A Press Democrat Blog

Overtime

Ted Sillanpaa looks at the San Francisco Giants, other Bay Area sports and gives a dad's-eye view of Empire prep and youth sports trends

Giants’ defense hurting struggling pitching staff

Saturday, at 11:58 by

By TED SILLANPAA There’s grave concern over the way the Giants’ starting pitchers have performed lately. They’ve given up bunches of runs. The concern, exactly as expressed, is misplaced. It’s easy for pitchers to get hitters out, put up scoreless innings, when they’re pitching well. It’s those pitchers’ ability to do the same without their best stuff that made them world champions. And, it was solid defense that enabled the Giants’ five starters to succeed and for the team to… Read More »

Either 3-pointers fall or Warriors will go down on Thursday

Wednesday, at 1:20 by

By TED SILLANPAA Mark Jackson’s inspired pep talks won’t save the Warriors. The club won’t suddenly develop a low-post offense that allows them to really grind it out in the halfcourt to beat the Spurs with layups and free throws. Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson can’t defend more than one player apiece so Golden State’s defensive shortcomings aren’t going away, particularly when Jarrett Jack has played brilliantly offensively while offering nothing on the the defensive end. Jackson won’t do it,… Read More »

Warriors turned ball over, shot poorly … still won Game 4 to prove they can make a miracle

Sunday, at 5:27 by

By TED SILLANPAA Magic Johnson spent ABC’s halftime show reading the Warriors postseason obituary. It was hard to imagine Golden State, with Stephen Curry hobbled and foul troubles haunting the bigs, beating the Spurs Sunday or any other day. In fact, Magic said, “The shots aren’t falling for the Warriors. When the shots are falling, they can beat anybody. Jump-shooting teams just don’t win championships.” The Warriors wound up making just 38 percent of their shots in Game 4, and… Read More »

Roaring fans in home arena only helps if Warriors outplay Spurs

Saturday, at 10:40 by

By TED SILLANPAA Much has been understandably made of the Warriors’ crazed, wild, loud home crowd in the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Oddly, though, the capacity crowd that can blow the top of the joint was no advantage at all in Game 3 on Friday night. It turns out, the home crowd really doesn’t help the home team if the visiting team just plays a better game. A loud home crowd didn’t phase the visiting Spurs. Heck, the Warriors rallied from… Read More »

Warriors Curry says he thinks, hopes ankle will be OK for Game 4

Saturday, at 5:11 by

From the Golden State Warriors, the transcript of Saturday’s interview with guard Stephen Curry. He says he thinks he’ll be able to play Sunday in Game 4 against the Spurs after turning his left ankle in Game 3. – Ted Sillanpaa ——————- Below is the transcript of an interview with Stephen Curry, conducted by pool reporter Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group, following Golden State’s practice Saturday.  Curry was receiving treatment on his injured left ankle prior to… Read More »

Game 2 win in San Antonio makes Warriors title contender

Wednesday, at 9:35 by

By TED SILLANPAA The Golden State Warriors are no longer that fun, little team that can’t really win in the NBA playoffs. Oh, media types will still mock the notion that they could actually reach the NBA Finals, but they’ve done nothing to show they can do just that. The Warriors went into San Antonio and manhandled the highly-favored Spurs for 3 1/2 quarters before losing Game 1 in double-overtime, then beat them 100-91 to get the game on the… Read More »

Warriors stopped moving, then panic and paralysis set in to make for disaster

Tuesday, at 2:48 by

By TED SILLANPAA Look, the Spurs didn’t want it more than the Warriors Monday night. Mark Jackson wasn’t a great coach for 3 ½ quarters and an idiot for the final 15 minutes of the double-overtime game. Stephen Curry didn’t get tired for the first time in his NBA career. Things didn’t turn solely because veteran center Andrew Bogut was stuck on the bench for too long as San Antonio rallied. The Spurs came back to win because the Warriors… Read More »

Is Warriors-Nuggets Game 6 THE highlight of your day?

Thursday, at 3:31 by

By TED SILLANPAA Given what I do for a living, I should be packing around waiting for the 7:30 p.m. tip. The Warriors play the Nuggets in Oakland, Game 6 of their NBA playoffs series, in a couple hours. I was down there to write about the first two games in Oakland so, it seems like I shouldn’t be able to sit still in anticipation of … I won’t be at the Warriors-Nuggets game. Game 6 will record on my… Read More »

Nothing exciting in Warriors-Nuggets getting unnecessarily physical

Thursday, at 1:23 by

By TED SILLANPAA The media and some fans are gleeful at the prospect of the Warriors-Nuggets Game 6 being a knock-down, drag-out battle filled with hard fouls, cheap shots, etc. They think the series got more exciting because the Nuggets started knocking Stephen Curry around and the Warriors responded by, literally, slamming Kenneth Faried into the seats. A hard foul that prevents a layup is good, hard basketball. If things gets even more physical as players try to get rebound… Read More »

NBA, officials have to punish for every cheap shot in Game 6

Wednesday, at 12:59 by

By TED SILLANPAA It’s fairly easy to make sure that Warriors-Nuggets Game 6 doesn’t continue the game-changing physicality that marred Game 5. The NBA needs to make it clear to both coaches that there’s no tolerance for any action they determine to be intended to do physical harm. If Kenneth Faried knows he might be ejected without warning if a game official sees him do what he did in Game 5 and kick at Stephen Curry’s bum ankle, Faried is… Read More »