Warriors season is gone; does Klay stay or go?

Klay Thompson was upset. Not because he had missed every one of his field goal attempts — and surely that contributed to his discontent. But about the question posed to him this morning after, the one about his future, which at that moment seemed the only proper question to be asked. 

Of course when you went 0-for-10, and your team, the proud and until now eminently successful Golden State Warriors, would fail to qualify for the playoffs — ending a streak at 13 straight seasons — the question may not have seemed so proper.

“You don’t want to talk about the season first?” Thompson said, answering a question with a question of his own. “You want to talk about the future?”

Indeed. 

It does little good to discuss what has happened, other than in certain instances as a bit of self-satisfaction. Once a game is finished, a season complete, unless you’re stepping away, the issue is what will happen.  

The Warriors were the NBA’s best. No more. Their roster has become a blend of memories and possibilities.

The embarrassment of Tuesday night's play-in game, with the Sacramento Kings defeating the Warriors 114-98, may have been less of a disappointment and more of a revelation. Yes, Steph Curry still has his wits and his 3-pointers, Draymond Green is a defensive whiz and team leader, and Klay’s offense is invaluable — as his lack of scoring against the Kings made only too clear.

But the Warriors were out-muscled and out-hustled, pushed around as much symbolically as physically. They basically never had a chance. Except to show how much they lack.

Sport more than anything else makes us aware of the passing of time. The cliche that nothing and no one lasts forever is all too apparent on our courts and fields, diamonds and gridirons. The pieces are out there, and sometimes they fit perfectly — for a while. But it can’t last.

Veteran fans understand. Organizations are always on the lookout, on the rebuild, drafting, and coaching, but there only was one Michael Jordan, and there only is one Steph Curry.

The New England Patriots defied the odds. They were contenders in the NFL for a decade. Then they were hopeless and Bill Belichick was a nowhere man.

Where Klay Thompson is going to be next season and beyond is the topic of notable consequence. Curry and Draymond are under contract. Thompson is a free agent. 

“I can’t see us playing without him,” said Steph.

What Klay and the Warriors’ management see is what will count. 

“I previously just said about the season we had and how much commitment it takes to play the games we did and give it our all,” said Thompson, “so I really haven’t thought about that deep into the future because I still need to process the year we had and it was one filled with ups and downs, but ultimately, we — I personally and our team did everything we could to try and win as many games as we possibly could.”

He was asked, about living in the future, what were some of the things?

“Good place to be.”

Will that good place still be with the Warriors?

For Warriors, awful end to great road swing

It was an awful game for the Warriors. A historically awful game. It took place Sunday at the end of what had been a successful and encouraging road trip. However, it surely made the trip seem worse—as if anything could be worse than being down 44 points at halftime to the despised Celtics at TD Garden in Boston.

Or for that matter anywhere. Yet it only was one game, which determines very little. Other than the indisputable fact the Celtics, with the 140-88 victory, are every bit as good as people say.

Then again, when the teams played at San Francisco's Chase Center in December, the Warriors won. Perhaps not as awesome as the Celtics did this game, that one a 132-126 victory in overtime. But this isn’t European soccer. They don’t count cumulative scores. And while this one was jarring emotionally, it didn’t mean any more or less than a one-point defeat.

More important and no less impressive was the victory at Toronto on Friday night after the Warriors spent Thursday night until around 9 am on Friday morning stuck on a jet because of airline problems.

No whining there, just winning.

That’s the mark of a focused team. You were reminded of the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s. Ice, snow, the gloom of darkness? Who cares? Where’s the ball?  

This Sunday, too often the ball was in the hands of the Celtics and in short order in the basket. If the traveling hadn’t caught up with the Warriors, who were on an eight-game road win streak, Boston definitely had.

The Warriors, who were banged up Sunday, were also ineffective. Steph Curry, bothered by bursitis in his right knee, missed all nine of his 3-point attempts and finished with only 4 points.

Yes, awful historically and perhaps bewildering.

Although not to the point where Warriors coach Steve Kerr could allow it to linger, Kerr smartly took out Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green after the first half because it made sense—particularly in the case of Thompson who has a sore hamstring.

Kerr had what might be described as a typical coaching response to an atypical Warriors game. “You flush it down the toilet,” Kerr told Monty Poole at NBC Bay Area. “We had a great road trip, 3-1. We've had a million games. Boston was amazing. We weren't beating them today. So, we head home and get ready for Wednesday.”

When the Warriors face the Milwaukee Bucks at Chase, as the cliché goes—for a reason—no easy task, but most likely considerably easier than trying to stop the Celtics. A 44-point halftime lead? Wow.

“At least there wasn't a lot of wear,” Kerr said. “But it's different when you give a guy a day off. If he gets a day off, it's mentally refreshing as well. So, this was not a day off for Steph, although he probably could have used one. He's played so well and for so long this year. But hopefully, the next few days will get him recharged. Hopefully he'll go out and play golf or something and get away from it and come back Wednesday night ready.”

Rick Barry and Cliff Ray talk about a long ago title

That was an informative and enlightening start to the Warriors broadcast Sunday night, Rick Barry and Cliff Ray discussing old times past, the Warriors’ 1975 NBA championship sweep of the heavily favored Washington Bullets.

Barry called it, somewhat excessively, possibly the greatest upset in sports. Yes, a bit over the top, but he and Cliff were there.  

So was I, in the press section, which in those days was on the court, not up in the oxygen zone.

Rick said this year’s Warriors team, scrappy and feisty, reminded him of that team that nearly 50 years ago won a title. Then with optimism filling the air and because station KNBR the lost airwaves, the Warriors blew a 15-point lead and lost to the NBA champ Nuggets, 119-103. Here we are still trying to get over the Super Bowl, and the defeats continue to pile up. Who even has a clue where the bedraggled (still in Oakland ) A’s may end up, geographically or in the standings.

And thus far there’s nothing encouraging about the San Francisco Giants, who have scored in only two of the 18 innings they’ve played in the Cactus League. Indeed, they were exhibition games. Or as Allen Iverson might have put it, “we talking about practice, man.” 

And, as we know when the regular season begins every team is 0-0, unbeaten and of course unscored upon. The Giants will remain scoreless, or relatively so, while the dreaded Dodgers will roll up run after run.   

