‘Warriors WrapUp’: GSW overcomes sluggish 1st half, beats Kings 117-106; Pachulia keeps Cousins in check; Curry’s aggressiveness back; Sacramento’s head-scratching future

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Steinmetz

The most important thing that happened to the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night wasn’t that they beat the Kings 117-106 at the new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, it was that the win officially puts Friday’s epic collapse to Memphis in the past.

The Warriors overcame a sluggish first half — one in which they got down 16 points — by using a monster third quarter and an overall solid second half. If you’re looking for the stat of the day, how about this on that continues: The Warriors have now played in 124 consecutive games with out losing two in a row.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.

On “Warriors WrapUp” we talked about what kind of effort the Warriors played with in the first half; how Stephen Curry is being more aggressive; DeMarcus Cousins playing his best in the first quarter, then fizzling after that; the direction of the Kings, and more.

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‘NBA This Week’: Dissecting Warriors’ collapse vs. Memphis; interviews with Former King Doug Christie and Tim Bontemps.

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Steinmetz

Another “NBA This Week” in the books and this was a unique one. First, we did it on a Sunday and second, we did it from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, leading into that night’s Warriors-Kings game.

Great venue. No doubt about it.

The main theme on this week’s show was the Warriors’ stunning collapse against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. The Warriors blew a 24-point second half lead, and fell 128-119 in overtime. The Warriors completely lost it: they couldn’t score down the stretch; couldn’t deter Memphis’ big front line; and couldn’t stop arguing among themselves.

We also welcomed Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post and former Sacramento Kings guard Doug Christie to the show, for their takes on the Warriors, Kings, and, yes, what happened Friday night.

Link to interview with Tim Bontemps on 95-7-FM The Game.

Link to interview with Doug Christie on 95.7-FM The Game.

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Warriors’ lack of physicality exposed in loss to Memphis; Green’s last-minute histrionics; Curry being more aggressive

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Steinmetz

The Warriors’ 128-119 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies was a shocker, no doubt. Golden State led by 24 points in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter up 19. But from there it was all bad, with the offense bogging down in a confounding way and the defense going awfully soft.

It all added up to head-scratching collapse, and one that is likely to stick with the team and fans for longer than most regular, old losses. Of course, the Warriors don’t lose much. They’re still 31-6 heading into Sunday’s game at Sacramento, and that’s the best in the NBA. But when you’re the Warriors and expectations are what they are (championship or bust) then losses bring out more dissection. If you want to listen to the postgame show, link provided below.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.

–Compared with most NBA teams, the Warriors don’t have a lot of weaknesses, but whatever ones they do have were exposed against the Grizzlies. The glaring issue, it seemed, was the Warriors’ lack of physicality. We all know Memphis is a rough and tumble team — both on the interior and perimeter — but they just seemed to manhandle the Warriors last night.

Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Tony Allen … those guys are tough.

For all his strengths as an offensive player, and his ability to block shots at the defensive end, Kevin Durant struggles against good post-up players. And Randolph is a very good post up player — still. Durant might be a way better all-around player than Harrison Barnes, but when it comes to defending power forwards playing with their backs to the basket, Barnes does it better than Durant. And it showed last night.

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