Durant gets his props and his points

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — The man was marveling about Kevin Durant’s brilliance. “He’s such a super efficient player,” was the observation. “He scores from all over the place. Watching a talent like that is just so special.”

As is the talent of the man talking, Stephen Curry.

They say only another athlete truly understands the skills and demands of a sport, the qualities that separate him or her from the rest. And so when Curry, who awes so many of us, himself is in awe — well, then we have a better idea of the level that Durant has reached.

And why the Warriors were so eager to sign him as a free agent, to join Curry and Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

Yes, the Dubs won a ninth straight home game Wednesday night, defeating the “how did they stay so close for so long” Portland Trail Blazers (answer: C.J. McCollum), 125-117, at Oracle Arena.

The Blazers didn’t have Damian Lillard, the Oakland kid, out with a sore left ankle. And yet for a while there, late in the second quarter, Portland was in front by eight, mostly because McCollum, who scored 26 of his total 35 before halftime, couldn’t be stopped.

But as expected (yes, these Warrior games have a familiar theme), the Dubs found a way — “In the second half, our defense picked up,” said a satisfied coach Steve Kerr — and extended their league-best record to 31-5.

Curry, with 35 of his own, and Durant's 30 were a couple of the reasons. And Draymond, with 11 assists and nine points, despite missing minutes because of foul trouble, was another reason.

Kerr echoed Curry about Durant. Or maybe Curry echoed Kerr. Either way, both offered respect and high praise for a man who simply plays basketball as it is meant to be played, never forcing a shot or a pass but working within the system and with his teammates. 

“I thought Kevin was great,” Kerr said. “We had to change our rotation with Draymond’s foul trouble, so we played (Durant) the whole third quarter, which we normally don’t do. It was a typical Kevin night, some of everything. “

As in five rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals, along with the 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting.

“We are getting used to it,” added Kerr. “He’s such an efficient offensive player. Thirty points on 16 shots. He seems to do this every night.”

Efficient. Curry said the same thing, with an adjective. “Kevin is super efficient.”

At 6-foot-9, Durant is not the huge presence of a 7-foot Andrew Bogut, someone who was, in basketball lingo, a rim protector, someone who jammed up the middle. So the Warriors found a different method.

“It’s not as traditional as it has been the last couple of years with Festus (Ezeli, now with the Blazers) and Bogut,” said Kerr. “It’s more guard-oriented. But KD comes in here and blocks a lot of shots, and so does Draymond. We have a lot of long, rangy guys to challenge shots.”

They didn’t do much challenging of McCollum in the first half. He was 10 of 19. But after intermission, he was just 3-of-12. “Just got more physical,” said Kerr. “The first half I felt he was getting anywhere he wanted. In the second half, we ran him off routes. Just a little quicker and more alert.”

Curry, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons (Durant was the MVP three seasons ago) has been knocked of late either for not taking shots or missing them. On Wednesday night, he connected on a quick three-pointer but had only (only?) nine points playing the full 12 minutes of the opening quarter. Eventually he would go 12-of-25, if only 5-of-13 on three-point attempts.

“It was a little more aggressive game,” said Curry. “The way they defended, I got a lot of shots off the pick-and-roll. Still, obviously I missed some easy ones. So I need to continue to be aggressive.

“There was a purposeful kind of focus for us. We’re at home. We have to take care of home court.”

They’ve done it, with the help of Kevin Durant taking care of everything.

No competition for Warriors; bring on the Cavs

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Cleveland will be there at the end of the week, Christmas Day. That should be interesting, thank heavens. A good opponent on the road. As opposed to these exhibitions against mediocre opponents at home.

No suspense, no competition. And, of course, no problem.

The fans love it. The way Alabama fans love their football. Routs. “Oh, Curry missed a jumper? Oh my goodness. What’s wrong?”

It’s a good thing the Warriors went scoreless — yes, not a single point — in the first three and half minutes, or this one might have been a mismatch. As it was Tuesday night, the Dubs managed to squeeze past the Utah Jazz, 104-74.

As compared to Saturday night, when they beat Portland by 45 points. It’s not a story when the Warriors win, just when they lose, which they’ve done only four times in 29 games.

Maybe the stat of this game was two, as in Warriors turnovers in the first half. If you don’t throw away the ball, sooner or later you’re going to throw it in the hoop. “With the weapons this team has,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, “it is just a matter of time until we score.”

The crowd at this eight millionth straight sellout at Oracle (OK, I exaggerated a wee bit, it was only the 203^rd in a row) was hardly kept in suspense, other than in the opening few minutes when neither team could make anything and the game appeared head for a 0-0 final. (As I said, I exaggerate, but it was only 4-2 Dubs six minutes into the game.)

