The G
olden State Warriors set their franchise record for consecutive wins in a row on Saturday night with their defeat of the Chicago Bulls 112-102. It was their 12th straight victory, giving them an NBA-best 17-2 record. Golden State’s win ended their five game losing streak at the United Center.
The Bulls were the first real test the Warriors have faced during their now twelve game win streak, earning victories along the way against lesser teams like the Lakers, Jazz and the Durant and Westbrook-less Thunder. The East Coast road trip consisted of teams from the lowly Eastern Conference in the Magic, Hornets, and reeling Pistons.
Basically saying, they haven’t really beaten anyone good during their current streak.
No matter, though, as the Warriors seem to have the confidence and chemistry that you just don’t see on other teams. With a plethora of talent on the roster, including early season MVP candidate Stephen Curry, the team’s chemistry gives them the edge when playing against other playoff-caliber teams.
Take Draymond Green for example. Filling in for an injured David Lee, the third year forward from Michigan State is having a breakout/career year, starting the first 19 games for Golden State. He put up a career-high 31 points and was a career-high 7-of-13 shooting from downtown.
The Warriors are clicking on all cylinders, getting solid contributions from Green, Harrison Barnes and Marreese Speights, along with their bench unit.
Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com has more on the Warriors winning ways:
“This is a special win,” Curry said. “We knew this was going to be a big test for us with how defensive-minded they are. They’ve been playing well recently and had all their guys back. We had to come out and play well.”
The win pushed the Warriors’ NBA-best record to 17-2 and proved they could triumph in a hostile arena against a high-quality opponent.
Curry being hounded by several defenders, getting particular attention from 6-foot-7 Jimmy Butler, finished with 19 points and seven assists. Klay Thompson put in 24 points and had five assists. Andre Iguodala also had five assists.
It was Green, with a career-high 31 points, including career-high 7-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc, who benefited most from the passing of his teammates.
“(The Bulls) made a decision to live and die by his 3s,” Curry said.
That was the plan devised by Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau. Stop Curry. Slow Thompson. Deny the drivers. Make Green deliver. He did.
“Draymond’s not the kind of guy that you establish a game plan for,” coach Steve Kerr said. “You don’t draw up plays for him. Everybody in the league has a hard time guarding pick-and-pop, 3-point shooting 4s. There’s only so much court you can cover. The Bulls are as good defensively as anybody. They’re incredibly well coached, with length at every position.
“So if you can’t stretch them out, they’re going to just squeeze you and it’s going to be tough to find room. It just so happened that Draymond made shots tonight.”
They last lost a game on November 11th against the Defending Champion Spurs, which came right after their first loss to the Suns on November 9th.
If you have NBA League Pass (like any real NBA fan), I suggest watching the Warriors play whenever possible. They play fast, fun, exciting basketball that really is amazing to watch. When the Splash Brothers shoot, you expect them to make it every time, and I find myself shocked more when they miss then when they don’t.
Golden State will go for 13 straight victories on Monday when they travel to Minnesota to take on the young Timberwolves.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE LEAGUE
DERRICK ROSE WEARS SHIRT IN PROTEST FOR ERIC GARNER
Another story from the Bulls-Warriors game on Saturday night comes from Chicago’s side. Star point guard Derrick Rose went through pre-game warmups wearing a T-shirt that read “I Can’t Breathe” on the front of it.
The shirt refers to Eric Garner, the African American man who was killed in New York by a police officer who placed him in a chokehold. He was being arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes.
Rose wore the shirt in protest of the Grand Jury’s decision on Wednesday of last week in which the police officer who had placed Garner in a chokehold was not indicted in his death. Garner gasped the words “I can’t breathe” in a video that shows the officers arresting him, the words printed on Rose’s shirt.
D-Rose was not available to media after the game, but his teammates were still asked about his decision to wear the shirt in protest. Courtesy of Nick Friedell of ESPN:
“I knew that Derrick was going to put that T-shirt on,” Bulls center Joakim Noah said. “I think he has every right to express his beliefs. He told me that he was going to wear it. I respect Derrick a lot. I think he’s definitely making a statement by wearing it. That’s my guy.”
Noah said he thinks it’s important that professional athletes use their platforms to make social statements.
“Yeah. If that’s what he wants to do, I respect it,” Noah said. “I think a lot of people feel that way. When you wear a T-shirt with a statement everybody’s going to know how you feel about it. I respect Derrick 150 percent and I’m riding with him … a lot of people feel that way. It’s really sad what happened. Police brutality is something that … it happens. Not every cop is a bad person. Not every black person is a bad person. You can’t judge people. But he definitely made a statement by wearing that T-shirt.”
Bulls power forward Taj Gibson was also happy to see Rose express his beliefs on the floor.
“I thought it was great,” Gibson said. “I thought it was just him speaking his mind, speaking out. It’s a good thing for a positive movement. We just got to get back to just focusing on basketball. It was good for us, good for him especially, but it’s rough after you lose tonight.”
LeBron James was also impressed with Rose and his T-shirt, showing support for his decision.
LeBron James on Derrick Rose’s “I can’t breathe shirt”: “I thought it was great. I’m looking for one.” Hinted he could wear it tomorrow.
— Stefan Bondy (@nydninternets) December 7, 2014
If this is true, looks for James and his new shirt when the Cavaliers face the Nets in Brooklyn on Monday.
LEBRON JAMES “HONORED” TO PLAY IN FRONT OF ROYALTY
LeBron James is looking forward to playing in Brooklyn on Monday when his Cavs take on the Nets. Yeah, he’s looking forward to playing the game that he loves for the city that raised him and going for his team’s seventh straight win.
