27/82 W Celtics 123-107
28/82 L Bucks 111-128
29/82 L Pacers 119-125
30/82 L 76ers 106-118
31/82 W Raptors 126-110
32/82 L Knicks 94-132
33/82 L Nets 113-143
Oh my. It’s been a bumpy stretch.
Let’s start with the hardest part. The Knicks game. It wasn’t so much that they lost, it was how they lost. They are missing a lot of players, so a loss is not surprising. But there was no fight in their veins, and it felt as if they had decided that unless the win came easy, they weren’t going to put in the effort. The younger players got a lot of rare playing time, and they were out of their league. Mistakes are ok, not running back on defense is not. They looked as if they would rather not be playing and that is troubling.
There were stretches that were truly inspiring, starting with the rematch of last year’s Finals with the Celtics match-up. It was the Warriors we know and love, fighting on defense, turning defense into offense, playing fast-paced ball and in general, having intensity the entire game.
But Toronto is the game that impressed me. This was a big game for Jordan Poole, with a career high 43 points. Jordan Poole! with all the memeable facial expressions and the quick first step and the acrobatic drives to the basket and the 3s under pressure. His performance and this game wasn’t like that. Although I watched every second, his performance didn’t stand out to me the way it usually does. So I watched it again the next day and had the exact same reaction but now I understood why. The Warriors, and Klay and Poole in particular, were patient. In the first quarter, Klay hardly shot the ball. This is not his normal pattern since his return last year, of shooting the moment he gets the ball. In Toronto, he looked for the open shot and took his time. Poole did the same—fewer ankle-injury defying trips in the paint and just a little more patience. The shots fell in, one after another.
I now watch a lot of post-game and pre-game press conferences where journalists ask a similar question in as many ways as they can -why? Why are shots falling or not falling? Why are you losing or winning? And then they add detail. Why are your shots from the beyond the arc on the left side when you are down by 7 or more points not falling but your shots on the right side are?
For the most part, the answers, from Steph, Klay, Poole, Looney, from Wiggins, are “I Don’t Know”. There is of course a longer answer, that they hint at from time to time. The journalists are looking for a short-term narrative, when there is only a long answer. For Klay, his longer answer is He’s Working On It But Have We Already Forgotten That He Hasn’t Played a Full Season in Four Years?
This is from earlier in the year. The dominant narrative was Klay is over and should be traded.
No Duh, I’m struggling, says Klay. “Give me some freakin time.”
We are our harshest critics. Klay is widely known to be hard on himself. All these athletes are fully aware of their shots, their misses, their mistakes of their entire career–none of them need us to remind them. But it also doesn’t mean they have a specific explanation for why they are missing shots when an esoteric statistic is brought to their attention.
It made me think of this Poole interview from Iguodala’s podcast, Point Forward.
I wanted to test the theory -will the work fail me? [it hasn’t yet]. The top players have an intense work ethic. Warriors who are new to the team all say one of things they’ve learned from watching Steph is that when you reach his level, the work doesn’t let up. KD is known for how much he works, after games, putting up shots. Last year, the Warriors staff talked about Poole’s work ethic, he’s out there grinding, trusting if he puts in the work, the rest might follow.
And then I ran into this from Kara Lawson, Duke Basketball coach and former WNBA player
While there is an ebb and flow to life and to results, you don’t ebb and flow in your focus and your work ethic.
Which is just like the sports cliches we hear over and over - trust the process, trust the work. Do I love this message? Heck no! I would rather the world worked like “When you wish upon a star..anything your heart desires will come to you” but it turns out that what you focus on matters.
So can the Warriors be patient? Can they play like they did against the Raptors? Can they get through this time without Steph, while waiting for Wiggins’ full return, without the 50 points a game they contribute and the defensive skills of Wiggins. And can we be patient with them? They know they have room to grow–their flaws are not subtle. Can WE trust the process and let the game come to us? As a reminder, while I won’t turn the game off cause it’s my project this year, you can–turn the game off if it makes you unhappy. Why yell at the tv when there is probably something to watch that doesn’t make you yell at the tv?
Will the work fail us?
A few other notes from this past week:
If I lived in the Midwest, I would be watching all the Bucks games. Giannis is a wonder to watch on the court and pretty entertaining off the court.
Here’s Giannis discovering the joy of Oreos.
And Giannis recognizing his flaws
Were you wondering about the socks of NBA players? Probably not, but the New York Times published thousands of words on it. My takeaway - I understand that sponsorships make the world go round, but socks seem a pretty essential piece of equipment for athletes, and it’s wild to me that they sometimes have to wear socks that hurt their feet or hire tailors to get around sponsorship deals.
Are you looking for a gift for the sports fan in your life? The Athletic (at least in the Bay Area) has excellent writers. (Through next week, they are running a subscription offer of $1/month). Anthony Slater and Marcus Thompson II cover the Warriors, and you can also check them out on their Twitter feeds, as long as Twitter functions.
Here’s to the hope of a magnificent upcoming homestand.