Friday Morning Point Guard

I missed last night’s Lakers-Warriors game, but I still have some thoughts.

[Ed. note: This article was originally published at raymondsimms.com, a temporary personal blog I ran during the 2022-23 basketball season. It was ported over to Crucial Baskets on April 20, 2024.]

Golden State Warriors 127, Los Angeles Lakers 100

Between the Celtics’ Game 2 blowout of the 76ers and this game, it seems that whenever I don’t watch a conference semifinal game it runs away from itself. But good on the Warriors for tying the series up before heading down to Los Angeles.

I have the same side-eye for Anthony Davis that I did for James Harden after his Game 2. It takes more than one game to win a series, so disappearing the game after a big game isn’t helpful to his team’s advancement cause.

Conversely, shoutout to Rui Hachimura. His 21 points off the bench really wowed people on Twitter. It’s good he’s in a more beneficial place than muddling along in Washington, D.C. He’s one of those frontcourt players that I saw operate off the dribble once in college and started having high hopes for him. Specifically, it was at the Maui Invitational. Fun times. So it’s good to see his contributions recognized, even in a losing effort.

Meanwhile, the Warriors adding another chapter to their upcoming memoir “We’re Not Dead Yet! Stop Throwing Dirt on Us! Seriously, We’ve Told You, Like, 10 Times Already”. Klay went 8-of-freaking-11(!!) from three-point range. Steph dropped a cool 20 points. Draymond was an assist away from a triple-double. Strong stuff from the Old Three.

I definitely did a double-take when it was announced that JaMychal Green was starting in place of Kevon Looney. Especially given Looney’s contributions in the first round and the fact that they only lost Game 1 by five points.

But it seemed to work out well in the end. JMG finished with a +5 plus-minus in his 12-and-a-half minutes while Looney had a +11 plus-minus and grabbed eight rebounds in the 12 minutes he played off the bench.

Props to Kerr for seeing an issue and making an adjustment, even if it seemed unorthodox. As he definitely knows, the small changes are the things that could separate a title team and one that makes an early exit.

Lastly, I’m surprised Jordan Poole had such a middling game (Six points, 3-of-6 shooting, 0-of-2 from three) when Zendaya was in the crowd. It seems that the presence of beautiful women — which seemingly helped him ascend in last year’s postseason — is no match for the slump he’s facing through the first nine games of these playoffs.