the team believes in him he’s a leader on the court and he’s the man. That means the Warriors are the favorite to win this thing and they might very well sweep the Memphis Grizzlies in this round of the playoffs. There the team that could go all the way.

They play Memphis for game two on Tuesday and San Antonio as you know are out but you never know in the playoffs weird things happen in the playoffs. If logic prevails Curry could be the first guy since the 1974-75 Warriors who beat the Washington Bullets to win a championship. Curry being the MVP makes the Warriors in the eyes of the national media the favorites to win it all.

Curry gets on the front page of the paper almost every other day and his night in and night out performance is the mark of what a superstar does. I would say it’s nice to see a guy on the field who hits his shots consistently, a guy on the court dunking or throwing for three point baskets. In the end you have to be a good ambassador for the game.

The fans in San Francisco saw one of those ambassador type guys Sunday at AT&T Park when the Giants were hosting the Angels. A little Giants fan got hit with a foul ball. First aid came over and wasn’t sure how good she was doing and what happened the Angels Mike Trout the A.L. MVP speaking about MVPs came out and gave her a baseball bat and gave her a ball this is what being a superstar is all about.

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

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Jeff Hall

SAN FRANCISCO–Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown’s short commitment with the Golden State Warriors anti arena group Mission Bay Alliance was short lived primarily because of his commitment at the San Francisco Chronicle as a weekly columnist. Brown made it clear that he was not against the Warriors new arena at Mission Bay but wanted the Warriors to make some adjustments regarding the two towers and the arena itself.

Brown wanted to keep peace with the Chronicle where he does his “Willie’s World” column each week in the Sunday paper. Sources have said that Brown only wanted to be involved in the Alliance so that he could be a face to the movement and maybe the Alliance can get the Warriors to pay to get the Alliance out of the way. No one will ever know now as Brown has withdrawn his support.

The Mission Bay Alliance are not ruling out trying to stop the two towers that the Warriors want to build with the new arena and they have been considering getting an initiative on the ballot that would be in front of the San Francisco voters about environmental and parking issues regarding the Warriors new arena. Plus how an arena event during a Giants game would impede traffic for emergency vehicles from getting to nearby UCSF Hospital.

The Warriors if an initiative comes to fruition if the measure gets on the ballot there might be that wild card chance that the voters could vote down the Warriors new arena. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee says that the voters, the waterfront neighborhood, UCSF, and City Hall are on board to get a new arena started. The Alliance have said environmental legalities could stop ground breaking at Mission Bay and delay the project up to year.

The other concern is that the neighborhood which they were concerned with development in the past voting down the 8 Washington condos and nearly putting an initiative on the ballot to stop a Warriors arena at Piers 30-32 until the Warriors thought the better of it and withdrew and later and bought the Mission Bay site for the arena from Salesforce. The neighborhood after the Mission Bay idea came up was behind the effort but sources say that there has been a split about development issues concerning traffic and emergency vehicle access for UCSF during arena events amongst the waterfront neighborhood.

The neighborhood could be concerned about the view, when Amaury first moved to San Francisco along time ago you bought an apartment in the City and one side of the building was facing the street and was $500 a month and the other side looking onto the bay was $700 an extra $200 for the view. That’s the beauty of San Francisco it’s a beautiful place to live and nobody argues that but there will be opposition to the new arena.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s; Jeff Hall is a Sacramento Kings beat writer both doing a podcast (below) on That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

By Jeff Hall

NEW ORLEANS –

The Warriors displayed that they much deserved the number one seed ranking in the NBA playoffs with complete dominance on both sides of the court in Game 4 of this series with a series sweep with a 109-98 win over the Pelicans

Anthony Davis opened up the scoring in the game with a two point shot in the games first two minutes of action. Both teams came out firing offensively The Pelicans began the game with a small lead, but it was total offensive domination by the Warriors and the early hot hand in scoring of Draymond Green.

Green scored the first seven Warriors points before Stephen Curry put down a 3-point shot.

After the end of the first quarter the Warriors led the Pelicans 31-24, primarily because of the play of Curry and Green. Curry had 14 first quarter points Green had 13. Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with 11 first quarter points.

The first quarter lead allowed Warrior’s Head Coach Steve Kerr to give Curry a rest on the Bench to begin the second quarter.

