Video, notes, and transcripts from the loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday to the win at the Detroit Pistons last night, in “sort of” reverse chronological order. More behind-the-scenes detail on the Gui Santos signing coming soon to this Substack site. Also, any game notes from GSW-CLE and/or GSW-DET will also be posted separately.
I’m going to try some new nomenclature for listing topics from a transcript. Obviously, “30” refers to Stephen Curry. I’m also going to use the bold formatting judiciously so it’s kind of a tad easier to scroll through and skim as necessary, for those of you who like to do that…
STEVE on 30, CP, DARIO, OREB, WISE
4:13 Steve Kerr pregame in Detroit on if he’s able to comment on Gui Santos yet: “No, no, not until everything actually happens. We’ll see.”
4:23 on if Draymond Green is going to play: “Draymond’s gonna warm up and see how he’s feeling and I’m hopeful that he’ll play, obviously, but we should know in the next 45 minutes or so.”
4:34 on seeing James Wiseman again: “Looking forward to seeing James. He’s such a great young guy and I’m always pulling for him. Everyone takes a different path and this path hasn’t gone the way we all thought it would, but he still has lots of potential and he just needs to keep working and keep going, but I’m excited to see him.”
4:53 on if there was ever a worry about Chris Paul’s willingness to accept the different role on this team: “No, no, I think right when we traded for him, he and I had a really good conversation about our team about his fit. We didn’t really talk about starting or not starting, it was more just about how I saw him. And I told him, he was a perfect fit for a team that’s trying to get a little more organized and win games in the margins, trying to take better care of the ball, have a little more purpose in some of our possessions. There’s no better guy than Chris Paul to accomplish all that and he has delivered and then some. So we’re off to a good start. And Chris is a huge part of it. And it’s a joy coaching him.”
0:00 Kerr postgame Detroit on what Steph Curry and Klay Thompson did closing the game out: “Both made big shots and I liked our defense down the stretch. We got a bunch of stops. We couldn’t get a rebound but Steph’s on-ball defense was fantastic. I think he’s so underrated on that end. Everybody tries to go at him, for good reason, to try to tire him out, but he’s just a really good defender. His on-ball defense down the stretch was one of the keys, too.”
0:34 on seeing Chris Paul hit some jumpers: “Yeah, I mean, Chris has made such a huge impact even without making shots. So now, last couple games, knocking shots down, just adds to what he’s already doing. But six assists, no turnovers. He’s up to 62 assists, six turnovers. I mean, that’s insane. That is insane. So what he’s doing is we’re kind of trying to find our team and our rhythm. He’s just keeping us in games, leading that second unit, taking care of the ball, only 11 (team) turnovers tonight. So Chris has just been an amazing force.”
1:21 on Dario Saric giving them a spark towards the end of that first half: “I mean, Dario, we’re getting used to that, just the way he plays offensively, instinctively understands how to create something out of nothing. We had a lot of broken possessions where he got it and he immediately swung it to Chris, ran into a pick-and-roll-pop to the open spot, knocked down shots. He’s just a really instinctive, good basketball player. And man, he and Chris have that great connection and they really do save a lot of possessions for us.”
2:01 on Chris Paul illustrating his value on the play where he directed Jonathan Kuminga to set the down-screen for Curry in the corner: “Yeah, I mean, that’s been something that’s been fun to watch develop, down the stretch, especially. Chris handling the ball, Steph off the ball and Chris just finding him in the right spot has happened a few times now. We don’t play them a ton together. Obviously, Chris is running the team when Steph’s on the bench but most nights they’re out there for six or eight minutes together and down the stretch. It’s a really important dynamic for us.”
2:52 on why the starters haven’t been able to get a rhythm together: “It’s still early. I think it’s a very small sample size. So I think I will lean into the fact that they’ve been a great group for two years now. But I think it’s probably a combination of just some slow starts, Draymond being out all of camp. We’re obviously slowly starting this year. That group hasn’t found the connection defensively. And that’s where they’ve made their mark in the past. We’ve always had a great defensive rating with that team and, so far, it’s not good at all. So they need to step it up. Defensively, we’ve got to start games out better.”
3:39 on if the 17 offensive rebounds was a point of emphasis: “We’re really trying to attack the offensive glass this year and tonight was a really successful night in that regard. I think 18 shots, 12-for-18 on second-chance points. So they only had six attempts. So that’s kind of the difference in the game.”
DRAY: MO, SAGINAW, 30, CADE, DET, AUSAR
0:00 Draymond Green postgame in Detroit on the slower pace: “I think you know, we’re doing just doing a better job of getting whatever we want when it comes to the end of the game … you have a guy like Chris on the floor who can also get to whatever shot he wants as well in those situations. I think it’s really good for us and then also he’s not going to have the best defender on Chris. Steph will have the best defender so I thought it was really methodical. And that was good for us. We’re starting to kind of add that to our book, if you will.”