So the highlight (and even Kerr agreed) was some kid out of the stands, Patrick Nudanu of Oakland, making a half-court shot during a break in the third quarter that earned him $5,000. Well that, and a dunk at the end of a full-court sprint by Draymond Green that ended up with the ball in the net and Green holding on to the rim to keep himself from crashing halfway to Berkeley. The NBA is less concerned about safety than rules, however, and holding the rim is an automatic technical.

“I don’t get it,” Kerr said of the T. “Dray was going a million miles an hour. It was about safety. The way he was flying in, he was going to break his neck if he let go.”

He didn’t and, as in most games this season, neither did the Warriors. Now they’ll head, in order, to Brooklyn, Detroit and, on the Noel, the Cavs on the edge of Lake Erie.

It will be the first game between the Warriors and Cavaliers since Cleveland beat the Dubs in the closing seconds of Game 7 of last season’s NBA final to wrench away the title. It will be a big one, certainly, but December is not June. At the least, the game shouldn’t be as one-sided as most involving the Warriors.

“They’re unique on a lot of levels,” said Jazz coach Quin Snyder, “and (Draymond) is unique. I compared him to Magic Johnson a while ago, and he’s got that kind of feel for the game.”

What Draymond felt Tuesday night, when he had 11 rebounds, 15 points and four assists, was that the Warriors defense kept them in position until the offense, as expected, heated up. “It says a lot about our team," Green said, "when we can’t even make a layup the first few minutes and then do what we’re able to do.”

What teammate Steph Curry did, after his slow start, was connect on eight of 18 (4 of 9 on threes) for 25 points. Kevin Durant added 11, and Klay Thompson scored 22.

Kerr said, as might be appropriate during the holidays, that the Warriors have become a team of joy. They laugh with each other and at each other, reaching a comfort level that required time to achieve with the addition of Durant.

“The other game,” said Kerr about Portland, “Klay took about 17 steps and wasn’t called for traveling. Our team started motioning for traveling and laughing at each other.”

Most of the games have been figurative laughers. Now it’s on the road again and a battle against Cleveland. He who laughs last ... you know the rest, even if now we don’t know much more.

Kerr gets a ‘moment of joy’ for Craig Sager

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Steve Kerr is special. But you already knew that. He’s a great coach, of course. That’s a given. One year, his Warriors win the NBA championship. The next, they set a record for victories. What really counts is that he knows how to act, knows what to say.

He is measured, perceptive, logical and — as we learned again Tuesday night, when the Warriors (yawn) won again, defeating the New York Knicks 103-90 to improve their record to 23-4 — understanding.

What his Warriors did, moving the ball brilliantly (36 assists on the first 36 Warriors field goals, eventually 41 of 45), playing efficient defense (the Knicks shot 41 percent), was impressive.

No less impressive than the remarks of their head coach.

Kerr used to be an announcer, an analyst for TNT. After he had been a three-point specialist, most notably on the Chicago Bulls. Kerr’s TV career made him teammates with Craig Sager, as surely as Kerr’s NBA career made him teammates with Michael Jordan.

Sager died Tuesday, age 65, after a gallant fight against leukemia. His partner of eight years, Kerr, was not going to allow us to forget how much Sager meant to him and certainly, because of Sager’s national presence and good-humor enthusiasm, how much he meant to pro basketball.

During the second half of what quickly, as so often happens for the Warriors, had become a non-competitive game, Kerr told the audience for TNT, which conveniently was doing the telecast, that what was taking place on the court was secondary to the loss of Sager.

That came after an unusual tribute at Oracle Arena before tipoff. Holding a public address microphone, as warm-ups were concluding, Kerr asked both the Knicks and Warriors to stand near him. Then, surprising all, for Sager’s memory Kerr requested not silence but “a moment of joy.” Oracle erupted in an explosion of cheers and applause from players and fans.

Later, after expressing displeasure with the Warriors’ play — “I didn’t think there was much purpose to anything we did,” Kerr insisted — he again referred to Sager.

“We all know we make a big deal about playing basketball for a living,” said Kerr. “We are lucky to do so. It’s entertainment, a game, and it brings a lot of joy to people. But that’s all it is, a game.

“We lost somebody very important in our lives. The players know Craig so well from being interviewed. Craig’s death far outweighs anything that happens in the gym.”

Earlier Kerr had been asked about the Cleveland Cavaliers, as Cavs coach Tyrone Lue had left their three stars, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, in Cleveland when the Cavs came to Memphis for the second night of back-to-back games against the Grizzlies.