Green made a lay-up to give the Warriors their largest lead of the first half of ten points with 7:10 remaining in the first half of play. The Pelicans called a much-needed time-out.

After the timeout Eric Gordon had the hot hand shooting for the Pelicans, but the Pelicans had no Answer for the many scoring weapons of the Warriors. Klay Thompson scored 13 points in the second quarter driving the Warriors to their biggest lead of the half and giving them a 13 point first half lead  Curry and Green led the team with 20 first half points to lead the Warriors who shot 57 percent in the first half. For Green the 20 first half points was a season high for first half scoring and leading the Warriors a 67-54 lead at the half.

The Warriors were 9 of 12 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Warriors continued their strong play in the third quarter and increased their lead and jumped ahead by 23-points their largest lead of the game with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Nothing indicated that the Warriors would blow a 20-point lead

Things did get edgy for the Warriors In the fourth quarter. The Warriors started out sloppy and gave the Pelicans some life when they cut the Warrior’s lead to twelve points going on a 9-0 scoring run with 9 minutes remaining in the fourth.

Anthony Davis ended up with another outstanding performance for the Pelicans scoring 30 points and 11 rebounds. But the strength of Davis was simply not enough to over take the strength of the Warriors team.   Eric Gordon who had a one of his strongest games in the series Davis was the first player in NBA history to score 30 or more points in his first four playoff games he is the first player to do that in forty years.

Stephen Curry did what Stephen Curry does. Curry was 6 of 8 from 3-point range 11-20 from the field and led the game in scoring 39 points.

“We never quit and we have the firepower to make great runs” said Curry about his team’s over-all play in the series.

Curry also noted the play of his teammate Draymond Green. Curry spoke about the play of  Green. “It’s been everything, the way he defended Tyreke Evans, things he did that won’t show up on the stat sheet. He’s done so much, hopefully it continues.” Curry said.

With the win the Warriors clinch a series on the road for the first time since 1987 when the Warriors beat the Utah Jazz (3-0).

Notes:

Up next: The Warriors will wait to take on the winner of the Portland Trailblazer-Memphis Grizzly series.

Golden State’s last sweep in a best-of-seven series came in the 1975 NBA Finals, when they defeated Washington (4-0).

 

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

By Robert Steward

OAKLAND–

And now the REAL season begins in the NBA. As anyone who watches the NBA regular season games knows, there is a distinct difference in the style of play, most notably defense, when the playoffs begin. The intensity on defensive play stands out. Shots are contested more frequently and physical play by a defender is ratcheted up a notch. As a team goes deeper into the playoffs, the defense only gets more intense. Anyone wanting to see the difference need only watch a highlight reel of San Antonio Spurs playoff games from the last 15 years.

The Golden State Warriors, fresh off an NBA-best 67-15 record, including an NBA-best 39-2 home record, and number 1 seed in the Western Conference, played host to the New Orleans Pelicans, the number 8 seed, at Oracle Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Warriors certainly have high hopes of going much further in this year’s playoffs than last year’s first round exit in 7 games to the LA Clippers and they started this year’s playoff run on a winning note, defeating the Pelicans, 106-99.

As the game unfolded the Pelicans hit their first two shots of the game but proceeded to miss their next four shots as the Warriors scored 10 in a row to go up, 10-4, following a 3-pointer by Stephen Curry. Golden State continued to move the ball well and following a dunk by Andre Iguodala on a nice assist from Andrew Bogut led 18-8 with 3:57 left in the quarter. After making their first 2 shots the Pelicans proceeded to miss 17 of their next 19 as the Warriors opened up a 15-point lead, closing out the quarter leading 28-13. Golden State shot 50% from the floor to New Orleans’ 24%. The Warriors were more aggressive on the boards, outrebounding the Pelicans, 16-9. Stephen Curry had 11 points in the quarter, while Harrison Barnes hit a couple 3’s and added 8 points himself. Klay Thompson was surprisingly quiet, going scoreless and only taking 2 shots.

New Orleans once again started hot as the second quarter began, hitting their first 4 shots during an 8-0 run before Thompson woke up, scoring Golden State’s next 6 points. New Orleans kept up their hot shooting and cut the Warrior lead to 44-39 following a Quincy Pondexter trey with 4:16 left. Surprisingly, the Pelicans did not turn up the defensive intensity in the quarter as Golden State was getting plenty of uncontested layups. The Warriors went on a 15-2 run to close out the half with a 59-41 lead, highlighted by Stefan Curry’s play at the 1:35 mark. Following a turnover by the Pelicans, Curry pushed it upcourt, drove in with his left hand for a layup against two defenders, got fouled and laid the ball high off the glass for the bucket. His subsequent free throw completed the three-point play.