0:43 on if the starting five is as connected as they can be: “I think we’re connected. I don’t think we’re playing great but I don’t think it’s because of a lack of connection. I think we have some things that we need to improve but don’t worry about it.”
1:00 on Moses Moody’s defense compared to last year: “Oh, he’s competing … he sees the pictures much faster than he did before. He’s learning tendencies and different things that guys want to get to. So Moses is doing a great job on both ends…”
1:24 on the starters’ defensive rating being a trouble spot right now: “I think we all have to be better. I don’t think our shell has been great. Our shell has been kind of all over the place and not starting with a sense of urgency. So their team hit a couple shots, and they’re feeling good…you’re trying to stop the bleeding so I think we just got to get out to better starts and our shell need to be much tighter.”
1:54 on this being the final year of Arthur Hills vs Saginaw High School boys basketball rivalry: “I mean, it’s huge. You know, you grow up going to Saginaw High games versus Arthur Hill. I remember when they would be at the Civic Center. You know, it’s the hottest ticket in the state when those teams were playing each other and so, it was always a dream as a kid growing up in Saginaw to play in that rivalry and you know, I’m happy that I had the opportunity to play for playing our rivalry and it’ll be something that we won’t forget…they’re just coming to an end but just the way the cookie crumbles.”
2:34 on any particular memory or game that sticks out in his mind from Saginaw High: “…we went up 24-0, the heritage district, Mike Green six threes to start the game … them boys was tough, on our way to championship was great. And they had no answer. That was my favorite moment.”
2:58 on how he feels right now: “I feel pretty good. You know I feel like my condition was … not quite where I wanted to be yet … I’ve missed all the training camp and all the preseason games, was just my fifth game … I think I’m ahead of where I thought I’d be. So I feel pretty good for the most part. I feel confident. I think I have to play better defensively though. But that also goes with my conditioning level.”
3:38 Reporter: “You’ve obviously played with one of the greatest point guards of all time in Steph Curry have another one —” Draymond: “THE greatest point guard of time. I’ll take that one. Yeah.”
3:49 on watching Chris Paul and what Cade Cunningham can learn: “…you get a chance to see Steph or Chris every day, obviously playing against Chris for so many years, you know what he’s capable of. But Cade’s a special talent and with the size that he has and ball-handling, he don’t really have any weak spots. He can handle the ball, he can get to the mid-range and shoot the three great, he can get to the basket and finish, so I think, Cade’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with for a long time … showing what he’s capable of … and he continues to get better.”
4:33 on any comparisons of Cade: “I mean, when you start talking 6’7 guards, Penny Hardaway … there’s not many 6’7 guards, so I’m not sure who I’ll compare him to right off the top of my head, but I know he’s a really good player, has an opportunity to be great. He continues to work and put it together.”
5:13 on his early impression of Ausar Thompson being known as a defensive guy: “Man, I love him and his brother. They play the game the right way. They’re hard-nosed guys. They defend. They make the right play. They don’t get outside of themselves. I think Houston and Detroit got really special talents in those guys. It’s like they were built to play in the NBA, you know? And so I enjoy watching them play. When you look at this rookie class, it doesn’t really look like a rookie class. Like, even our two rookies, like you put those guys in the game and they don’t make mistakes that rookies make, you know? And it’s the same thing for the Thompson twins and … even Marcus Sasser, they don’t look like rookies. I think it’s an incredible class, but the Thompson twins — like, I don’t know, man, I feel a way about the Thompson twins because those guys are making it much harder for me to continue to make All-Defensive Team, because these young guys come in defending the way they’re defending. So I’m happy to see young guys coming into this league taking on the challenge of defending. So many young guys coming into this league (are) like, ‘I gotta score. It’s all about scoring, how can I get my shot off?’ And it’s such the wrong mindset to come in, with so it’s good to see these young guys coming in with a different mindset.”
6:36 on his impression of this young Pistons team: “I think they’re doing a great job. They’re starting back to Detroit Pistons guys. You look at Thompson, Stewie (Isaiah Stewart), Jalen Duren, Marcus Sasser, like they’re starting to get Detroit Pistons type and I think that’s great. You got to be cut a certain way to play for the Pistons and actually successfully do that, so I think they’re starting back to get into that mode of getting those types of guys and you’re starting to see it in their play. Played us super-tough tonight with half of their team out and yet it’s the next-guy-up mentality and when you start seeing teams with the next-guy-up mentality, that team is ready to take another step and I think they’re ready to take another step. And then you add in the fact that they got a great coach in Monty (Williams), great staff, Jarrett Jack on the staff, like, they got some some really good things brewing for them here and you know me, as a guy from the state of Michigan, I’m always rooting for them and want to see them do — except when they played us they kicked our ass twice last year — but always want to see them do well and I think they’re building in the right direction.”