The question wasn’t so much conceding a loss — and yes, the Grizzlies won — but about preventing the fans in Memphis the chance to watch in person the players they hoped to see, especially LeBron. Athletes get injured, certainly, and miss games, but not even permitting them in the same city, simply to rest them for the future, would seem another issue completely.

The smaller the lineup, 11 men in football, nine in baseball, five in basketball, the more significant is each player.  Additionally, in basketball one man can play offense and defense, rebound and shoot, do it all.

Entertainment, Kerr correctly called it. Built on a star system, something created in Hollywood nearly 100 years ago. People who don’t know opera line up for Placido Domingo. He’s the attraction, the way LeBron is the attraction. And then LeBron is a no-show.

“I did this two years ago in Denver,” conceded Kerr about the situation. “I rested our guys. We were in the midst of seven games in 11 days. I felt bad about it afterwards. I got a lot of emails from people that had come all over the place and driven a couple hundred miles and bought tickets to come see Steph (Curry). And they didn’t get to see him.

“I understand both sides. As a coach your responsibility is to keep your players healthy, and there are times when guys need a night off. I know the popular thing is that they make millions of dollars, and they should be able to play every night. But what if you play them and they get hurt?”

Nobody got hurt Tuesday, Curry scored only eight — he was 3 of 14 — and Klay Thompson had 25. An uneventful night, except for Kerr’s call for a moment of joy and the boisterous response. We’ll remember that for a long while.

S.F. Examiner: Bay Area legend receives due credit

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Yes, Holy Toledo! What else would we say? What else could we say? Except that those who vote on the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting excellence, a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, got it right at last.

They’ve chosen the late — to add great, would re redundant — Bill King.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Warriors loss ‘shows where they are’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — This was a prove-it game for the Warriors, a game that would show when the other team was hot — in this case the Houston Rockets, that frequent nemesis — the Dubs could be as tough as advertised, prepared and ready to show what was possible.

Or maybe impossible.

A 12-game winning streak was on the line, and maybe on the Warriors’ minds, but it ended Thursday night at the Oracle in front of a sellout crowd that was as disappointed as it was bewildered. How did this happen? And was it portentious?

The night and the game seemed to last forever, starting late at 7:52 p.m. because TNT wasn’t ready, and ending at 11:06. A double-overtime that had virtually everything: comebacks, Steph Curry fouling out, Draymond Green getting a flagrant foul, Kevin Durant scoring 39 points.

Everything except a Warriors win, the Rockets holding on, 132-127.

After all those relatively easy victories the past few weeks, this was a difficult loss, especially after building a four-point lead in the first OT.

“It kind of shows you where you are,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “It’s easy to execute when you are winning by a lot of points. Under pressure with a tough game, you’ve got to execute better.

“That’s on us and our staff to do a better job of getting our guys ready into some things that they will be comfortable with down the stretch.”

The Warriors are all too familiar with the Rockets, who each of the last two years they outlasted in the playoffs on the way to the finals. Particularly the sleight-of-hand of James Harden and the muscle of Trevor Ariza.

What they didn’t know was how two new additions, Ryan Anderson, the 6-foot-10 forward from Cal who had been with New Orleans, and Eric Gordon would fit in. Perfectly, it turned out.

Anderson is astute and alert, and shoots like a smaller man. He had 29 points, the same as Harden. The Rockets moved the ball beautifully and got key rebounds after an occasional missed shot.

Curry, meanwhile, was failing early. He had five points and three fouls at halftime. And although recovering enough to score 28 points, Steph was only 9-of-22 and 4-of-13 on threes.

“They did a good job of switching,” Kerr said of the Rockets. “They outplayed us. They deserved to win.”

Harsh words for Warriors fans who, with the team’s acquisition of Durant as a free agent, possibly believed the championship that got away in 2016 would return in 2017. The Dubs are now 16-3 and obviously vulnerable.

“We started the game off slow,” said Durant, who was 12-of-28, “and let them get some confidence. They got a lot of long rebounds.”

So after the Warriors would force a missed shot, Houston came back for another shot and didn’t miss. At one point, the Rockets would be up by 10. All the shouts of “Defense, defense,” from fans properly distressed by the game’s direction, didn’t help much.

“We did not play well,” Kerr said. “We got off to a horrible start. We didn’t move the ball very well. We had our moments, especially in the first overtime. We had a real cushion, and I thought we let it slip away when we had every opportunity to finish them off.”

But they couldn’t, and they didn’t.