Meanwhile, back in the NBA, the Warriors added a lacrosse player. They didn’t add a player named LeBron James, despite a delicious (and apparently fictitious) rumor the deal was an item.

It was no rumor the Warriors’ Steve Kerr was given a new contract that makes him the highest-paid coach in NBA history. Which is wonderful. Not so long ago, when Draymond was out, and the team was down, those so-called NBA insiders were saying Kerr might be fired at the season’s end. Oh, well, we all make mistakes.

The Warriors are off on a road trip which, not to be too dramatic, is critical to their playoff chances. They’re 10th in the Western Conference, a game and a half behind the Lakers, who still have LeBron.

Nothing is forever in sports or life, but it’s hard to imagine the Lakers, so dominant in the ‘90s, and the Warriors, winners four times starting in 2015, struggling to get in that final playoff spot.

But great athletes in any sport age all too quickly.

Teams draft and trade, hoping and working to bring together the combination which then brings success. But even as a city is staging a victory parade, there’s a newer, younger team, taking over.

Warriors return, honor ‘Brate’ and get a win

The questionable became the memorable.

The Warriors provided an emphatic answer to how they might respond after a period when mourning replaced practice, depression replaced basketball. 

Their beloved assistant coach, Dejan Milanović, died after suffering a heart attack eight days ago. Two games were postponed, and head coach Steve Kerr was uncertain how his team would react when it returned to the court. He found out quickly enough Wednesday night. 

We found out. 

The Warriors’ week started fast and barely stopped, defeating the Atlanta Hawks, 134-112 at Chase Center before a crowd that came to honor the return and stayed to celebrate the victory.

Pre-game was both somber and gratifying, with some tears supplanted by many cheers. Both teams grouped as tributes were read. The  Sero-Croatian and U.S. national anthems were played over the public address system.

Warriors players and others in the building wore black T-shirts with “Brate” printed on the back—Serbo-Croatian for brother, and what the 36-year-old-old Milanović seemed to call everyone.

On the front of the shirts was the outline of a heart, enclosing the initials “DM”.

What the Warriors wrapped themselves around was the type of shooting and defense that had a hint of those championship seasons from decades past.

Steph Curry scored 25 points, Jonathan Kuminga 25—he was a perfect 11 for 11 from the floor—and Klay Thompson had 24. Draymond Green rebounded, defended and passed as he once did and still does. It was a reassuring triumph for a team uncertain of its future.

“It was tough going out there,” said Curry, referring to the gloom and uncertainty of the previous week. “We had to make decisions.”

Maybe both about returning to the game they felt compelled to put aside as they attempted to deal with the tragedy and the style of basketball. Suddenly their lives had changed. 

Curry was enthused by Kuminga’s improved play, “He’s so talented,” said Steph, a man who well knows talent.

When Curry hit his first field goal of the night, he pointed to the sky, well, the Chase Arena roof. It was a gesture of defiance as much as glee. Steph was back. The Warriors were back. 

Now let’s go play the game as aggressively and as well as possible. Brate, or “Deki,” wouldn’t accept anything else.

Is Warriors era at an end—along with others

End of an era. Such a short phrase. Such a poignant phrase.

End of an era. Three words implying change has arrived, perhaps for the better but almost always for the worst.

End of an era. Within days, hours really, Pete Carroll is dispatched by the Seahawks, Nick Saban retires at Alabama and Bill Belichick leaves the New England Patriots.

End of an era. The Golden State Warriors tumble from greatness into such pathetic efficiency, they virtually are out of games by the second quarter and the cheers that once filled their home, Chase Center, turn into boos. 

Nothing is forever. A cliché, a reminder. There’s always someone new, some new team, another young kid as we grow old. That’s sports. That’s life. That’s coaches stepping away or being shoved away. That’s people who fail to understand we’re not going to stay on top, if we ever were fortunate to get there.

In the last months, the New England Patriots, a dynasty, had disintegrated and could barely score, dropping their final game of the season 17-3.

The last few days the Warriors, a dynasty, have disintegrated. Sunday night, they allowed 46 points in the first quarter.   

Unbelievable is both an overused and misapplied word in sport, where to be accurate, nothing—rallies, blown leads, games in snowstorms—truly nothing on a field or a court of ice is unbelievable, improbable yes.

Some of these fresh-faced partisans, who only discovered the Warriors the last decade, perhaps thought they’d never lose. Then again few of us thought they’d ever lose in the way they’ve lost recently, blown out.

Their coach said the Warriors have lost confidence. Too many new players in the lineup, possibly, and no Draymond Green, whose leadership and emotion—but not his violence—is to return shortly.

Maybe this is a false hope. Maybe, with Steph Curry wearing down and Klay Thompson inconsistent, what the Warriors used to be they’ll never be again. That also could be true for the New England Patriots, with whoever is their coach.  

So much upheaval in so short a time, and so many questions about how we can adapt. Would we have imagined the Warriors could toss away an 18-point lead? Or that Bill Belichick, Nick Saban and Pete Carroll would say goodbye in such rapid fashion?

They’re no longer coaching, although stories persist that Belichick will be back somewhere soon. The Warriors continue to play, if in different circumstances.

The other night, with the Warriors farther behind than one never would have thought, there was a TV closeup of Curry whose facial expression seemed to be a blend of bewilderment and dismay.

He’s probably thinking, how could he keep at least one sporting era from ending with all those others.

What’s to become of aging Warriors?

This is the way it works in sports. A team starts to win, and fans, the ones with perhaps less experience, believe that’s the way it always will be. They get spoiled. They get obnoxious even.  They get deceived.

But history is hovering. Nothing lasts forever, especially success.

Not very long ago the New England Patriots seemed unbeatable. Tom Brady was fantastic. Bill Belichick was a genius. 

And now? The Pats are awful. Critics are asking whether Belichick should be fired.

What some others are asking is what’s to become of the Golden State Warriors? Do they hang in for another season, shake off the inevitable scourge of time? Or do they decline almost before our very eyes — Draymond Green or no Draymond Green? 

Yes, Draymond soon is to be allowed back among the shooting and fouling of an NBA game. And presumably, the Warriors will never again be burdened by a dreaded six-game losing streak.