But that’s not the only thing he’s excited about, courtesy of Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com:
King James is looking forward to meeting the real royal family.
Britain’s Prince William and his wife, Duchess Kate Middleton, will be in attendance for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ game against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
“It’s an honor,” James said before the Cavs practiced in New York City on Sunday. “It’s a huge honor. The stuff that you read about, people like them are only in books growing up. And to hear that they’re coming to town to see me play and they want to see me do what I do best, it’s a huge honor.”
The royal couple will also meet with President Barack Obama on their U.S. tour. Count the president as another dignitary who has come to witness James play in person.
“Well I’ve had people from all across the board as far as stature, but the President of the United States, that was pretty huge,” James said. “To have those two, to say they were traveling here and one of the things that they wanted to do was see me play, it’s a pretty big deal in my household.”
It’s only fitting for the Royal Family to want to see the royalty of the NBA in his own right, King James.
James wouldn’t mind meeting and interacting with the royal couple, also from McMenamin:
“I would like to,” James said. “They are going to be at the game so I hopefully I get the opportunity to interact with them a little bit. We’ll see what happens.”
Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving joked that he owns a DVD of the prince and duchess’ royal wedding from back in April, 2011.
“It will be great to see them in person,” Irving said. “I mean, for me, seeing celebrities in person is awesome. I don’t really know too much about them, but they’re celebrities in our world so I guess it’s great to see them.”
This is an exciting time for the NBA, and should be a great honor for the League and the game of basketball. Drawing in celebrities from around the world is a big deal, and should be treated as such.
To end his seemingly busy weekend, LeBron was sitting courtside for the Blazers-Knicks game at Madison Square Garden as a fan for the first time in awhile. The Blazers won the game 103-99, sinking the Knicks even further to 4-18.
PAUL PIERCE: ‘BACK TO BOSTON’
Paul Pierc
e made his second return to Boston after being traded from the Celtics to the Nets two years ago. After only playing one season with Brooklyn, he is now a member of the Washington Wizards. Pierce went back to Boston on Sunday when his team faced the Celtics in his old stomping grounds.
He traveled back a bit earlier than the Sunday showdown and made a video that he titled ‘Back to Boston’. In the goofy short, Pierce talks about missing the city and the famous Boston accent, stating that he couldn’t even understand it sometimes after 15 years.
The video was created for The Players Tribune, the website created by Derek Jeter. You can check that video out below:
Pierce’s homecoming was spoiled by the hometown team, watching his former Celtics win the game 101-93. The Truth scored 16 points in the loss.
Rajon Rondo recorded his second triple-double this season and the 21st of his career with 13 points, 11 assists and 13 rebounds. It was the third straight victory for the Celtics, a season high. They’ll look to make it four when they finish the home-and-home in Washington on Monday.
All stats via NBA.com.
Regarding Pierce, he showed his age when Rondo made a crossover move, in the paint, leaving Pierce frozen as Rajon finished with an easy layup. I haven’t seen Pierce play much, but last season he couldn’t defend SFs (he was moved to PF), so it will be interesting to see if he’s really helping his Wizards team, as the season wears on.
Regarding LeBron, from the remarks I saw, he seemed to think the Prince was coming to Barclays, just to meet him. Its true that Prince William could have gone to a Knicks / Blazers game last night, but I doubt LeBron is the reason he chose Barclays. Paul McCartney is also a huge Nets fan, not to mention the new arena and the presence of Jay Z and Beyonce.
Regarding Derrick Rose, he seems to better represent the model of “privilege” than police brutality. He wasn’t very liked before, but this display only hurts his image even more, to many, despite the NBA media and general media bias.
First some facts. There never was a chokehold (which is very specific), but if there was one, it wouldn’t be criminal in this case. This was a case of a huge 350 man, known to have been arrested 31 times previously, and was resisting arrest, following complaints by the local Black business owners, as he was hurting their business (It’s part of the police job to protect store owners). And the officer in charge was an African American female police Sergeant, so there is no way Race was involved as our Attorney General would like to tell people (he’s supposed to be the #1 law enforcement person, but instead he’s despised by police, along with Mayor de Blasio. Now if the Grand Jury evidence was released, as was allowed in the Furguson case, we would probably know, and agree, why a conviction argument could not be made against this specific officer. He was acting as part of a group of 4 officers, ordered to “take down” and handcuff the man, after he resisted reasonable attempts. And the only place left to grab Mr. Garner, was in his neck region. Mr. Garner did die of pressure on his chest (perhaps by 2nd officer), besides possibly his neck region, due to preexisting conditions – obesity, bad heart and asthma. The only way to find out the full story, is to release the full evidence from this integrated grand jury. Otherwise, the media and others are just biasing the public. As far as the “I can’t breathe”, officers say they often report such complaints (usually phony) when trying to arrest unruly people. They didn’t know of preexisting conditions, but this particular officer Did change his grip and release pressure completely in response (not quick enough for some people with hindsight vision). Its absurd (as Sir Charles has stated), to think that any of those officers wanted to kill Mr. Garner.
Now if those reading this didn’t know these details, the question to ask is: Why Not?
If instead of trying to find guilty people that Rev. Al Sharpton has selected for prison, like the victimized George Zimmerman or Officer Wilson (as we only found out when the actual facts were revealed), maybe instead the community should peacefully protest the “process” instead of innocent parties. That will likely happen, in the end, with the present case, as de Blasio will be sympathetic to a Civil Suit against the NYC police. But after the Garner family become multi-millionaires, will this only encourage more lawyers to look for potential “victims”, and start this process of dividing our country, all over again?