Warriors ready for “totally different ball club” with 30 and Porzingis

[SAS-GSW videos/interviews/transcripts]

Kristaps Porzingis and one Wardell Stephen Curry won’t be back until after the All-Star Break, which includes three off-days this season as they won’t play again until next Thursday when the Celtics come into town. Boston is 35-19, currently second in the Eastern Conference standings.

But it seems like all the Warriors are eagerly anticipating the debut of Kristaps Porzingis.

Pat Spencer postgame, after the loss to San Antonio:

Totally different ball club when you have Number 30 out there and the new addition in KP, so I think for us, we’re excited about having a little break. We’re a little bit on the older side of the team, so to give a couple guys some rest, get healthy and come back, I think we’re pretty excited about what it’s gonna look like as a collective group.

De’Anthony Melton might be thinking, Killa Kristaps (you know, referencing Klay Thompson), or something along those lines:

Man, Kristaps can do so much. I mean, he’s a matchup nightmare for a lot of teams. I mean, you see what with the Spurs. I mean, they have Wemby who’s seven-a-lot and the stuff he can do and the matchup nightmares he brings to the table. So I think him having out there, it’s just gonna give us a lot of size and a lot of mismatches that we need and some teams, he’s gonna kill just because they can’t physically match up with him. And I think that’s the stuff we need and having 30 come back and just the floor spacing and having somebody seven feet, over seven feet, that can really shoot the ball. He can still put the ball on the floor and make good decisions. That is gonna be a huge for us.

I’m just glad Draymond Green will finally get some help. I think I’ve been the only one on the Internet to say that, while everyone else is stuck on “get Steph some help”.

Incidentally, Warriors TV released this little mini-Media Day get-to-know-you on “Porzee” (his Instagram handle “kporzee”). His favorite jersey that he has is one signed personally by Andrei Kirilenko 👀 Also, this and many other things were posted on our Discord server within hours of being released on social media. Get your daily dose of Warriors news here for free: https://whop.com/letsgowarriors-discord-free

Green played a great game last night, although Victor Wembanyama fell out of bed and notched 26-and-9. I don’t know if any of the social media-dependent Warriors fans realized, but the key factor for the Spurs was actually Keldon Johnson.

And when I said that on the watch party livestream, NBA fan Ronald McPaul chimed in in the comments that the Spurs broadcast also said that.

Fyi, we have Draymond to thank for that unsung role of Johnson stepping up to the plate. With De’Aaron Fox hitting timely hero buckets (twice) and a hobbling Stephon Castle (see Mitch Johnson’s postgame), San Antonio has a lot of weapons — but one weapon that didn’t break out and simply destroy the undermanned Dubs was Wemby.

Much like Keldon did against Gui Santos and Moses Moody, bullying his way to the cup, Dray established his base foundation of defense against Victor, never allowing him to get comfortable.

Wemby “only” had one dagger three and one momentum-changing blocked shot. It definitely could have been worse. I’ll take a loss at the hands of Keldon Johnson in the clutch, in the absence of Jimmy Butler, any day, in comparison to a thrashing by The Alien, as he did to the Lakers in LA the previous evening.

Here’s my “honest recap” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, and my notes are in the Comments of the Watch Party, per usual:

Assuming KP is healthy, it should be fun to see the tandem of our very own “seven-a-lot” guy (Melton voice) and Dray, on both ends of the court. The only thing standing in the way of turning the tide of sentiment back to Draymond might be the health of Porzingis.

Below are the transcripts from postgame Spurs. I’ll get some more discussion on KP from Steve Kerr and former NBA head coach David Fizdale on to this website soon…

00:00 Up 16 midway through the third quarter, what flipped after that?

00:04 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME SAS-GSW: Well, they turned up their defense and we needed to respond and get a couple hoops and we just couldn’t get anything to go. And so the way they closed that quarter, I don’t know if it was 16-0 run or eight, whatever it was, but it just changed all the momentum that we had built throughout the game. And so they went into the fourth quarter with all the momentum, and so that was a turning point, obviously, but our guys played great and really competed, moved the ball, did everything possible to win the game. And it’s too bad we couldn’t kind of finish it off. But proud of the guys for the effort.

00:47 This is obviously like a checkpoint of the season right here, going into the Break. So much has happened over the first few months. How would you just kind of sum up what has been and you feel like you all are at 29-26?

01:01 Well, you just said it. I mean, there a lot has happened with Jimmy’s injury and the trade and we’ve got a chance to get recharged here over the Break and come back and we’ve got plenty to play for, so obviously we’ll have to incorporate Kristaps, get Steph back and we feel like we can be a really good team. And I think our guys are showing why, with the way they’re competing and moving the ball and playing together.

01:34 I was gonna ask you about both of them. Where do you feel like they’re at with this week ahead?

01:40 Kristaps played today and was moving better than yesterday and seemed to be in a good rhythm. I didn’t see it, but the development coaches, I think, it was half court, still half court, but I believe it was fives half court. And but yeah, they said he looked good and so we’ll just see how it plays out.

02:07 What are you hearing on Steph? Like, what’s Rick (Celebrini) — ?

02:11 I talked to Steph earlier and he said he was feeling better, so he’s trending in a good direction, but it’ll be just day to day when he comes back.

