I Love Your Smile
76/82 L Minnesota Timberwolves 96-99
77/82 W New Orleans Pelicans 120-109
78/82 W San Antonio Spurs 130-115
79/82 L Denver Nuggets 110-112
80/82 W Oklahoma City Thunder 136-125
With the conclusion of the Men’s and Women’s College Tournaments and the end of the NBA season, so much basketball news has happened in the past few days and there is too much to talk about.
Here’s the biggest piece of news. I won both my brackets this year!! Along with 2 % of people, I picked UConn to win. When outrageous loyalty leads to winning your March Madness brackets for the first time ever…I feel vindicated. (Though I was surprised that in my family bracket, with many UConn ties, only my Uncle and I picked UConn to win). Go Huskies!
Here are the things I’m skipping over today but am available to talk with you from 5-1000 minutes about any of the following:
Thank God Hunter Dickinson is leaving Michigan/Is Juwan Howard a Good Coach?
UConn Men - the most dominant men’s basketball team of the past 25 years
The Women’s Final Four Was So Very Very Good/Turns Out People Watch Women’s Basketball When It’s on a Channel They Can Watch
Everyone Should Want To Play For Dawn Staley
Threading the Needle - Rooting Ror LSU players But Not the LSU Coach
Super Problematic Racist Commentary Around the Final Four Women’s Games and South Carolina, LSU and Iowa
Angel Reese Deserves All Her Joy
Caitlin Clarke Doesn’t Want Your Protection -She Wants To Win
When In Doubt, Listen to Dawn Staley
Today I’m trying to stay focused on the Warriors. Oh these last few games. They really believe in giving us a season where you have to watch right up until the end. With two games left in the season, the Warriors are definitely in the playoffs, but they could be anywhere from 5th to 8th. Anything below 6th puts them into the play-in tournament which is far from ideal - older players need their week of rest. Even worse, the Warriors don’t control their fate - they need other teams to lose in the right combinations to avoid the play-in. The three teams closest to them are the Clippers, the Lakers and the Pelicans. If the Warriors end up tied with any of these teams, they lose the tiebreaker (because they have a worse record against all of these teams). All those road losses have consequences now. The concept of the tiebreaker and the tiebreakers rules are all things that I never cared about and now I know way too much about, even though I don’t totally understand them. That’s been my experience throughout this year - I’ve learned a lot more about a lot of basketball things but not enough to understand them.
All season the Warriors have played to the level of their competition. When they play “bad” teams, like the Spurs this week, the Warriors also play poorly. But when they play tough teams, like the 76ers recently, they play well. Or last game against the Thunder who had 78 points at the half, and were positioned to drive the Warriors out. The Dubs stepped up to the challenge. Putting the best possible spin on that, it might serve them well going into the playoffs. The Warriors have a lot of experience playing in close games, coming back from 10-20 point deficits. However, it means that Steph and Klay and Draymond have played a lot of minutes in a lot of 4th quarters, and I’m sure they would have preferred sitting out.
Every time they play at home, I believe. And then they play a road game and I can’t believe what I’m watching. The Warriors have made their bed - their ridiculously inconsistent bed. They are capable of greatness but they have been incapable of sustaining that on road games. Obviously that will be a problem in the playoffs where they will not have the home court advantage.
Since Tuesday was a home game though, let’s spend some time believing. Believing in Jordan Poole who scored 18 points in the 4th quarter alone, with balletic drives to the basket. In Donte, Draymond and GPII who did so many little things that made the defense better and the offense hum. In Looney who is having a career year and has the most offensive rebounds in the NBA despite averaging 24 minutes every game. In Moses Moody! He has played so very little this season, getting passed over in the rotation by both of the two way players. Tonight, with Klay on the bench, Moses showed out - one of the most energetic on the floor, wrestling rebounds, draining 3s, earning minutes on the court. Coach Kerr - give him the minutes - he’s ready.
So there’s the story of the win. And that’s important. Way more important is the return of Andrew Wiggins.
He’s not playing yet. But he’s back on the sidelines and it feels so good. Wiggins says little - he’s not often in press conferences. At his most extroverted, he’s reserved. But that smile of his speaks volumes. Players and coaches repeatedly speak of what he brings to the locker room and practices - his calmness, his kindness, his presence.
He’s been gone since Feb 14th and in that time rumors have swirled. About his relationship, about his kids, about him. The Warriors organization stayed quiet, emphasizing that they were behind Wiggins and they supported him. Even with the news that he has returned, life on Twitter stayed ugly - comments generally falling into the “I went back to work after….(my dad died/my kid was sick, etc)”, or “None of us get to leave our jobs whenever we feel like it”.
I want to shout out the Warriors organization because I mean…shouldn’t we want that for everyone? For ourselves? If something happened to a loved one, wouldn’t you want to make a decision without having to consider retribution from your employer? While others were berating him for the lack of work ethic, I kept thinking that maybe we should all go work for the Warriors if that’s how they treat people.
At Wiggins’ press conference, General Manager Bob Myers sat with him and spoke first, sending a clear message that this private, press-shy person does not have to face this alone. Myers was clear - We always supported Andrew’s decision. It was never a question with us that he should be with his family. He concluded the press conference by turning to Wiggins and saying “I’m excited you’re back. But I’m sad that you had to be gone. So I don’t want to sit here and forget about that part.” That last bit struck me hard. An employer openly acknowledging that things have changed for Wiggins and that’s ok with them.
It’s impressive. It reminds me of something GPII said about getting traded to the Warriors. One of his first reactions was that he was glad to be coming back because he knew there was better rehab here and he’d be better taken care of. The Trailblazers were medicating him and playing him - the Warriors put him on the injured list and rehabbed for 5 weeks). Or what Ty Jerome said this week about being on the Warriors - “I can’t explain it but I feel so at home here”.
May we never know the details on why Wiggins left. May he never have to divulge anything he doesn’t want to. May he take in what Steph said (and others echoed): “It’s not about basketball. We are just happy to see his face.”
Timeout Books:
This first one is a little bit of a cheat because I only read two poems during the timeouts, but it is how I learned that poetry and basketball timeouts do not go together at all. It made for a surreal dream-like experience to go back and forth between poetry and poetry in motion. That said, this book had me making those same sounds as when I watch a game - “oof, wow, damn” because something slayed my soul like a Steph three.
