Handing out awards for first quarter of Warriors' season
The first quarter of the NBA season is complete, and the Warriors have found consistency only in their frustrating pattern of alternating encouraging performances with those they would like to forget.The rhythm of two steps forward, followed by two steps back has them at 11-9.To be fair, they’ve generally looked like a team with three new starters, one being a 19-year-old center, and a bench still in the process of definition.All of which will be considered as we issue the Warriors Team Awards for the first quarter:
If Curry is on the court, and he has not missed a game, he’s automatically is the most valuable player on the team. His offensive gravity, which creates open shots for teammates, ends any reasonable debate.
Curry leads the Warriors in scoring (27.7 points per game, sixth in the NBA) and total 3-pointers (89). He’s one of seven players averaging more than 20 points, five rebounds and five assists while also shooting at least 40 percent beyond the arc.
He’s not only the MVP of the first quarter for the Warriors, he’s lurking on the fringes of the NBA MVP race.
They said he was an underachiever, inefficient on offense and indifferent on defense. They said his salary carries too much dead weight on the salary cap.
Wiggins is taking those notions, all of which had at least a modicum of merit, based on his five-plus years with the Timberwolves, and tossing them into the San Francisco Bay.
He’s averaging 17.9 points per game, with career highs in field-goal percentage (47.2) and 3-point percentage (40.6). Moreover, he is defending with a passion, among the league leaders in field-goal percentage defense and blocks.
Jaws around the NBA are dropping. Those mouths will close If this keeps up.
He’s 19 years old, played three games in college and missed his first NBA training camp. Yet Wiseman is sprinting ahead of the curve – sometimes literally.
The rookie is delivering the most eye-popping moments so far, his lean 7-foot-1 frame dribbling the length of the court and punctuating his sprint with a dunk. It’s reminiscent of the full-court gallops of reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Combine that with Wiseman’s feathery shooting touch (40.9 percent from distance), and easy to consider his ceiling the stuff of fantasy.
For the sake of comparison: Wiseman is averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Antetokounmpo averaged 6.8 points and 4.4 rebounds as a rookie, rising to 12.7/6.7 in Year 2.
The Warriors had played only two games when Marquese Chriss, during a Dec. 26 practice, sustained a right leg fracture that required surgery. He could miss the rest of the season.
This was bad news for the Warriors, as the 6-foot-9 center/forward was a part of their big-man rotation, with Kevon Looney and Wiseman. Chriss might have been an alternative starter.
It was worse news for Chriss. The No. 8 overall pick in the 2016 draft, he made his way through three rosters in three years before landing with Golden State, where it seemed he had found a home.
The early departure of Chriss punched a large hole in the team’s big-man rotation, so the coaches decided to get creative. They turned to Paschall, a 6-foot-6 forward.
Paschall has responded with more positives than negatives. He’s not rebounding with the big boys, put he is exploiting mismatches and punishing lumbering defenders, some of whom simply will not wander out of the paint.
In the wake of Chriss’ injury, Paschall reached double figures in scoring in eight consecutive games, shooting 58.0 percent from the field. His numbers have dropped a bit, but the Warriors have seen enough to continue the experiment.
Given his contributions over the years, mostly as a reserve, Looney enters each season as the front-runner, as long as he is healthy. He has been good this season, playing in all 20 games.
Moreover, he has started the last four. With the team plodding through so many sluggish starts, the coaches took a close look at the analytics and replaced Wiseman with Looney.
The response is most visible on defense, as expected, where Looney’s sound fundamentals and court awareness made an immediate impact. He also does the little things that smooth the operation of the offense.
Game after game, he has been as reliable as anyone on the roster.
His point-of-attack defense generally has been by turns average and fantastic. His offense, especially early, was by turns spectacular and dreadful.
Which is why debate rages. There are times when he seems an offensive misfit, afflicted with tunnel-vision, launching a 3-ball early in the shot clock or hell-bent on driving. There also are moments when his aggression provides a lift.
There are times when he aces his defensive assignment, particularly on point guards, and other times when he seems to wonder.
What then, do we make of Oubre? There should be no conclusions. Too soon. But his offense is back to his typical standard.
The Warriors took the floor at Chase Center with the energy of zombies, falling behind by 10 inside the first five minutes and never taking a lead over the final 43 minutes.
The Knicks, averaging 24.8 points per quarter, came out and hung 40 in the first, with RJ Barrett scoring 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting from field and 4-of-6 from the line.
The Warriors were outrebounded 55-46 and outscored 19-7 in fast-break points. With the aid of 41 free throws, all five New York starters scored in double figures.
It was so bad that Curry, on a 30-point night, was minus-16.
Though the Warriors navigated two near-equal impressive comebacks over the first 20 games, one against each Los Angeles team, we’re going with Clippers being the most significant.
Why? Timing.
The teams met at Chase Center twice over a three-day period, with the heavily favored Clippers taking a 108-101 win in the first game and dropping Golden State’s record to 4-4. And now, trailing by 22 late in the third quarter, they were in danger of being blown out and swept.
Curry wouldn’t allow it. He took over the next three minutes, scoring 13 points to power an 18-2 run to close the quarter and provide the momentum that led to a 34-18 fourth quarter and a 115-105 win.
That was the first solid evidence of something the Warriors suspected, which was that they were good enough to play with any team in the league.
