Here are the notes, quotes and video from the Golden State Warriors’ Thursday practice at Chase Center and Friday morning shootaround, in reverse chronological order (most recent stuff first)…
• Chris Paul had his right ring finger taped up after the opener. Has it taped up again at shootaround in Sacramento this morning. Said he will be fine. “Just bruised it.” Not on injury report tonight. (Anthony Slater)
• Music at GSW shootaround: “Dedication” by Nipsey Hussle f. Kendrick Lamar
• Music at SAC shootaround: “Good Times” by Styles
• Black t-shirts for Golden 1 Center fans on Kings Opening Night
• CP3 vs Lester Quinones
• Stephen Curry vs Cory Joseph at high post
• De’Aaron Fox on signing with Curry Brand: “This is one of the best shoes that I’ve worn… [Curry] wears the same ankle braces and the shoe is kind of built in for that. It was extremely comfortable…” (Brenden Nunes)
• Domantas Sabonis on his jumpshot: “I’m the hub of the offense who’s got to get guys open, it runs through me. If I’m there all day shooting jump shots, our offense isn’t what it was last year. I’ve got to pick and choose my spots.” (Brenden Nunes)
• Sabonis mentioned physicality as something about the Warriors’ defense, missing Draymond Green as their “quarterback”, and “there’s two of them” when asked about Chris Paul’s impact on GSW’s backcourt. Also on Game 7, “it’s been a long summer… you kinda wash it away.”
KLAY FROM MORNING SHOOTAROUND
0:00 Klay Thompson after morning shootaround, upon being asked about the loss to the Suns Tuesday: “Oh, my God, we’re digging back in the past? It went well, besides losing, I thought we played well. Could’ve shot the ball much better, so other than that, I mean, it was fun.”
0:16 on guarding bigger scorers like Kevin Durant: “The key to defending big guys is just trying to use your quickness and quick hands to affect their motion with shooting because it’s hard to contest up top. It’s nice to try and get a hand on the ball.”
0:45 on if the strip move affects the shot: “I think so. Definitely learned that from Andre Iguodala. Probably the best I’ve ever seen at stripping people.” (Video by Anthony Slater)
0:57 on the shots he was able to get with Chris Paul in the game: “I mean, Chris is a true point guard and he’s just gonna get better as each week progresses. First game, there’s a lot of rust with most of the group and that’s completely natural, considering it’s end of October, so I expect him just to keep running the offense very smoothly and just getting guys involved at every chance he has.”
1:33 on ways he’s evolved as a defender: “No, I think I’ve been pretty solid since I entered the league. I mean, I just always take pride in being able to defend.”
1:51 on the player participation policy: “I mean, it didn’t hit me that hard. I’ve always personally tried my best to be out there as much as I can. And on top of that, I think it’s good for the consumer to see stars out there on a regular basis. I think the league has realized that and hopefully going forward, there’ll be more star participation because it’s a star-driven business, just like any other entertainment industry.”
2:55 on if the players lost sight of what the consumer wants: “I don’t think so. It’s hard for me to speak for everybody, but I think a lot of guys are legitimately injured. I can definitely speak on that. So yeah, I mean, I get where fans and the league office is coming from, because you want to see the games played at the highest level.”
3:34 on what the emotions are that are pouring through him: “I would say just a lot of what’s pouring through me probably just thankful to be out here healthy and starting the season in great shape, with a clear mind of trying to be the best I can be and trying to stay present every single day. Enjoy every step of the journey because we all want to win the championship, but if you want to get there, you’ve got to embrace the journey and it’s a long one. So just enjoy every single city we’re in, every problem we face and every small detail that goes with winning a championship.”
4:31 on the transition from being a player that’s coming back from injuries to “I’m here, I’m back”: “Yeah, I think I’ve been back. I think I established that I was back. And now it’s just about trying to squeeze everything we can out of the run we’re on and not being content, obviously. We know we’ve had great success the last decade, as far as winning championships, but when you have a chance to win more, you don’t want to leave any regrets on the table and for us it’s just about playing hard, playing together. Happy to do those two things. I mean, I like our chances to win.”