Still, this is the season of 2023-24, and the once-young guys who won four  NBA titles are older. You can’t go home again, and even going home appeared to be of little advantage during the recent stretch.

Pro sports in North America are designed to change the balance. Through the draft, the lesser teams are with wise choices and good fortune able to build themselves into better teams.

Which certainly is what the Warriors did, and oh yeah bringing in a free agent named Kevin Durant proved advantageous.

Who would have imagined Steph Curry would be the best long-range shooter in our lifetime? Or that Klay Thompson would pair up with Steph as one of the Splash Brothers? Or that Draymond, for all his faults, would be the guy who helped the pieces fit and no less played powerful defense?

Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach during their dominant years, was a player—and a fine one — on those Michael Jordan championship squads in the 1990s. Been there, and done that, so he understands the process and limitations.

Was it a year ago Kerr warned Warriors fans, that the team’s window to win was about to close? Last season the Dubs didn’t even get to the conference championship round.

The thinking — hoping? — of those in charge of the Warriors is that Chris Paul, 38, will be a more-than-capable addition to Curry, 35, Thompson, 33 and Green, 33. It’s possible if not probable.   

It’s all relative, certainly. Take it from someone (blush) who covered the Warriors in the ‘70s when they won 17 games and 22 games. The bad old days.

Those are gone forever. The issue, clouded a bit because of Draymond Green’s volatility and Klay Thomson’s shooting struggles, is whether the chance to win one last championship still remains.

Warriors’ GM Myers will depart

“The dominoes are starting to fall,” Tony Kornheiser said on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. 

He was talking about the Warriors, specifically the departure of Bob Myers, the architect of those great Warriors teams. 

An overstatement. Myers is leaving. That was speculation weeks ago, now it’s a fact. So is the aging of the Warriors roster and new NBA salary limitations.

But this is not about the game of dominoes. 

Rather about the sport of basketball, where the concern is whether the shots fall — or if they don’t whether you’re able to grab the rebounds. Strong organizations — and with our championships in six seasons the Warriors are among the strongest — rely on more than a single individual, no matter how intuitive and capable he (or she) might be.

There’s an old French saying, everything passes, about our impermanence not about contributing an assist on a jump shot.

Bob Myers is a great story. Raised in the Bay Area, UCLA, player agent and then basketball operations president and GM of the Warriors, during the most successful era of their existence.

But he’s 48, a family man, and the GM position is all-consuming. Once you’re at the top — Myers twice was NBA executive of the year — there’s only one way to go.  And it’s not up.

Maybe it’s a little different, but when he was winning with the 49ers Bill Walsh said the usual NFL coach doesn’t last more than 10 years with a team. 

“Either you get fired for losing or the players stop listening to you if you’re winning.”

The late John Wooden, whose teams took all those NCAA titles at UCLA, insisted winning was tougher than losing. 

“No matter what we did,” said Wooden. “It wasn’t enough.” 

Now, for a time at least, Myers has had enough. 

"The bottom line is this job,” Myers said in an afternoon media conference. “The one I’m in, I would say this for any professional general manager or coach, requires complete engagement, complete effort, one-thousand percent.”

“If you can’t do it, then you shouldn't do it. That's the answer to the question of why. I can’t do that to our players, I can’t do that to Joe, Peter (owners Joe Lacob, Peter Guber), can’t do it to myself. And that’s the question I’ve been wrestling with.”

Myers can stop wrestling. He can step out of the ring.  

You just wonder how much he was affected by the punch Draymond Green — a Myers draftee threw at Jordan Poole — or if James Wiseman hadn’t been the team’s first pick in the draft a couple of seasons ago   

Myers had been with the Warriors for 12 years. As with any break-up, this won’t be easy. Myers teared up at what is apparently his farewell words to the media. He did a hell of a job — an unprecedented one.

Hollywood reminders of Lakers success

We’ll leave the reasons for the Warriors’ loss, or if you choose the Lakers’ victory — the missed shots, the throttling defense, all those basketball explanations — and for a moment concentrate on the mental aspects of the result and how difficult it will be for the Dubs partisans to live in a sporting world where once again the power and glory belongs to Southern California.

There were more than a few examples during the telecast of the game Friday night, the one that if it didn’t signify the end of what had been labeled the Warriors dynasty, certainly was a jolting reminder that change had occurred.

You know the final score of the deciding Game 6 of the 2023 NBA Western Conference semifinal, alas a rout, Lakers 122 Warriors 101, L.A. wire-to-wire.

At Crypto.com Arena, where we were informed, seats were going for $30,000 — even if the announcer meant the private boxes, that’s not cheap — and the crowd included Elon Musk, Bad Bunny, Kim Kardashian, and from out of the past the serious fan, Jack Nicholson.

Yeah, Hollywood, celebrities as far as you could see and probably more than you can stand. But because the Warriors for the first time in years were unable to do the job, that’s the way it’s going to be.

That’s also the way it was when Magic, Kareem, or Kobe were out there, and the Lakers owned the Warriors and everything else west of the Sierra. Such a refreshing — and rewarding — interlude when Steph and Klay splashed, and Draymond got in an opponent’s face and got a technical or two. Or three.

Nothing is forever. The reminders kept coming. Now they’re here and indelible.

Maybe we were too caught up with history to pay close attention. Didn’t the Sacramento Kings win the first two games of their playoff over the Warriors? Yes, the Dubs pulled out the first round because Steph Curry scored 50. He was amazing. He was great. However, even greatness ages.

The Warriors’ front office, notably general manager Bob Myers, knows the progression and drafted people such as Jordan Poole, who was touted as the next Steph Curry. It is to dream. And miscalculate.  

Darvin Ham of the Lakers is a rookie head coach, a last-minute appointee as it were, but he’s been an assistant long enough to have helped develop Giannis Antetokounmpo into an MVP with Milwaukee. And he — and his staff — figured out how to defend Curry, who with Klay Thompson and Poole lost in the wilderness, and that was enough to stop the Warriors.

When an organization has an aging championship team it is confronted with a difficult decision whether to rely on the athletes which have been so good for so long or slowly remodel, rebuild, adding pieces to the mix.

