warriors d league (Photo: SeaDubsCentral.com)
KAISER PERMANANTE ARENA, SANTA CRUZ, CA — On Saturday after the Golden State Warriors got back from beating the Utah Jazz, assistant general manager asked Kent Bazemore if he would rather attend a poker tournament the Warriors were participating in or head down to the coast to play with the D-League Santa Cruz Warriors.
[NOTE: For all your D-League Santa Cruz Warriors fix, check out SeaDubsCentral.com!]“I’m like, I’m gonna go play basketball,” Bazermore said after helping Santa Cruz defeat the Bakersfield Jam, “I don’t know much about poker. I’m not a gambling guy, but anytime you can come out here run up and down the floor, get your legs in front of you, play in front a of a great crowd you can’t beat that.”
So, on the way down to Santa Cruz, Bazemore picked up MarShon Brooks. They were officially announced as assigned to the D-League team for the night. They were recalled by Golden State shortly thereafter.
The collegial atmosphere of Kaiser Permanente has helped make the Santa Cruz franchise tops in the D-League in ticket and sales and third in sponsorship revenue.
On this night, the Warriors wore uniforms that had green trim as well as other colors that are part of the logo of Hope Services, a nonprofit community organization in Santa Cruz. The team has done similar collaborations with the Salvation Army and Grind Out Hunger. There are plans to do one with the Red Cross.
“It’s something that’s broader than just basketball and you can see it in the support that we get from the local community,” the D-League Warriors’ President Jim Weyermann said, “We touch them through nonprofit activities supporting autisim or hunger or whatever those cases may be and you have the opportunity to bond with them in a way that transcends just the basketball game.”
Adam Johnson of Sea Dubs Central writes:
The Jam (10-17) had five players score in double figures compared to the Warriors (16-11) three. JamesOn Curry and former Golden State Warrior Ike Diogu each had 20 points for Bakersfield.
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Santa Cruz trailed 22-20 after the first quarter. The pace stayed much of the same until Daniel Nwaelele entered the game in the second quarter and lifted the team with three consecutive three-pointers as part of a 17-to-4 run where they led 37-26 halfway through the second. From that point, the Warriors never relinquished the lead.
Bazemore scored 25 points and had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals, but started slow and was just 6-for-16 from the field, 3-for-12 from beyond the arc. Brooks, who scored just 6 points on 3-for-14 shooting, had a few layups and made good drives to the hoop, but had trouble finishing.
We will have a more detailed scouting report on this site shortly: Bazemore, Brooks.
Meanwhile, Ognjen Kuzmic grabbed 14 rebounds, 8 of them offensive, in just 29 minutes of play.
“He’s had some really good games, he’s had a couple tough games,” head coach Casey Hill told LetsGoWarriors before the game, “We’re still trying to work on some of the offensive awareness type of stuff, but he’s constantly rebounding and he’s constantly working. He’s a wonderful teammate. He’s a wonderful worker and he’s absolutely improving day to day.”
Hill also said that Kuzmic has all but forgotten about the broken hand he sustained earlier in the season while with Golden State.
There were other former Warriors present. Scott Machado had a end-of-quarter-beating running three-pointer which put the Warriors up by 9 heading into the fourth quarter. Dominic McGuire played power forward and scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds, playing his usual great defense.
At one point, you wondered if he was having a better game than Bazemore even on the offensive end, but his last jumper that caromed way off to the left of the rim, that caught mostly glass, was a stark reminder of some of the reasons why his career never took off in the NBA.
After the game, Bazemore, a crowd favorite, stayed with the Warrior Girls to sign autographs, even while icing his knees as he usually does after tough games. Here is also some pregame warmups. You can tell the atmosphere at Kaiser is a lot of fun:
Seth Curry commented on Steph’s 44-point performance, saying that Steph probably watched Seth’s game and would be talking to him about it in a few hours:
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