7:59 postgame radio interview with Tim Roye: “…it’s good to come home and get a win and then obviously, coming off of last night’s game, where we let one get away, don’t want to start to lead a trip spiral in the wrong direction, you know, and so it was important for us to come out and get a win. I don’t think we didn’t play a great 48 minutes of basketball, but I think down the stretch, JK and CP and Dario once again those guys turned the game for us and they were able to come back and close it out.”
8:44 on Dario Saric: “…I remember talking to CP this summer right away when he found out … he was on it. He’s like, ‘Dario will be great for us. We can do this and we can do that.’ And then you can tell their chemistry is there and teams are starting to game-plan for those two guys, so we’ll have to go back to the drawing board. We haven’t had any practice stuff in the last two weeks. So we’ll go back to the drawing board and figure it all out. But that group has been great for us, especially those two.”
9:14 on it feeling like they’ve been on the road for a month: “I mean, we went home for a day-and-a-half. Yeah. Absolutely. But nonetheless, that is the Steph Curry effect where you’ve got a bunch of national TV games. We’re not going to complain about that. You’ve got to take what the schedule gives. I think overall, we’re doing a pretty good job.”
9:44 Roye: “You’re a Saginaw guy. You’re a Michigan guy and I know —” Draymond: “Michigan State.”
10:00 on what he sees with the Pistons: “I’m not sure if that’s Ausar Thompson or Amen Thompson, whichever one it is. He’s a Detroit Piston guy. You look at a Marcus Sasser who’s a Detroit Piston guy, Isaiah Stewart a Detroit Piston guy. When you start talking about the history of the Pistons, those are Pistons guys. So what you’re starting to see now is they are bringing in Detroit Pistons guys. We struggled tonight and that team was looking a lot better … that’s also a team that’s missing Alec Burks … (Bojan) Bogdanovic … Jalen Duren … Monte Morris … so they’re building in the right direction … Monty is a great coach in this league and a great coach for years. Those guys are under the tutelage of my vet, Jarrett Jack. I love what they’re building, George David and Troy Weaver and those guys, I love what they’re doing, moving this thing in the right direction…”
STEPH on STARTERS’ D, PUMP FAKES
0:00 Steph Curry postgame Detroit on closing games this early in the season: “That’s a positive, on the back end (of a back-to-back) … you want to control momentum a little better in the meat of the game when you have a team on the ropes, especially on the road, not giving them any life. So you’re probably happy about games that kind of go either way in the fourth, close games. We won tonight, it was either we’re down six, I think, at one point the fourth and then end up winning by 11. So it gives you a lot of confidence that you can always win any type of game. But we’re very nitpicky around the way that we feel, like we can play for 48 minutes. So you want to correct the mistakes in the meat of the game so that it doesn’t make it come down to the wire every night.”
0:56 on what’s not clicking right now with the starters: “Um, that we’re not getting as many stops as we want which has kind of been our identity for a while and when you don’t get stops — again, we’ve played six games on the road — you can let momentum influence the game. The other team’s getting confident and guys that normally don’t make shots start feeling a rhythm and you saw the shots that they were making tonight, guys off the bench, Killian Hayes had a night and that can put you in a position where you’re chasing a little bit. So we have to be a little bit better, controlling the defensive end to start games to give ourselves momentum. We’ve talked about it, we know it and I think we’ll get there.”
1:59 on if he likes where Draymond Green is at: “For sure, I mean, he’s shooting the ball, he’s moving well. Obviously, we played two back-to-backs, his first two games are back-to-back and we talk about your ability to bring it every night and bring energy and effort, like he’s worked extremely hard to get himself there, considering missing training camp. So, absolutely. He’s only going to continue to get stronger, but when he’s flying around and stuffing the stat sheet like he did tonight, the way he’s been shooting it, that’s always a good sign of where he’s at physically.”
2:47 on if he practices the half-pump-fake, “glitchy” three: “You practice everything, whether it’s on purpose or on accident. But it’s all just about the confidence as soon as you let it go. So my reaction was more — I was more relieved it went in, because I should have just shot it normally off the catch, but thankfully I had enough legs to get it down. Which is a big momentum — I think we’re up three at that point and go up six and forced them to call timeout and our bench gets into it. It was a big, big shot.”
3:26 on Cade Cunningham: “He’s tough. He’s playing kind of like combo of a more point guard kind of role where he’s pick-and-roll a lot, creating, he gets to his iso game. And for bigger guards he’s still quick enough and shifty enough to kind of get them off-balance. For smaller guards he likes to use his body and take up space and get where he wants to on the floor. So he’s tough. You just gotta live with tough shots he makes and not let him get blow-bys to the basket, either try to take away the scoring or the playmaking, one or the other. You can’t let him have both. But he puts a lot of pressure on you. He’s at the top of the scout report for a reason. And I know he missed a lot of last year with that injury and he’s bounced back.”