The Lakers began the season in a hole, losing, but then they reshuffled and made trades. Their core was the always reliable, and obviously remarkable LeBron James and the frequently unpredictable Anthony Davis which was an advantage against the Warriors. Friday, James had 30 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. 

“Our leader,” confirmed Ham.  

Davis had 17 points, 20 rebounds, and two assists. Some non-leader.

Curry, naturally was the high scorer for the Warriors, with 32. 

“He never lets you relax,” LeBron said.

The presumption is the Warriors’ front office, already over budget but needing to upgrade, won’t be relaxing or standing still. But what moves are possible, and if LeBron and Davis hang around, will it make a difference?

In the autumn of 2001, Warriors coach Steve Kerr, teammate of Michael Jordan on those super Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s, pointed out the window doesn’t remain open very long.

After four titles in six years, the Warriors have to wonder if theirs has closed.

Lakers’ AD is OK; are the Warriors?

An elbow to the head. A wobbly walk to the locker room. A statement of reassurance.

Anthony Davis, the Lakers beast in the middle when he wants to be, is fine. Which is more than you can say for the Warriors.

So much in so short a time. Some critical changes. Except one thing hasn’t changed. Well, make that two things haven’t changed. 

The Warriors haven’t won a game of this best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal at Los Angeles, where Game 6 will be played Friday night. And unless they can figure out a way to do so, they’ll be finished.

Done. The former champions. And please don’t let the door or the painful reality hit you in the back.

From the Warriors’ side of the discussion, there are words of optimism, as is expected. But why? LeBron James is LeBron James, who well understands what to do when needed. And then there’s Davis, AD, whose injuries and time on the bench out of uniform earned him the mocking epithet, “street clothes,” but this series has tailored him a new reputation.

The Warriors had a very good chance to win Game 4 at L.A., but in the end, they could not. That’s what counts in sport, the final result, could-haves (the Warriors were up by seven heading into the fourth quarter) and should-haves mean zilch.  

The 6-foot-10 Davis has meant everything to the Lakers, scoring inside and keeping the Warriors from doing the same. And certainly, rebounding like mad.

He got hit in one of those go-for-the-ball scrambles under the basket with 7:43 remaining (and LA trailing).

On the TNT national broadcast, there was laughter — same old AD, getting hurt. On Thursday, in the L.A. Times, there were words of near-panic. 

”This is what the Lakers feared,” wrote the columnist Bill Plaschke. “This is what Lakers fans dreaded. And this is what the Golden State Warriors needed.”

Not exactly. What the Warriors need most of all is a road victory which seems improbable the way the Lakers are rolling — unbeaten at home in the post-season including a play-in game that got them in the playoffs. The Dubs had the home-court edge but that disappeared after they dropped the opening game.

After that, it’s been a difficult and so far worthless climb.

To make matters worse, Wiggins, who has played well (as a former #1 overall draft pick should be playing), may miss Game 6. On the injury report Thursday evening he was listed as questionable because of a left costal cartilage fracture.  

Should the Warriors pull off a miracle (is that too strong?), there will be a seventh game at Chase Center in San Francisco. 

Otherwise, they’ll be idle for a long time, next season.

Dickens should be writing Warriors’ tale

This should be authored by Charles Dickens. He wrote “Bleak House,” didn’t he? Or maybe “The Brothers Grimm, Sigh!” 

No laughter for the Warriors these days. Not much hope either.

Say the Warriors do somehow stop the Lakers in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals Wednesday night at Chase Center up there near Oracle Park, another location of sporting depression. 

That would do nothing but delay the ending of a fall-short season which will leave people wondering what happened to Klay Thompson’s once beautiful jump shot and why Jordan Poole decided to retire without telling anyone.

The Warriors, the defending champions, have lost four of their last six games, including the final two against the Sacramento Kings in the series they did win. Meanwhile, the Lakers, given up for dead (the last two letters of that word are Anthony Davis’ initials), haven’t lost a playoff game at home.

L.A. had a losing record in February and needed to win a play-in game even to get to the post-season. If you can make sense of all that maybe you can explain why in the final minute of the Warriors’ 104-101 defeat Monday night, Steph Curry could miss not one but two of those long bombs he invariably makes.

Steph did have a triple-double Monday collecting 31 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds. So if he’s not on the court then the Warriors are not in the game. But when you’re up by seven after three quarters, you’re not supposed to lose.    

The fine LA. Times columnist Bill Plaschke was one of the guest scribes Tuesday on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” as he is not infrequently, and when asked what happened to the Warriors gave a provincial legitimate answer: “Give credit to the Lakers.”

The Warriors appeared to be the better team coming in, as well as the week, leading up to the playoffs they barely made. However, L.A. took charge in game one and despite a Warriors bounce-back in game two, they have outplayed the Rub-a-Dubs most of the way.

You expected LeBron James to play and score as he did and feared the suddenly intense Davis might do the same. But when a guy named Lonnie Walker, who had been benched, gets 17 points, you are likely to have a problem, and the Warriors did. 

Only 13 times in NBA history has a team won a seven-game series after trailing 3-1. In 2016 the Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and then a few weeks later lost this same way to Cleveland and LeBron in the NBA Finals.

Steve Kerr also coached those Warriors teams.

 “You definitely draw on those experiences,” Kerr said. “Game to game everything changes, so just focus on the next one. The next game and then the momentum shifts in your favor.”

Kerr and the Warriors need a shift now, or the story for the Warriors will be bleak, grim and very unreadable.

Draymond has answer on how to beat Lakers

That was a quick answer from the Warriors’ irrepressible Draymond Green on how to defeat the Lakers after having been throttled by L.A.  

“Play better,” said Draymond, avoiding the essay response.

Next question: Against a Lakers team that is not only bigger, stronger, and suddenly realizing its awesome potential, how?

Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals is Monday night, and all the Dubs and their fans can wish is that it in no way resembles Game 3 on Saturday night, a 127-97 mismatch.

Yes, only one game, and with adjustments (the magic word in the postseason) and the Warriors only trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, the situation could very well flip. But that may depend as much on one player from the Lakers, the inconsistent Anthony Davis, as anyone on the Warriors.

And as a reminder, the Warriors, this season on the road have gyrated between bad and awful, an indication this isn’t the Golden State team of the recent past. 

