WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — After taking care of business in SoCal against the Los Angeles Lakers this past Sunday, November 16th, 2014, the Golden State Warriors took Monday and Tuesday off.
The Warriors face the Utah Jazz tonight at Oracle Arena.
Tuesday was a community Thanksgiving event in San Francisco. The team took the bus from the practice facility across the Bay Bridge, but many of them elected to take BART to avoid the rush-hour traffic back.
WEDNESDAY PRACTICE
Typically after a day off, head coach Steve Kerr has remarked that the Warriors — and most NBA teams — have a bad practice session when they come back. This was not this case on Wednesday, even after the BART escapades.
Per Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area:
“I was surprised,” he said. “I was very concerned. Normally, practice is not good even after one day off. Two days can be disastrous. But our guys were really focused.”
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Kerr and his staff may have influenced the experience by changing the routine. They began not with the usual fundamentals and short-burst scrimmages but with eight-minute segments of 5-on-5 competition.
The hot topic of the day was David Lee‘s status after re-aggravating his hamstring. Media was told Lee would be re-evaluated the next day on Thursday.
Poole reported the following on Lee:
He is getting closer, though he likely will miss the game against Utah on Friday. Coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that Lee participated in some light non-contract drills on Wednesday and that “he’s progressing.”
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group filed this report on team rebounding:
Rebounding was the topic in practice Wednesday. The Warriors allow an average of 12.4 offensive rebounds a game, good for next to last in the league entering play Wednesday. The Los Angeles Lakers grabbed 20 of them in the Warriors’ 136-115 win Sunday.
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“It’s a big issue, and we talked about it, and hopefully we’ll clean that up,” Kerr said.
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“If we can rebound a little better and continue the D, then we’ll be able to get out and flow a little bit more offensively.”
Asked about the BART trip, Andrew Bogut said taking BART was like a Seinfeld episode because he didn’t have his wallet and Warriors PR staff didn’t buy him and Curry tickets with enough funds on them.
Poole filed the report:
Bogut’s wallet was in his car at the team’s secured parking lot in Oakland – the place of arrival on his original itinerary. So he called his girlfriend, asking her to meet him at BART to free him from the confines of the local transit system.
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“It was like a Seinfeld episode, man,” Bogut said, grinning. “I had to call my girlfriend to tell her to meet me at BART and she’s like, ‘Why are you at BART?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, no, I’ll tell you later. Just meet me at BART and give me a credit card and let me get out of here.’
THURSDAY PRACTICE
When we entered the gym on Thursday, Marreese Speights was busy tossing a football around with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The football was probably around due to Kerr’s acceptance of Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll‘s “Pass The Peace” challenge.
Meanwhile, Festus Ezeli was doing full-court sprints as trainer JoHan Wang entered data onto his laptop.
Asked how the process of installing the Warriors system had progress, Kerr replied that they were refining things and that the team was actually trying to simplify certain undisclosed elements.
“We’re in the mode right now of refining what we’re doing,” Kerr said.
Kerr was also asked about a comparison between Draymond Green and Boris Diaw. Kerr replied saying that he had actually talked to Green awhile back about watching tape on Diaw, but that Diaw was more of a post-up player and Green still had room to develop that aspect of his game. Kerr praised Green’s development with the three-point shot.
Stay tuned for Friday’s morning shootaround and pregame press conference!
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