02:22 Steve, you’ve mentioned it a couple times, you just mentioned it there to start, the group’s really playing hard. How are you going to define success in the second half given, as you’ve also mentioned, the expectations for the group have changed because of all the things that have happened?

02:40 I think as a coach, you just, that’s all you want to see is competition, energy and execution. And so that’s if we can accomplish those things, then I think we’ll be successful. And we feel good about adding Kristaps gives us another dimension and obviously getting Steph back will change everything, but yeah, success will come if we continue the process we’ve been showing.

03:16 Steve, we saw what Draymond did against the Spurs a few months ago in San Antonio. Did you feel like he leveled up a little bit tonight against Victor Wembanyama with his near triple double?

03:24 Leveled up, meaning what?

03:26 Just his level of play tonight and everything. His extra competitiveness and fire.

03:30 Draymond was incredible. This is when he’s at his best with the biggest challenges. He’s such a great defender, one of the all time greats, and guarding a guy like Victor gives him a challenge that he relishes and I think it really raises his offensive game as well. He was, Draymond played a fantastic game tonight.

03:58 Moses had a lot of good off ball movement, a lot of good shots off of movement. What have you kind of seen from him as of late? I think 14 of the last 15 games in double figures.

04:07 Yeah, he’s just found a good rhythm shooting the ball. He had a stretch there where he was cold, but we know what kind of shooter he is and that stuff always evens out, so he’s just in a good groove and he’s there for us every night. He’s so steady and that’s what we love about Mo. He’s there for us every night and competes and guards the best guys and really, really good player for us.

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04:35 What kind of went awry there in that third quarter after you guys take the 16-point lead and then the Spurs come coming back, roaring back.

04:40 PAT SPENCER: Yeah, just got a little bit stagnant offensively. They started getting some stops and running and put them on the free throw line probably a couple too many times. We just, it just felt like we got a little bit stagnant offensively, just couldn’t find a rhythm. They dropped into that zone, threw us off a little bit, just could never get it going from there.

05:00 You guys have gone through a ton lately. Starting with obviously the Jimmy injury, won some bigger games. Now heading into the Break, where do you, how would you categorize where this team’s at heading into the Break?

05:12 Yeah, I mean, I think for us it’s just about getting healthy. Totally different ball club when you have Number 30 out there and the new addition in KP, so I think for us, we’re excited about having a little break. We’re a little bit on the older side of the team, so to give a couple guys some rest, get healthy and come back, I think we’re pretty excited about what it’s gonna look like as a collective group.

05:38 How has Kristaps kind of ingrained himself into this locker room so far? What have been your first impressions of him?

05:44 Yeah, great dude, (super easy to talk to…) [AVAILABLE VIDEO TRUNCATED)

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05:46 You said that the All-Star Break feels like kind of a natural inflection point of the season. How would you reflect on your season so far?

05:54 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: personally, ups and downs. I think that comes with the season at the end of the day, but biggest thing for me is just trying to figure out how to get better and trying to figure out ways defenses are covering me, especially without 30 out there, feeling the primary defender on me and stuff like that and just figuring out ways to also be effective, but also be effective for my teammates and stuff like that, too. So just trying to gotta keep figuring it out. That’s all it is.

06:27 What do you think flipped in the game in the second half today?

06:31 Man, they got like four lay ups in a row at one point and then fouls. I think we gotta cut down on those. I think that’s been our biggest achilles heels of the whole season, just fouls. And I think timely fouls is the biggest thing, but down that stretch when they kind of went on the run, was just a lot of layups. A lot of layups, high percentage shots that we shouldn’t be giving up.

06:52 Now with everything this team’s been through recently, Jimmy’s injury, trade deadline, all that, kind of where would you say this team is at going into the All-Star Break?

07:04 We’re at 29-26, like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, we feel like we lost some games we should have won. Sometimes we feel like some bad bounces out there, some bad calls or whatever it is, but at the end of the day none of that stuff matters no more. Once that win or loss goes into the column, I mean, that’s all you can do, so I think the biggest thing is just reflecting on what we can get better, what we can do and we know we are still a great team. We know we can beat pretty much any team, so we just gotta figure those things out and just stay more dialed in.

07:38 What do you think Porzingis can do for this team if he’s healthy and right?

07:44 Man, Kristaps can do so much. I mean, he’s a matchup nightmare for a lot of teams. I mean, you see what with the Spurs. I mean, they have Wemby who’s seven-a-lot and the stuff he can do and the matchup nightmares he brings to the table. So I think him having out there, it’s just gonna give us a lot of size and a lot of mismatches that we need and some teams, he’s gonna kill just because they can’t physically match up with him. And I think that’s the stuff we need and having 30 come back and just the floor spacing and having somebody seven feet, over seven feet, that can really shoot the ball. He can still put the ball on the floor and make good decisions. That is gonna be a huge for us.

08:27 With 27 games after this All-Star Break left in the season, how do you kind of use this All-Star Break to rejuvenate yourself and get right for that?

08:36 Man, just like you said, rejuvenate. I think everybody in this locker room has been working real hard. We’ve had three different teams this year. Some guys have had some bigger roles and had to step up when they least expected it sometimes, but I think going into All-Star Break, kind of telling — I was telling guys just to recoup yourself, clear your mind and just figure it out. For me, I’m gonna go back home, just continue to work out, continue to work on my body because coming back from All-Star, I wanna hit the ground running and just make sure I can capitalize on as much time as I can.

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