Category: Golden State Warriors

Shorthanded Warriors make it look easy, beat Orlando 103-89

Published on by gabeschapiroLeave a comment

By Gabe Schapiro

No Andrew Bogut or Andre Iguodala? No problem. The Golden State Warriors (43-26) didn’t skip a beat despite two of their starters being out with injuries, easily beating the Orlando Magic (19-49) 103-89, Tuesday night, at Oracle Arena. Orlando has struggled mightily this season, but when Bogut and Iguodala were ruled out, the defensive backbones of the team, there is no doubt that it had some nervous for this one. Those concerns were fairly quickly put to rest, however, as all three of Golden State’s other starters picked up the slack. After the first quarter, this contest was rarely ever in any doubt.

The game started as a bit of a dogfight, in a tightly played opening frame that saw 13 lead changes. After 12 minutes the Warriors exited from the fray with a slim three-point advantage. There wouldn’t be another lead change the rest of the way.

Golden State slowly started pulling away from the Magic, and really slammed the door shut in a big third quarter, which saw them outscore Orlando 30-19.  The end of the bench saw some action late, as they eased to the victory.

It was nearly all good signs from the Dubs on this night. It was 14 minutes into the contest before they committed their first turnover. It was the third quarter before they missed their first free throw.

The three normal Warriors starters who did play in this one all had very strong games. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and David Lee finished with 23, 20, and 20 points respectively. Lee finished with a double-double, adding 10 rebounds to his line. Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes got the starting nod in the place of their injured stars, and while both struggled offensively, they chipped in in other ways. Green hauled in nine boards, dished out three assists, and had two steals. Barnes had five rebounds and three assists.

Golden State’s bench, which saw a little extra play tonight, had a strong game as well, particularly Mareese Speights and Steve Blake. Speights hasn’t played much recently, but clearly came in ready to go. He contributed 13 points, eight rebounds, and a block in 23 minutes. Blake also put up double-digit points, finishing with 12 to go along with four assists.

In the loss five Orlando players finished in double figures. Nikola Vucevic led the way with a team-high 15 points. Tobias Harris performed admirably off the bench, adding 14 points and a team-high six rebounds. Their backcourt really struggled, combining for just eight points.

The Warriors have now won two straight, and will look to make it three this Thursday, when they will be taking on the Milwaukee Bucks. The game starts at 7:30 PM, at Oracle Arena.

Splash Brothers Will Slumping Warriors to Rally Past Portland Late in 113-112 Thriller

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

By Matthew Harrington

Whatever message the Warriors discussed in a team meeting following their second-straight loss Friday night, one that saw a 15-point Golden State lead swing into a loss against the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers, certainly stuck with the Splash Brothers. It just took some time in Sunday evening’s 113-112 win over the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center for the backcourt tandem of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry to take over. The emerging faces of the franchise rallied Golden State (42-26) 18-point deficit in the third quarter to cap a wild comeback while avoiding a three-game losing skid for the first time since November 20-23 of this season.

Thompson, absent from Friday’s 103-94 loss to attend his grandfather’s funeral in the Bahamas, and Curry chipped in 15 points apiece in the fourth quarter, scoring 30 of 36 Warrior points in the pivotal period. The guards combined for 64 points, including 28 second-half points for Curry and 23 for Thompson to push the Dubs to their 15th triumph in 21 tries away from the friendly confines of Oracle Arena. The dominant road run is the first of its kind in franchise history.

After Curry’s 37 points and Thompson’s 27, including the eventual game-winner, David Lee finished third on the team with 16 points in only 24 minutes of play. Warriors forward Draymond Green had a team-high eight rebounds before fouling out. Damian Lillard led Portland (43-24) with 26 points while Nicolas Batum added 23 of his own to accompany a game-best 14 rebounds. Blazers center Robin Lopez converted a double-double as well, collecting 10 rebounds and 14 points. LaMarcus Aldridge sat out his second-consecutive game with a lower back contusion suffered in a 103-90 Blazers loss at San Antonio Wednesday.

Golden State opened the game again struggling to address the woes that sparked Friday’s closed-doors discussion. The Warriors found themselves trailing the team directly above them in the standings 55-44 at the half Sunday night. Portland, entering play with a 3.5 games ahead of the Warriors for fifth in the Western Conference, built on its first half success in the third. The Blazers took their largest cushion of the night, an 18-point separation, after Nicolas Batum hit a three to make it 70-52 Blazers 4:11 into the quarter. The Dubs chipped away with a 25-15 run over the final four-plus minute stretch to cut the deficit to 85-77, setting up the thrilling fourth-quarter momentum shift.

