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Game Thread: Opening Night Game Thread: BOS/CLE & HOU/GSW

gordontrue

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Easy for him to say when the Warriors best wing defender was out the entire game as well as the reigning defensive player of the year was out the 4th quarter.

BUT.....

He kinda has a point. Curry was ridiculous last night with all his stupid reach fouls. I get so angered by his stupidity some times. I appreciate he's trying hard, but why are you reaching on Harden 30 feet from the hoop. He was lucky he didn't pick up his 5th early into the 3rd quarter.

Outside of Draymond, the only person I thought who played decent defense was Klay. I swear every shot he contested really well. He moved his feet and didn't get tricked into reach fouls.

Other than that, the team as a whole needs to step it up.

I'm not concerned though. Last year the Warriors got spanked by the Spurs on opening night by 29 points at home. Last night they lost by 1 with a really depleted roster. The Rockets were able to put a better small ball lineup than the Warriors last night and beat them. But the Warriors played terrible defense for 3 quarters, looked sluggish and sloppy (Durant with 9 TO's) and still held a double digit lead most of the game. I'm actually more encouraged because there's room for growth.

I actually saw a couple of really uncharacteristic give-ups on defense by Draymond, which never happens. One where Ryan Anderson was open for 3, and Dray (closest defender) didn't even try to close out, just slowly walked away. It looked especially bad, case Anderson took his time lining up the shot (and made it). Another where Eric Gordon got by the perimeter defense and Draymond just conceded the layup. It was strange.

Gotta say, though, he was dropping dimes everywhere.
 

CitySushi

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I actually saw a couple of really uncharacteristic give-ups on defense by Draymond, which never happens. One where Ryan Anderson was open for 3, and Dray (closest defender) didn't even try to close out, just slowly walked away. It looked especially bad, case Anderson took his time lining up the shot (and made it). Another where Eric Gordon got by the perimeter defense and Draymond just conceded the layup. It was strange.

Gotta say, though, he was dropping dimes everywhere.

Yeah the defense overall was really messy. I think there were times he gave up, which like you said is uncharacteristic, because the rotations were an absolute nightmare. I saw so many times where guys like Young, Curry, McCaw, Livingston and Durant all got caught up on the wrong guy and someone got a clean open look. Draymond cannot be the only guy out there (other than Klay and Iguodala) who know what's going on for the defense.

I thought it was crazy how many guys Kerr played last night, but I think it'll be a major theme going forward this season. I couldn't blame Kerr for any of his rotations last night after not having Iguodala to start the game, then Casspi went down, then Draymond. It was crazy to me though that he had Looney in for as long as he did last night though. I would have preferred he went with Bell, who I thought did a really decent job defending on the perimeter, but just got beat by better offense.
 

gordontrue

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Yeah the defense overall was really messy. I think there were times he gave up, which like you said is uncharacteristic, because the rotations were an absolute nightmare. I saw so many times where guys like Young, Curry, McCaw, Livingston and Durant all got caught up on the wrong guy and someone got a clean open look. Draymond cannot be the only guy out there (other than Klay and Iguodala) who know what's going on for the defense.

I thought it was crazy how many guys Kerr played last night, but I think it'll be a major theme going forward this season. I couldn't blame Kerr for any of his rotations last night after not having Iguodala to start the game, then Casspi went down, then Draymond. It was crazy to me though that he had Looney in for as long as he did last night though. I would have preferred he went with Bell, who I thought did a really decent job defending on the perimeter, but just got beat by better offense.

Yeah, and they were playing the best offense (besides their own) in the league. Most teams, that defense is easily enough.

And damn if it doesn't look like Swaggy is gonna absolutely thrive in being on a team so good that his shooting is an afterthought for the other team.
 
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LAD

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Yeah the defense overall was really messy. I think there were times he gave up, which like you said is uncharacteristic, because the rotations were an absolute nightmare. I saw so many times where guys like Young, Curry, McCaw, Livingston and Durant all got caught up on the wrong guy and someone got a clean open look. Draymond cannot be the only guy out there (other than Klay and Iguodala) who know what's going on for the defense.

I thought it was crazy how many guys Kerr played last night, but I think it'll be a major theme going forward this season. I couldn't blame Kerr for any of his rotations last night after not having Iguodala to start the game, then Casspi went down, then Draymond. It was crazy to me though that he had Looney in for as long as he did last night though. I would have preferred he went with Bell, who I thought did a really decent job defending on the perimeter, but just got beat by better offense.
Bell looked awesome. He is going to be something on the defensive end of the court - he already is showing really good foot movement. Up against Harden he really couldn't have defended him any better on a couple different plays.
And, he's freakin fearless on offense. I mean my goodness - that play early in the game when he caught a pass in traffic & went straight to the hole & scored. Was a great sign.
 