5:19 on what is possible for him: “Just to have a great year built on last year. I mean, I did some really great things, even surprised myself. So just do that consistently. Instead of taking a month or two to be great, how about being great right now? Just withstanding that till June. I know it’s a hard thing to do, but you’ve got to have lofty goals if you want to make them get the most out of your ability.”
6:00 on if the extension talks are viewed as tailored for the season: “I don’t know. Um, yeah, I mean, I’m focused on just the daily dedication it takes to do this job. I’m not really worried about an extension right now. That’ll all play itself out.”
6:23 on if there might be an artificial deadline because he doesn’t want to think about it: “I just don’t want to think about it. I don’t like thinking about it and — yeah, I don’t like thinking about it.”
6:44 on if he’ll savor the season more, just in case: “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I know what you mean. You never know what’s gonna happen. So yeah, let’s savor it as much as I can, especially in this uniform. I was here before it was sweet, before it was four championships. 23 wins. I was here building the foundation. So yeah, I’m gonna savor it because everyone around the world thinks it’s sweet. Well, they look at the Warriors, but it’s not always been like this, so I’m gonna savor the heck out of it.”
7:13 on what the plan is to play back-to-backs this year: “That’s the plan. I’m playing as many games as I can, hopefully as toward the 70s (in games played). That’d be a goal of mine. 82 might be hard. But shoot, why not shoot for high 70s? I mean, I’m healthy, the healthiest I’ve been in so many years, so I’m just gonna do everything I can to play as many games as possible. I’m trying to make up for lost time.”
DARIO AFTER PRACTICE THURSDAY
0:00 Dario Saric after practice Thursday on Gary Payton II’s defense: “He’s probably one of the best defensive player, especially on the perimeter, that I’ve ever played (with). So obviously he is like giving us that kind of force defensively. It’s easier to guard pick and roll when you have the kind of guy who can like avoid screens, who can be really present on the ball, who can really be active on the ball and he runs. Offensively, his shots is like getting us really, really good force offensively and I’m really enjoying playing with him. He’s a great guy, great guy and he’s playing with amazing force with heart. He’s leaving his heart every game on the court.”
0:48 on what makes a team great on the road: “That’s a great question. Obviously, it’s always harder to win on the road, especially most of the games is going to be close and tight. When you have a closer, when you have Steph Curry and Chris Paul, Klay, Andrew Wiggins, when you have second unit who is really kind of pushing in in those (in-)between minutes between the starters who are playing, I think that’s the important thing and sometimes it’s just the body language. Sometimes it just goes out and present (itself) like, ‘We are the Warriors’… sometimes they don’t win, sometimes it’s not going to be easy, sometimes you need to steal ones, sometimes you struggle for the whole game and sometimes you need to just steal one. So I think the Warriors come with their guard, like champions in every road game, in every game, it’s gonna be great for us and I think those guys who’ve been here for several years, they have that mood…”
2:05 on the overall effort in Game 1 and what they saw on film: “I think my personal opinion, it was like what you say, we didn’t shoot very well, obviously. But I think we compete for 48 minutes, played on both ball ways, defensively, offensively. But I think, like my personal opinion, I think we are great team because we have such guys who can play with the ball, but they are really good without ball. So I think the most important thing, sometimes it’s just swing the ball from one side to the other side. So especially with the way we play teams who have a guy with great size, if you move them side to side, for them it’s kind of hard to guard. So I think third quarter we were like really doing that, trying to play side to side and it was hard to guard us. But sometimes just great players on the other side, sometimes the last two threes where they make was just made them to win the game. We hope next time it’s gonna be for us, so that’s basketball. That’s (it’s) like. Sometimes it’s not really (an) explanation but I think (as) a team we can be better. I think we will be better.”
3:26 on missing a lot of shots at the rim: “Yeah, of course. I don’t know, we can write down (that) was (our) first game. I don’t know why, but obviously we missed such a many layups. Me first, I should be better on Day One, and sometimes games like that. Let’s say it’s the first game of the season and go from there. But I think these guys obviously been finishing around the rim for years. So I think we’re gonna get better about that, of course. We’re gonna work on that at the practices, too.”
4:09 on playing the Kings already and what they’ve seen on film against them: “I mean, the guys who’ve been here from last year, I think they have like very experienced how the Sacramento play, but obviously what Coach said, they have like a one of the you know, best early offenses in the league, maybe the best. They have Fox who is really pushing the ball out there, who’s playing great. They have Sabonis who can bring the ball down. They have amazing shooters around, so it’s gonna be tough game. We beat them (in preseason) but this is the season now, new year, starting the new year basketball year, so it’s gonna be different. I think we need to compete for 48 minutes, especially we need to be better taking care of turnovers. I think we struggle a little bit in the preseason. Last game was good, but like in preseason, we were kind of struggling. And box out. I think those will be main two things. If we secure those two things, we are I think one step closer to win the game.”
STEVE AFTER THURSDAY PRACTICE
5:21 Steve Kerr after practice Thursday on if Draymond’s ankle is taking longer to heal even though he’s said he’s a fast healer, or if it’s just the conditioning aspect: “Yeah, I mean, it’s conditioning. There’s a foundation of strength and conditioning that every player has to build during the preseason. It might have been quicker had been mid-season. Draymond is a fast healer. But beginning of the season, every player needs to go through the process of building a conditioning and strength foundation. And so Draymond has been doing that diligently and so he’s close.”
6:03 on what Draymond did today and what the team did at practice: “He did everything. We didn’t scrimmage, but we had a lot of skill and some strategic stuff, shooting. He did it. He did everything.”
6:13 on what the Game 1 film exposed: “Well, anytime you miss shots, you can pick out 100 things. We should have set this screen low or we should have cut here, and then when you make shots, you don’t even notice that stuff. So it’s important to really look at what’s happening, which obviously we did, we took a good look at the film. We showed a lot of clips to the players today. There were definitely possessions where we needed better spacing. But there were also a lot of good clips where we just missed shots. I think the two biggest areas of the game were the fouling jump shooters in the first half which allowed them to play from ahead, and then the offensive rebounding. They got a lot of second-chance opportunities and that ultimately won the game for them.”
7:10 on Klay doing well guarding Durant and what he thought of the defense overall: “I thought Klay did a good job on Kevin, just trying to stay physical and not let him get free too often. Kevin probably missed some shots that he’ll normally hit but you have to live with some of the stuff that he does. And in the midst of all that, you’ve just got to try to make it as difficult as possible and Klay did that. As I mentioned, the fouling in the first half and the second-chance opportunities, overall, were the problem and we had four or five really bad transition defense clips as well, so some of the things that we’re working on in camp. They’re still a work-in-progress.”
8:01 on the group of Chris Paul, Klay, Jonathan Kuminga, Gary Payton II and Dario Saric that played about two minutes straight together in the third quarter and went on an 11-0 run: “Yeah, I think that was when Steph got into foul trouble. And that’s the beauty of having this kind of depth. And I’m not sure, I don’t think we played that combination at all preseason, but Chris makes most combinations better. He just ties the game together. But what I like about that particular group, you get the defense and athleticism on the ball with Gary and JK, get the shooting from Klay and Dario, playmaking from Chris and Dario together in pick-and-roll. So that was a nice combination.”
8:50 on the importance of starting off strong on the road: “Yeah, I mean, I think this team has more veteran experience than last year’s team. Veteran teams tend to play better on the road but with that said, nothing’s guaranteed. I don’t think we played particularly sharply the other night so we’ve got to be sharper, just our rhythm and our timing, and you saw how many missed shots there were. So we’ve gotta get our skill at a good level as we go on the road. But I also know that with Draymond coming back at some point over the next week or two, we’ve got more work. We’ve got to integrate him into the lineup. We’ve got to figure out the rotations, the combinations, all that. And so I don’t expect our team to be going full bore for awhile, like it’s not going to happen right away. So, early part of the season is just about getting better. And working every day and trusting that over the course of the 82 games, we’re going to win our share.”
10:10 on if they have a sense of what part of the roadtrip Draymond might come back: “No. Well, yeah, I mean, he won’t play tomorrow, but there’s a hope a could play in Houston or New Orleans so we’ll see.”
10:22 on Draymond’s absence impacting how they match up with the Kings: “Well, we’ve seen them twice in preseason without Draymond, with our new group this year. So I don’t think matchups are too much of an issue, but just missing Draymond is an issue. He’s one of the best defensive players, if not the best, in the whole league. And obviously he does so many other things for us, so (we’re) anxious to get him back for sure.”
10:54 on how to catch a rhythm when his team isn’t whole: “it’s mostly about the work in practice. It’s trying to go game speed with every drill, really urging the players to go through all of their shooting routines and workout routines with a sense of urgency, because that’s really what brings rhythm and timing is practicing with force and making everything as game-like as possible.”
11:31 on if he’s able to enjoy how spicy Warriors-Kings games have become: “It’s fun. I mean, they have a great team. They won our division last year. We had that epic seven-game series with them. We saw them twice already. We see them tomorrow. We see them again next week. Yeah, we’re getting to know each other quite well. But it’s great that both teams are doing well and the fan base for both sides has to be so excited. Really fun matchup. As I said to you yesterday or the day before, I love just jumping on a bus for a road trip. That’s really nice.”
12:25 on how much of a factor size played in the loss against the Suns: “I didn’t think it was a huge factor, to be honest. I thought the rebounding was more a case of not going out to hit bodies on the perimeter. We were letting them get a running start. We’re doing a lot of ball-watching as the shot went up and that’s what hurt us in terms of second-chance opportunities, so it wasn’t as much the size as that.”
KINGS PRACTICE IN SAC THURSDAY
• Trey Lyles is ruled out tomorrow vs. Warriors with the calf injury, limited at today’s practice. (Sean Cunningham)
• Malik Monk discusses last night’s win in Utah, his electric dunk that he rated “about a seven” and looking ahead to the Warriors matchup tomorrow night: https://x.com/seancunningham/status/1717629769511207139?s=46
• Mike Brown’s full media session on Thursday, reflecting on the season opening win in Utah, the standout performance of Harrison Barnes and looking ahead to Friday’s home opener against the Warriors: https://x.com/seancunningham/status/1717649119584645469?s=46
WEDNESDAY OFF-DAY
• Sacramento Kings season opener injury report: Chris Duarte (left knee) – AVAILABLE. Trey Lyles (left calf strain) – OUT. Jalen Slawson (illness) – OUT. (Mark Haynes)
• Steve Kerr says Draymond won’t play Friday night. (All notes by 95.7 The Game)
• Steve Kerr on CP3: “He’s so good. He’s in control of every possession. He’s got such great feel for what’s happening on the floor… I’m excited because he’s going to give us a different dimension that frankly we needed at this particular time in our run.”
• Steve Kerr on Kevin Durant’s return in front of fans: “Loved the ovation. Our fans get it. We have such great basketball fans here who know the game and understand exactly what Kevin meant to us.”
• Steve Kerr: “I like what I see. Obviously, last night didn’t go the way we wanted but we’re going to be a lot better in three or four weeks. I think this team has a chance to be really really good.”
• Steve Kerr isn’t worried about his contract situation: “I plan on being here for the next few years and I hope that’s the case but we’ll just see how it plays out.”
• Steve Kerr on Charles Barkley saying the Warriors are cooked: “Well I used to work with Charles and his predictions are about 90% OFF. His hit rate is probably about 5-7% so I’m feeling pretty good about that.”
👍👍💛💙