After the Bay Areas beloved, ‘We Believe’ Warriors were honored for their 10 year anniversary (on their run as an 8th seed) the game was finally ready to be tipped off.
The Warriors went on a 7-0 run to start the game and forced Quin Snyder to call a quick timeout. Golden State came out a little overconfident letting it fly and only seeing minimal results in the first 3 minutes of so. Utah seemed so nervous to be going up against a 4 headed monster that could run off for quick points and easy scores at any time.
Kevin Durant came out firing but missed his first 4 shots because draining a deep 2 from the right wing. Draymond, as usual, dictated the flow on offense while Stephen Curry? He dictated any notion about who the best point guard is. Starting off with an assist just to be a floor general but his first bucket being a 3 off a catch and shoot.
But no other play stood out like this masterpiece right here.
He spins him around and lifts up his hands like picking your poison. Switching a big on Stephen Curry is a death wish and will score 99% of the time. Curry ended the game with 22 points (7-11 shooting) 7 rebounds and 5 assists. After the game, coach Mike Brown was asked about Curry’s crossover on Gobert and has he come accustom to the dribbling displays. He responded:
“No, I still enjoy it. I’ll keep enjoying it. I feel like I’ve got one of the better seats in the house, and I’m not even paying for it. So it’s a good thing. I mean, Steph is just dynamic with the basketball. And if their game plan is to switch Rudy out on Steph from time to time, I don’t know, we may see that again. I don’t know.”
“But Steph’s ability to shoot the ball and his hesitations, every once in a while he’ll glance and look at the rim. That’s tough for anybody, let alone a seven-footer to try to defend with all of the space because of the shooters that we have behind him.”
George Hill was no competition for Curry as he only scored 7 in 28 minutes; with 3 assist and 4 rebounds. Utah’s leading scorer was Rudy Gobert with 13. I’m not saying they ran Utah out of the gym because when it all boils down Utah never went away. They cut the lead down to 9 to make it a ball game but this David and Goliath matchup made the bigger the better.
Gordon Hayward was kept under wraps as he only scored 12 on 4-15 shooting. The whole night consisted of the Jazz trying to match Golden State’s tempo and crowd energy, but no team is better with their crowd’s energy than Roarcle. They got loud and the team got better.
When you let the entire Warriors starting five get 10+ then you typically aren’t gonna win that game. The Jazz shot better than the Warriors overall from three but this team is an inside-out team. Curry can go around you, Klay can go over you, Durant can go OVER YOU.
This play sums up this series. Defense into offense easy buckets for the Warriors. Too many turnovers for Utah and if they keep up that level of play then you’ll see the Warriors get wins like this every night.
Tipoff Thursday @ 10:30 ESPN
