Before the controversy over Ja Morant‘s injured knee that dominated the postgame talk after Saturday’s Grizzlies–Warriors game, there was already a strong focus on his matchup with Jordan Poole, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. After three days of hearing questions about his defense following Morant’s 47-point explosion in Game 2, Poole responded by taking the ball at Morant repeatedly Saturday night.
Both players were selected in the 2019 draft, but while Morant was the second pick and his path to stardom was quick, Poole was taken at No. 28 and had to live with an early label of being a bust before proving that he can play. He welcomes the opportunity to measure himself against Morant, Thompson writes, and he responded to a challenge laid down by his veteran teammates to keep competing no matter how many times he’s targeted on defense.
“It’s going to keep happening,” Stephen Curry said. “Whether it’s me, him, whoever. That’s the nature of the playoffs. But you just have to take that challenge seriously. You have to have some pride around it, knowing that they are trying to put you in the actions for a reason. That doesn’t mean you’re going to get a stop every time. It just means you did your job.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- The team’s most important offseason addition has turned out to be Otto Porter, who signed a veteran’s minimum contract last summer, according to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Porter’s numbers — 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots — didn’t stand out on Saturday, but he was plus-30 in 24 minutes of action and ranks second on the team at plus-76 in the playoffs. According to Kawakami, Golden State tried to sign Patty Mills and Nicolas Batum to a mid-level deal last summer, but turned to Porter when Mills and Batum chose other teams.
- Rookie forward Jonathan Kuminga was the newest member of the starting lineup Saturday night, notes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Coach Steve Kerr wants to keep Poole in a reserve role and there are spacing issues when Kevon Looney plays alongside Draymond Green, so Kerr opted for Kuminga, who scored 18 points and matched up well when he was switched onto Morant.
- Andrew Wiggins set a personal playoff record with 15 points in the first half Saturday, adding another dimension to the Warriors’ potent offense, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “That’s what we’ve been asking Wiggs to do all year … put your head down and get to the hole,” Green said. “It’s very hard to stop him from getting to the basket. It’s bigger than just dunks. The way he’s been rebounding and the physicality that he’s been playing with and boxing out … he’s been doing an incredible job no matter who he gets matched up on.”
Imagine if the Celtics had Poole, who I wanted them to draft in 2019 rather than Romeo Langford…
Hey, Imagine if the Warriors weren’t so afraid of being able to sign Larry Bird when they had the fifth pick in the draft … Celts took him with the next pick …
jaMorant is a great offensive player but is terrible on defense. Looks like the next Westbrooks but the good thing is being young enough to improve on defense. Curry was terrible on defense when he was younger but now he is average out there. Deference in coaching last night’s game Warriors adjusted after the first quarter and Grizzly never adjusted after all the points they were giving up in the paint.
If you actually watched games and not just ESPN highlights/propaganda, you’d know Steph Curry has ALWAYS been an above-average or better defender.
To this day, Curry remains the only player to lead the league in steals, yet STILL gets the “Curry was terrible on defense when he was younger”?? Nope, wrong, lies – he literally led the league in steals, and no previous steals leader has EVER been called “terrible” defensively. None. Just Curry. Yeah, thats BS, lies.
Curry has been above-avg to borderline elite/all-defensive, especially this season, his whole career, stop the cap.
This season Curry locked pretty much every PG he played on all regular season. Sure, elite superstars like Ja will cook him from time to time (game 2), but overall Curry owns Ja, and Poole absolutely was calling for switches so he could cook Ja too last night – look for more of that if Ja comes back.
End this bogus lebronaganda about Curry’s defense today. Just stop it, it only serves to make you look really dumb.
A’sfaninUK, I can assure you ARC2 watches the games. As far as Curry being a “good” Defender I’m not sure about that. I would just say he holds his own through training, discipline, desire, practice and the team defensive scheme.
The fact of the matter is just like Jordan Poole, he’s really not strong enough. But that’s okay. If you’re a plus minus zero on defense and your offense carries you to +15 a game, you’re doing a great job. Curry and Poole would fall into those categories.
Another note is you can’t judge a man’s defense by how well he guards Ja Morant. That man can score at will out there on any person any time he wants.
Curry is plenty strong – especially this year – starting to think you dont watch basketball either smh
If you claim GSW but arent a Curry fan, youre muted. Bye.
Youre always with the arrogant takes on here, I’d like them more if they were actually heady and not “actually curry isnt good” like who are you kidding here? Stop it. Your analysis is total garbage. Bye bye ice cold takes!
Steph Curry is an ELITE pg defender whether you like it or not, and the numbers agree. Knock off the lies.
Curry is a average defender not above average. I have been watching him play all the way back to his college days and wanted GSW to pick him. His defense is just average but I wouldn’t call him above average. He is a smart player that makes up for his defense by being in the right place at the right time.
That long and you still can’t see, huh. Warriors have been one of best D teams. Thru their whole run. It’s what won rings for them. Curry has gotten better at every part of gm. His D is better than avg. Cause he is part of Team D. This is a TEAM gm. And it’s played both ways. Funny how we always forget that. He also avg 2 stl a gm. I’d say he’s a bit better than avg. Mostly cause of great team D. Warriors IQ as a team. Understand the importance of trusting your teammates. It’s their strength on D and offense. Yeah a real fan ??
A smart player of the game and it shows up in his defense, too.
Average at best
Imagine arguing “Im not dumb, Curry stinks at a facet of playing basketball” like, its been too long to coast off these 2010 narratives about him, grow up. Curry is elite at every facet of the game. Period. Stop lying. Stop promoting LEbrons hate press on him, it was all lies to make Bron look like Curry didnt lock him 1-1 defensively in the playoffs late and close.
