Monday NBA Roundup: Warriors Finding Positives in Kevin Durant's Absence
The Golden State Warriors have dabbled in transcendence these past few seasons, but the grounded approach they took in beating the Atlanta Hawks on Monday may matter more in their pursuit of another title.
The Dubs struggled through basketball arrhythmia during the first half of their 119-111 victory, bricking open looks, blowing transition defense assignments and looking like the mortal outfit that had lost two of its last three games.
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined to hit one of their six total three-point attempts in the first half—the continuation of a shared shooting slump that has plagued the Splash Brothers since this Eastern Conference road trip began Feb. 27.
Whether it stemmed from a moment of desperation or inspired strategic genius, the odd lineup coach Steve Kerr sent out for a key stretch of the second quarter swung the momentum of the game.
And as that never-before-used unit consisting of Shaun Livingston, Ian Clark, Andre Iguodala, Matt Barnes and David West started making dents in a Hawks lead that had grown as large as 15 points, you could see the Warriors were finding a second way to compete.
And then their primary method—silly shot-making, high-velocity ball movement and extreme confidence—showed up in the second half.
But it was the scrappy, veteran-led corps that bought Curry and the starters time.
Iguodala was particularly impressive, scoring 14 of his game high-tying 24 points in the first half and adding four assists, five rebounds and three steals. He needed only eight field-goal attempts to make a massive impact on the proceedings.
And because he's Golden State's leader in wry wit, he explained it this way:
The Warriors are far from fixed.
Kevin Durant's return is weeks off, and there's no way to know how fit he'll be when he gets back on the floor. Thompson continues to clang clean looks, and even though he flashed his typical brashness and drilled some tough shots in the second half, Curry's body language in the first two quarters suggested he's still looking for his groove.
You've never seen a two-time MVP resignedly shake his head as much as Curry has lately.
Still, what Golden State is enduring now counts as adversity in the skewed terms we must apply to the Warriors. They're missing a star and haven't played well for weeks. And this will not be the last time they struggle.
But maybe if what that scrappy bench unit showed against the Hawks takes root as a sort of second identity, the Warriors will be better equipped to weather the rough patches ahead. Sure, they'd much rather demoralize opponents with flash, 30-foot bombs and celebratory shimmying—if only because that's been a pretty good recipe so far.
Having an alternative, however, a backup plan, never hurts. In fact, it's crucial that this team knows it can turn to Plan B and find success should similar adversity hit during the playoffs.
The stakes, of course, will be higher in the postseason. But the Warriors will have more confidence tossing guys in the deep end knowing they can already swim.
Golden State shouldn't ask for salvation efforts like Monday's too often, though. It must preserve its vets. Iguodala's wearing down and succumbing to back soreness in last year's Finals was one of several factors that contributed to the blown 3-1 lead.
Coach Steve Kerr appreciates what he's getting from Iguodala lately, but he knows how important pacing the 33-year-old is to his team's goals:
The Warriors have always been their best when Curry and Thompson (and this year, Durant) rain threes and Draymond Green spearheads a fearsome defense. Without KD in the mix, they'll be in the odd position of re-learning how to cook with that recipe.
But no team, not even this one, can count on being its best all the time. With Iguodala and an experienced backup corps playing like this, Golden State is developing an enviable fallback option.
Everyone Should Stop Having Fun
Or, failing that, everyone should at least look like they're never having fun.
Because it totally works for Kawhi Leonard, who turned in an MVP-worthy sequence to decide the game between the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets.
Note his complete lack of emotion after sealing what became a 112-110 win.
I wonder where he gets it...
Leonard finished with 39 points, six rebounds and five assists on 12-of-18 shooting. His line needed to be that good to overcome James Harden's. The Beard finished with 39 of his own, plus a dozen assists, on 13-of-20 shooting from the field.
With the Warriors looking mostly human lately, it's fair to wonder if the Spurs, led by this unfeeling monster of a player, are going to usurp the No. 1 seed and possibly put together a title run. It sure feels likelier now than it did a couple of weeks ago, but keep in mind Golden State had no trouble with San Antonio last season, when it was without Durant. And though the Spurs smacked the Dubs on opening night, it still feels hasty to proclaim them superior.
The only thing we can say for certain is that if San Antonio does dethrone Golden State in the Western Conference and go on to great things, it will react with all the enthusiasm of a CPA who's formatting a spreadsheet.
One for the History Books
It is difficult to know whether the distant future will include lawless bands of roving half-human savages plundering an ash-strewn, dystopian wasteland. Let's hope it doesn't.
But even if it does, and the daily struggle for survival leaves little time for reverential reflections on history, people will still probably be talking about the Dion Waiters Revenge Game*.
Waiters clocked the Cleveland Cavaliers for 29 points on 12-of-24 shooting in the Miami Heat's 106-98 win. The Cavs drafted him fourth overall in 2012 and traded him two years ago. But the vengeance didn't seem to stem from that. Scholars of more recent history will know Waiters got into it with JR Smith following the Heat's 120-92 blowout win over Cleveland on Saturday.
