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Can Warriors keep away from letdown, deal with prosperity after MEM win? initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Bayarea
The triumphant efficiency by the Warriors in Memphis on Friday was, contemplating circumstances and circumstances, no much less spectacular than their win over the imposing Utah Jazz six days in the past in San Francisco.
Keep in mind that sport? The Jazz strolled into city with the perfect report within the NBA and received shocked. The Warriors caught a glimpse of their ceiling.
Barely 30 hours later, they had been on the ground, face down, drooling victims of a smackdown by the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephen Curry, the longest-serving and most completed of the Warriors, described the 128-97 loss as “embarrassing.”
That’s the very current historical past the Warriors take into FedEx Discussion board on Saturday, after they face the Grizzlies for the second time in two days. They usually comprehend it, no person is extra conscious than Draymond Inexperienced, who was amongst these exercising appreciable warning amid that encouraging victory over the Jazz.
Inexperienced advised his teammates within the locker room that this 116-103 win over the Grizzles shouldn’t be permission to contemplate the Saturday rematch “free swing.” Translated, this victory shouldn’t diminish their willpower to win each video games.
“Typically you’ve got video games which can be free swings,” coach Steve Kerr mentioned. “You’ve received 5 – 6 in a row, you’re in an ideal playoff place and also you go right into a sport utterly shorthanded and also you say, ‘Alright, it’s a free swing. We’ve received nothing to lose.’
“I really like that Draymond mentioned that. We’ve received loads to lose.”
Their success on Friday allowed the Warriors, ninth within the Western Convention standings, to take a two-game lead over the Tenth-place Grizzlies. A loss would have put the groups within the dreaded digital tie, with Memphis having an opportunity to maneuver forward on Saturday.
“Given the season that we’ve had, each sport offers us additional juice, realizing that we haven’t completed some video games the best way we needed to,” Damion Lee mentioned. “However undoubtedly, these two video games, realizing that Memphis is a good group . . . clearly, everyone seems to be kind of jockeying for place should you’re exterior the highest 4.
What made this win significantly satisfying to the Warriors, and a perhaps bit stunning, is that it got here with out the providers of Stephen Curry, James Wiseman and Eric Paschall. Curry is nursing a bruised tailbone, and each Wiseman and Paschall are out as a consequence of well being and security protocols.
The void within the 50.3 factors per sport misplaced by the absence of the three gamers was crammed by Andrew Wiggins, whose 40 factors represented his highest complete since becoming a member of the Warriors 13 months and two weeks in the past.
RELATED: Why Wiggins’ 40-point night time with out Steph was so vital
Jordan Poole burned Memphis for a career-high 25 and Lee dropped in a season-high 21.
In a sport with vital stakes, with a weakened roster, the Warriors responded magnificently.
Solely to have one other such sport on Saturday, in opposition to an opponent that certain to be motivated after getting run off its flooring by a Warriors group with out three of its prime 5 scorers.
“(Saturday) goes to be a totally totally different beast,” Lee mentioned, “and we have now to know that.”
Within the wake of the win over Utah, the Warriors took the courtroom the subsequent day in Los Angeles and appeared like a group unrelated to that which roasted Utah yesterday. The protection, so efficient in opposition to the Jazz, didn’t make the journey, as LA just about put the Warriors to sleep by capturing 68.6 p.c within the first half.
Attempt that on Saturday, and the Grizzlies are able to exploiting it to the identical diploma.
“There haven’t been plenty of sweeps in these conditions,” Kerr mentioned, “and we all know that Memphis is coming after us. We’ve to be prepared.”
If listening to the Warriors, gamers and coaches, say all the appropriate issues after a profitable sport sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of it’s. They did a lot the identical after beating Utah but failed to seem in LA.
Now 42 video games right into a season with few tangible indicators of progress, one other win on Saturday, with Curry sitting, is the one manner for the Warriors to say even a slight flip in that route.
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