The issue in the sport is being able to dictate the style and pace of play, something the Warriors accomplished in the second game when they ran, defended, and shot with wild abandon (whatever that may be). But you can’t run when you don’t have the ball, and the Lakers choose not to run even when they had it. 

For good reason. 

The track meet style the Warriors prefer becomes the deliberate basketball that the Lakers play so well with AD, who Friday night once more was the monster unleashed (25 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks), LeBron James (23 points), and one-time Warrior D’Angelo Russell (21 points).

The Warriors complained that early in the third quarter that, with the Lakers marching hither and yon to the free throw line, “the game stopped,” which is exactly how the Lakers liked it. That wasn’t the officials’ fault, it was the Warriors’ fault. They’ve always had reach-in foul problems. And with larger, more deliberate Lakers in their way, the Dubs on Saturday night were trying to get physical. 

The Lakers had 37 free throws Friday night and made 28. The Warriors were 12 of 17. Stopped? They could have held a picnic in the interim. Or let the players take a nap.

What the Warriors took was a figurative punch to the gut. Questioned what it was like when the foul calls (and Lakers free throws) were growing and growing, Draymond Green, once again a man of few words, said only, “It’s frustrating.”

Draymond, of course, has a history of drawing technical fouls for the things he says or does so in this case if brevity is not necessarily the soul of wit, it is a brilliant option to avoid getting charged with a T. 

It’s become apparent the 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis is the (sometimes tortured, frequently criticized) soul of the Lakers. When he isn’t injured or indolent, AD is overwhelming on offense, defense, and the glass.

If nothing else, and there is plenty else, he takes the opponents' attention away from LeBron, who even at age 38 is acknowledged still to be the best player in the sport.

You could say the Lakers have the Warriors on the run, but after getting stopped and pummeled in Game 3 that’s where the stagnant Warriors would prefer to be.

Warriors-Lakers: California here they come

This is as good as it gets for the not-so-late great state of California. Who cares if ESPN is fixated on listing events at Eastern Daylight Time?

Let's catch the last train to the Coast where oranges and redwoods grow and where the former Minneapolis Lakers and Philadelphia Warriors relocated with enviable success. 

Who imagined a few months ago when the Lakers were losing and the Warriors couldn’t win on the road that now in the lusty month of May they would be playing each other here in the NBA Western Conference semifinals, a playoff round as enticing as it should be entertaining.

LeBron and Steph, AD and Looney — and Klay, Draymond, and Wigs. Yes, basketball is the ultimate team sport, but it’s the individuals who make the shots and the difference.

To reprise that so-very-accurate Michael Jordan response when told there is no “I” in team, ”Yeah, but there is in win.”

There’s also an old journalistic idea that nothing is as dead as yesterday’s news. OK, but even moving forward past Sunday’s news, the Dubs stunningly overwhelmed the Kings, 120-100 at Sacramento, and Steph Curry set a Game 7 record with 50 points. In this case, yesterday’s news is going to live a long time.  

What we re-learned from both the Warriors and Lakers, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies, is that reputations as winners are well deserved.

LeBron James of the Lakers has scored more points than anyone in NBA history. Steph Curry is arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history. Two offensive stars ​​— yet in the end the results may depend on defense and rebounding. Or lack of it, which seemingly was why the Kings, after taking the first two games, lost four of the last five. They couldn’t stop Curry.

LA vs SF, initials representing the two cities founded by Spanish explorers. A rivalry of geography. And of pride.

For years and decades, NBA basketball out west belonged to the Lakers, to Wilt Chamberlain (although he did come out from Philly with the Warriors), Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and certainly Magic Johnson. Sixteen NBA titles, one fewer than the Celtics, to three for the Warriors, including one in 1975.  

Until Steve Kerr became the head coach of the Warriors, Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green were on the roster. Then the Warriors added four more titles. It’s a quick turn-around for the Dubs, who must shift attention and style to face the Lakers, starting Tuesday night at Chase Center. 

“We’re excited to have the opportunity,” Kerr said about going against the Lakers. “I think the Lakers changed their team dramatically at the trade deadline. They made some brilliant moves and became an entirely different team.”

“Darvin (Lakers coach Darvin Ham) has done an incredible job guiding that team. They’re excellent defensively. They’ve got one of the all-time greats in LeBron. But a lot of talent across the roster. So it’s going to take a big effort to beat them, and we know how good they are.”

Just as the Lakers know how good the Warriors are.

How did the Warriors get here?

How did we get here? 

More specifically, how did they get here? The Warriors, that is, to Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not after they finally won a road game at Sacramento and seemingly proved they had restored their excellence and our faith. 

A game at home, Chase Center, where they almost always win, and it would be on to the next round. But as we were reminded, almost leaves room for doubt, and defeat, a 118-99, defeat. And so Sunday in Sacramento there would be a final game for the Warriors’ postseason. And maybe for the season.

The Kings were favored, and why not. They had a better regular season record, earning the home-court advantage. They are younger and seemingly stronger. Father time is an unbeatable opponent. Steph Curry is 35. It all catches up with you.  

Sports are predictable. And unpredictable. The belief here was once the Warriors got a victory on the road, at Sacramento, they would be fine, that that experience and championships — and cheering at Chase — would make the difference. That wasn’t the situation in Game 6.

They were out of it before the second quarter began, a disappointment as well as a shock.

Was it surprising, with the Warriors down more than a dozen points and a loss inevitable, that the crowd at Chase was determinedly heading for the exits, apparently unconcerned there might not be another home game until next fall? The fans were not accustomed to what they had seen.  

It was Dick Motta, coaching in the 1970s, who popularized the phrase, “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings,’ and certainly as the Warriors’ Klay Thompson pointed out the Dubs very much understand what they need to do, shoot, rebound and most of all play alert defense. But knowing and doing are not the same.

And if knowing is a factor the advantage would go to Mike Brown, in his first year as Kings coach, who spent the previous six seasons as assistant and interim head coach with the Warriors. He and his staff decided to go with a smaller lineup in Game 6, a maneuver that allowed Sacramento to get more open shots and also to harass the Warrior offense, Golden State shooting only 37 percent.      

