Below are the notes, quotes and video from the Golden State Warriors’ win over the Memphis Grizzlies, capped off with a game-winning layup by Jordan Poole on a play called by Draymond Green, which came after an ejection of Stephen Curry.
The Warriors also had practice yesterday, plus Steve Kerr did a couple radio shows, but we’ll cover that in a separate post at some point. The stuff below is in reverse chronological order, per usual:
The behind-the-scenes video covers everything before, during and after the game, including this:
• Jordan Poole to Ros Gold-Onwude at on-court postgame on balancing making decisions and being aggressive: “Everything comes with learning experience. I think that’s something that the outsiders kind of forget… You gotta experience it.”
For the in-game commentary and images, scroll down past the postgame info.
DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters, as listed, or transcribed by me. I used to transcribe every interview but it became too tedious and not worth the investment for the small amount of views we got on the soundbites on YouTube. The links to the tweets are not available because sometimes I don’t use the full tweet and just having a ton of tweets on this website imo isn’t aesthetically pleasing and gets away from the main goal: transferring information (not so much entertainment) to the brains of DubNation asap.
• Klay Thompson postgame on the Grizzlies: “Well, I don’t think that history is very deep but it felt great… back to .500, in the driver’s seat again.”
• On when Steph Curry got ejected: “Be myself and look for great shots… cut down our fouling and maybe our turnovers we probably win that one handily… knocked it down and then great out of bounds play at the end… collective effort.”
• On small-ball: “Started that in the 2015 championship… if it ain’t broke don’t fix it… so many great scorers on this team… it can be anybody’s night.”
• On if he plays the power forward in small-ball: “We play position-less basketball so I plead the Fifth.”
• On gaining momentum: “We had such a bad taste in our mouth… blew a 17-point lead… didn’t want them to come in here and gain some confidence because we might see them down the line.”
• On the game-winning play: “Incredibly heady play by Jordan… very happy we’re not in overtime right now… Donte… in there fighting for the rebound… that’s what winners do… happy for JP.”
• On if beating the Grizzlies means anything: “(Long pause) one of their players said some mean things about Andre… probably carry that with me forever.”
• Throws paper airplane and it lands on reporter: “Oh sorry!”
• Steph Curry postgame on not being happy with Poole’s shot then the mouthpiece: “questions about the heightened sense of urgency… wants something really bad.. fourth quarter execution… I reacted in a way that put myself out of the game… but the intentions… winning… my teammates responded really well… execution was great. We needed that one… kinda let my emotions get in the way of it.”
• On if he knew he would be ejected: “I remember in 2016 when I threw it, that hit somebody… it didn’t go into the stands. It was kind of like a delayed reaction by whoever threw me out. When I threw it I said I might as well throw it on the court… it is what it is.”
• On dapping up JP: “We needed this win in a desperate way… how we’re playing and trying to put solid performances together, some consistency, some momentum… JP came out of the gates in the fourth quarter… energy… picked up where he left off… continue to be honest about how our IQ is matching up… how we’re executing… finish the job.
• On JP’s mouthpiece toss: “one of those too soon jokes. I’m still hot. I’m still hot.”
• On the small-ball: “a lot of options… guys can come in and impact the game in a lot of different ways… Boston, switching the starting lineup… spark and energy… knowing that Loon is important to what we do… swings back and forth based on how Coach is feeling… weakness are in terms of rebounding… not a lot of size on the back-end… continue to get better at that but we just need to some, some juice.”
• Jordan Poole postgame on Donte’s pass: “Very fundamental, right on time, on target. It was just a really good pass.”
• On why he threw his mouthpiece when he saw Steph in the tunnel greeting him: “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, bro.”
• On finding a way to win: “We just got an embrace a little bit… found a way to grit it out… gotta keep the momentum going.”
• On Draymond calling that last play: “Klay had just hit a really big shot… they were really focused on Klay… we’ve run that play for a couple years now… eye contact with Donte. It was a read/feel thing… just cut to open space.”