Golden State dominated the first half in the paint with 36 points, including 14 of 24 on dunks and layups. The Warriors were shooting 56% from the floor at the break, while New Orleans had improved to 41%. The Pelicans, however, cooled off after hitting their first 10 of 12 from the floor in the quarter, missing 5 of their last 6 shots. Despite only hitting 1 of 6 from 3-point range in the first half, Curry lead the Warriors with 19. Thompson scored all 11 of his points in the second quarter, while Barnes and Bogut also were in double figures with 10 points apiece. Antonio Davis led New Orleans with 11 points, the lone scorer in double figures for the Pelicans.

At the start of the second half New Orleans began to turn it up a notch on the defensive end but struggled to make shots. Tyreke Evans, who had left the game in the 2nd quarter following a knee contusion, did not return for the rest of the game. Also, Davis picked up his 4th foul for the Pelicans at the 7:01 mark and went to the bench. Golden State took advantage and continued to be unselfish with the ball, making extra passes to the open shooter. Iguodala was left wide open on the baseline and connected on an uncontested 3-pointer following passes from Curry to Thompson to Iguodala to open up a 69-46 lead with 6:01 left in the quarter. The Warriors eventually extended the lead to 25 and led by that margin, 82-57, with 2:15 left. At this point in the game the Warriors were clearly wanting it more, forcing turnovers and getting strong second efforts following missed shots. It was also at this point when the Pelicans finally woke up and realized they were in the playoffs. They closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run, finished by Pondexter’s long 3-pointer just inside halfcourt with .01 second left. Golden State led, 84-66, as the third quarter ended.

The Pelicans picked up where they left off in the 3rd, starting the 4th quarter on a 7-0 run, extending their overall run of 14 consecutive points to trim the Warriors lead to 84-73, forcing Golden State to call a timeout with 10:20 left. Curry stopped the bleeding with an uncontested trey and it was followed by Thompson’s trey to push the lead back to 17, at 90-73, with 8:11 left. It was clear, however, that the Warriors were not nearly aggressive in the 4th as they had been for the previous three quarters. They were also content to launch 3-pointers and miss them, at one point missing 4 in a row as the Pelicans continued to chip away at the Golden State lead. Eric Gordon hit a three for New Orleans to cut the lead to 93-83 with 3:26 left. At this point, the Warriors had only made 2 of 13 from the floor in the 4th. Davis played very strong in the 4th for the Pelicans, at one point scoring 16 of the team’s 19 points in one stretch, continuously hitting baseline jumpers and free throws when fouled. He also threw down a thunderous dunk on an alley-oop from Norris Cole with 2:59 left. Golden State, meanwhile, made things way too interesting during crunch time, missing 6 of 10 free throws late in the game, including 3 of 4 by Thompson, an 88% free throw shooter on the season, and one by Curry, himself hitting 91% from the line during the regular season. The Pelicans whittled the lead down to 4, at 103-99, with 9 seconds left following 2 free throws from Davis, before the Warriors woke up and hit 3 of their last 4 from the line to seal it.

Golden State was led by Curry, who finished with 34 points, but only 4 of 13 from long-distance and 4 of 7 from the line. Thompson scored 21 but also missed 3 from the line and was only 6 of 17 from the floor. Draymond Green had a solid game for the Warriors, scoring 15, while pulling down 12 rebounds and dishing out 7 assists. Andrew Bogut also played strong, having a double-double of his own with 12 points and 14 boards. Barnes chipped in with 12 points of his own as all Warrior starters were in double figures. Golden State finished at 46% shooting from the floor, including 11 of 29 from 3-point range, but shot poorly from the line, hitting only 21 of 34. New Orleans was led by Davis, who scored 20 of his game-high 35 points in the 4th. Pondexter finished with 20 and Gordon added 16. The Pelicans shot 42% from the floor, hitting 9 of 20 beyond the arc. They were also 20 of 25 from the line.

Both teams go at it again in game 2 at Oracle Arena on Monday at 7:30pm.