12 minutes away from only what would be only the second three-game losing streak all season, Golden State rallied to tie the game at 96-all with just over half a quarter. The Warriors evened the score courtesy of string of play where the Dubs limited Portland to 11 points while scoring 19 of their own over the first half of the final period of play. After Curry hit the free throw on Portland coach Terry Stotts’ technical foul, Thompson connected on only the second of two attempts from the charity stripe to give the Warriors their first lead since the first quarter now standing six minutes from the final whistle.

The lead changed hands five times over the next 5:49 of game time before Thompson,who arrived in the States late Saturday night, buried a three with just 11 seconds remaining on the clock to swing the scoreboard in  the Warriors’ favor 113-111. Golden State’s Andre Iguodala fouled Batum on a bid to even the game with five ticks left on the clock but the Blazers forward missed the potential tying shot after getting the first free throw to fall. Batum followed his miss and came up with the rebound, but his three-pointer from far out fell a few feet short of the basket as the buzzer sounded for Portland’s fifth loss in six games.

Warriors Center Andrew Bogut departed the game with 6:22 to play after suffering an apparent ankle injury on a layup attempt. Warriors coach Mark Jackson dismissed any concerns about the Aussie’s health, saying that Bogut asked to be subbed back in. Barring any setbacks, he should be on the Oracle Arena floor Tuesday night when the Warriors take on the Orlando Magic.

Warriors squander fast start, lose an ugly one to the Cavs 103-94

Published on by gabeschapiroLeave a comment

By Gabe Schapiro

The Golden State Warriors (41-26) only managed to put together one good quarter, ultimately falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers (26-40), 103-94, Friday night, at Oracle Arena. Early on Golden State led by as many as 18, only to find themselves down by as many as 16 in the second half of the contest. The disappointing loss snaps a five game home winning streak for the Warriors. Klay Thompson missed a rare game to attend his grandfathers’ funeral, and it appeared that his presence was missed. At times it appeared that Stephen Curry was playing by himself, and they simply couldn’t get stops when they had to.

The Warriors got off to a lightning fast start, opening up a 20-4 lead within the first six minutes of the game. The Cavaliers composed themselves a bit, but were still looking up at a 32-16 deficit heading into the second quarter. All five Golden State starters had an assist, and the bench scored four field goals, more than they did in the entire contest against the Los Angeles Clippers two days ago.

That’s where most of the good news would end for the Warriors, however, as Cleveland caught fire and Golden State’s wheels all but flew off. In the second frame the Dubs were badly outplayed, and helped the Cavaliers case with far too many turnovers. Heading into the locker room the Warriors lead had shrunk to just one point, at 53-52.

Unfortunately for Golden State, the third quarter was more of the same. Their mistakes didn’t stop, which led to them being outscored 68-39 in the second and third quarters combined. Heading into the final 12 minutes, the Warriors found themselves down 84-71.

Golden State tried to put together some semblance of a comeback, but nine points would be as close as they could get to the lead. Cleveland finished out the game with relative ease, in one of the Warriors more disappointing losses of the season.

Curry had a pretty strong game amidst the sloppy play, finishing with a game-high 27 points and eight assists. He was five-of-10 from beyond the arc, and added three steals. Draymond Green was fantastic off the bench for another glimmer of a bright spot, tying a career-high with 18 points, to go along with nine rebounds and as always good hustle defense. The most glaring stat of the night, however, was probably the Warriors 17 turnovers.

For the Cavs Spencer Hawes was a force in the paint, posting a double-double. He had a team-high 22 points, and a game-high 13 rebounds. Their young backcourt of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters had good games as well, combining to score 34 points, dish out eight rebounds, and grab five steals.

The Warriors followed up a five-game win streak by losing their last two. They’ll look to get back to their winning ways this Sunday, March 16, against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Warriors arena at Piers 30-32: With height measure voted down new arena might have a shot at piers

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Waterfront advocates lost a major volley after putting up a strong fight and nearly getting a ballot measure for the June election that would ask voters if there should be a height restriction for waterfront buidlings. Propositon B was voted down by the San Francisco Democratic party in a 13-12 vote to keep the measure off the ballot.

The measure would require voter approval for any new buildings at the waterfront over 40-105 feet, the party wanted to keep the measure off the ballot because without it it would allow development proposals such as the Golden State Warriors proposed arena at Piers 30-32 who almost considered looking at other alternatives. The Warriors want to build at Piers 30-32 a new 12 story arena, a 17 story luxury condo, and a ten story hotel.

