Below are the pregame and postgame views from the Golden State Warriors’ preseason loss to the LA Lakers last night. In the pregame, Steve Kerr said he hopes Klay Thompson will play at least the last preseason game before Opening Night. The postgame podium had Kerr, James Wiseman, Donte DiVincenzo and Kevon Looney.
Curiously, Jordan Poole did not speak to media despite being the most impactful Warrior of the game, which leads me to believe he might take the podium after today’s practice, which imo would be better for the team to mend from the Draymond Green altercation sooner rather than later. But, as always, we’ll see. The media-averse Poole has to be ready for that, too.
Below are the videos and below that are the notes and quotes. One tiny detail from the pregame: Darvin Ham chose the Gregg Popovich way of starting his team with his defense in front of his bench (and Stephen Curry missed the full-court heave which he has to do after pregame routines rather than the balcony shot on the near court — and he came as close to nailing that as I’ve ever seen).
Most teams like the Warriors prefer to end up with the defense in front of their bench in second halves. I did not know Ham was of that ilk.
DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters, ALTHOUGH I TRANSCRIBED ALL OF THE DIVINCENZO QUOTES BELOW, THIS TIME. 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.
STEVE PREGAME
• Warriors starters tonight against the Lakers: Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Kevon Looney. (CJ Holmes)
• The Warriors’ starters will get an extra stint in the second half tonight vs Lakers. Steve Kerr said he wants Curry, Poole, Wiggins, Looney around 22 minutes. Kuminga starting in the Draymond spot: “one step further than we were in Japan.” (Anthony Slater, 95.7 The Game)
• Steve Kerr on Kuminga starting: “It looks like the game is starting to make sense to him. I’m excited to put him with our starters.” (95.7 The Game)
• Kerr believes Klay Thompson will play opening night, but won’t 100% commit to it: “I think he’ll be ready to go opening night…I think the trainers are feeling really good about his progress…All signs positive” in the workouts. Kerr also “hoping” Klay could play in the final preseason game, but that’s unknown right now. (Dalton Johnson, 95.7 The Game, Kerith Burke)
• Lakers pregame: No Bron, Russ, or Pat Bev tonight for the Lakers. (Jason Dumas)
STEVE POSTGAME
• Steve Kerr on Jordan Poole: “Guy’s tough … Ultra confident in his game and he showed it tonight…There’s a reason Jordan is where he is right now… There’s a reason he’s in this position about to sign a big extension hopefully, guy is tough. He’s just mentally tough, physically tough. He’s ultra confident in his game.” He wants Poole to become an All-Star and play more than 17 mpg in playoffs: “The improvement has to come at the defensive end…He’s someone we’re going to rely on for many years to come.” (Alex Espinoza, Madeline Kenney, 95.7 The Game)
• On James Wiseman: “That pick-and-roll combination with Jordan should be a good one.” (Alex Espinoza)
• On the young bench: “We got a lot of young players, but Jordan is by far the most advanced and we’re gonna lean on him heavily now and in the future…Jordan’s learning from the best ever in terms of playing on and off the ball.” (Alex Espinoza, Dalton Johnson)
• Kerr said he chatted with JTA tonight and looking forward to seeing him on ring night: “Great to see him, just a huge fan of Juan’s.” (Alex Espinoza)
JAMES
• James Wiseman: “I’m feeling great. Just blessed to be back out there playing.” (95.7 The Game)
• On Looney: “I’ve been studying Loon, all season last year.” (95.7 The Game)
DONTE
• Donte DiVincenzo recap: “super-fun.”
• On Poole: “He’s a professional…running it over and over again until (Lakers) stopped us.”
• On JP’s move: “I was counting steps…he didn’t even know.”
• On being a point guard option: “My enjoyment comes from getting guys points…he has a scoring mentality which means he’s damn good at it.”
• On Poole resembling Steph Curry: “The big thing about Jordan is his confidence is super-high and he can get going real quick.”
LOON
• Kevon Looney on Draymond: “It’s been different. It’s been complicated…he’s got some work to do to get that trust back from us, but I think he’s willing to do so.” (Kerith Burke)
• On bench’s reaction to Jordan Poole’s behind-the-back move: “We debated if it was a travel or not.” (95.7 The Game)
👍👍💛💙