Category: Golden State Warriors

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Warriors Stiff Hawks Despite Thompson’s Early Exit With Back Stiffness

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By Matthew Harrington

Golden State received a major scare on Friday night, but the visiting Atlanta Hawks weren’t the ones striking fear into the Warriors, nor scoreboard a factor as it was during the last engagement between the two teams. The Dubs skated to a 111-97 win at Oracle Arena this time out, outscoring the Hawks (26-34) in three of four quarters, a far departure from the 101-100 dramatic win in Atlanta in January. The drama from the evening, however, came six minutes into play when guard Klay Thompson shuffled off the court with a back injury, sitting out the rest of the evening.

The Warriors stated that Thompson, a talent on the cusp on super-stardom, was held out as a precautionary measure. His streak of 211 consecutive regular-season appearances, a franchise record, does not appear to be in jeopardy.  Despite only six minutes of playing time, Thompson still managed a point-per-minute output, going 2-for-5 from the field with a pair of free throws.

David Lee topped the Dubs with 18 points in 25 minutes while Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry contributed 13 points apiece. Curry lead the Warriors with seven assists, while center Andrew Bogut had a team-high nine rebounds. Golden State (39-24) connected on over half of their bids from the floor, hitting 43-of-80 from the field for a 54.8 shooting percentage. They also out-rebounded the Hawks 44-36.

Forward Paul Millsap had 16 points and seven boards, both highs for the Hawks, after missing the previous five games with a knee injury. Fellow forward Mike Scott added 14 points. Scott also provided the comedy for the evening, losing his shoe put proceeding to make a three-pointer on the play.

The first quarter saw even play as the Warriors closed out the first 12 minutes with a single-point, 32-31 lead. It appeared to be more of the same for the 2nd quarter, with the Warriors grasping to a 48-46 lead five minutes from the half. Atlanta would be held to just six points over the closing 300 seconds to head to the half in a 66-52 hole.

The Hawks outscored the Warriors 25-19 in the third, the only instance of Atlanta outscoring its hosts in a quarter Friday night. The final frame of regulation opened on a down note for the visitors though as they failed to put a point on the board until Shelvin Mack hit a jumper with 5:07 left to play. By then the Warriors held a decisive 97-79 margin, allowing Golden State to withstand an 18-12 Atlanta run over the waning minutes of play to come out victorious.

Friday marked the first home game for the Warriors after their second-longest road trip of the season, a six-game swing that saw them go 4-2 against Eastern Conference foes. In a flip of scheduling, the Warriors will only play two of the remaining 10 games in March on the road. They continue the three-game home set with a tilt against Phoenix Sunday before the Dallas Mavericks come to Oakland Tuesday night. The Dubs, winners of eight of their last ten, currently sit in sixth place in the Western Conference standings and are four games back of the Los Angeles Clippers for the Pacific Division lead.

Warriors arena in SF: Opposition too tough for W’s to move to piers 30-32

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by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Opponents who argue against any kind of development at Piers 30-32 are close to succeeding in stopping any kind of oversized arena, condo or hotel construction. The Golden State Warriors who are trying to move from Oakland to the city have not officially ruled out going to the piers but they realize their odds are not too good with the Waterfront Embarcadero and city voters prepared to vote down any kind of high rise buildings there that would block city views and most are opposed to the cost of rebuilding the piers at $180 million double the original cost.

After numerous discussions the Warriors are prepared to look at their options of leaving Oakland and getting on the waterfront nieghborhood in the city at either AT&T Park in parking lot A on property leased by the San Francisco Giants from the city or a Mission Bay site that is located by UCSF, the latter site is owned by Salesforce who might drive a hard bargain as the property value there is worth $248 million.

