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SEATTLE – Below are five takeaways from the Warriors’ 122-94 preseason victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday at Key Arena.
1.Kevin Durant’s return to Seattle reminded me of Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour. Everything about the game centered on the nostalgia and history. The fans yearned for the star player to put on a show. And the result and game itself mattered very little.
That summed up Durant’s time and performance in the Warriors’ pre-season win over the Kings in his first game in Seattle since playing there as a rookie nearly 11 years ago. It also captured Bryant’s season-long farewell tour during his 20th and final season with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2015-16 campaign.
Granted, they were not the same thing. Bryant put on this show 66 times, while battling injuries at 37 years old against heightened competition. The 30-year-old Durant played in one exhibition in his prime against an underwhelming Kings team. But it still brought reminders.
With Bryant struggling with Father Time and their young roster struggling to learn together, the results quickly did not matter. So soon, the importance entailed maximizing NBA lottery odds and soaking in every last Kobe moment.
So when Bryant made his last stop at every road venue, the following script happened. He talked before every game and offered memories on that particular opponent and how it shaped his career. Bryant fans filled the arena. Teams provided Bryant with gifts and a tribute video. Bryant either showed moments of his former self or reminders that he is no longer the same player. And then afterwards, Bryant waved to the crowd before leaving the court.
In Durant’s case? As detailed in my extensive writeup here, Durant’s career came full circle in is return to Seattle nearly 11 years after playing there his rookie season and 10 years since the Sonics franchise moved to Oklahoma City. Durant engaged in a festive gathering during his pre-game warmup. After the scoreboard showed his rookie highlights, Durant stepped on the court during lineup introductions and showed off a vintage Shawn Kemp jersey. Durant thanked the crowd and offered hope about the Sonics returning to Seattle soon. After fighting some early-game jitters and missing three of his first four shots, Durant ended with 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting, seven assists and six rebounds in 26 minutes.
As much as Durant loved everything about Friday’s game, though, he did not agree or free comfortable with the comparisons to Bryant’s farewell tour. Whenever Durant approaches his final season, he might also become uncomfortable with replicating such an atmosphere at every road stop.
“Everything about me was definitely weird. It’s only cool for tonight,” Durant said. “I won’t want that any other night. It was definitely weird. It took me a while to re-focus and re-focusing on trying to get better. I had to realize this is just a preseason game and everyone else was pumped up.”
2. Klay Thompson had a Klay game. How fitting. Plenty of eyes centered on somewhere else (Durant). Plenty of shot attempts initially went to Durant. But just as he has done in his seven-year career, Thompson relished staying away from the spotlight. He then assumed that spotlight because of a breakout performance.
Thompson finished with a team-high 30 points, while shooting 10-of-15 from the field, 6-of-10 from 3-point range and 4-of-5 from the free-throw line in 23 minutes. He added four rebounds and three assists. He had logged his career-high 60-point performance against Indiana two years ago after infamously sleeping in through morning shootaround. The Warriors did not have shootaround on Friday, either. Instead, Kerr had the team visit the Seattle Seahawks practice facility. They sat in on their meetings and played touch football afterwards.
Thompson noted that trend “might have been a lucky coincidence” given that he scored an NBA record 37 points in a quarter on Jan. 23, 2015 against the Kings after attending morning shootaround. It was not a coincidence, though, why Thompson played so well in Seattle. The former Washington State standout received a strong ovation during pre-game warmups. He saw various fans wear Cougars gear and hold Cougars flags.
“I saw a lot of Cougs in the building. That motivated me to give them a shout out, to be honest,” Thompson said. “Once a Coug, always a Coug. To see all the love from the crowd was very inspiring.”
Beyond his own usual talent, Thompson took advantage of his circumstances. He furiously fought off screens. Kings guard Buddy Hield inexplicably sagged under screens when guarding Thompson. And Thompson stayed calm as Durant fought though through nerves. Hence, Thompson scored 17 points in the first quarter, while shooting 7-o-10 from the field and 5-of-8 from 3-point range.
“That’s perfect. It took me a while to refocus. Klay was the main reason I was able to get my focus back,” Durant said. “He went out there and played, knocked down shots and got us going on the offensive side of the ball until I was ready to be myself again. That’s what a great teammate does. He got us going tonight. We expect that out of Klay every single game. But tonight he was amazing. I think he fed off that energy as well.”
Thompson sure did.
“Klay was excited to be back in Washington,” Kerr said. “That was the subplot here.”
