Warriors’ victory sends Front Office message as the NBA trading deadline is approaching -NBC Sports Bay Area & California

On By Littum

San Francisco – With eight days left before the NBA trading deadline is Warriors’ Shot Callers in the last stages of assessing whether they have the resources and bravery needed to deal with the same neighborhood as the Western conference elite.

Which visits on Wednesday night from Oklahoma City Thunder especially timely. They roll through the vest as gangsters in thought armed with grenades, leaving a destruction path in their wake.

This game would give Warriors an idea of ​​how much distance between them and the top of the conference.

The answer: Not as much as the position suggests when Golden State’s defense emerges as it did after the first quarter.

The drowsy start left Warriors afterwards with 14 early in the second quarter before pushing the thunder to the edge and down the stretch pushed them opposite a 116-109 victory that electrified the outlet (18.064) at the Chase Center.

“When we come out with the right intentions, the right energy, the right mindset,” said Gary Payton II, who contributed 15 points, nine rebounds and a spectacular dunful dunk with 1:03 back, “we can compete with someone. “

Warriors (24-23) is in 11th place in the West, 13.5 matches behind first place (37-9). They will not catch them no matter what occurs at noon on February 6th. Too much reason to cover.

But it means that Warriors took NBA’s most impressive team down for the second time in three games to win the season series. It reminds them of what is possible.

This is important because it sends a message to a dressing room that grows anxious as trade speculations warm up where Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney and Payton are mentioned as potentially available in trading.

This is important because it sends a message to an active front office. General Manager Mike Dunleavy and his crew, with CEO Joe Lacob prominent, are in Cyber ​​Monday mode. They act with deliberate intention, according to league, but resist the temptation to jump with rage.

This exciting victory is also important to what it tells the restless fanbase. The streets of the Dub Nation are filled with feelings of hope trying to hide feelings of despair.

“We know they are in place,” Kerr said. “What we saw early in the year was not a mirror. You don’t just fall into it. But when we saw the tape on the OKC game, we played on the road early in the season as we rolled, you could see a jump in our steps. A look in our eye. I didn’t see that early in the game.

“We have struggled to play with that jump and confidence for the past month or so; It’s great to see us fight through it and reach this state in the second half where you could see think you could see the energy. It felt like we caught it again. Now we have to maintain it. “

A game does not give decisive evidence – OKC is superior to the most relevant measurements – but it is enough for Warriors to consider that they are a danger to any opponent when they turn on their intensified defense. They did it on this evening, even with defensive ace, which Daymond Green looked at from the bench in green designer -sweat.

Once through the first quarter, Warriors limited the thunder to 37.3 percent shooting from the field. MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got his scored 52 points helped with 18-of-21 shooting from the line. Jalen Williams put 26. The rest of the team shot 27.3 percent.

Warriors owned on their side the other half and Outscored Thunder 68-51 and shoots 61.5 percent from the field, including 52.9 percent from distance. They solved OKC’s defense, a sneaking maze of humanity exquisite choreographed, ranking No. 1 in the NBA.

“All in all, our intensity in the second half, all of which scraped out there, every single guy who came on the floor, scrapped and gave us good minutes,” Kerr said.

Next comes Phoenix Suns and the opportunity for Golden State’s first win in three games since mid -November.

The front office still has work to do, but this evening was enough to influence the upcoming decisions.

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