“We can compete with anybody,” said Harden. He draws fouls — he was 11-for-11 from the line. He draws boos.

“It’s a huge win for us,” said Harden.

Not a huge loss for the Warriors, but a reminder there is more to the NBA than the Cleveland Cavaliers and the San Antonio Spurs.

“They make it tough,” said Durant of matching up with Houston. “They stretch you out, and they have James (Harden) handle the ball a lot, well all game. He’s good at making plays. They have shooters.”

Shooters who shot down the idea that the Warriors would just keep winning.

Winning Warriors at home in road jerseys

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Was watching the Warriors. You know, the basketball team that keeps trying all those little tricks, like wearing road uniforms at home to keep the opposition off balance and — certainly — to hope the fans buy another set of jerseys or T-shirts.

There were the Dubs on Saturday night in their slate, sleeved tops, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in white, as if Oracle Arena had been moved to Minneapolis. Had me fooled for a while.

Hey, that wasn’t Steph Curry throwing them up from the outside, was it? Not certain. Time to look at the scoreboard.

No fooling there. Another Warriors victory. Eleven in a row, this one by a score of 115-102. The Dubs are now 15-2. When do the playoffs start?

The idea that acquiring Kevin Durant as a free agent would make the visiting — sorry, dark jerseys, home team — virtually unbeatable is making a great deal of sense, as Durant, Curry, Klay Thompson and the rest are, well, virtually unbeatable. 

And Saturday they won without Draymond Green, out with a sore ankle. Maybe Dray, one of the NBA’s better defensive players — yes, a bit restrained with the accolades, as it’s still only November — would have kept Zach Levine from scoring 31 or Karl-Anthony Towns from getting 18, but that’s academic.

As it was, the Warriors’ Big Three indeed were a big three. Curry with 34 points, Durant with 28, Thompson with 29. And as Dubs coach Steve Kerr pointed out about the points, they came from inside as opposed to outside. Only 22 three-point attempts, 11 of those successful.

“We missed Dray,” said Thompson, “missed his defense and passing.”

And his exhorting and shouting. “The rest of us had to raise our voices to make up for it,” said Thompson. Most likely he was serious, but with the Warriors one never is quite sure how to take a comment.

They are a fun bunch, and for good reason. They’ve got the routine down, almost to perfection.

A quick start, a minor stumble, a halftime lead and then a victory, whatever the spread. But fans never get bored by wins. Neither do coaches or players.

Maybe the league ought to force the Warriors to sit out a starter every game until January. With Green missing, Kevon Looney, the team’s first-round draft pick in the championship year of 2015, started at what used to be known as power forward but is now called the No. 4.  

“Our spacing was very different,” said Kerr, if the results are not. Looney had six points and two rebounds. “I thought he played well,” said Kerr. Yes, just plug in another star and keep the machine running.

Then again, for the first time in 11 games, they failed to record 30 assists, getting only 25. Horrors!

Kerr is thinking about the future, the postseason, as are most of us. “We are interested in the process, and what we are doing,” he said when asked if any win, by one point or 20 points, was equally satisfying.

“We know, when games in the spring come, what it takes. We’ve been there the last two years and succeeded once and failed last year ultimately. We felt what the games are like in the playoffs, so you try to prepare for that in the regular season.

“You focus on the process. Try and win the game, but focus on the things that you know you have to get better at.”

Not much, one presumes, especially now that Durant is part of that process.

“The only thing we told him,” said Kerr about Durant, “was that he was going to guard Towns. We knew Looney could do a good job, and he would start on hm. But we told Kevin (Durant) he would have some minutes on Towns. I didn’t tell him anything else. He knows the game. I thought he was spectacular.”

No matter what color the jersey.

Curry calls his NBA record ‘pretty cool’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant combined for 46 points Monday night. Or the same as Stephen Curry scored by himself. The MVP indeed was shooting like an MVP.

After shooting, what, blanks? On Friday against the Lakers, he had a streak of 157 consecutive games with a three-pointer come to an inglorious end, going 0-for-10. On Monday, at Oracle Arena, he began a streak of one game with a three-pointer and, oh yes, made 13 of them overall, an NBA record, out of 17 attempts.

“This is a pretty cool,” said the very cool Curry. “To have the three-point record is really special, although it probably won’t last long the way the guys shoot these days.”

What didn’t last long was Curry’s shutout streak and, no less importantly, the Warriors one-game losing streak, Golden State defeating the stubborn New Orleans Pelicans 116-105. Since it was the Dubs ninth in a row over the Pelicans, you might add, as usual. If there’s anything usual in pro basketball.

