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sport / alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors / SFC: Why Kevon Looney's 22-rebound game was the Grizzlies-crushing move the Warriors needed to make

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o SFC: Why Kevon Looney's 22-rebound game was the Grizzlies-crushingDonald Lee

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SFC: Why Kevon Looney's 22-rebound game was the Grizzlies-crushing move the Warriors needed to make

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Subject: SFC: Why Kevon Looney's 22-rebound game was the Grizzlies-crushing
move the Warriors needed to make
From: coac...@gmail.com (Donald Lee)
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 by: Donald Lee - Sun, 15 May 2022 07:43 UTC

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/Warriors-Kevon-Looney-showcases-his-value-with-17172683.php

During the Golden State Warriors’ team flight Thursday morning back from Memphis, acting head coach Mike Brown sat next to forward Draymond Green and asked for his thoughts on the starting lineup.

Toward the end of Golden State’s blowout loss to the Grizzlies in Game 5, Brown had started to think his first unit could benefit from Kevon Looney’s size and toughness. But it wasn’t until Brown heard Green’s emphatic explanation of why the Warriors need — no, really need — Looney at the start of games that he became convinced.

In helping his team to a series-clinching 110-96 win over the Grizzlies at Chase Center on Friday night, Looney reinforced why Green and other teammates feel so strongly about him. His 22 rebounds were the most from a Warriors player in a playoff game since Larry Smith corralled 23 in a Game 5 loss to the Lakers in the 1987 Western Conference semifinals.

Within a span of two-plus minutes midway through the fourth quarter Friday, Looney dished out three assists as Golden State flipped a one-point deficit into an eight-point lead. After hitting a put-back, he corralled two more offensive rebounds, then found guard Klay Thompson for a 3-pointer with 2:58 left that iced the game and sent the Warriors onto face the winner of Dallas-Phoenix in the West finals.

As Thompson pumped his fists in jubilation and unleashed a roar, Looney stood, straight-faced, a few feet away. On a night Thompson conjured memories of his past Game 6 heroics with a 30-point masterpiece, Looney was content to do the dirty work and stay in the background.

Yet there his teammates were postgame, stepping to the podium one by one and heaping praise upon him. Little more than two years ago, after health issues limited Looney to only 20 games, many wondered whether he would ever return to the stabilizing force head coach Steve Kerr once called a “foundational piece.” Now, Looney isn’t just a key contributor to a title contender — he might be the reason it even got this far.

With the Warriors going small against the Nuggets and Grizzlies, he oscillated in and out of the rotation during the first two rounds. On that recent charter flight to San Francisco, Green told Brown that Golden State needed the 6-foot-9, 222-pound Looney against the league’s best offensive rebounder in Grizzlies center Steven Adams.

“They made it clear they were going to beat us up, and they were doing a great job of it,” Green said. “Inserting Loon back into the (starting) lineup changed that.”

With the Warriors up 30-26 at the end of the first quarter, forward Andrew Wiggins told Looney, “Man, you have 11 rebounds already.” Looney hadn’t noticed; he was too busy boxing out the much-bigger Adams and fighting for offensive boards.

Of Looney’s almost two dozen boards Friday, 11 were offensive. With him leading the way, the Warriors schooled the NBA’s best rebounding team in the art of the board: textbook box-outs, physicality and hustle, then more hustle.

Two nights after Golden State was dominated on the glass, it out-rebounded the Grizzlies 70-44, including 25-10 on the offensive boards. Those 70 rebounds were the Warriors’ most in a playoff game since they grabbed 73 against the Lakers on March 28, 1969.

“I’m looking at the 25 offensive rebounds, and it doesn’t look right to me,” said Brown, glancing at the box score in front of him. “Still, it doesn’t look right. Let alone 70.”

In addition to Looney’s workmanlike effort, the Warriors got 15 rebounds from Green and 11 from Wiggins. Perhaps more noteworthy than any rebound, though, was how much time Looney logged.

His 35 minutes Friday, including a stretch of 17 straight, were easily a playoff career high. At one point, Brown saw Looney gasping for air and yelled, “Hold on, Loon! Hold on!”

This spoke to Looney’s value. Even though his playing time has been sporadic in these playoffs, he is one of the Warriors’ most reliable players. Rarely is he out of position defensively or slow to box out his man. At age 26, Looney plays with an awareness of angles, spacing and timing that belies his youth.

“We needed every single one of those minutes,” Thompson said of Looney. “Kevon was possibly our MVP tonight and, wow, I’m just so proud of him.”

Such pride is rooted in all the struggles Thompson and others have seen Looney navigate: the two hip surgeries; the severe stomach issues that forced him to overhaul his diet; the neuropathy that nearly derailed his career two years ago. As Looney played in all 82 games this regular season and started 80, teammates took to calling him, “Pro.”

This was their subtle way of paying homage to his consistent professionalism. Though no one in the Warriors’ locker room was surprised to watch Looney come up big in a closeout game Friday, his teammates were pleased.

Finally, on a national stage, Looney was getting his much-deserved moment in the spotlight.

“All the hell I put my body through to get here is paying off,” Looney said. “There were times when things weren’t looking good for me. …. To have a moment like this is big. I want to continue to make more moments and make more memories.”

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