NBA playoffs have a history of teams alternating wins and losses. The Warriors, aware of what some might say is desperation, assumingly would perform better — as they did in the three straight wins over the Kings earlier in the series. Dubs coach Steve Kerr said his team needed once more to be the aggressor.

He also said, perhaps as much for the fans as the players, “We’ve won Game 7s before. We know what to do.”

If they win, the Warriors get the Lakers, If they don’t they get months to remember and reflect.

Draymond: Man of thoughts, words — and actions

On that podcast hosted by the man-about-town, defensive wizard and too-often controversial Draymond Green, he forthrightly pointed out that most of us — meaning virtually everyone but the players — don’t understand the game of pro basketball.

No argument here. Only a note of appreciation for the fact Mr. Green not only understands but is able to put that understanding into effect.

A couple of days earlier, Friday to be specific, Draymond was paying a price as much for his reputation as for his (shall I say aggressive?) method of play, stomping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis.

And so in Game 3 of the first round, with Draymond viewing, the Warriors won. Then Sunday, with Draymond subbing — he played one second less than 31 minutes and chipped in with 12 points and 10 rebounds — the Warriors won again, but barely, 126-125.

The first two games were at Sacramento and the last two were at Chase Center in San Francisco. With three games remaining, at max, two on the Kings’ home floor, the Warriors’ dynasty — if four championships in six years are to be judged a dynasty in sports — crumbles but holds.

The Kings supposedly have the edge. What the Warriors have is the experience, the been-there-done-that feeling. They also have Steph Curry, who scored many of his 32 points Sunday when it seemed everything was going wrong offensively, and the bad boy-good thinker, Draymond Green.

Green is not quite the individual portrayed or at least imagined. On the court, it’s true that he goes hard and reckless, fiercely perhaps, but in interviews, he’s calm and reflective. Although he’s always determined to get the proper result, victory.

Coaches and athletes talk about winning cultures, about the old Yankees and newer Lakers. The Warriors over the last decade have established a winning culture. They’re one of the teams always mentioned on ESPN, one of the teams that have earned a place in history.  

Who knows what will happen in the final three (or two) games of this Warriors-Kings playoff series. But it has already been memorable. First Draymond gets suspended. Then in Game 4, which they also managed to win, in the final seconds the Dubs receive a technical foul for calling a timeout they didn’t have — like Michigan’s Chris Webber in the 1992 NCAA final.

Steph did that, but Kerr said he should be blamed for what might have been a costly bit of miscommunication but turned out to be trivial.

Curry reminded everybody of the objective.

“We talk a lot around here about doing whatever it takes to win, and everybody being flexible on what their role is,” Curry said. “It’s just being ready, no matter what the situation calls for, the versatility of our team.”    

Off the bench or in the starting lineup.

Win would get swagger back for Warriors

The Warriors say they are alright, and probably they are. A win Monday night over the Kings in Sacramento, and they’ve gained home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

They would also regain the swagger and belief a defending champion is supposed to put on display. 

But what if they lose, as they did on Saturday night? What if the Kings are the new Warriors, the way the Warriors a few years ago became the new Lakers? What if this is the season of change? What if this dynasty, like all dynasties, will end?

After all, the Kings had a better regular season record than the Warriors, the reason Sacramento has a possible four playoff games at Golden 1 Center, which for the Dubs is so close, roughly 90 miles away from Chase Center in San Francisco, but at the same time so far away.

Yes, it was loud Saturday night in Sacramento, but it’s always loud when a team that hasn’t been in the postseason in forever (well, 16 years) qualifies and is at home. That’s expected, but it’s also expected that a franchise that has multiple championships should not be affected.

Have you ever heard of Malik Monk? Before Saturday, that is. He’s averaging 11.7 points a game. He scored 32 and was 14 of 14 on free throws, taking advantage of a team that prides itself on defense but fouls all too frequently.

All that considered, the Warriors only lost, 126-123. And in a locker room more resigned than stunned, the reaction was almost a shrug. These things happen in the NBA, so let’s figure out why.   

"That first game is kind of a feeling-out process,” said the Warriors’ Steph Curry, “and we controlled the game for a good 32, 33 minutes. They went on a run at the end of the third, start of the fourth, and they got into it.”

Which wouldn’t have mattered if the Kings weren’t getting the ball into the basket, but they were. De’Aaron Fox getting 38 points formed a considerable 1-2 punch when adding Monk’s 32. 

What made the Warriors feel upbeat on a night of noise and defeat was the return of the missing Andrew Wiggins. He had been gone since February because of the mysterious family situation. He played 28 minutes, scored 17 points, and had a career playoff high of four blocked shots.

“We told him how happy we are to have him back,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who gave Wiggins a half hug as the player left the court.

Curry had 30 but couldn’t hit a jump shot with seconds left to play.

“All in all," said Kerr, “to come out here with a 10-point lead in the second half, have a chance to win late, I like where we are. I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

If not as good a place had they won.

Warriors ‘missing collective grit’

That was a poignant observation from Steve Kerr. For Warrior fans, it also was a painful one.

He used different phrases, but basically Kerr told us — reminded us — that sporting dynasties do not last forever. Even one as exciting and gloriously enjoyable as that of the Golden State Warriors.

Earlier Wednesday, Kerr was interviewed by Ramona Shelburne on ESPN, which along with NBC Bay Area a few hours later would televise the Warriors’ game against the Suns in Phoenix. And the subject was success, of course, but in a twist the inevitability of that success comes to an end.

Players change, results change.

The Warriors, not knowing what their coach would forecast, went out and remained winless on the road, dropping their eighth straight game, this one to the Suns, 130-119. Steph Curry would score 50 points for the Warriors, but basketball is not a one-man game.

As the past few seasons, the Warriors, with their winning streaks and four NBA championships, made quite clear. As Kerr, a member of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls — certainly a dynasty in the 1980s — was clear about what lay ahead: change.

“History would suggest teams have runs,” said Kerr. The Warriors most likely have two or three years remaining in a run, that with Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green began with the magical season of 2015. “Maybe five years,” he conceded.

But players get old — we all do — and despite wise management, fortunate trades and perceptive drafting, the new pieces don’t fit together like the previous ones. That’s why championships are so rare. And so treasured.