Only a few days ago, people were questioning if the Dubs, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, were ever going to make one from the outside, which over the last three seasons is what they always could do.

But if others panicked, Warriors coach Steve Kerr did not. Kerr hardly was pleased with the teamwork or defense, but as he reminded pre-game it was inevitable the ball would begin to go through the hoop. Shooters may lose their touch momentarily, but soon enough they’re successful.

Monday night was soon enough for the Warriors, who made 50 percent of their field goals (45 percent on threes). Curry was 16 of 26 (and only one of two on free throws). Klay was 11 of 20 with 24 points and Durant 8 of 17 with 22 points.

“You just have to keep shooting,” said Curry about lapses, “stick it out.”

“The ball’s going to go in.”

Kerr, certainly, expected that to occur. He was a shooter from long range on the Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan. He may be impatient about sloppy play, but Kerr won’t complain about missed shots because he knows eventually the shots won’t miss.

“That was quite a show,” said Kerr of the Curry exhibition. “I’m not at all surprised.”

Nor is anyone in basketball.

Curry didn’t hit his first three until four and a half minutes were gone. But he had two more before the first quarter closed and was also three of four in the second quarter. “Pretty quickly I thought he was on,” said Kerr.

Four more threes in the third quarter and three more in the fourth gave him one more than the record of 12 three-pointers achieved by Curry himself, Donyell Marshall and Kobe Bryant.

“When he’s going off like that,” said teammate Draymond Green of Curry, “you don’t really have to try to find him. He’ll find a way to get a shot off. That’s for sure. But one thing about that, when he’s got it going you set screens. You’re usually the person who gets open because (the opponents) are so scared of him coming off a screen it starts a chain reaction and (starts) our ball movement.”

Alvin Gentry is the Pelicans' head coach. He used to be Kerr’s assistant on the Warriors. He knows Curry all too well.

“I think he’s a decent shooter,” was the Gentry tongue-in-cheek understatement of Curry. “The only mistake we made is we ran at him a few times and didn’t run him off the line ... If he would have had an average game, we would have had an opportunity to win.”

Average? Curry was average in the last game, not making a single three. Something was wrong. The correction was immediate.

“We let him go in the first quarter for the most part,” said Kerr. “He was really carrying us.”

Curry said he was down on himself after the Lakers mess. He practiced harder than usual coming into Monday night. “I wasn’t thinking about 0 for 10 tonight, really,” he said.

Now he and the Warriors can think about 46 points and 13 three-pointers. Much more satisfying.

S.F. Examiner: Kevin Durant was simply magnificent against Oklahoma City

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

This is what the Warriors wanted and the fans, Warriors Nation, if you will, expected, Kevin Durant playing not so much against his former teammate Russell Westbrook, and that literally is what he did. But also playing against Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and even his new teammate, Steph Curry.

This was KD unleashed, unstoppable, almost unbelievable, although if you’ve noted what he’s done in the past, and what Curry and Klay Thompson have done when they get a basketball in their hands, nothing seems unbelievable.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Golden State reminded of why you play the games

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Very clever of the Warriors, trying to con the NBA into thinking they aren’t the best basketball team ever created. But it won’t work. We all know the NBA championship is theirs, and all they have to do is throw their Nikes, adidas and Under Armours on the court and they’ll win in a walk.

So they lost their very first game of the 2016-17 season, 129-100, to the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle. So a considerable portion of the sellout crowd left early.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Fans’ faith not enough against rejuvenated Cavs

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The crowd had come for a coronation, a celebration, an evening of noise and joy on which their basketball team, the Warriors, the record setters, the defending champions, would make it two titles in row, would start an NBA dynasty. But something was missing — maybe because someone was missing, Draymond Green.

And so the noise ebbed, the joy diminished. The coronation was put on hold.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Warriors overwhelm Cavaliers, take 2-0 lead in NBA Finals

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — This is a basketball team at its best, mentally, physically, emotionally. A basketball team that may or may not be the finest in history but certainly is remarkable after winning a record 73 games in the regular season and the first two games of the NBA Finals so impressively.

Once the Golden State Warriors got it rolling Sunday night at Oracle Arena, where the chants of “Warriors . . . Warriors” poured down as the baskets poured in, they became an even heavier favorite to win a second straight championship.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Draymond assumes role of star in latest installment of Warriors’ tour de force

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Strength in numbers, indeed. If it isn’t Steph, it’s Klay. If it isn’t Klay, it’s Andre. If it isn’t Andre, well, Sunday night, when the Warriors looked like the greatest basketball team in the history of the universe — hey, what’s a little exaggeration among admirers? — it was Draymond.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Warriors’ Jerry West talks Muhammad Ali, Splash Brothers, LeBron

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Around him, on the floor of Oracle Arena, men from the team for which Jerry West now works as a consultant were shooting basketballs. And you knew West, who a few days ago turned 78, so wished he was one of them.