Hoops rumors, I apologize for the casualness out of GSW posters on here, I will try to uphold the quality of takes….
A’sfaninUK, Just because someone has a different take than you do does not make it any less legitimate. Post your opinions, we enjoy reading them and responding with our own posts. You can’t handle an exchange like that? Okay fair enough.
My advice would be to learn how to come back with strong rebuttals instead of whining about muting because you can’t handle opposition to your ideas. It will help you in the long run.
Or just make up “facts” about someone, right Gar? Remember when we were throwing back a few cool ones at Chili’s and you told me you were a huge Toronto Raptors fan because you’re Canadian?
Jessica in Modesto, yes I totally remember that. You had that dress on and were pretty cute. All you needed to do was fix your hair and shave your back.
Still can’t figure out why you didn’t want to hook up with me?
No one would hook
Up with you Gary. That’s why your 84 and never had a girlfriend. The good news is you can still
Qualify to be a priest.
Gary doesn’t play 2 hours hoop a day like me
Why are you so bitter when somebody has a difference of opinion? Elite is Green, Iggy, or Payton. Curry has never been in the conversation as a all defense team player. Nothing wrong on being a average defensive player. If Curry was a elite defender you would be calling him GOAT like Jordan.
Lol! You think you have quality takes?!? Hahahaha. Hate to break it to you bud but….
Payton is better… Curry is just not a weakness, and a terrific rebounder for a guard. One of those guys who seems to know where the ball is going, and can get there faster. Anticipation is his strength. His steals stat peaked in 2016.
What this has to do with James, only AsfaninUK could explain, but not necessarily rationally.
Completely agree. Gary Radnich is a tool
Glad Porter finally is healthy but man seeing him perform this way compared to his continually injured stint with the Bulls makes me wonder if he was really trying at all back then. Not exactly an inspiring environment.
The Warriors are approaching the situation cautiously with Porter this whole season. I don’t think he played in back to backs and his minutes were limited.
That is paying off now in the playoffs as Porter is healthy and ready to go. But he is very fragile and the slightest thing will knock him out for two weeks.
I remember watching a game sometime around midseason and he bumped knees with a guy. He stayed out the rest of the game and missed a few after that as well. GS just used caution with him and I’m sure he appreciated it as well. He now has a solid year of great production on his resume to hopefully get a nice three-year contract somewhere this summer.
The Perfect Championship recipe: Bring in a vet who provides excellent contributions and at the same time rebuilding their reputation.
Imagine if GSW had Batum, Mills AND Porter though? Sheesh, unbeatable, we needed Mills as a backup PG so bad, we were playing Chiozza ffs
True !! But I think Patty Mills perhaps wanted more minutes then he thought he might get with curry and Poole handling the ball so much as well as green and Wiggins running the point at times.
Then with Nicolas Batum I thought maybe he took a step back this year, but I might be wrong? He’s just getting a little older from what I saw. So considering everything I think it all worked out.
Nah. Mills would’ve just taken away Payton’s spot.
No way GP2 is way better than Mills who was out of the Nets rotation cause of his shooting and being a target in D.
Plus prime shaq and prime MJ and prime KG. They would still suck.
Too funny …… I guess Poole really went after Ja. 47 hurt his feelings that much …… Poole D is worse than Jas. Can’t wait to see the Grizz response.
Morant had 34 pts when he left. I guess Poole couldn’t handle another 45 pt gm. Too funny. NBA better look at this.
It might look that way in slow motion Al, but in real time the ball is in that area and sort of loose-ish and Poole takes a swipe. He gets the knee but I don’t really think that was an intentional act to hurt Ja’s knee.
I also don’t think, as I said before, Dillon Brooks chase down and whack on GP’s head was intentional. Brooks just plays hard.
Green’s foul was a pretty aggressive hammer to try and prevent the basket, and then the second pull down is like, “okay, I fouled him.., I’m going to try to make it so he can’t score by pulling the Jersey.”
Intentionally hurt someone? Not these guys. They know themselves that they are one injury away from ending their career. They’re not going to do it to someone else.
For example, would you say Marcus Smart is dirty and hurts guys on purpose? Of course not. He plays hard and if the ball is in his area he’s going to go for it.
Play one game of 5 on 5 basketball yourself ever before you talk s*** about stuff you know nothing about.
In basketball people get hurt *gasp*, and almost every time its unintentional.
Was Brooks trying hurt GPII on purpose so he couldnt play? Nope. It was however such an irresponsible play he deserved a suspension because you just cant do that.
For some reason a Knick fan hates Dray. What did he ever do to you or your trash franchise? He now super Stans for MEM because his own team is such a garbage fire!
Keep hating! Even Ja knew he was full of s*** and deleted the tweet!
Guess what will happen if Jenkins sends a video to the league. Oh right absolutely nothing will happen because Poole didnt do anything to warrant any further action!
Jenkins is just making excuses for his poor coaching. Kerr adjusted when Grizzlies started hot from the line. Jenkins never adjusted when Warriors were dominating inside. That would be the time to put in Adams and have a blocker inside. Instead he ran the same plays.
True, Jenkins was slow with Adams. HCs can be that way… They think their wisdoms must get a run-through to qualify for a game. Also theres the “abundance of caution” trend which may be taken too far in the playoffs.
Morant deleting a tweet which could be taken as complaint was just PR because he has aimed for a tough rep. Initially his kid-like looks got him made jest of.
The proper pipeline for grievances is more private.