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 keep hustling. How is that? Shouldn’t it be a concern that in the moment when their playoff lives were absolutely on the line — Barnes… 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 »

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 »

Warriors’ star pushes way into ranking of NBA’s elite, but …

Tuesday, at 2:47 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa Golden State Warriors fans and the folks paid to write and talk about the team are drunk on the exploits of guard Stephen Curry. He has turned in an unforgettable performance or two in the postseason against the Denver Nuggets. It could be that those “MVP! MVP!” chants that rocked the arena in Oakland will eventually be declarative statements of fact. On Monday afternoon, a little high myself on the memory of Curry’s 22-point third-quarter… 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 found championship formula in Denver

Wednesday, at 1:27 by

By TED SILLANPAA Twitter @tedsillanpa Follow Sillanpaa on Facebook ted.sillanpaa@pressdemocrat.com Woa! Wait! No. I’m not suggesting that a win in Game 2 of the NBA playoffs in Denver means that the Warriors have poven they can win the NBA championship. I’m simply pointing out that they did everything so well in beating the Nuggets that they created a formula that, if followed exactly, would win any team a title. The Warriors made over 60 percent of their field goal attempts and… 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 »