The third option is considered the strongest of the three site choices to build a new arena from the financial and least amount of red tape at the Mission Bay site.There would be very little opposition by San Francisco voters in constructing a new arena, new condos and a hotel in this neighborhood. The Warriors would not have to come up against a nieghborhood of opponents who would object to their views being blocked, the team would not have to sell this idea to such organizations like the Regional Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the State Lands Commission, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The reviews for the Mission Bay site would only have to be overseen by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and two city commissions. City Hall is very supportive of bringing the Warriors to San Francisco in light of losing the San Francisco 49ers to the Southbay this year. A Mission Bay site would sweepingly be voted in to allow the construction of the Warriors new buildings in terms of less hoops to jump through like Piers 30-32. The $248 million Mission Bay price tag is the property price and parking rights at a cost of $23.3 million at a nearby Mission Bay garage and costs and interest on property taxes after the purchase would be additional.

The Warriors would pay the $248 million for the property rights for the Mission Bay site and the city would cover the $23.3 million on the garage costs which would be much less than the $180 million foudation rebuild just on the 13 acre lot at Piers 30-32. Salesforce spokesperson Dane Valley said that the Mission Bay site is just based on rumors and that the sale of the property has never been discussed with the NBA team, “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation” said Valley.

Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston said the total focus of the club right now is only at Piers 30-32 and that the Warriors are not speculating on any other property either AT&T Park or Mission Bay, “We’re just not going to discuss other sites. Our focus remains on Piers 30-32, which we believe is spectacular, transit rich and a logical place of the event pavilion and eight acres of new public parks” said Johnston.

A source says that the Warriors are not that excited about Mission Bay anyway because of the proximity that it is outside of downtown’s transit centers, that the site lies south of the San Francisco Cal Train station and only the T light rail train comes to the UCSF site. The strongest thumbs down to the Mission Bay site is BART doesn’t run anywhere near the UCSF location. While there is lots of room to develop for what the Warriors are looking for in their customer demographic Mission Bay would not work because the Warriors want that foot traffic from the Embarcadero center crowd and the BART and Muni Metro traffic which is walking distance.

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

Warriors finish off road trip 4-2 with blowout win in Boston

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By Joe Hawkes

BOSTON — One night after Klay Thompson’s game-winning jumper for a 98-96 win in Indiana, Golden State didn’t need any theatrics in Boston to throttle the Celtics 108-88 Wednesday night.

Golden State had five players score in double figures led by David Lee and Klay Thompson, who each scored 18. Lee had a team-high 10 rebounds and the Warriors outscored the Celtics 58-32 in the paint.

Stephen Curry added 14 points on 6 for 10 shooting, and Jordan Crawford chipped in 15 off the bench for Golden State, who outscored Boston 31-18 in the second quarter and carried a 61-40 lead at halftime.

It was a thing a beauty to watch the Warriors share and protect the ball tonight, finishing with 28 assists to only 11 turnovers. For a team that has been plague with turnovers, Golden State moved the ball tonight with fluidity and confidence that you didn’t see earlier in the season.

Golden State forced 12 turnovers (8 ST, 6 BS), while holding Boston to 36-percent shooting (13 for 36) in the first half. It was the 21st time this season that the Warriors have held an opponent to under 40-percent from the field.

In the end of the third quarter, the Warriors found themselves up by 31 with a 80-49 lead and never looked back after two Thompson jumpers.

With the win, Golden State (38-22) finished their six-game road trip 4-2, and improved to 14-5 in their last 19 road games, a feat that no other team in franchise history has ever accomplished.

Boston (20-41)  were led by Kelly Olynyk’s 19 points, while Rajon Rondo added 14 points and seven assists, but committed seven of Boston’s 22 turnovers for the game.

Brandon Bass and Jared Sullinger each finished with 11 points and Jerryd Bayless added 10 for the Celtics, who have lost seven of their past eight games.

Golden State with a day off Thursday, the Warriors play 13 of their final 20 games at Oracle Arena beginning Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.

Thompson’s Game-Winner, 16 4th-Quarter Points Pace Warriors Over NBA’s Best In Indiana

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By Matthew Harrington

The enigmatic road trip continued for the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night when the host Indiana Pacers, owners of an NBA-best home record of 29-4 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, narrowly snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. Klay Thompson’s 25 points, including the game-winning jumper with .6 seconds remaining, willed the Warriors to a 98-96 decision over Indiana (46-14), owners of the top record in the association, despite Golden State blowing a 13-point lead with a half dozen minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Thompson rallied the Warriors (37-24) to the win with a 16 point fourth quarter when fellow guard Stephen Curry, the usual bell cow in the clutch for Golden State, went ice cold. Curry finished the night with 19 points, all scored in the first three quarters. Andrew Bogut and David Lee were hemmed in by the Pacers league-best defense for a combined 14 points and 11 rebounds. Pacers forward David West dropped a game-high 27 points while Paul George added 26 of his own. George completed the double-double with a game-best 12 rebounds.

