Rocksolid Light

Welcome to novaBBS (click a section below)

mail  files  register  newsreader  groups  login

Message-ID:  

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. -- W. C. Fields


sport / alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors / Kenney: Handpicked by Curry and Green to start, Kevon Looney was Warriors’ MVP of Game 6

SubjectAuthor
o Kenney: Handpicked by Curry and Green to start, KevonAllen

1
Kenney: Handpicked by Curry and Green to start, Kevon Looney was Warriors’ MVP of Game 6

<t61fqb$7lj$1@dont-email.me>

 copy mid

https://www.novabbs.com/sport/article-flat.php?id=3909&group=alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors#3909

 copy link   Newsgroups: alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors
Path: i2pn2.org!i2pn.org!eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: ala...@yahoo.com (Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors
Subject: Kenney:_Handpicked_by_Curry_and_Green_to_start,_Kevon
_Looney_was_Warriors’_MVP_of_Game_6
Date: Tue, 17 May 2022 17:49:13 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 115
Message-ID: <t61fqb$7lj$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Wed, 18 May 2022 00:49:15 -0000 (UTC)
Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="091531c05f9a85994a8a61b1c9c2e7ae";
logging-data="7859"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19jjdz2ZoH8MJmsSX/UuDT8"
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101
Thunderbird/91.9.0
Cancel-Lock: sha1:OEJ43pd6Yqg+/eca0KapeCBImjs=
Content-Language: en-US
 by: Allen - Wed, 18 May 2022 00:49 UTC

Handpicked by Curry and Green to start, Kevon Looney was Warriors’ MVP
of Game 6
Warriors needed size to combat revitalized Grizzlies center Steven Adams
and more rebounding. Big man Kevon Looney fit the bill.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 13: Golden State Warriors’ Kevon
Looney (5) grabs a rebound in front of Memphis Grizzlies’ Tyus Jones
(21) in the fourth quarter of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball
playoff series at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, May
13, 2022. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies
110-96. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 13: Golden State Warriors’ Kevon
Looney (5) grabs a rebound in front of Memphis Grizzlies’ Tyus Jones
(21) in the fourth quarter of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball
playoff series at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, May
13, 2022. The Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies
110-96. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 14, 2022 at 7:45 a.m. | UPDATED: May 14, 2022 at 11:37 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/14/handpicked-by-curry-and-green-to-start-kevon-looney-was-warriors-mvp-of-game-6/

SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry and Draymond Green sat most of the second
half of Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals on the bench
watching their team get obliterated by the Memphis Grizzlies. But rather
than sulk over the demoralizing 39-point defeat, one of the franchise’s
worst playoff losses in history, the two Warriors stars were already
pivoting their attention to the next game.

Curry and Green knew there needed to be a change in the starting lineup
to help jumpstart the Warriors, who had been struggling to find their
rhythm early in the three games since Gary Payton II went down with an
elbow injury. Rookie Jonathan Kuminga wasn’t cutting it and there was no
way the Warriors wanted a return flight to Memphis for Game 7.

The conversation continued on the team’s flight back to San Francisco,
but the answer became obvious.

The Warriors needed size to combat revitalized Grizzlies center Steven
Adams and more rebounding. Big man Kevon Looney fit the bill.

“Kevon, he’s been one of those guys that has been a mainstay in
everything that we do and no matter what — any point in his career when
his number has been called, he’s been ready,” Green said. “We knew we
couldn’t do it without him, which is why we were lobbying for him to get
back into the starting lineup.”

The decision to start Looney in Game 6 was based more on a gut feeling
Curry and Green had rather than advanced analytics. And boy, did he
deliver in a major way.

Not only did Looney help the Warriors start better than in previous
games, but he was the best rebounder on the floor. The seven-year
veteran pulled down 22 rebounds, a career high, to key the 110-96 win
that sent the Warriors to the Western Conference finals for the sixth
time in eight years.

Looney grabbed as many rebounds in the first quarter as the entire
Grizzlies team combined. The 11 rebounds matched a Warriors playoff
record set by Larry Smith in 1987.

Looney said he hadn’t realized he grabbed 11 rebounds in about nine
minutes until Andrew Wiggins told him.

“I wasn’t even paying attention,” Looney said. “I wanted to go after
everybody, especially in the beginning of the game, I wanted to set the
tone that it was going to be physical.”

By the final buzzer, Looney snagged a career-high 22 rebounds — a feat
he said he hadn’t accomplished since college.

“Holy moly,” acting head coach Mike Brown said of Looney’s performance
on the boards. “When was the last time somebody had 22 boards? It’s
fantastic.”

Led by Looney, the Warriors pulled down an astounding 70 rebounds, the
most in any playoff game since May 4, 1983, when the Spurs recorded 75
against Denver.

But Brown was even more impressed with another career high Looney set
Friday night. He played 35 minutes for the first time in his career and
was on the floor the entire fourth quarter.

“I ran them 17 straight minutes and I kept looking at him because after
the first five, he looked like he was dying, and then the next two he
looked like he was worse,” Brown said. “I don’t know if he could get any
worse and every minute after that I was saying, ‘Loon, hold on, Loon,
hold on.’ And he did.”

Curry called Looney “unreal” and Klay Thompson, who looked like classic
“Game 6 Klay” on Friday, said Looney was “possibly our MVP tonight.”

“Wow,” he continued. “I’m so proud of him.”

Looney, 26, has battled injuries throughout the course of his seven-year
NBA career. But after several years of struggles, Looney was finally
healthy last summer. That’s why he set a goal at the beginning of this
season to play in all 82 games, which he accomplished and now wears as a
badge of honor.

“All the hard work and determination and the prayers… all the hell I put
my body through to get here is paying off,” Looney said. “That’s the
best feeling in the world, when you work hard and you request something
and you pray about it and it actually comes true and makes you feel good
about yourself.

“To have moments like these is big, [and I] want to make more moments
and make more memories.”

That’ll continue during the Western Conference Finals, which begins
Wednesday against either Phoenix or Dallas.

But for now, Looney will enjoy much-deserved rest.

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter

1
server_pubkey.txt

rocksolid light 0.9.7
clearnet tor