Basketball Daily Dose: Dose: Warriors Win No. 70
Guster drummer and hoops head Brian Rosenworcel is filling in for Dr. A this morning. Enjoy.
It’s the silly season in the NBA, a time when random off nights surface not only from NBA starters but also from Rotoworld studs like Steve Alexander, who was a late scratch tonight. Fortunately Dr. A tapped a random, unqualified musician to cover his Dose at the last minute. The silly season is a time when Thomas Robinson, Moe Harkless, and Luke Babbitt can win you a championship, and if I can just be as solid as Mirza Teletovic filling in tonight off the bench, I will have achieved something.
All this injury/rest/tanking nonsense would be good fun except that a lot of us are playing for championships this week. It’s like you spent all year building your juggernaut, refining which categories belong to you, and then at the very end you reach this bizarro portal where everything’s upside down and you need to seriously consider “should I drop Boogie for Alexis Ajinca?”– and that’s why fantasy leagues should end a couple of weeks before the NBA season. My advice is to keep as many roster moves handy as you’re permitted and tread carefully with your DFS lineups at the deadline. And you should take my advice because I am a drummer.
Fortunately the NBA Scheduling Gods have blessed us with a pair of Warriors-Spurs games in the final week, and the games mean something, as there are records to be broken, streaks to be extended, and pinkies to be dislocated…
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Warriors 112, Spurs 101
You know this game meant something to Pop because he called a timeout 59 seconds into the game and chewed his team out for defensive miscues. You know this game meant something to Pop because he played his guys. Expect them to sit on Friday against Denver (hello, Boban Marjanovic!) and return for Sunday’s rematch against the Warriors. But the Spurs got walloped and looked lost on defense at Oracle Arena last night. Their energy didn’t come close to that of Warriors, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens this weekend in Texas.
Golden State’s starters shot 57% from the field in this one. Harrison Barnes looked sprightly for the Warriors, finishing with 21 points, eight boards and three treys. Stephen Curry shot 11-of-19 for 27 points, nine assists, three triples and two steals. Draymond Green was Draymond Green with 18/7/6, and it’s impossible to understate how important he is to the chemistry of this team. Remember when Steve Kerr gave David Lee’s job to Draymond? The Warriors haven’t looked back since and are now 70-9 with a real chance at finishing with a record-setting record of 73-9 with three games left.
For the Spurs, Kawhi Leonard was solid (23 points on 8-of-12 shooting) and Danny Green ended up with nine points, five rebounds, four steals, two blocks and three triples, but Tim Duncan was a non-factor in 19 minutes and LaMarcus Aldridge played with his pinky taped to his ring finger after dislocating it in the first quarter (TRY SLEEPING AT NIGHT NOW, POP!). Aldridge shot 5-of-16 for just 11 points and it’ll be interesting to see if his sideways pinky heals by the weekend. David West played 24 minutes with 11 points and seven dimes, while Kyle Anderson had 11 boards to go with eight points off the bench.
