Kurtenbach: The masters vs. the students — the Warriors’ Game 1 win
showed their evolution, Memphis’ threat
Golden State Warriors 117 – Memphis Grizzlies 116: Steph Curry, Klay
Thompson, and Draymond Green have faced all sorts of teams in the NBA
Playoffs. But a younger version of themselves? That’s a new kind of battle.
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30)
dribbles against Memphis Grizzlies’ De’Anthony Melton (0) in the second
quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff
series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30)
dribbles against Memphis Grizzlies’ De’Anthony Melton (0) in the second
quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff
series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: May 1, 2022 at 5:17 p.m. | UPDATED: May 2, 2022 at 1:41 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/01/kurtenbach-the-masters-vs-the-students-the-warriors-game-1-win-showed-their-evolution-memphis-threat/

It’s been said in boxing that styles make fights. I think the same can
be said in basketball.

And this Warriors-Grizzlies series is going to be an incredible bout.

The first contest confirmed it. The Warriors won 117-116 in Memphis
Sunday afternoon, but don’t take the Dubs’ early lead for granted: this
series has the makings of a seven-game classic.

Because rarely do two teams match up in the way the Warriors and
Grizzlies do.

And even rarer is a series starting as intense as Sunday’s Game 1.

Both teams want to push the pace. Neither team has an issue with
physicality. And both squads are keen to let you and their opponent just
how good they are.

>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (11)
and Golden State Warriors’ Gary Payton II (0) defend on the last shot of
the game by Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant (12) with seconds left in the
fourth quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round
playoff series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1,
2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Game 1 was elite sports entertainment — playoff basketball in its best
form. The final 10-plus minutes of the game were played with the kind of
focus and intensity typically reserved for the final seconds of
contests. It was so agonizing to watch unfold, so stressful, that this
series should be the first to come with a warning label on the screen.
If this series goes six or seven games, it will surely create collective
cardiac arrhythmia in the Bay.

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Which way will the series go? It’s more than fair to lean towards the
Warriors way after Sunday.

After all, the Warriors won despite losing Draymond Green in the second
quarter to a questionable ejection.

They won despite Steph Curry and Klay Thompson battling foul trouble all
game long.

They came back from a 13-point first-half deficit, 12 ties and nine lead
changes, including Memphis countering the Warriors with three go-ahead
buckets in the final 2:19 of the contest.

These Warriors won even though Thompson, one of the greatest shooters of
all time, missed both of his two free throws with 6.7 seconds renaming
and the Warriors up by only one point.

>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson (11)
celebrates his 3-point basket against the Memphis Grizzlies in the
fourth quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round
playoff series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1,
2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Grizzlies fans will call Golden State’s Game 1 win “luck.” The Warriors
prefer to call it “championship DNA.” Whatever it was, it came through,
as did plenty of Dubs players who were not along for the ride during the
Dubs’ dynastic run.

The Warriors received the kind of All-Star performance they needed from
the ascendant Jordan Poole. After back-to-back substandard games and a
tough start, Poole came through in a big way with 31 points. He could be
the x-factor in this series. He was a huge reason why the Dubs won Sunday.

Gary Payton II was incredible in his first playoff start Sunday. The
6-foot-3 spitfire guard did a great job guarding Memphis superstar point
guard Ja Morant, though it was Curry, of all people, who blocked
Morant’s shot with 19.8 seconds remaining and Thompson who checked him
when he missed his game-winning shot as the buzzer expired.

>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins (22)
dribbles against Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) in the second
quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff
series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Andrew Wiggins had a huge game. The box score numbers were nice — 17
points, eight rebounds — but it was the things that can’t be quantified
that made his performance a winning one Sunday. Wiggins, oftentimes a
drifter on the court, apparently had Green’s heart transplanted into him
at halftime.

The Warriors were being destroyed on the glass early in the contest,
with Memphis grabbing offensive rebound after offensive rebound. Free
possessions in a game that went down to the final one. Wiggins had two
huge offensive rebounds in the final minute, all part of the Warriors
somehow finishing even with Memphis in that category at the end of the game.

In a game and a series where the difference will be found in the
margins, Wiggins’ hustle plays down the stretch — while he was playing
center for the first time all season — could have very well been the
difference.

Warriors center Kevon Looney, who didn’t start for a second-straight
game as the Warriors began the contest with Green at center — more than
held his own against not one but two outstanding big men for Memphis. He
also had eight points every one of them coming at the rim.

>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Kevon Looney (5)
grabs a rebound against Memphis Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane (22) in the
second quarter of Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round
playoff series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1,
2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Jonathan Kuminga, all of 19 years old, was called into action and
changed Sunday’s game. His six rebounds proved crucial in the Warriors
re-establishing control over the game and forgetting Green’s absence.

And in a game where foul trouble created rotation problems for the
Warriors coaches and Green’s ejection threw the initial game plan out
the window, credit must be given to guys like Damion Lee, who played for
3:29 seconds, and Juan Toscano-Anderson, who played for four seconds.

That was more than enough time for them to lose the game for the Dubs,
so they deserve credit for being part of a winning effort, even if it
required a few antacids.

It’s fair to wonder if the return of Green in Game 2, paired with the
successes they had with him out of the game could create a new paradigm
for the Warriors moving forward. Lesser teams would fold after a loss
like Sunday’s

But Memphis is too talented and too headstrong for that.

>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23)
fouls Memphis Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke (15) in the second quarter of
Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff series at the
FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022. Green was ejected
from the game after the foul. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

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The Warriors see their younger selves in the Grizzlies and it’s hard to
blame them. It’s not a perfect match, but it’s hardly a stretch to see
the similarities. Young, brash, underestimated and eager to prove their
worth — the Grizzlies’ only sin is that they are collectively figuring
out how to win in the playoffs in real-time.

The Warriors remember what that was like, though seeing how it was seven
years ago, perhaps a bit less vividly.