The condo and hotel would be built across the street from Piers 30-32 where the new Warriors arena would play. The condo and hotel would be owned by the Warriors and the condo and hotel would help pay for the new arena. The political machine of San Francisco came out and got the vote out with the political help of the local trade unions who want jobs and to get the contstruction for the new arena.

The Union memebers called Proposition B a job killer if the ballot measure made the June election and with the knowledge that the voters would surely vote to restrict the height limit at the waterfront no unlimited height they would miss out on construction jobs for the new arena. With the party voting down the measure it could create a path for construction on the new arena, condo and hotel for the Warriors.

Committee member Hene Kelly who voted for the measure said that the proposition was not anti labor, “I do not beleive Proposition B is an enemy of the building trades.” There were other committee members who chose to abstain and did not vote in the narrow vote. Jon Golinger who is running the Yes on Proposition B campaign said that this was all politics with the real estate establishment of San Francisco, “It’s a sign that the real estate lobby is fully in control of this Democratic Party.”

The measure now goes to a legal challenge which will be argued in front of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller. The hearing is designed to strike the measure from appearing in the June election. The lawsuit was filed by Tim Colen executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, Michael Theriault, a leader of the Building and Construction Trades and Corrine Woods, a neighbor of the project site.

The Giants who said they wanted to construct a retail and condo complex at a parking lot by AT&T Park are underwriting the lawsuit. The Giants are in the fight for keeping the height limit measure off the ballot and it means profit for the team if they can get the complex started. The Warriors were mentioned for constructing the new arena in the Giants lot A if they can’t build at Piers 30-32 but with no height restriction in place the Warriors could construct at Piers 30-32 if the judge throws out the proposition on Monday.

Ken Gimblin is covering the arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for Sportstalk radio

In Battle of the Streaks, Warriors Halted by Griffin, Clippers

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

By Matthew Harrington

On a night when the Los Angeles Lakers received the bleak prognosis that Kobe Bryant would sit out the rest of the season due to injury, the other two California franchises garnered the major headlines while stoking the flames of a heated, burgeoning rivalry. With the Lakers glory days behind them, the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers took the Staples Center Court Wednesday night with bragging rights as best of the West Coast on the line. The Warriors ultimately succumbed to the Blake Griffin show, dropping a hotly-contested 111-98 verdict to split the season series with their Southern California rivals. The Pacific Division leaders snapped Golden State’s five-game win streak, adding a ninth-consecutive win to LA’s total.

Clippers All-Star Griffin scorched the Warriors for 30 points and 15 rebounds, including his 3,000 board of his career in the third quarter. Griffin is now the third player in NBA history to shoot over 50 percent with 6,000 points, 3,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in the first four seasons of a career, joining Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Barkley. Guard Chris Paul finished a pair of rebounds shy of a triple-double, collecting 16 points and 12 assists to hand the Dubs their fourth-straight loss to the Clippers at the Staples Center.

Klay Thompson went 10-for-19 from the field, finishing with 26 points including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc to lead Golden State in scoring. David Lee chipped in 20 points. The Warriors reserves scuffled from the field, connecting on only a trio out of 25 chances, but Draymond Green connected on 7-of-9 free throws and Harrison Barnes and Jermaine O’Neal pitched in three each to help the bench to a 20-point contribution.

The two teams matched each other point-for-point in the first quarter, wrapping up the first 12 minutes at a 29-29 stalemate. The lead changed hands nine times in a frantic second quarter that saw the Warriors escape to the half nursing a slim two-point edge at 56-54.

Golden State outscored the home team 20-15 over the first six and a half minutes of the second half to take its largest lead of the night at seven points but the Clippers closed the gap on a 10-3 run. Los Angeles tied it on a Willie Green three-pointer with 1:22 left in the quarter then scored the next five points unanswered to end the quarter on top 84-79. Jermaine O’Neal opened the fourth hitting three of four from the charity stripe to pull the Dubs within two, but it would be the closest the Northern California squad got. The Clippers dominated the run of play, outpacing the Warriors 27 points to 16 down the stretch for the win.

Looking to avoid consecutive losses, the Warriors welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers, currently two spots above Orlando for worst in the Eastern conference, to Oracle Arena for a Friday night showdown before a critical meeting with another of the Western Conference’s strongest teams. Golden State travels to Portland to face the Trailblazers Sunday evening.

Warriors remain hot, saddle Mavericks for fifth straight win

Published on by jhawkes51Leave a comment

By Joe Hawkes

OAKLAND — The Golden State Warriors haven’t been just on a roll since the All-Star break, but they are serving notice that they will be a factor come playoff time.

