WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors, having disposed of the New Orleans Pelicans in a four-game sweep, returned home for practice on Monday.
Upon entry into the practice facility, bench unit players Justin Holiday, Brandon Rush, Marreese Speights, and Leandro Barbosa gathered for a 3-on-3.
They were joined by Ognjen Kuzmic, who won a D-League championship the night before with the Santa Cruz Warriors, and David Lee, who has been out recently with a strained back.
Lee was available to play in Game 4, but only if desperately needed.
“Just spoke w D Lee,” tweeted Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude from before the start of Game 4. “(Lee) said he’s most affected by back when sprinting. Available but won’t assume he’ll play a lot,more emergency/foul trouble.”
As for Monday, Lee looked fine in 3-on-3.
From today's #Warriors practice, David Lee about to take a shot. pic.twitter.com/1X0Q4BApPZ
— Let’s Go Warriors 💦💛💙 (@LetsGoWarriors) April 28, 2015
Assistant coaches Luke Walton and Jarron Collins also took part in the 3-on-3. At one point, Walton and Barbosa argued a traveling call, with Walton vehemently displaying a stutter-step move of Barbosa’s that was in question.
Sorry, no definitive report on who won that argument. We pick our spots with 3-on-3s and shooting contests because, one time, Lee asked us not to film one of his 1-on-1s. It’s understandable. Imagine us catching a clip of Lee missing a couple times or airballing, for example. Then it goes viral on the Internet and used as a way of putting him down; it might have been his only miss during the workout, who knows, but the content is used in a way it was not originally intended.
So, we pick our spots and support the team. We don’t give the haters fuel for any fires. #LetsGoWarriors!
With the 3-on-3 going, the Warriors were so thin on personnel that associate head coach Alvin Gentry was left to defend Festus Ezeli in a post-up drill.
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Meanwhile, Stephen Curry was excused from practice for a “private matter”, so on the near court where he usually shoots, we found Andre Iguodala putting up some shots.
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On the far end, Klay Thompson did some post-ups then put up shots off the bounce, aided by advance scout Chris DeMarco. It always seems like Thompson is adding some nuance to his game, throughout the season.
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Maybe Curry’s absence gave a vibe that extra threes needed to be shot, maybe not, but Ethan Strauss even caught Shaun Livingston launching a few. Livingston had told LetsGoWarriors at Media Day back in September 2014 that he wanted to add that to his repertoire, but with his early season toe injury that led to him jumping into the regular season fire when he was healed, the long-range attribute never materialized this season.
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Below are some of the highlights from media scrum interviews with head coach Steve Kerr, power forward Draymond Green, and shooting guard Klay Thompson.
One of the main themes was the long layoff, as the Warriors will not face the Grizzlies, if they win, until Saturday if they beat the Blazers in 5 games — Memphis currently leads that series, 3-1 — and not until Sunday if the Grizzlies win in 6 games, and not until Tuesday if the series goes 7 games.
“You just want to balance rest and rhythm. It’s not really a concern because the circumstances mean you’re doing well,” said Kerr. “It means you probably just handled your business real well.”
“You don’t really change your routine as far as getting shots up and getting a work out too,” said Thompson.
Green echoed the sentiment and kept things in perspective, mentioning that the Warriors were indeed trying to keep their conditioning where it needs to be.
“It can hurt you just as much as it can help you,” Green said of the layoff. “If we keep going at this pace we’ll be fine.”
Kerr said the team would scrimmage hard on Tuesday, then take the day off on Wednesday, then scrimmage hard again probably on Friday.
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