3. Damian Jones had the ‘play of the night.’ The play seemed impossible to make. Durant split a pair of defenders and then threw a lob that appeared way out of reach. But then the 7-foot-0, 245-pound Jones threw down a one-handed dunk.
“It was still in reasonable range,” Jones said, grinning. “I’ve been working on my shoulder mobility, so I was able to reach back.”
After Jones’ dunk gave the Warriors a 93-55 lead with 5;03 left in the third quarter, the Warriors entire bench stood up in awe. And for good reason. Kerr called that dunk “probably the play of the night.”
“My coaches reacted just the same way as the players. I think I got a forearm shiver from Mike Brown,” Kerr said, smiling. “That was incredible. What made it so stunning is it looked like the pass was going over his head. Damian just reached up and snagged it out of nowhere.”
Jones’ highlight reel symbolized his growing comfort. In his second consecutive game as the starting center, Jones finished with seven points on 3-of-6 shooting, seven assists and two blocks in 15 minutes. Jones still finished with three fouls, but he did not allow that to deter his aggressiveness. Afterwards, Jones called his play “pretty solid.”
The Warriors saw Jones’ dunk, though, as more than just pretty solid.
“It showed you a glimpse of what Damian is capable of,” Thompson said. “I thought that was unreachable. That was a terrible pass. But he caught that thing back and it looked so effortless. That’s what he’s going to give us all year, that floor spacing above the rim. I’m happy for Damian. He’s an animal out there.”
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4. Kerr touches on his coaching influence. Kerr felt nostalgic. He wore a Seattle Supersonics T-Shirt before Friday’s game. He loved that Durant wore a Kemp jersey during lineup introductions. He soaked in the atmosphere all around him.
The Warriors’ coach also loved seeing Hall-of-Fame coach Lenny Wilkens, who coached the Sonics’ 1979 NBA championship team. After playing for Wilkens with the Cleveland Cavaliers (1989-1992), Kerr has appreciated some of Wilkens’ coaching lessons.
“Practices were streamlined and crisp,” Kerr said. “We didn’t run a lot of offense. But what we did run was we ran really well. So we executed like crazy.”
Kerr does not have an extensive playbook, either. He adopts the “less-is-more” and “work smarter, not harder” ethos.
“I learned something that I took with my own coaching philosophy. Don’t have a thousand plays. Have a few net plays,” Kerr said. “Make sure you execute those really well. It’s really well to find an offensive rhythm that way. I thought Lenny was as good as it came as far as coaching was concerned.”
Kerr has similar respect for assistant coach Ron Adams, who is in his fifth season as Kerr’s assistant. For the fourth consecutive year, Adams was chosen in an NBA.com GM survey as the NBA’s best assistant coach. Adams has had various assistant-coaching stints in San Antonio (1992-94), Philadelphia (1994-96), Milwaukee (1998-2003), Chicago (2003-08), Oklahoma City (2008-10), Chicago again (2010-13) and Boston (2013-14).
“It’s been a great marriage. One of the reasons I hired Ron four years ago was I needed his experience. I needed somebody to tell me this isn’t going to get it done,” Kerr said. “We got to get some work in here. We got to do this and we got to do that.’
Never does Adams bite his tongue.
“Everybody told me that Ron is a truth teller. He’s going to give it to you straight,” Kerr said. “So I think we’ve influenced each other really well. He’s been the guy who sometimes will put the brakes on for me and say ‘Don’t forget about this drill or this scheme that we need to work on.’ I’ve probably loosened him up a little bit with the way we conduct our practices. More than anything, I love being around him and having dinner with him and drinking wine and talking politics and sports and life. He’s been a great companion and coach for us.”
5. Kerr changed his starting lineup. With Stephen Curry (personal reasons) and Draymond Green (sore left knee) sidelined for Friday’s game, Kerr started training camp invitees Tyler Ulis and Marcus Derrickson in their place. Derrickson had five points on 2-of-4 shooting and seven rebounds in 21 minutes, while Ulis had three points on 1-of-2 shooting and four assists in 15 minutes.
Those players took advantage of their promotion. But Kerr also utilized his resources elsewhere. He played all 15 of his available players. Not only did Kerr want to do that for evaluation purposes in training camp. He wanted to reward all of his players with minutes. Kerr has repeatedly called this year’s training camp the best he has seen in his five years because of the players’ energy and work habits.
Green did not speak to reporters in Seattle. But he has continued riding a stationary bike since missing three consecutive practices. The Warriors have off on Saturday and resume practice on Sunday. The Warriors have remained optimistic Green can return then.
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