Ask the Dallas Mavericks.

Golden State had five players score in double figures helping the Warriors slow down the Mavericks, 108-85 Tuesday night at Oracle Arena. The Warriors picked up their fifth straight win, and improved to 10-2 since the All-Star break, tied with the San Antonio Spurs (10-2) for tops in the NBA.

Jordan Crawford led Golden State with 19 points and led a Warriors bench that outscored the reserves for Dallas 53-34. Harrison Barnes also scored in double figures with 13 points off the bench.

Klay Thompson scored 14 points on 6 of 10 shooting, and Stephen Curry added 10 points, but was 4 for 12 from the floor (1 for 5 on 3s). David Lee scored six points, but grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds in 29 minutes. Golden State has made it a habit of outscoring their opponents in the third quarter.

In the last two games, the Warriors have outscored their opponents 62-30 after halftime, which has been key to keeping teams down and making it difficult for a comeback.

The real story was the play of Andrew Bogut.

Bogut provided a little more offensive punch for the Warriors, scoring 15 points (all in the first half) to go along with 10 rebounds. Bogut was a huge part of holding the Mavericks to 37-percent shooting from the floor, and handing Dallas (38-27) their second loss to the Warriors this season.

Former Warrior Monta Ellis finished with 15 points and Jose Calderon added 13 points and five assists. Dirk Nowitzki had 12 points, but scored just four points in the first half and was defended well by Lee for the majority of the game.

Dallas is having a hard time just holding on to the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs and this loss further weakens their grip. Dallas leads the Phoenix Suns by 1.5 games in the standings with 17 games to go in the regular season.

This was a win that the Warriors needed, especially with the big game in Los Angeles against the Clippers Wednesday.

Golden State has won two of the three matchups against their Pacific Division foe this season, but the Clippers are hotter than the Warriors, winning their last eight games.

 

That’s Amaurys News and Commentary: Kings looking to get immient domain land parcel for arena build

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

That’s Amaurys News and Commentary

PHOENIX AZ–The Sacramento Kings are very close to getting their new arena under construction they only need to sort out the remaining parcel land with the old Macy’s building located between the downtown plaza mall and Old Sacramento in front of the Holiday Inn. Once done the Kings are able to break ground.

The Kings are still haggling with the owners of the property U.S. Bank and the other owner CalPERS. CalPERS says their willing to sell their share but U.S. Bank is fighting immient domain and said it would be difficult to recoup the price that the Kings are willing to buy the building for.

In comparision to the Warriors situation the Warriors need to convince San Francisco voters that they need a 12 story building at Piers 30-32 waterfront location. That drive is not going so well and there have been talks about the team buidling at AT&T Park or by nearby UCSF owned by Salesforce just off of Third Street.

In the Kings case once they get past the U.S. Bankers for the Macy’s building they can begin construction, they don’t have to deal with the environmentalists, they don’t have to worry about the views, the view of the bay or the bridge views like the Warriors do. This is the closest the Kings have come to getting their new building once they settle with U.S. Bank on the sales price.

The Warriors situation is different and it looks like Warrior owners Peter Gruber and Joe Lacob could be in for a long, long fight here. They’ll need the best attorneys possibly the business law dream team version as opposed to O.J.’s dream team of attorneys from L.A. Especially Gruber who knows all those big shot attorneys down there in L.A.

Both basketball teams are hoping to get an new arena built and the Kings are hoping to get their new arena built and ready by the 2016 season and the Warriors who have to deal with lots of opposition in the waterfront neighborhood of the city to get their arena built as the arguement alone concerning the height of the arena and the building of a condo and hotel owned by the Warriors across the street is also causing a political stir.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland Athletics baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

Warriors commentary: Improved bench thanks to Blake, Green, and Crawford gives starters breather

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–It’s great that the Warriors are finally showcasing their depth early in the season their second unit, their bench team was just not complete they hadn’t figured out what their rotation is going to be. There were going to all kinds of combinations of guys and it just didn’t seemed to be working. For the Warriors week end and week out, part of that was becuase they didn’t have a legitment back up point guard.

The Warriors didn’t have a true point guard who could distribute and that kind of hampered any kind of efforts on the part of the bench to get any kind of flow going. To get the flow going you need someone who could direct traffic and the Warriors just didn’t have anybody.

The Warriors had Tony Douglas who gave the Warriors some hope to be successful back there, give credit to Bob Myers he’s been very open to making changes on the fly. As the season progressed the first move was getting George Crawford from the Celtics for a very cheap price and he wasn’t great as a point guard option that was kind of a failed experience, the guy can score off the bench.

