The Golden State Warriors capped off the 2013 NBA Global Games with a blowout of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Dubs used another late surge similar to Tuesday night’s recipe for victory, this time a 14-0 run to end the third quarter. The run consisted of a string of three-pointers and dunks that began with two Klay Thompson treys, a slam dunk by David Lee, Stephen Curry‘s only made basket from beyond the arc, punctuated by a putback slam by Andre Iguodala.
“Andre Iguodala showed exactly why we went and got him: his ability to make plays, his versatility. He’s a big-time defensive player, but more so a guy that’s comfortable handling the basketball and making plays,” said Coach Mark Jackson, “I thought this was his best game thus far for us and he really showed how dangerous he can be with the ball in his hands, making plays with all the weapons that we have.”
Iguodala told me on Thursday night during media availability that he was still feeling out his new teammates, apparently on track for a prediction he made in training camp of achieving a satisfactory level of chemistry with the team by December.
“It’s a process. It’s good that I went through the process last year with a different team. I got an understanding of it,” Iguodala said, “You got some really good days when you feel like you’re building and some days when you feel like you’re back-tracking a little bit. You gotta really learn to have a balance mentally, emotionally, because it comes with it. Off the court, I’m looking for opportunities to hang out with the guys to kind of bond with them, get a feel for them. I’m enjoying it. I see the big picture and I feel like we can get there if we continue to lock in, continue to try and build with the guys.”
Last night, Iguodala finished with 14 assists. Had Curry made the long jumper that rolled around the rim and ended up with Iguodala slamming it in with seconds to go in the third, Iguodala would have finished with fifteen assists through just three quarters. David Lee added a quiet 16 points.
Ironically, Iguodala told me that his feeling of good chemistry does not involve statistics.
“I don’t judge it by numbers. I don’t judge with scoring or how many assists or how many rebounds I have,” he said, “It’s just the flow of the game, mixing it up with the guys. I know exactly where a guy’s going to be, where my touches are coming from. I just feel like I’m in that flow. So, hopefully it’ll get there.”
Iguodala seemed to know exactly where to find Thompson in the blowout win last night. Of Klay’s ten field goals made, five of them were assisted by Iguodala.
“The thing with Andre is he’s really unselfish, so it doesn’t matter who’s out there, he’s going to find the open man,” Thompson said, “That’s why it’s so fun to play with him.”
The word “building” and “bonding” seemed to be a theme with the Warriors the past week and especially the last two days. Players repeatedly pointed to the China trip as an extraordinary opportunity to get to know each other behind closed doors.
“If you can depend on them away from basketball,” Jermaine O’Neal told me, “you can depend on the during basketball.”
“It was just like old school,” said Draymond Green, who broke out with 14 points, 4 three-pointers, and 6 rebounds, “Simple things like you walk down the street, you can’t look at your cellphone all day to text, so it’s just simple things like that where you’re talking to each other and you’re going on all these different events to get better. On days off everybody’s together just out, just out and about. Things like this, you look back on later in the season and it actually pays dividends.”
And as Iguodala put it, “It’s our goal to continue to build. This is a business trip.”
With everyone including Dewyane Dedmon, Ognjen Kuzmic displaying some inside moves, Marreese Speights the benificiary of a few Iguodala feeds at the rim, Nemanja Nedovic getting significant minutes at point guard, Seth Curry nailing two three-pointers, and Kent Bazemore taylling 14 points, 5 rebounds on an array of baskets around the court, about the only yellow flags from the game were Harrison Barnes‘s continued shutdown due to his inflamed toe, Toney Douglas out with a curiously similar “inflammed leg”, and Andrew Bogut.
Bogut exited the game with back spasms just two minutes into the game, after making an inside post up basket.
Asked if there was any concern for Bogut’s injury, Jackson said after the game, “There’s no concern. He had some back spasms and we’re just playing it safe. He actually waved me off and wanted to stay in the ballgame, but we’ve got plenty of time to make sure he’s healthy and that’s important closing out this preseason.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