Waiters shot just 3-of-10 for eight points in that one, and he seemed especially motivated in the rematch.
Does anybody not want this to be the 1-8 matchup in the first round?
*And if they're not talking about that, they'll be telling tales of Andrew Bogut, the man with some profoundly awful injury luck. He suffered a fractured tibia 58 seconds into his Cavs debut. If you think that sounds bad, you are literally correct:
Reggie Jackson Showed Up
The Detroit Pistons have been markedly worse with Reggie Jackson on the floor this season, which makes Monday's development a particularly promising one.
Jackson ripped up the Chicago Bulls for 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting in the Pistons' 109-95 victory, putting in all but two of those points in a perfect second half. He was 10-of-10 from the field after the break.
Rod Beard of the Detroit News has seen plenty of Jackson this season, and he noticed something different (and encouragingly familiar):
Whether one game in which Jackson resembles the player he was a year ago alters any of the uncertainty about his job security remains to be seen. But it has to give coach Stan Van Gundy something to consider.
The win moved the Pistons into the No. 7 spot in the East by virtue of a tiebreaker with the Bulls. It also moved their point differential out of negative territory. If you squint hard enough at this version of the team, with Jackson actually contributing, it starts to look like a worthy playoff participant.
And Then There Were Three
Mark it down: The Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans are hereby eliminated from playoff contention.
Not mathematically or anything. Just...in the sense that they're clearly not cut out for serious competition.
The Kings dropped their fifth straight game, falling to the Denver Nuggets 108-96 in a contest Nikola Jokic missed with an illness. Whatever hope there might have been for an addition-by-subtraction improvement via the DeMarcus Cousins trade is gone, and Sacramento is now a full four games out of the No. 8 spot.
The bigger disappointment is Cousins' new team, the Pelicans. They struggled mightily to score in an 88-83 loss to the Utah Jazz, and neither Cousins nor Anthony Davis performed well. They combined for 35 points on 12-of-32 shooting.
The Boogie-Brow combo isn't quick enough (because of Cousins) to stay with smaller frontcourt lineups featuring mobile power forwards. But if it also can't hold up against old-school, two-big sets like the one in Utah, what is this tandem good for?
It didn't help that Jrue Holiday was benched after going 1-of-9 from the field, and it's true the Pels have plenty of other problems in addition to Cousins and Davis not producing. But however you slice it, New Orleans, four-and-a-half games behind Denver, is headed for the lottery despite its big deadline acquisition.
That leaves the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves as the only threats to the Nuggets' playoff position.
That Was Unexpected
MVP chants? For a Boston Celtic? In Los Angeles?
Yeah, it happened.
""MVP, MVP" chant as @Isaiah_Thomas goes to the line IN LOS ANGELES and gives Celts 10-point lead over Clippers. This is crazy stuff.
— Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) March 7, 2017"
Isaiah Thomas' defensive shortcomings and the existence of Leonard, Harden, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James mean winning the MVP is impossible. But it's pretty cool he's still in the conversation at this stage of the season—even if it's only in partisan chant form.
The Celtics didn't have Al Horford because of a sore elbow, and they collapsed during a decisive Clippers run that bridged the third and fourth quarters. But Thomas had nothing to do with the poor result, a 116-102 loss.
He produced 32 points in 35 minutes, proving that even if he's not the league's MVP, there's no doubt he's Boston's.
We Are All Z-Bo
"I don't know what to say," Zach Randolph told reporters after the Brooklyn Nets notched win No. 11 against his Memphis Grizzlies.
The 122-109 result was an understandable stumper. A team as bad as the Nets should never win, let alone against a playoff bound club like the Grizz. Randolph, like the rest of us, was justifiably baffled.
Memphis has lost three in a row and five of its last seven, and it's struggled to defend the three-ball all season. It allows opponents to take 35.5 percent of their shots from deep, the second-highest percentage in the league. To date, the Grizzlies have been lucky to get away with allowing that kind of volume. Foes have converted only 34.4 percent of those attempts, the fourth-worst mark in the league.
Permitting high volume from long range is a bad idea against the Nets, who don't do anything well but who are happy to do one thing often: shoot threes.
A surprising 37.4 percent of Brooklyn's shots come from beyond the arc. Only the Rockets, Cavaliers and Celtics devote a larger percentage of their attempts from that distance.
So even if the Nets' win was a shock, the method (14-of-30 from deep) wasn't.
The Grizzlies might want to sort this out before they run into the Rockets in the first round.
Monday's Final Scores
- Warriors 119, Hawks 111
- Spurs 112, Rockets 110
- Heat 106, Cavaliers 98
- Pistons 109, Bulls 95
- Nuggets 108, Kings 96
- Jazz 88, Pelicans 83
- Clippers 116, Celtics 102
- Nets 122, Grizzlies 109
- New York Knicks 113, Orlando Magic 105
- Milwaukee Bucks 112, Philadelphia 76ers 98
- Charlotte Hornets 100, Indiana Pacers 88
- Trail Blazers at Timberwolves: Postponed
Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated and accurate through games played Monday, March 6.