They hope that Douglas can fill in for five to 15 minutes and at one point and when that became pretty obvious in January Myers hit the phones again and when Kent Bazemore and Marshawn Brooks went to the Los Angeles Lakers to get Steve Blake off of that sinking Lakers team which is really a genius move. Blake is a very solid true point guard he’s a guy who can dish.

By putting Blake at the point Crawford slides over to Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green and comes in as the three and the four. Jermaine O’Neal could be at the center spot that is a solid second unit. It’s not going to necessarily beat eveybody everytime out. These guys can score their dynamic they can hold their own through 15-20 minutes in a game and give the starters a rest.

You can push those guys in the line up every now and then and give the starters a rest and have them play with the other starters. Blake could go in with the first team or Green, having Blake back is giving the Warriors a full deep bench. That is one of the big reasons why the Warriors have a resurgence here in February and March because they’re able to get quality minutes that they weren’t getting before.

The Warriors had the worst scoring bench in the league in fact if you look at the scoring of the bench in the last three or four weeks that’s not the case any more the bench is probably in the middle of the pack if not higher.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio

Lee, Thompson lead Warriors over Dragic, Green and Suns

Published on by jhawkes51Leave a comment

By Joe Hawkes

OAKLAND — The Golden State Warriors went on a 21-2 run (38-17 overall) in the third quarter and held on tight, picking up their fourth straight win 113-107 over the Phoenix Suns Sunday night in front of sold out 19,596 fans at Oracle Arena.

David Lee finished with game-highs of 26 points and nine rebounds on 11 for 18 in 37 minutes, and looked tremendous attacking the basket. Klay Thompson scored 13 of his 22 points in the third quarter. Thompson was 9 for 15 from the field, including 4 for 6 on 3s.

Stephen Curry added 18 points and a game-high nine assists on 7 for 16 from the field while dealing with a strained right quad. Golden State shot a blistering 52.9-percent from the field (45 for 85), while the bench outscored Phoenix’s bench, 36-28.

Draymond Green was the high-man for Golden State off the bench with 13 points.

Phoenix had no answer for Golden State inside, allowing the Warriors to hold a 50-36 edge in points in the paint.

Gerald Green had 25 points and six rebounds, while backcourt mate Goran Dragic added 24 and six assists for Phoenix (36-26), who drop into a tie with the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

With the win, Golden State (40-24) improves to 9-2 since the All-Star break, and moves two games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks (38-26) for the sixth spot in the Western Conference.

Golden State hosts Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks on Tuesday.Klay Thompson

Warriors commentary: Taking a look at the bench behind Curry and Thompson

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–Its not a coincidence that a lot of this improvement and of greater consistency came number one after Jermaine O’Neal really came back healthy and number two after the Warriors traded for Steve Blake. The Warriors had that great road trip in January where they went 6-1 and they won in all manner of ways.

The Warriors on that trip beat some good teams and they came back from that road trip just like they were right in the running not only for the division but for the championship. They were a team to contend with and then they laid an egg on that homestand in late January early February. It’s especially tough because the Warriors have a such a tough homecourt advantage.

The fans who support the Warriors are so fantastic that you wonder and start scratching your head whats going on with this team? Their good but their losing to bottom feeders and they was no rhyme or reason to it. If there was part of the reason was it was the help. They’ve been suffering through a series injuries, it wasn’t any big injuries but it was guys getting hurt.

Players were getting hurt, dinged up, banged up and missing games and missing a couple of weeks, so it was tough on the rotation set and number two they didn’t have a good rotation. You think back at the beginning of the season their back court was not what it was. I’m not talking about Stephen Curry and Clay Thompson because they’ve been here all season.

We’re talking about the back ups, the bench behind Curry and Thomposon the Warriors didn’t have anybody who could fill in for Curry or Thompson. They had Tony Douglas a player they thought would fill in at point guard for Curry when Curry needed a rest and Douglas just didn’t cut it and he got traded for Jordan Crawford from Boston whose really not a bad player but he’s not really a point guard.

If you watch Crawford play he’s a guy whose a gunner, whose best off the bench as a two guard, and the Warriors were running him out there as a one also. So expecting Crawford to come in and run the offense just wasn’t going to work because that’s not what he does. He’s just not very good at it.

When the Warriors traded for Blake a few weeks ago, what it did is completely set that second unit, Blake is a true point guard. He’s a guy who distributes, he has his spurts, he’s a guy who sets the offense he can score that’s for sure but he’s a true point guard. Crawford was never a point guard, he’s always been a two.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio