Yesterday I sent the previous website post to an insider on the team to brag about our finding that the Golden State Warriors lead the league with nine road back-to-backs this season. In doing so I also included a screen shot where I mentioned the mortality of the dynasty, evoked by a quote from Stephen Curry postgame after the loss to the Phoenix Suns. With that, I was kinda worried that, out of context, that might appear as if I were writing the dynasty off, which I’m obviously not.
Ironically, Curry had another quote from Warriors practice at the Alamodome late yesterday (after the previous post) which allows me to clarify where I stand. By the way, where I stand is nowhere. I’ve found solace in just observing the team and letting the game of basketball teach me something I didn’t know already. As such, I’ve really cut down on having judgmental views of our squad or any particular players and try to zoom out as necessary and play the long game. It really is about the gratitude of the teachings from basketball. I’ll continue to preach that here and on our livestreams.
In any case, I wanted to add this to the whole “dynasty mortality” thing: the NBA has changed greatly. The pendulum swings wide.
As some of you know, I used to run a 125-team league across the Bay Area from Oakland to San Francisco to San Mateo and San Jose, simultaneously. As commissioner of that league, the goal was always to encourage new blood to join and achieve NFL-like parity. We would see different styles of play and any one good young new team could always beat any other good established team, any given Sunday (which was the day the 125 teams played their games).
We’re seeing that happen in the NBA. I’m not quite sure if I can find the demarcation point. Maybe it was the Milwaukee Bucks going down 2-0 by losing to the Brooklyn Nets by thirty-nine in the first round of the 2021 playoffs. Maybe it was reinforced by the Phoenix Suns getting shellacked by 33 to the Dallas Mavericks in a close-out playoff game last year. Maybe it was the Boston Celtics starting out 18-21 last season yet ending up a formidable Finals runner-up.
And so having a dismal road record doesn’t necessarily banish you from Finals contention anymore, despite what NBA media and Warriors Twitter will tell you. And more so than ever are the NBA playoffs very different than the regular season. The weight of the influx of talent and athleticism forces experience and championship DNA to be much lighter at the other end of the seesaw. That’s good news for the Dubs in their current predicament.
So it’s not surprising that Draymond Green said after the last road trip that our (mostly youthful early season) team was mentally “fragile” and Steph addressed this at practice yesterday.
“Our margin for error is very thin to beat anybody in this league,” Curry said. “Once you prove and build a confidence that you can win…it can swing the other way very quickly.”
Again, the Sacramento Kings are in 4th place, but they are only four games over .500. And as the season wears on, the novelty for a young team of playing the Warriors will taper off, the science of our performance staff will quietly reveal an advantage for the in-season longevity of the veterans, and the young guys will play better more consistently because… reps! And that championship DNA comes out the closer you get to a championship.
By the way, there’s also a funny response by Steph to a question about his Davidson days, but it’ll have to wait or you’ll just have to have caught it in his video below.
Here are the rest of the notes, quotes and video from the Alamodome yesterday:
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.
• Steve Kerr after practice on Jonathan Kuminga practicing today: “He needs a lot more than that (a light practice).” (me)
• On Wiseman and JaMychal Green: “They got work in the training room.” (me)
• On the dome setup: “This is pretty unique. This is like a Final Four setup…It will take a while to get used to it all. You don’t play in a venue like that very often… There’s a reason we’re here right now. We wanted the players to get a lot of shots up and feel the arena, feel the backdrop.” (Ron Kroichick, Tom Orsborn)
• On the ‘90s Bulls’ then-record-setting visit to the Georgia Dome on 3/27/1998: “We played in the corner with bleachers (the way it was setup for the old Alamodome and not for tomorrow)…The atmosphere was crazy. We were playing in the middle of a football stadium. It really was a spectacle…Hawks had a really good team.” (me, Jeff McDonald)
• On noting the delay in cheering by fans in a dome: “Definitely a delay. It’s a different vibe, a little chillier, a little draftier. You are hoping the fans come in and help warm the place up a little bit. It’s cold here now.” (Tom Orsborn)
• On Sean Elliott’s famous 1999 WCF Memorial Day Miracle shot: “The loudest I ever heard the Alamodome,” which was home to the Spurs for 10 years from 1993-2002. “You had a built-in excuse if you had a bad game. You could just blame the arena” (Jeff McDonald)
• On what they miss from Jonathan Kuminga: “His physicality and athleticism. I thought last game against Phoenix we were not physical enough. Phoenix came in and really took it to us. They were physical, they were aggressive on the boards. We miss JK’s force and his versatility defensively. It’s going to be good to get that…It was good to see JK out there today. He’ll dress each day and hopefully be able to play before too long. (Tom Orsborn)
• On the two-way: “Great for the players, great for the league…something that our organization has really excelled at…Kent Lacob, David Fatoki…they’ve nailed it.” (me)
• Donte DiVincenzo on the Alamodome: “Super-cool walking in. Same locker room. Joking with JP a little bit…a little different with the court not raised.” (me)
• On the raised floor of the Final Four vs tomorrow’s non-raised floor: “Feels like the three-point line is a little closer…when it was up…kinda felt like you were just out there and there was nothing around.” (me)
• On where he would rank his Final Four performance: “Where would you rank it? It got me on the radar and then I did what I was supposed to do at the pre-Draft trial.” (me)
• On his joking with JP: “Did y’all stay in this locker room and he said, ‘I’m not talking to you.’…Everytime the coaches ask what it was like I say, ‘Just ask Jordan.’“ (me)
• On what he remembers about the Alamodome from the Final Four:
“The coolest part was running out…JP and I were both coming out here…the run is so long and you’re super-tired when you get here.” (me)
• On how he’ll remember tomorrow’s historic night: “Afterwards I’ll really reflect on it…not many people can say they played in a national championship…and come back.” (me)
• On if he remembers matching up vs Jordan Poole in the NCAA championship game here: “I was worried about shooting the ball too much than playing defense.” (me)
• Klay Thompson after practice on the Alamodome: “I have a lot of memories from watching the Lakers vs the Spurs.” (me)
• On if there’s difficulty of “recalibrating” to the Alamodome sightlines: “It’s pretty easy. It’s still 10 feet like Gene Hackman said…Pretty simple.” (Tom Orsborn)
• Another historical nugget: Warriors guard Donte DiVincenzo scored 31 points in the 2018 NCAA championship game at the Alamodome, before a crowd of 67,831. The Wildcats beat Michigan and a backup freshman guard named Jordan Poole (who scored three). (Ron Kroichick)
• Steph Curry after practice at the Alamodome: “There’s nothing that can prepare you for the atmosphere. It’s like any time a shot was made, there’s almost a delay kind of vibe where the first rows go crazy, and then there’s kind of like a wave that goes through the arena…It’s just getting used to the depth perception. It doesn’t take that long to calibrate, but today’s session helps to get used to the sightlines, the way the ball hits the backdrop. It’s a little different from the last time I played in a dome like this, the floor was elevated…It actually helps that it’s on the ground. It has a really cool vibe.” (Jeff McDonald, Ron Kroichick, Tom Orsborn)
• On if he shot it well during the Davidson visit to the dome: “Hell yeah.” (me)
• On how he felt after the Suns game: “Shake the cobwebs off, felt like I got stronger…shoulder came out of it fine…build a rhythm…we need to start winning, that’s the desperation we have now.” (me)
• On tomorrow vs COVID season: “Talking to James (Wiseman) about it…not knowing what a loud NBA arena felt like…back to normal last year…now you get this unique experience.” (me)
• On blowing through his minutes restriction: “First through third quarter was exactly how we scheduled it out…game kinda dictated it…trusting that I had done a lot of work…being honest about how it felt…came out of it fine (aside from the loss).” (me)
• On being a part of history tomorrow: “Anytime I get to play basketball…game has blessed us with so many experiences…enjoy, be in the moment and then afterwards be like, ‘Yeah we played in front of so many fans.’” (me)
• On helping disadvantaged kids attend the game tomorrow: “Just finding ways to share…celebrate…fans that kind of deserve that experience…between the 64,000, they’re all gonna walk away with amazing stories.” (me)
• On the importance of this road trip: “Coming into any season you understand the different challenges that you have to address…top of the standings…pole position or…teetering around .500…we haven’t built a road identity or kinda that grit that allows us to travel and win in hostile environments…playoff run where it gets even harder…embrace the embarrassment of it…come with the right approach.” (me)
• On if the road problems are a mental thing: “Collectively it’s a block that you have to get over…not get too rattled…Draymond mentioned it was very fragile…our margin for error is very thin to beat anybody in this league…once you prove and build a confidence that you can win…it can swing the other way very quickly.” (me)
• On the two-way contract: “Bridges the gap of experience and reps…experiment a little bit…idk if we’ve had — DLee, Quinn Cook, Juan, Jordan Bell…there’s some names that have helped us win games…playoff games…(Jerome and Lamb) suiting up every night…to have those two guys come in…prove that they can be impactful…high IQ…gamers.” (me)
• On Popovich getting his young guys to play well: “You embrace whatever the challenge is in front of you to keep building the game. He obviously loves what he does…thrill, competition, end-game adjustments, the practices…build an identity…keeps cycling year after year. He loves the game.” (me)
👍👍💛💙