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 … lingering questions while pondering the future …

Saturday, at 11:09 by

By TED SILLANPAA The Warriors did everything so right in their NBA playoff run … until about midway through the third quarter of decisive Game 6 against the Spurs in Oakland. It was then that it became clear that Golden State hit the wall and only Harrison Barnes was able to push through it and hustle forward. Shouldn’t it be a concern that, when their playoff lives were on the line, Barnes was the only Golden State player hustling back… 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 »

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-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 »

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 »

Pressure’s on Denver, so Golden State will advance

Saturday, at 12:39 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com The Denver Nuggets who are big favorites to beat the Golden State Warriors in the first-round of the NBA playoffs no longer exist. Big-time post player Kenneth Faried has been out with a bum ankle and likely won’t play in Game One on Saturday. Danilo Gallinari was sidelined for the season with a knee injury weeks back. People don’t think that the injuries will hurt the Nuggets because they played well down the stretch.… Read More »

Warriors just lost to better team Sunday … no search for reason needed

Monday, at 7:24 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com The Golden State Warriors didn’t stumble and cough up Sunday’s game to the Utah Jazz in Oracle Arena. The best team on that evening, and maybe over the last 10 days or so, won the game. Media folks have become more like fans in the last many years and stopped, in most cases, acknowledging that there are two teams in competition. If the home team wins: “The home team was brilliant Sunday night.” If… 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 have their star, defensive tenacity … just need rim protector

Tuesday, at 1:46 by

By TED SILLANPAA The Warriors’ Stephen Curry has become the go-to, clutch-shooting star that every really good NBA team needs. It’d be foolish to think Klay Thompson can’t become a star, too, despite his early season woes. David Lee’s having a career season. Golden State has been winning consistently because head coach Mark Jackson and assistant Pete Myers are throwback NBA tough guys who finally put together a Warriors’ team that plays defense, plays it well and doesn’t back down… Read More »