Despite the Pacers topping practically every defensive metric available, the Warriors still connected on close to their season average in field goal percentage (45.5 percent), hitting 44 percent Tuesday on 37 makes out of 84 attempts. The Dubs hit exactly half of their shots from beyond the arc, going 10-for-20 from downtown and their bench outscored the Pacers reserves 34-11.

The Warriors took their first lead, 10-8, after Curry connected on a layup 4:15 into play before Paul George hit a three to restore the Indy edge. Led by a seven-point run from Curry, the Warriors closed out the final seven minutes of the first quarter outscoring Indiana 15-10, finding themselves up 25-21 after 12 minutes of play. The Warriors netted 23 second quarter points to the Pacers 21 to establish a 48-42 cushion at the half.

Indiana pulled within one, 51-50, just 2:18 into the second half and took their first lead since the first quarter two minutes later after Lance Stephenson hit a two-pointer with 4:32 of the clock and the scoreboard reading 56-54 Pacers. The Warriors closed out the final three minutes of the third on a 10-7 run to lead 73-70 three-fourths of the way through play.

The initial six minutes of the fourth and final frame were all Warriors, as they notched 19 points to the Pacers 9, but the home team held the guests to only two field goals in the final five minutes to draw even 96-96 after George hit his second of two free throws with just over a minute left. Klay Thompson’s buzzer beater, a turn-around jumper off a Draymond Green feed, would be the only basket made over the final minute of play, handing the Warriors their first triumph in Indiana since February of 2007.

With Tuesday’s win, the Warriors guarantee they will finish the second-longest road trip of the season going at least .500 after picking up wins in Brooklyn, Detroit and Indiana while falling to Chicago and Toronto. The Warriors can complete the road swing with a fourth win in a Wednesday night swing in Boston to complete the current six-game road set.

Warriors SF Arena: Basketball team could move down the street next to AT&T Park

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by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–San Francisco Giants presdient Larry Baer once proposed to the Warriors a space for a new arena at AT&T Park’s parking lot at Lot A the current VIP lot for Giants customers during the baseball season. Baer actually proposed this idea to the Warriors before any announced idea by the Warriors to build at Piers 30-32.

The Warriors had big dreams for the Pier 30-32 location and according to Warriors spokesman P.J. Johnston they still do, the Warriors would like to build a ten story hotel, a 17 story luxury condo across the street from Piers 30-32 and of course the 12 story new arena on the pylons of piers 30-32.

Johnston and the team realize that the neighborhood opposition is immense and the team has discussed a back up plan to build the arena next to AT&T Park on the parking lot next to the ball park if the Warriros can’t move to piers 30-32, “It’s still full steam ahead on Piers 30-32, but we have always and will always consider backup plans” said Johnston

With that full steam ahead idea in mind the opposition once again are gearing up for a fight, the opponents just recently delivered ballots to city hall proposing to put a ballot measure asking voters if there should be any development that exceeeds over 40 feet at piers 30-32, the Warrios are proposing a 125 foot arena which would block waterfront views of the bridge and the east bay at the Embarcadero. In a poll taken the development idea was shot down because of the objections in height size.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee who said in light of the San Francisco 49ers leaving the city that a Warriors downtown arena would be a “legacy” to his administration. At first it appeared that the mayor would back off and let the voters decide how they would like this measure to go but has said recently that he wants to see this project move forward according to his press secretary Christine Falvey, “(the mayor) looks forward to sitting down again very soon with the Warriors’ownership to discuss steps for the arena and Piers 30-32 site” said Falvey.

The AT&T Park idea is being taken under consideration by the Warriors as a backup plan if there is a vote that goes against development at the waterfront. There are also plans by the Giants to develop retail, hotel and condo space near AT&T and owned by the team. The Giants are looking to build two apartment towers standing 30 stories and a 2,100 parking garage to make up for the loss of lot A.

