ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors backup power forward Marreese Speights was back to his old, jumpshot-making and charge-taking self tonight in the Warriors’ 111-101 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Speights posted an impressive 7-for-10 shooting off the bench in 17 minutes of play, including drawing two charges and a stretch in which he scored nine points in seven minutes in the second quarter.
Speights had been struggling in the 2015 portion of this season, which didn’t even include a subpar 5-for-12 performance two nights ago against the Denver Nuggets, to start the New Year. In fact prior to tonight, he had been averaging a career-low 5.1 points per game, shooting just 34.7%, far below his NBA clip of 46.6%.
“My New Year’s resolution was to come into 2016 better. I was putting a lot of work in, so I knew it was going to get better one day,” Speights told reporters post-game. “It’s a long process. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Even the light-hearted fun side of Speights came out in the locker room after the game.
Ready to put the slow start this season behind him, Speights joked, “I don’t know what happened in 2015. Oh yeah, we won the championship in 2015.”
Andrew Bogut walked by as Speights was addressing reporters, gave him a facetious nod since it had been so long since he had been made available by Warriors PR, and Leandro Barbosa took out his phone and started recording Speights from a distance.
Speights couldn’t contain himself, cracking up at one point:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831ZzgshdkY&w=560&h=315]He even mentioned Barbosa’s injury and that of James McAdoo, disagreeing when asked if he felt the game was a complete victory, an indication of how much Speights values the team and its camaraderie.
From the locker room’s vibe, it seemed more that the joy of the Warriors is more complete when Speights does — all of it, on the court, off the court, however you want to describe it — what he does best.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @rayinaction)
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