During the game, a television sideline reporter, noting Curry’s outburst — he was well on his way to an 11th game of 50 points or more — mentioned to Kerr the Warriors needed offense from others besides Steph. “We don’t need offense,” said the coach, “we need defense.”

It was only one game, but truth tell it was more than one game. It was a verification of what the Warriors once had and what so far in this struggle of a season they lack, the ability to stop the other team. The Suns shot right around 50 percent and hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer.

“We have to get everybody on board,” said Kerr. “But with the new kids learning the system and each other, will they? It takes talent to build a winner. It takes time.

“We had a lot of joy beating people over the years. The other teams don’t forget. That feeling of joy is lacking now. We’re missing collective grit.” 

Kendrick Perkins, a longtime NBA player and now an ESPN analyst, said that Draymond Green punching teammate Jordan Poole in practice just before the season began is having an effect.

“People say it’s over,” Perkins remarked about the incident, “but those things linger.”

For the Warriors, basketball may become less a game than it is a grind.

Remembering Joe Roberts and a Warriors win

OAKLAND — They came to say goodbye to Joe Roberts, to tell several stories, share a few laughs and, for some at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, shed a few tears.

Joe was 86, defeated after a long struggle against cancer. It was one of the rare fights he ever lost in a career that from start to finish was loaded with success.

Roberts is best remembered as the assistant coach who took control of the Warriors in the 1975 NBA finals, helping win a game and a championship.

But he was so much more, a member of that 1960 NCAA champion Ohio State team, with Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Larry Siegfried and, yes, Bobby Knight; the overall 21st pick (by the Syracuse Nats) in the 1960 NBA draft; and a coach and teacher in the Oakland schools.

But for those of a certain age, Roberts will be the man who couldn’t be intimidated by a situation or a sneaky tactic by a member of an opposing team, in this case Mike Riordan of the Bullets (now the Wizards).

The Bullets were huge favorites in the series. One paper — was it the Baltimore Sun? — described the Warriors as the worst team ever to reach the finals. But the Warriors (the nickname Dubs was years in the future) won the first three games. 

When they got in front in Game 4, Riordan pummeled Warriors star Rick Barry, who pummeled back. Before Barry could be ejected, Warriors coach Al Attles charged out and charged in — and was thrown out, not Barry.

For a few moments, the Warriors were in, shall we call it, a semi-chaotic state, a ship without a captain, as it were. Then Roberts stood up and ordered everybody to sit down and stop talking. There could be only one boss, and it was going be Mr. Roberts.

There could be only one NBA champion, and it was the Warriors in a sweep. 

Attles was at the celebration of Joe Roberts’ life, as were Cliff Ray, George Johnson and Charles (Hopper) Dudley, who is working on a video to honor those ’75 champions. So were top players on subsequent Warriors clubs, including Purvis Short, the guy with the rainbow jump shot.

The NBA adopted the 3-point shot in 1979, just before the start of Short’s decade-long career, but the emphasis in the NBA in that era was to shove and push and get the ball closer to the basket.

Asked if he still had his jumper, which seemed to soar out of sight, Short, now 65, said, “I could make the shot. I don’t know if I could get open.”

Short lives in Houston, Cliff Ray in Florida and Dudley in the Seattle area. Their reunions are infrequent but also important.

The Warriors these days are the class and pride of the NBA. But we shouldn’t forget the team that won the title because Joe Roberts showed us — and them — how to be a leader.

Thanks, Joe. We’ll miss you.

Draymond: Off the hook, on the radar

So, Draymond Green, where have you been? Oh, never mind. It’s all on that tape, which is as big a story as your brief absence. You know how when people leave work they call it punching out? Sorry, which is what you said you are about your recent contretemps.

Some people thought you should have been suspended, but fortunately for you they don’t coach or work as executives for the Warriors. Besides, if you didn’t already know, nobody is supposed to hit anyone, much less a teammate.

Nobody wonders if you’ll play hard. That’s in your DNA. You’d never have made it in the NBA without your passion and intensity.

What has some worried is a few players, one being Jordan Poole, whom you punched in practice, will not feel comfortable playing the season with you. But teammates have battled physically and still won titles. Think of those Oakland A’s.

Then again, that was in the 1970s, before cell phones, items that would provide a literal picture of an event. And before a news service (?) like TMZ, which has sources seemingly everywhere. Somebody at the Warriors facility took that video. On ESPN, Tony Kornheiser called it sabotage.

What Warriors coach Steve Kerr called the punch and subsequent reaction was “the greatest crisis” of his coaching career.

When during that career you won four championships in a span of several years, there haven’t been many crises, great or small.

For certain, Draymond and the Dubs accomplished the near impossible, knocking the 49ers out of the top spot of the TV sports reports, a difficult task indeed.

Kerr, who once was slugged by Michael Jordan when they were teammates on the Chicago Bulls, went about his well-scrutinized business with the determination and irritation of an individual who’s been there and had that done to him.

Basketball is the sport of least privacy. Baseball has dugouts in which to hide; football has helmets to be worn. Basketball is a T-shirt and shorts. Insults — trash talk — are constant. You handle it, or you try another activity.

What the Warriors tried, however, was honesty.

No denials, no attempts at cover-ups. Let’s get this fixed and, as Kerr said, move forward.

Yet if what’s in the news is any indication, that journey will not be an easy one.

The media (blush) isn’t going to let this go quickly. Whatever the Warriors do to keep the team strong on the court, there will be a reference to Draymond Green and his punch.

Either they’ll have overcome that mammoth crisis or they’ll have fallen victim to it.

Draymond insisted when he made his apology several days ago that the punch and still unknown problem between him and Poole was embarrassing.

Both players are lucky it wasn’t injurious, one or both ending with a broken bone, Now apparently all we’ll get is hurt pride.

The punch and the TMZ video jolted the Warriors, a franchise where everything invariably runs so smoothly — or so it seems — like, well, a punch to the jaw. They had to do the right thing as much as they had to do what would keep them winners.

“It’s been been an exhaustive process,” Kerr said of the discussion on how to to proceed. “Everything was on the table.”

Now Green effectively may be off the hook, although definitely he’ll be on everyone’s radar.

Does Steph already rank with Willie and Joe?