The residents might find compromise in that for not losing the views and having development in that part of the waterfront of Piers 30-32. The way it stands right now if the Warriors push for Piers 30-32 development the neighborhood would push right back and oppose any development along the waterfront that goes over 40 stories that would include at AT&T Park or Pier 70 owned by Forest Cities properties who also is considering condo and retail developemnt at the Dog Patch loacation off of Third Street.

Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos sees compromise to the idea by building a new arena next to AT&T Park that way the Warriors get to move into the waterfront neighborhood and the neighbors keep the views at Piers 30-32 and minus more Embarcadero traffic on game days, “I am very open to Lot A for a Warriors arena, the leadership of the city should get the Warriors and Giants together to work out a mutually satisfactory business agreement and the sooner they do it, the better” said Agnos.

Baer was not available to talk to Sportstalk radio and declined to discuss this matter, Baer in previous years did propose the idea to the Warriors about an arena on the Giants grounds but the Warriors wanted their own property and building but the team is realizing that this dream is not as easy as they thought it would be. Former San Francisco Board of Supervisor President Aaron Peskin who was a staunch opponent of any development at the piers says he would support a new Warriors arena at Lot A “without hesitation or reservation, it would be perfect” said Peskin.

If the city leadership, Lee, Agnos, the Giants, Baer, the Warriors owners of Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber, and most importantly the neighborhood and the voters of San Francisco find favor for AT&T Park for the arena than the Warriors could be looking at a shot at coming to the waterfront. The measure could get on the ballot for the AT&T arena location as soon as November of this year or as late as 2015.

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

Raptors hold off Warriors behind DeRozan’s 32 points

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By Joe Hawkes

TORONTO, ONT — With Golden State clinging to a 86-81 lead with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Toronto Raptors forced five turnovers (three in the final two minutes) to hand Golden State their second loss on their current six-game road trip, with a 104-98 victory Sunday at the Air Canada Centre.

Raptors All-Star forward DeMar DeRozan had 32 points, six assists and four rebounds. It was DeRozan’s third straight game with at least 30 points and six assists.

Kyle Lowery scored 13 points and dished out eight assists, and Jonas Valanciunas had 10 points and five rebounds on 5 of 6 shooting.

Patrick Patterson and Greivis Vasquez each added 12 points off the bench for Toronto (33-26), who rebounded from a 134-129 triple overtime loss Thursday night against the Washington Wizards at home.

Golden State seemed to run out of gas in the fourth quarter.

Stephen Curry scored a game-high 34 points to go along with seven assists, but he committed six of the Warriors’ 13 turnovers. Curry shot 13 of 27 from the floor, including 4 for 11 from 3 leading to his fifteenth 30-point game of the season (a career-single high). The Warriors All-Star guard had fourteen all of last year.

After halftime, Curry played the whole second half going off for 14 points in the third quarter to finish with 43 minutes.

David Lee finished with 20 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in 43 minutes as well, while Klay Thompson scored 12 points, but was 4 of 15 from the floor. Thompson was struggling to guard DeRozan and picked up five fouls for his troubles.

Harrison Barnes chipped in 11 points off the bench, and Draymond Green dished out a career-high five assists, but Golden State’s bench played short-handed from the beginning. Backup center Jermaine O’Neal didn’t make the trip to Toronto due to passport issues.

With the loss, Golden State (36-24) falls into a tie with the Dallas Mavericks for sixth in the Western Conference. Dallas plays San Antonio Sunday night and with a win, can drop Golden State to seventh with 22 games to go before the playoffs.

Golden State shot 42.0 percent from the field (37 for 88), and 34.8 percent from behind the arc (8 for 23).

This was the game that the Warriors needed to win heading into Indianapolis Tuesday for a matchup with the Eastern Conference-leading Indiana Pacers. The Pacers are tough to matchup especially at home where they are 28-3 on the season.

Indiana defeated Golden State 102-94 on Jan. 20 at Oracle Arena. The Warriors have loss their last six straight games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.