Draymond Green and Jordan Poole dapped each other up along the sideline, and it was showtime.
The Golden State Warriors, whole again, back and ready to defend their title. In Golden State’s last preseason matchup, no enduring effects from Green’s practice haymaker showed. Before things unraveled in the second half, it was Warriors basketball, as pure as it looked during last year’s championship run.
Klay Thompson made the most of his first run of the preseason, Green and Poole shared the court for the first time since their incident, and Jonathan Kuminga and James Wiseman starred, but the Warriors lost, 119-112, to the Nuggets.
When Golden State took the game most seriously, it looked like they had control. They have a ton to feel comfortable with heading into Tuesday’s season-opener against the Lakers in the Chase Center.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ final preseason exhibition.
(Ed. note: a glitch in NBA’s system made it so statistics weren’t immediately recorded)
Klay easing in
Thompson saw his first action of the preseason Friday, playing roughly 15 minutes.
Golden State plans to take things slow with Thompson, who has admitted he didn’t play as much basketball this offseason as he normally would because of a mental block.
Thompson’s minutes limit will linger into the regular season. There’s no reason for the Warriors to increase his load from 16 minutes to 35 immediately.
But it’s nice to see Thompson hasn’t lost his confidence.
Thompson shot the first time he touched the ball, and sunk a 3. He kept shooting, and shooting, and shooting. Like he did in his first game back from his Achilles injury last year, he was particularly aggressive in launching.
And it worked. There were heat checks, pull-ups, long 2s and reloads. The guard drained six 3s in a half.
“I expect him to shoot every time,” Kerr said pregame. “Just gotta be really honest. He’ll be thrilled to be out there. He can’t wait.”
Thompson met his coach’s expectations.
Commandeering the chaos
On three consecutive possessions in the second quarter, the Warriors either looked sloppy or things just went awry, but Golden State still ended up with points.
The Warriors’ free-flowing offense can get clogged or disrupted, but Golden State is smart enough to still get results even when it does.
The first play, a string of ping-ping-ping passes led to nothing, until the ball found Thompson on the wing for a triple. After that bucket, Draymond Green intercepted Denver’s long inbound pass and Thompson eventually found Kuminga wide open for a dunk underneath.
It was a helter-skelter, and it didn’t let up.
Golden State’s next trip, the ball trickled into the backcourt. But Curry eventually gathered, beat his man off the dribble and bounced to Kuminga for another jam.
It doesn’t have to be pretty — although, so often it is — to end with Golden State points.
The sign of a great, connected team is being able to execute even when plays break down. The Warriors have the talent, and the wherewithal, to thrive when things get thrown off-schedule in the half court. To do it with consistency is a rare, valuable trait.
Strong second unit
These Warriors are so deep, they might have too many options to trot out — if that’s even possible.
For weeks, and probably longer, the Warriors will experiment with different configurations in addition to their set-in-stone starting lineup.
“We are still learning about some of these different combinations,” Kerr said pregame. “I think that will continue for the first few weeks of the season at least. We have to look at different combinations and see what we want to do.”
The first substitution the Warriors made that will almost certainly be part of the regular season rotation plan made the five on the floor Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and James Wiseman. Moses Moody (right calf) was unavailable, but would likely take Baldwin’s spot in that group.
That lineup, and the one that replaced Curry with Donte DiVincenzo, looked solid. Kuminga and Wiseman particularly popped. They moved the ball, played with pace and made the Nuggets uncomfortable on the perimeter defensively.
Kuminga found Wiseman in the dunker spot for a jam. Wiseman repaid the favor, dishing to Kuminga from the high post in the split action for a backdoor layup. He cleaned up a Jordan Poole missed layup with a standing-leap dunk.
Wiseman also blocked a layup and altered another attempt. It’s telling that the Warriors already trust him to serve as the lone big man in a lineup, with no other true low-post presence to buoy him.
The reserves looked a bit more overmatched in the second half, but the flashes they showed early on were a statement.