West, whose graceful dribble became the model for the NBA’s logo, is knowledgeable, opinionated, supportive, appreciative. In a way, he’s responsible for the success of the Warriors, who on Sunday night will attempt to build a 2-0 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Iguodala emerges as star of series opener

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

So why should we be surprised by anything — and that’s anything — Andre Iguodala does, or maybe considering the (ooh!) low grab, intentional or unintentional by the Cavs’ Matthew Dellavedova, by anything that’s done to Iggy?

This is dog-bites-man stuff, the fact Iguodala can enter a game and as calmly and reflectively as he pointed out, play like every small detail matters. Which of course in playoff basketball, it does. Iguodala is not the only reason the Warriors won the opener of the NBA finals from the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-89, but surely is a prime reason.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Familiar feeling returns to Warriors fans at Oracle

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

It was Steph. It was defense. It was Shaun. It was the crowd. It was bedlam. It was the Warriors at their finest, Oracle at its noisiest, and basketball at its most hectic, frantic pace, sending Northern California into a Golden State of euphoria and the defending champions to the NBA finals a second-straight year.

By all rights, and most odds, the wonderful, unorthodox, irrepressible Dubs, shouldn’t be there. Shouldn’t even have been in that hysterical seventh game Monday night, in which showing the courage and remarkable distance shooting skill which have become their trademarks, they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, 96-88.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Dubs welcome back vintage Draymond

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Hi, Draymond, and welcome back to our world, really to your world, the one where you didn’t so much work basketball as play it. The world from where you mysteriously left sometime during Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Finals at Oklahoma City and then voila, returned Thursday night in Game 5 at the “Roaracle.”

Where was the passing, the rebounding, the leadership? Where were you? Someone suggested you had gone to a parallel universe. Even you conceded, “I was on another planet somewhere.”

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Curry Flurry buries the Thunder

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

It was desperation. No matter the mantra from the Warriors. They had to win that game or they were finished. They couldn’t lose the first two at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder and expect to win this series, not to mention another NBA championship.

It was desperation, but then it was Steph. And in the end it was elation.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

And then there was Steph — who else?

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Steph. Who else? The game wasn’t supposed to be that close. But it was. The Trail Blazers wouldn’t fade, wouldn’t recognize they were beaten, even when they were. The Blazers just kept coming, like blazes, if you’ll accept the line.

There they were, within two points. And then there was Steph. Swish. We’ve seen it before. We’ll see it again.

A three-pointer. A step-back 26-footer with 24.9 seconds left. A dagger. “I mean, Steph is Steph,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I think our fans are used to it. I’m used to it. He makes these incredibly difficult shots.”

Makes them when the team needs him to make them.

“He makes big-time shots,” said Blazers coach Terry Stotts. “That last shot he made was well defended. He’s a special player who can do special things.”

He’s the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second straight year, a unanimous choice this time, for the first time in history. He got the trophy in ceremonies before the game, and then with that basket, which put the W’s ahead by three, he helped get a thrilling, nerve-wracking 125-121 victory Wednesday night at Oracle.

So the Warriors, the defending champions, take the Western Conference semifinals as they took the first round, four games to one, and now will face the winner of the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series for the right to get to the NBA finals once more.

It wasn’t just Steph Curry, however, on this night that started late — tipoff was just before 8 p.m. — and ended very late, around 10:45. It was also the man who had been carrying the Warriors when Curry was out with a bad knee, Klay Thompson, who was 13 of 17 from the field and had 33 points. And it was Draymond Green, hustling, rebounding (11), scoring (13) and screaming, as he so often does. And it was Shaun Livingston, a sub once more, with 10 points.

“Klay’s shooting was incredible tonight,” affirmed Kerr. “Then the way Steph finished the game, that step-back shot to put it to a five-point lead, was probably only a shot he can make.

“It was like we were running on fumes a bit at the end, between Draymond’s ankle (Green was limping late in the fourth quarter) and (Andrew) Bogut’s not playing in the second half (he had a strained adductor). But we talk about our depth all the time.”

And display it all the time. “Strength in Numbers” is more than a slogan on all those gold T-shirts given to the fans. Curry was out for three games. Livingston got bounced two games ago on two technicals. Green plays forward — and center. And guard. Andre Iguodala is indispensable. Marreese Speights hit a big three-pointer.

