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

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 »

Warriors-Nuggets: Crowd noise impacted home team & beating the traps

Sunday, at 6:09 by

From the arena in Oakland, Sunday at 5:55 p.m. By Ted Sillanpaa Warriors’ coach Mark Jackson said that the raucous Oakland crowd for Game 3 actually caused Golden State problems early on Friday. “We had difficulty yelling out the action on the pick and roll,” Jackson said. “Our bigs were calling out the screen like they’re supposed to, but with the crowd noise our guards couldn’t hear it and we got caught a couple times.” The Warriors addressed the problem.… Read More »

Warriors lose David Lee for remainder of playoffs

Sunday, at 12:13 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com Follow Sillanpaa on Facebook  Golden State Warriors’ star David Lee has a torn right hip flexor and will be out for the remainder of the postseason. He suffered the injury in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Denver. The injury requires months to heal. Here’s a link to a story by Bay Area News Group Warriors beat writer Marcus Thompson II, the best Warriors guy going. http://www.contracostatimes.com/warriors/ci_23074603/warriors-david-lee-out-rest-playoffs-torn-right    

Close isn’t good enough for playoff novice Warriors

Saturday, at 11:01 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com The last thing the Warriors and their fans wanted to acknowledge was that the club utterly lacks NBA playoff experience. After Saturday’s gut-wrenching 97-95 loss to the Nuggets in Denver, that lack of playoff experience will be in the forefront of the conversation until Tuesday’s Game 2. Andre Miller’s drive to the hoop, against pretty solid defense from Draymond Green, should never in a million years have become a 1-on-1 duel between a tested… Read More »

And you wouldn’t get mad if David Lee busted your lip?

Wednesday, at 9:58 by

By TED SILLANPAA| Twitter @tedsillanpaa Enjoyed time off cashing in a small recreational wager on the Warriors after they beat the Lakers on Monday night. The wager isn’t important, I’m just setting up a small point by making it clear that I paid really close attention to that game. Golden State’s David Lee smashed his elbow into Dwight Howard’s face, cut Howard’s lip and forced the Lakers’ center to get stitches. Coming on the heels of the NCAA men’s basketball… Read More »

’74-’75 Warriors hint that we don’t know what today’s Warriors can accomplish

Friday, at 12:26 by

By TED SILLANPAA We’ve gotten a little too used to believing that we know in advance who’ll win the game and, then, reach the playoffs. I don’t need to go back to my youth, decades ago, to give an example of how the most unlikely champions emerge, but I will because the most unlikely championship team of my lifetime were the 1974-75 Golden State Warriors. It’s actually instructive to take a quick, if long, trip down Memory Lane to briefly… Read More »

Warriors need a star … and it won’t be Harrison Barnes

Saturday, at 12:25 by

By TED SILLANPAA The Golden State Warriors have a team filled with complimentary players. Forward Carl Landry and guard Jarrett Jack come off the bench to do things every championship team needs done in every game all season long. Andrew Bogut, when healthy, will defend the rim and do things offensively that a playoff team asks a big man to do. Stephen Curry is a lights-out shooter, one of the best in the NBA. Power forward David Lee does all… Read More »