I am at peace in my basketball world of Golden State nirvana. Finally… a clutch road win by this bunch who ‘maybe’ have found themselves after this grueling roller coaster season of road futility as defending NBA champs.
This was basketball nirvana. Draymond came off the bench and excelled. Kevon Looney, the Moral Compass of the Warriors, played what I thought was the best game of his NBA Playoff career. Jordan Poole inserted as the starter in place of bad boy Draymond responded with some toughness and clutchness of his own. Maybe that punch in the face from Draymond in training camp served a purpose after all.
All above in the preceding paragraph are role players. This is what role players have to do for their team to win clutch road games. Gary Payton Jr. had a couple of great plays as did Donte. I would have liked to have seen some more minutes from Moses Moody, but I can’t bitch after a win like this one. Moses is going to be a baller…trust me on this. His time is coming.
Johnny Kuminga … you were sent a message last night from Coach Kerr with the DNP…here’s the message stud hoss—‘You may have more natural ability than any player in the league, but you need to mentally bear down when you’re given minutes by Coach Kerr.”
Of course…Steph, Klay, and Andrew were all clutch in the final minutes as well, but those guys are stars and that’s what stars are supposed to do in clutch time. Namely…play like stars. This is not complex. Ask Jimmy Butler and his clutch blue collar buds on the Miami Heat who just slayed the Milwaukee Bucks in their clutch Game 5 road win as well.
You have your star or two, and then you have your role player grinders. This was an NBA night I just loved because as I’ve written on my casual Thunder blog this season…Klay is my favorite player in the league and this post injury version of Klay is basically a role player. Klay is a role player and Steph and Wig are the two best players on the team.
But winning is the thing. Klay knows this more than any other player in the league. It’s about what you have to do to win games when they matter most.
If only we had a team like this is Oklahoma City who embraced this type of mantra perhaps next NBA basketball season … I could write a few things Thunder related on my casual Thunder blog.
What I may do tomorrow is give Sam Presti my take on here as to who are the nine players I’d build my team around next season so as to start playing genuinely competitive NBA seasons again in god forsaken Oklahoma.
Sam Presti…it’s about winning, buddy. Pure and simple. Winning is fun.