• On what it feels like to get dapped up by his teammates: “Fire. That’s all I gotta say. It was pretty dope.”
• On finally winning one in crunch time: “Take a positive away, we know what to do in these crunch games… help us down the road in the long run… we’ve closed some, we haven’t closed some but we’re learning.”
• On what in-game adjustments he made: “Nothing. Nothing at all. I didn’t change anything from the first play to the last.”
• Jama Mahlalela in-studio postgame recap: “special for our team and we needed it… really wanted to get that first win against Brooklyn… we have Memphis’ number right now… when Draymond fights the way he has.”
• On small-ball and rebounding: “today without Wiggs… stay relatively small with JK… there’s just space on the floor… that allows Klay to be Klay and Steph to be Steph.”
• On the small-ball having solidified the bench: “early in the season… starters were rolling (then vice-versa)… today both sides came together.”
• On Wiggins coming back: “kinda been up and down… hasn’t caught a rhythm yet… came right out of (a slump after ASW last year)… when he plays well, that’s when we can be good.”
• On rhythm: “find some consistency and build momentum but we’ve got to come together with Toronto now.”
• On Klay’s consistency: “Klay’s incredible… I wasn’t there seeing all the runs… last season, watching him… even this season… this guy is incredibly… defensively he’s moving his feet… Klay is being Klay… he was getting into it today… there was a lot of talking between us and Memphis.”
• On keeping the small-ball, Draymond guarding JJJ: “He can guard the big… however big… he could’ve switched out on Ja… he gets the rebounds that you don’t think he’s gonna get.”
• On playing traditional pick and roll but also Draymond handle the ball with motion: “You can put him in invert pick and roll… most teams just don’t know how to handle that… his willingness to pass. People don’t appreciate his selflessness.”
• On the ups and downs: “one of my main jobs is to keep these young guys going… opportunities have come up… it is about seizing the opportunity… JK… he can guard at an elite NBA level… the offensive stuff can come over time… but he guards.”
• Steve Kerr postgame on if Steph’s punishment fit the crime: “I didn’t see what happened at the time…I was confused…coaches told me he threw the mouthpiece down out of anger…that’s an automatic ejection…he knows he can’t make that mistake again.”
• On Jordan Poole’s harrowing moments: “JP has been much more solid the last 5, 6 games. He had a stretch there where he was trying so hard… he’s been much better… had three turnovers early in the game then didn’t have any the rest of the game.”
• On what he liked most about the game: “I liked the execution down the stretch… defensively we did what we needed to do… we didn’t leave the three-point line which was a priority… we battled and as poor as our execution was in the first half… we settled down.”
• On Jordan Poole’s 30-foot miss and Steph getting ejected: “We won… let’s focus on the positives.”
• On going with small-ball and JJJ’s ejection: “we were not getting anything offensively… our defense is obviously better with them better… Memphis really makes it tough… size and physicality… Donte was playing Ja well… sixth foul was a big moment in the game.”
• On how they won: “We showed a lot of grit and toughness in the fourth. Steph found his groove a little bit… gives our team confidence… they got going downhill at us… Everytime we play these guys, the game is back and forth.
• On Kuminga: “aggressiveness… athleticism… knocked down a three as well. He’s just competing/learning/growing. This is all part of it… the arrow is trending upward.”
• On having conversations with the veterans about the turnovers: “We show film and some film and the lack of execution… that repeats itself.”
• On 40% of the shots being threes instead of 60%: “We always preach good shots, good to great… lineup change to create a little more spacing… should have a better balance of shot selection. I like the midrange… I’m not so analytically driven that I discourage midrange shots, I actually encourage them from our great shooters.”
• On his ATOs: “Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. It’s a fun part of coaching… the coaches around the league have gotten better and better, more and more creative… we all steal from each other… League Pass again… kinda how the league works… some nights they click… part of being a coach, just like being a player.”
