Golden State Warriors Kick Off Road Trip With Big Win Over Memphis Grizzlies

The Golden State Warriors topped the hobbled Memphis Grizzlies last night, 121-101. The Grizzlies were without crucial pieces including Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Steven Adams, Marcus Smart and Steven Adams. While the Warriors were relatively healthy with Klay back from an illness, though Moody, CP3 and GP2 remained sidelined with injuries. While there is still plenty of basketball to play, these types of games against weak teams are starting to feel like must-wins for the Dubs. If they want to sneak into the playoffs, there is minimal room for error as the Western Conference is highly competitive. Steve Kerr seems to have found a starting lineup he likes, as he opted to once again go with Steph, Klay, Wiggins, Kuminga and Draymond.

Draymond got a nice look at the rim for two before nailing a long ball to give the Dubs a 5-0 lead and open up the scoring. The Grizzlies bounced as Jaren Jackson Jr. got a bucket followed by a Jacob Gilyard trey. Interesting note, Gilyard is the shortest player in the entire NBA at 5’8. A few minutes later Steph knocked down a deep three to give the Warriors a 12-10 lead but Memphis responded right away, spraying two shots from beyond the arc and taking a four point lead. To close out the quarter, Kerr subbed in Lester Quinones and Gui Santos, two players who haven’t seen much playing time at all this season. Though it didn’t seem to matter as Santos got a bucket inside and Quinones connected on a three. When the horn sounded to end the first quarter, the Warriors held onto a one point lead, 24-23. Kuminga came out the gates hot to start the second, nailing two jumpers and flushing one home. But the Grizzlies kept pace as they buried three threes to stay within two, 34-32. After Memphis took the lead on a fourth three, this time from Gilyard, the Warriors had had enough. Over the course of the next four minutes, the Dubs went on a 17-4 run and took a 51-39 lead. TJD and Kuminga led the way combining for 12 points including a tough and-1 by the latter. The Warriors would have gone into halftime with a comfortable 13 point lead, but Tosan Evbuomwan cashed in on a corner trey to cut it to 10, and make it a 57-47 game at the break. 

The third quarter was a back and forth affair as neither the Warriors could extend the lead nor the Grizzlies to trim it. A few minutes into the quarter, Wiggins knocked down a big shot from beyond the arc to make it a 66-53 game. Though Memphis answered with a 9-2 burst led by a Jaren Jackson Jr. trey to cut the lead to six with under six to play. To Golden State’s credit, they continued to step up and get big scores when they needed to. Wiggins hit a mid range jumper followed by buckets by Santos and Podz to bring the Warriors lead back to double digits. Finally to close out the third period, Klay striped a three and middy while Looney got two easy looks at the rim for two and the Dubs took an 85-73 lead into the fourth. Memphis stuck around for most of the fourth, keeping the deficit within 12. But with just under five minutes on the clock, Curry hit two treys while Kuminga and Podz got buckets on the inside to put the game away. Both teams emptied the bench with over 90 seconds on the clock. The buzzer sounded and the Dubs got out of Memphis with a huge win to kick off their road trip. 

Kuminga paced the Warriors with 29 points on an efficient 11-15 from the field. Curry had a respectable 20 including 4 threes, 6 boards and 6 assists. Rounding out the starting lineup, Klay put up 14 while Wiggins and Dray had 9 each. Dray was active as usual, racking up 12 rebounds to go with 6 dimes. The bench scoring was spread out as Podz had 12, Quinones had 10, and Looney had 9. Notably, Podz dished out a whopping 14 assists, breaking the record for most assists without a turnover for a rookie off the bench. For Memphis, unsurprisingly Jaren Jackson Jr. led the way with 27. Gilyard knocked down 5 threes on his way to 16 points while Vince Williams was right behind him with 15 of his own. Off the bench, David Roddy had a good game recording 16 points and 4 assists while sharpshooter Luke Kennard chipped in 12.

Granted the Memphis Grizzlies are not the team they once were when everyone was healthy, the defensive performance by the Dubs was still excellent. They limited the Grizzlies to 40% from the field and 30% from downtown. They also dominated the points in the paint battle 60-42, and the rebounding battle 46-37. As for their own shooting splits, Golden State shot a solid 55% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc. From my point of view, there are not many areas of struggle for the Warriors last night, as they took care of business early and didn’t let Memphis creep back into it. Instead I’ll use this time to provide some updates on CP3, GP2 and Moses Moody. All three player’s returns are highly anticipated, and should immediately help the team. Moody has been cleared to practice, and should be back in the next couple games as he ramps his conditioning up. On the other hand Chris Paul is not as close, as he has only begun light on-court individual workouts and is scheduled to be re-evaluated in roughly a week. Lastly, there is not much word on Gary Payton, but it seems he is still a couple weeks from making a return. 

With the big win, the Warriors have strung together two straight and move to 21-24. They remain locked into the 12th spot in the West, a handful of games out of the play-in. Next up for Curry and company is the Atlanta Hawks who sit at 21-27. There are talks of the Hawks being sellers at the deadline, with Dejounte Murray being a hot topic. Atlanta hasn’t been playing its best ball this season, but Trae Young is always dangerous. In another winnable game, I’ve got the Dubs making it three wins in a row, beating the Hawks 125-120.