CP3 on SHOOTING, D, DARIO, JK, CADE
[CP’s postgame video is in Steph’s above]
4:33 Chris Paul postgame Detroit on if he felt the shots coming: “I don’t know. You keep shooting, eventually, hopefully, the law of averages and I ain’t shot it this bad in 18 years so I like my chances.”
4:59 on where the team’s energy has been over these last two games: “Um, it’s good … we can pile up wins, but we know we gotta be better on the defensive end. Always trying to get better on the offensive end, but I think everything starts with us on defense.”
5:26 on Dario Saric giving a spark towards the end of the first half: “I gotta watch it again … I expect Dario to do that. Everybody on our team is pretty cerebral in the way that we play, sort of equal opportunity.”
5:49 on how soon after a game he goes back and watches the game film: “On the bus, at night, in the morning. Just watched the last game before my nap. Just, it’s basketball.”
6:19 on recognizing what his value can be, such as when he directed Jonathan Kuminga to down-screen for Curry: “I don’t even think that deep into it. I’m just playing, you know what I mean? And trying to put everybody in a position to be successful. You know, if JK sets a screen for Steph, if two guys go to him, he’s gonna be open. I don’t think that deep … I’m just playing.”
6:50 on adjusting to the new role that he’s playing off the bench: “It’s an adjustment. I don’t know how many games this is, but (I’m) still getting used to it and just like anything, it’s gonna take time, you know what I mean? So yeah.”
7:10 on Cade Cunningham: “Cade can hoop. I’ve known Cade for a long time. He was supposed to play in my AAU team but he ended up flaking on us (chuckles). But it’s a lot of them that I know really well. Marcus Sasser was at a camp of a mine or whatnot. I’m really connected into grassroots basketball so it’s always odd to know these guys the way that I do and then get out there and compete against him. But Cade is an unbelievable player. He’s gonna continue to be great especially playing under Monty, his tutelage and he got J.Jack on his bench, who was one of the best guards to play the game that I grew up with.”
PREGAME NOTES FROM DETROIT
• Draymond Green is questionable tonight in Detroit with left ankle soreness. Nobody else listed on Warriors’ injury report. (Anthony Slater)
• Jaden Ivey (illness) is questionable tonight. Alec Burks (left forearm contusion) is doubtful. Joe Harris (right shoulder sprain) is OUT. Bojan Bogdanovic, Isaiah Livers and Monte Morris are all still out. Injury report keeps growing. (Omari Sankofa)
• I just think this needs to be reminded because it seems to be forgotten regularly: The Detroit Pistons have floor spacers. Four guys who shoot 37 or better from 3 for their careers. They’re just all hurt at the same time. (James Edwards III)
• Stephen Curry has been named the Week 2 Western Conference Player of the Week, becoming the 13th player in NBA history to earn at least 20 career weekly honors. He has won 20 of Golden State’s 58 weekly recognitions since the NBA began giving out the award in 1979. (Warriors PR)
• Pistons head coach Monty Williams pregame said he’s talked to Isaiah Stewart about shooting more. He’s over 40 percent of the year and didn’t shoot his first three until the second half last night. (James Edwards III)
• Draymond Green (left ankle soreness) will play, per Warriors. (Shayna Rubin, James Edwards III, CJ Holmes)
CONTENT FROM CLEVELAND
I did not do a behind-the-scenes video or transcripts from the loss in Cleveland…
• Klay Thompson is questionable for Warriors tomorrow at Cleveland with right adductor tightness. Brandin Podziemski has been recalled from Santa Cruz. Trayce Jackson-Davis was recalled earlier in the day. (John Dickinson)
• The 6:30 AM Injury Report; Warriors: Klay Thompson, Questionable- Right Adductor;Tightness … Cleveland: Ty Jerome, Out-Right Ankle; Sprain … Isaac Okoro, Questionable-Left Knee; Soreness … Ricky Rubio, Out Not With Team. (Tim Roye)
• J.B. Bickerstaff on Evan Mobley’s shots being short of the mark and late-game ball security. (Spencer Davies)
• Klay Thompson warming up before decision on his status is made tonight in Cleveland. Questionable. Told Steve Kerr he felt good earlier today. (Anthony Slater)
• Kerr on TJD and Podziemski being brought back up: “The vets like having the rookies around, too, because they force them to do stuff.”
• Klay Thompson is playing tonight in Cleveland. Warriors will have everyone available. (Anthony Slater)
👍👍💛💙