• On the last play: “Draymond called the play and we hadn’t practiced it in a couple of months and so it was a little ambitious. It wasn’t exactly as we had drawn it up… may have benefited us… some coaches will just run guys in a circle… scattered and Jordan just made a great back cut.”
• On how the last play was executed: “He suggested it and I loved it. We had enough guys out there that knew the play… you hope that something works… mainly Jordan made a great back cut and Donte made a hell of a pass.”
[VIDEO FOR KLAY ON-COURT N/A]
• Klay Thompson on-court postgame recap: “I had about four great looks in the 4th…credit to JP, what a cut to the rim.”
• On having the Grizzlies’ number: “I’m not gonna lie Kelenna, I just blanked out…we may see them down the line.”
• On playing against the Grizzlies: “They talk a lot of talk. We do too…embrace that challenge.”
• On how ugly these games are: “Playoff-like…never gonna be as pretty as you want it to be…glad we got Steph’s back.”
• On Steph throwing the mouthpiece: “The stakes weren’t as high last time so he can get a pass,” comparing this incident to the one in the 2016 Finals.
0:00 intro and Steph Curry new haircut talk, Wiggins looked under the weather on the podium
22:00 game finally tips off due to ESPN waiting on Nets-Sixers game to finish
26:30 4 team fouls with 10:22 left, Steph really with 3 miscues although 2 of them are “feel the game out”
39:45 5min11 Donte textbook elite avoid pick and roll for Ja
43:00 3min37 Jordan Poole sometimes can’t help himself with the fouls (push off on Ja)
44:30 3min17 Xavier Tillman (6’7″ 245): bigger or smaller than Fred Warner (6’3″ 230)?
46:00 2min53 timeout: Warriors have been playing this like a playoff game, grindin’ up 2
50:30 2min05 timeout: been a slow game, only 20-18 Grizz
57:45 11min50 JaMychal Green third mental mistake (moved pivot foot, missed dunk, POA)
1:03:30 8min40 Draymond should just yell at somebody after the JK bad turnover, and Steve Kerr should break a clipboard after Steph’s awful turnover — ergo, a trash haircut?
1:05:30 15 points off turnovers is half their points at 30-30
1:07:00 Ben with the Dr. Spock recap: “I do not understand what is happening”
1:26:00 0min50 we should be taunting Aldama for the flop
1:27:00 0min12 if Steph got the foul call on Ja, would that have been on the ground? Does LeBron get the and-one call?
1:35:00 looking at the Game 6 Boston rotation boxscore again to justify not needing to go out and get a 5
2:01:00 6min43 Q3 Donte lost Bane for 3: somebody isn’t executing at any given time
2:18:15 JK has 20min29 of playing time, is he not playing more because they have their rotations scripted?
2:20:45 If that was Andre instead of Lamb, he would’ve gotten the inbound to Steph with 7 seconds to go
2:22:00 Percy: “Kerr doesn’t trust the young guys, that’s going to have to change” because you can’t trust the veterans anymore (the irony!) — when did JK sub out? You could argue that he is actually getting Wiggs minutes
2:35:15 does the lamenting of “this is why we need a 7-footer” mean to shake up the rotation? What about Wiggs when he comes back? Shaking it up doesn’t necessarily mean immediate results
2:42:00 replaying the Steph 3 vs Ja, probably got fouled 4min23 Q4
2:50:00 at this point probably just go with Donte and not JK 2min06 Q4
2:52:00 why wasn’t Steph’s 3 foul a landing spot flagrant? 1min42 JP shouldn’t have grabbed Bane’s arm on the push-off
3:01:00 0min34 where if you win, then there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but if you lose this, there’s not or at least it’s gonna seem that way
3:27:00 Jasmine Dawson: “JP needs people to get frustrated with him to meet the moment”
[IN-GAME AND PREGAME PICS BELOW]
[PREGAME: SEE PREVIOUS ARTICLE]
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