By Piper Johnson
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA–
The Warriors saw a plethora of stars attending the game, such as Hip Hop stars Miles Minnick, E-40 and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament. However, the entire Chase Center crowd would have preferred three more stars who unfortunately were not in attendance and missing.
In facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors found themselves playing the defending champions without their three most important players. With Steph Curry (ankle), Draymond Green (injury), and Jimmy Butler lll (illness) not available.
Heading into this game would be challenging for the Warriors. The young guys and the Warriors bench needed to step up in a major way to win this game.
The Warriors played tough, but OKC overmatched the young Warriors.
OKC’s chemistry seemed unmatched, as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr noted after the game.
“Yeah I mean it was a tough night. Obviously we’re short handed but I don’t think that is an excuse for the way we played.”
While Kerr acknowledged the Warriors were short of their three big stars, that is not an excuse for them losing this game in such dominant fashion. The long-time Golden State coach believes that his team wasn’t well organized and didn’t play together enough.
The Warriors did get a solid performance from some of the young players, such as guard Moses Moody.
“There’s always something to take away from a loss, They were connected, moving the ball, making shots, making open shots, creating open shots. So being able to withstand that. Moody said. “Then offensively, just playing connected, figuring out how to get each other involved.”
Moody believes the team needs more chemistry with each other, and watching the Thunder create more open shot opportunities and capitalize on those opportunities was only enhanced he and Kerr’s belief that the Warriors will need to improve in those areas as the season progresses, regardless of the lineup.
The Thunder handily won by nearly 40 points, led by reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (38 points) and Chet Holmgren (21 points 8 rebounds).
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault praised Holmgren’s efforts.
“His impact on winning, just on a possession-by-possession basis,” said Daigneault. “It’s the visible things, obviously. Tonight you had rebounding, the blocking, you get the points, but it’s the invisible things too. It’s just the amount of plays and impacts positively for the team. You can’t just put value on it. I thought his rebounding tonight was particularly strong on both ends of the floor. I can’t say enough about how he played tonight.”
Improving chemistry or not, one thing is for certain: The Warriors need their best 3 players back and quickly if they’re going to make an unlikely run in the Western Conference.
Editor’s Note: Piper is a 13-year-old originally from The Bay Area, now a 7th Grader in Mike O’Callahan’s Middle School class here in Las Vegas. We’re happy to give Piper a chance to write about his home town team and hope you enjoyed it as well.