Go ahead and toss up the names, the way Steph Curry might a long jumper: the Bay Area’s most compelling athletes.

The list is arbitrary, of course, people who touch the headlines but no less importantly touch the heart.

You start with Willie Mays, naturally, one of a kind, and if you didn’t have the great fortune to see him play in person, surely you’ve caught the films, of him catching a fly ball or hitting a home run.

After that? Surely Joe Montana, who starting with one poignant pass play helped turn a franchise of mediocrity into one of destiny.

No, the selections are as much dependent on priority as history: Reggie Jackson, Willie McCovey, Catfish Hunter, Jerry Rice, Rick Barry, Patrick Marleau — the choice is yours. Except for the guy who had that game of games on Friday night, the guy who virtually alone kept the Warriors alive for yet another championship, Curry.

That was some achievement, that stunning 107-97 Warriors win over the Celtics and an angry, aggressive, foul-mouthed crowd in Boston. The Warriors hit the boards. The Warriors played defense. The Warriors hit the jackpot.

There is a reluctance to make this personal, but I have been covering their games since the 1960s, for the Chronicle, the Examiner, the Oakland Tribune; covered 17- and 22-win seasons; covered their championships in ’75 and in ’15. ’17 and ’18. But I can’t remember a more impressive and emotional victory as the one on Friday.

So many factors, so many people. Indeed, basketball is a team game — hit the open man — but in no other team sport is the individual as important. He — or she — can shoot, dribble, rebound, pass and play defense. It’s what he does with the ball and what he does when the other team has the ball.

And what he does for his teammates.

Curry has had bigger scoring nights than the one Friday when he finished with 43 — there was a 50-pointer earlier this season — but perhaps not one as significant.

He was on a bad foot. He was on a franchise trailing two games to one. But Curry got on a tear. Once more.

“The heart on that man is incredible,” said teammate Klay Thompson. “You know, the things he does we kind of take for granted from time to time, but to go out there and put us on his back, I mean, we’ve got to help him out on Monday. Wow.”

Yes, wow. Monday, Game 5 of the best-of-seven NBA finals will be at Chase Center, where the fans who could get no closer than a TV screen — at a watch party or a tavern or their own home — will be able to express their joy and appreciation.

What is sport but another form of entertainment, if dictated by results and a scoreboard? The Warriors have captured the imagination of the region, mainly because of their success but also for their style.

Curry always has been likable. At 6-foot-3, a relatively small man in a supposed big man’s game, he can swish 25-foot baskets with disarming ease, which only contributes to his appeal.

This has been pointed out through the years, about stars such as Montana and Jim Plunkett and Buster Posey.

Curry is unique. He’s been called the best shooter ever. He’s a treasure. And not least, he comes across as a pleasant, well-meaning person. In a crazy world, Steph seems a symbol of sanity.

And he’s not bad with 3-point shots either.

Warriors up against Celtics, profanities

Steph Curry was trying to persuade us, if not himself. The Warriors, he said with a quiet affirmation, have been here before.

Not really. They haven’t been down 2-1 in an NBA final with the next game — in this case, Friday night — at TD Garden in Boston, where banners hang and obscenities fly.

They haven’t faced a lineup as muscular and physical as that of the Celtics, who don’t take the air out of the basketball but with their height and weight have been able to take the Warriors out of their game.

Michael Wilbon, on “Pardon the Interruption” Thursday, said don’t put too much into one result. The playoffs historically are inconsistent, coaches installing changes virtually as soon as they watch the videos.

But what are the Warriors to do about Jason Tatum? Or Jaylen Brown? Or Marcus Smart, who roughed them up Wednesday night, transforming what had been athletic ballet for the Dubs, soaring and scoring, into a pulling match?

What the Warriors are to do with their own tough guy, Draymond Green — who, alas wasn’t tough at all, calling himself “soft” — is wait.

“Everybody has bad games,” said Warriors guard Klay Thompson, who scoring 25 points (second to Curry’s 31) had a very good one.

“Draymond is a reason we’re here. We wouldn’t be the Warriors without Draymond. He brought us to heights we’d never seen before.”

Klay means to the finals a sixth time in eight years and to a championship three times in five years.

Thompson himself is a huge part of the equation. The question is how can the Warriors find their offensive magic against the defense-minded Celtics?

There is no question the Boston fans use language that, to borrow a line, would make a sailor blush. “All those F-bombs,” said Thompson.

But of course. You want to know about the people who go to sporting events in Boston, check into some of the things they yelled at Ted Williams at Fenway Park. Oh my.

The playoff games in Boston don’t start until a few minutes after 9 p.m. eastern time. What are you going to do until then, walk the Freedom Trail? It’s not that everyone is a lush, but there’s a reason the Patriots didn’t play Monday Night Football games at old Schaefer Stadium.

The game the Warriors play Friday night will include Curry, Steph promised on Thursday. “It would be tough without him,” agreed Thompson. Late in Game 3, Boston’s 6-foot-9, 240-pound Al Horford landed on Curry’s frequently injured ankle.

But he was able to walk gingerly off the floor and return to the game. Been there, done that, in effect was what Curry, iced and taped, said on Thursday.

“Plenty of times before,” reminded Curry. “It wasn’t as bad as It seemed when it first happened.”

Steph pointed out the Warriors couldn’t get their points mainly because Boston got too many. So much of the Warriors offense is predicated on how they play — or in Game 3, didn’t play — defense.

At their best, they’re grabbing rebounds and sweeping down court. For that to occur once more, even against the rugged Celtics, is not an impossibility. Even in Boston.

“We’ve been in hostile environments before,” said Curry. “We can’t get too emotional. We’ve clawed our way back, did it the last game.”

Indeed, from an 18-point deficit in the first half, the Warriors worked themselves into a lead in the third quarter.

Encouraging. Enervating. Especially against the Celtics, who rebound so aggressively and keep trying to knock you down while, in NBA lingo, you keep trying to knock down the shots.

“I think it’s just playing better, playing harder, playing as a unit,” Thompson said about the key. “I don’t think we need to make incredible adjustments. I just think we need to come out with that force, that Warriors brand of ball that has been so successful this past decade.”

If he doesn’t think so, why should anyone else?