The way the Warriors came back from the huge deficit Monday in game four at Portland — that TV shot of Blazers billionaire owner Paul Allen, who looked like he swallowed a lemon, told it all — one might have figured the Blazers wouldn’t be competitive Wednesday. Wrong, so wrong.

For so long, Portland, with Damian Lillard scoring 28 and C.J. McCollum scoring 27 — add Klay and Steph, and what a foursome of guards — was in charge, going in front by 11 points and hanging tough against a hostile crowd and a favored Warriors team.

“That’s a terrific basketball team,” Kerr said of the Blazers, and he was absolutely right. Portland led at halftime of games two, three, four and five. “That’s a tough team to guard and a tough team to play against.”

So, of course, are the Warriors, with their three All-Stars (Curry, Thompson and Green) and their relentless style. It’s just that against the agile, mobile Blazers, the W’s weren’t always effective with the defense that forces missed shots and enables the W’s to flow.   

“It wasn’t our best stuff,” agreed Kerr, “but we got it done.”

Which is what the best teams do, the best individuals do. Overcome the mistakes, the questionable officiating, the frustration and win.

“We know what it takes to win in the playoffs,” said Thompson. “It’s extremely hard. Give (the Blazers) credit. They’re an offensive powerhouse. It wasn’t an individual thing when Steph went out (with the injury). We did it collectively ... I’m just proud of my focus on defense ... I’m just trying to get myself in the flow of the offense.

“I’m not going to go out there and try and take the ball from Steph when he’s in the zone.”

Which he almost always is.

Ezeli gets Warriors to play like champions they are

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — This is what championship teams do. They play like champions. They find a way to win on a night when the other team’s shots fall but theirs won’t, when their coach gets so irked he hollers at one of his star players, when they fall behind from the opening moments and stay behind until it’s almost too late. This is what the Warriors do.

They weren’t just bad in the first half against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night at the Oracle, they were awful. There was no defense — heavens, Portland scored 34 points the first quarter — and there barely was any offense. The Warriors fell behind by 17. For the first time in the postseason, the absence of Stephen Curry was all too evident.    

Curry, of course, still had the bad knee and was on the bench. So was backup center Festus Ezeli. His knee, the one on which he had minor surgery in January, supposedly was fine, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr and his staff decided not to play him through the first half — as they decided not to play him anytime Sunday in the first game of the Western Conference semifinals.

Then Kerr got smart. Or desperate. Whatever, he got the 6-foot-11 Ezeli on the floor, and Ezeli, along with Andre Iguodala (who had 15 points, five rebounds and four assists) and Shaun Livingston (14 points, four rebounds and four assists), got the Warriors a 110-99 victory.

They trailed 87-76 after three quarters, meaning the W’s outscored Portland 34-12 in the final 12 minutes. Meaning Ezeli, who had six rebounds and eight points in roughly 13 minutes, Iguodala and Livingston helped the Warriors make the stops as well as the hoops.

It didn’t hurt that Klay Thompson, after some early misses (he was 3 of 9 at the half), finally connected (he was 7 for 20 with 27 points) or Draymond Green (17 points, 14 rebounds) played his expected relentless game.

But Kerr, after the W’s took a two-games-to-none lead in this best-of-seven series, was all too willing to talk about the others, especially Ezeli.

“He changed the whole game with his pick-and-roll defense,” Kerr said of Ezeli. In truth, Kerr changed it by finally allowing Ezeli to get in the game. “And his presence around the rim. The energy he gave us. He played 13 straight minutes.”

After not playing one second through one full game and virtually three quarters of this second game.

“This is a guy who had been out most of the last part of the season,” Kerr said of Ezeli, "and didn’t play much in the (first-round) Houston series. So a phenomenal effort from Fez to really change the game.”

The Warriors were a frantic, stumbling group early on. The Blazers shot like blazes, 66 percent in the first quarter. Fans who were unfamiliar with such happenings chanted and screeched, but it didn’t do much good. Damian Lillard, the Portland guard who grew up in the East Bay, had 25 points through three periods, 17 of those after the half.

But Lillard wouldn’t get a point more. “We played a great three quarters, and they’re a championship team,” said Lillard, in the ultimate summation. "We were in control, and we slipped.”

Big time. The pathetic 12 points scored in the fourth by Portland (on 5-of-19 shooting) was the fewest the Warriors had ever allowed in a quarter since the NBA instituted the 24-second clock in the 1954-55 season.