LAD

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Yeah, and they were playing the best offense (besides their own) in the league. Most teams, that defense is easily enough.

And damn if it doesn't look like Swaggy is gonna absolutely thrive in being on a team so good that his shooting is an afterthought for the other team.
Honestly, I don't think Houston got much better with CP3. Don't get me wrong, I think his go-to jumper just inside the F/T line is deadly & a very nice addition to their offense. But, it didn't appear to me that D'Antoni has a clue on how to use them together effectively yet. Either CP3 or Harden is going to have to change how they play to really compliment one another. That's a tall task & a HUGE ask from coach.
 

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Honestly, I don't think Houston got much better with CP3. Don't get me wrong, I think his go-to jumper just inside the F/T line is deadly & a very nice addition to their offense. But, it didn't appear to me that D'Antoni has a clue on how to use them together effectively yet. Either CP3 or Harden is going to have to change how they play to really compliment one another. That's a tall task & a HUGE ask from coach.

The fact that D'Antoni had CP3 on the bench the last 4 minutes of the game tells you really all you need to know. There's only room for 1 facilitator on the floor in a D'Antoni spread offense and for this team Harden is clearly the runaway leader. I think they'll be "fine" during the season and allow both Harden and CP3 to shine. But in the crunch time or in the playoffs, CP3 I bet will be the odd man out.
 

gordontrue

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Honestly, I don't think Houston got much better with CP3. Don't get me wrong, I think his go-to jumper just inside the F/T line is deadly & a very nice addition to their offense. But, it didn't appear to me that D'Antoni has a clue on how to use them together effectively yet. Either CP3 or Harden is going to have to change how they play to really compliment one another. That's a tall task & a HUGE ask from coach.

Yeah, it definitely looks that way after the first game. To be fair though, it is just 1 game, and CP3 was apparently hobbled.

If I were Dantoni, I'd stagger their minutes separately as much as possible. Let Harden do his normal thing... then when he's on the bench, let CP3 do his thing.

They both are at their best when they dominate the ball... so why not let them each do that, separately.
 

LAD

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The fact that D'Antoni had CP3 on the bench the last 4 minutes of the game tells you really all you need to know. There's only room for 1 facilitator on the floor in a D'Antoni spread offense and for this team Harden is clearly the runaway leader. I think they'll be "fine" during the season and allow both Harden and CP3 to shine. But in the crunch time or in the playoffs, CP3 I bet will be the odd man out.
I thought the same thing - but remembered CP3 hurt his knee. So thought he might have benched him because of that. We'll know more as the season progresses though.
 

LAD

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Yeah, it definitely looks that way after the first game. To be fair though, it is just 1 game, and CP3 was apparently hobbled.

If I were Dantoni, I'd stagger their minutes separately as much as possible. Let Harden do his normal thing... then when he's on the bench, let CP3 do his thing.

They both are at their best when they dominate the ball... so why not let them each do that, separately.
This makes sense, but then you have to break the news to CP3 that he's basically coming off the bench. How well do you think that will go over when he was brought in & led to believe he was equal to Harden?
 

gordontrue

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This makes sense, but then you have to break the news to CP3 that he's basically coming off the bench. How well do you think that will go over when he was brought in & led to believe he was equal to Harden?

Yeah, that's true, I don't know. He doesn't have to come off the bench though. Just pull him early in the first, and stagger from there. But yeah, this strategy would mean less minutes for CP3, which at his age, its probably a good idea anyway. But yeah, no idea how he would feel about it.
 
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DJ

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I find it funny that....

Everybody is being super sympathetic to Heyward's injury.....













Not so much when Kobe had a serious injury his last few seasons.
 

gordontrue

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I find it funny that....

Everybody is being super sympathetic to Heyward's injury.....













Not so much when Kobe had a serious injury his last few seasons.

There's just something different about really, truly "seeing" the injury. Most injuries there's not much to see other than someone falling down or limping off the court. Injuries like Haywards really hit home in a way that other's don't.

Also, I think its a little bit revisionist history to say that no one was sympathetic to Kobe's injury.
 

tducey

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To bad to see Hayward go down like that. If there's any such thing as a good guy in the NBA it's him. Wishing him all the best in recovery.
 

DJ

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There's just something different about really, truly "seeing" the injury. Most injuries there's not much to see other than someone falling down or limping off the court. Injuries like Haywards really hit home in a way that other's don't.

Also, I think its a little bit revisionist history to say that no one was sympathetic to Kobe's injury.

Not really.....a lot of people thought it was funny and were cracking jokes about it.
 
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