“They got more aggressive,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said of the Warriors’ late-game effectiveness. “Ezeli came in and had an impact on both ends of the court. Because we couldn’t get the stops, we couldn’t play transition (offense).

“It was disappointing to lose a game that you’re in a position to be in. But we’ve got to close it out.”

This was a huge comeback for the Warriors as they defend the title they won last season. A loss would have left them at one-one and without the home court advantage. The next two games are in Portland, the first on Saturday, and who knows, they could have returned to Oakland down 3-1. Not now.

“Everybody deserves credit,” said Kerr. “Andre kept us in the game in the first half, and Klay stayed with it. Same with Shaun. I think he was one for seven, but on that fadeaway made one of the biggest shots of the game.

“Game twos always scare me, especially if you won the first one relatively easy like we did. It’s human nature. The other team comes out angry, and maybe you let your guard down a little bit.”

It was their backup center who got their guard back. Festus Ezeli was a key to the championship team finally playing like one.

Kerr on Klay: ‘He was awesome’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — If Steph were there ... Even Draymond Green, who had yet another triple-double, was moved to consider the impossible.

Yes, agreed Green, if Steph Curry had been in uniform, and not on the bench in that sharp, blue sport coat, the Warriors, Green’s Warriors, Steph’s Warriors, “could go toe-to-toe with anybody on offense and probably have the advantage.”

But it’s also understood that the NBA is a league in which success more often is determined not by who makes baskets than by who is unable to make baskets, determined on defense, as preached by Warriors coach Steve Kerr — and he’s hardly alone — andas displayed by the W’s on Sunday in the first game of the NBA Western Conference semifinals.

Again they didn’t have Curry, as was the case at the end of the first-round series against Houston. But again they did have pressure, smothering the Blazers, who made only five of their 21 shots in the first period, building up a lead that was as large as 20 and winning 118-106.

“Our offense, we had trouble scoring,” confirmed Portland coach Terry Stotts. “Their defense got into us.”

Their defense, the Warriors’ D, was Klay Thompson shadowing Damian Lillard, who scored 30 points but was a mediocre 8 for 26 shooting; it was Green blocking two shots and Andrew Bogut three; and it was Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston hindering passes with their extended reaches.

Yes, Thompson hit his shots, 14 of 28 (7 of 14 on threes), and had a game-high 37 points, needed in the absence of Curry. But it was at the other end of the court where Thompson impressed his coach.

“Not many guys could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes,” said Kerr, “and score 37 points too. Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and this was a really amazing night for him just in terms of his all-around play, and obviously we got a lot of good performances from people. But that’s a big burden to have to play both ways like that.

“He was awesome.”

Thompson was an All-Star. Green, 23 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, was an All-Star. Sometimes we forget because of that All-Star and MVP — and product endorser and NBA scoring leader — Steph Curry.

Yet a team is more than one man, even if it’s a man who can throw in 30-foot jumpers in the blink of an eye.

Curry, restricted by that bad right knee, said in a TV interview he would be surprised if he couldn’t return by game three of this series, next Sunday at Portland. Until then, or even then, the Warriors have to do what they’ve been doing, use all their skills.

“Defense is the key against these guys,” said Kerr, knowing full well “these guys” could mean any team in the league.

“They,” Kerr said of the Blazers, “are a tremendous offensive team. They have a great system. They are hard to guard, and they spread out so much with their shooting that there are a lot of open lanes.”

Those lanes were closed Sunday, just as stretches of Interstate 880 are so often. The Warriors chased and harassed. The Warriors stymied and baffled. “We score a lot of points,” Lillard said of himself and teammate C.J. McCollum. “We’ve got to be better offensively if we want to have a chance against this team.”

That doesn’t come easily against the Warriors, schooled in the idea of taking the other team’s mistakes and pushing the ball down the floor. “Our offense,” said Kerr, “comes off movement. We can’t stand around.”

Green rarely is seen standing or heard silent. He’s the voice of the Warriors, cheering, chanting, hollering.  Still, it’s just as much a case of "do as I do" as it is "do as I say." Green leads by admonition. He leads by example.

“I don’t go out there saying, ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do more of that,’” said Green. “We all have to. Everybody’s got to be more involved on the offensive end. Steph brings so much more to the table that one guy isn’t going to be able to do what he does.

“I just told the guys that we’ve got to come out with a defensive mind-set, and that’s pretty much it. I think we can pretty much just stay solid and get good stuff on the offensive end, but against this team we’ve got to get it done on the defensive end. We’ll get what we need on offense. We did that tonight.”

Absolutely.