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The Athletic NBA Daily

Warriors Spoil Klay’s Return to the Bay

Wed, 13 Nov 2024

Description

Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni are joined by Trey Kerby of No Dunks to discuss Klay Thompson’s return to the Bay for the Mavs/Warriors matchup. They discuss the atmosphere in the arena, and how the Warriors won the game. After a break, Dave and Es discuss Joel Embiid’s return to the Sixers lineup and the woeful Wolves losing to the Blazers. Then in the final segment, the guys play a game of “Who Am I?”Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Bareheni and Trey KerbyExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Transcription

Chapter 1: What was the atmosphere like during Klay Thompson's return?

82.503 - 96.229 Es Baraheni

If I were going to describe it, Dave, I would have to say it was honestly a festive atmosphere here in the Bay. Clay coming back, you know, the Warriors really pulled out all the stops to make him feel welcome, to kind of honor his place as a legacy player here with the Warriors.

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96.269 - 107.974 Es Baraheni

They wanted it to be an inviting atmosphere for Warriors fans to celebrate Clay Thompson's career, his accomplishments, and for Clay to feel good about coming back to the Bay. So, yeah, you mentioned the captain's hats.

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108.514 - 133.459 Es Baraheni

i've never seen better fan participation when it comes to an arena giveaway i haven't seen that guy courtside wearing a hat that wasn't a captain's hat and it stood out it stood out to me that's just right there were some other hats around here no doubt about it but i saw people putting a captain hat on top of a regular hat usually you don't like a hat on a hat dave but in this scenario i was loving it great fan participation uh it was really cool the warriors when clay arrived they had

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134.36 - 141.982 Es Baraheni

hundreds of employees in their captain's hats, really ready to salute Clay, to thank him for his time here in the Bay. And then we came out

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143.274 - 165.482 Es Baraheni

introduction was really really cool they did the the video tribute before the game even started before we even got to starting lineups clay was trying to play a cool man he was trying to avoid the media it felt like all day long but between the salute and the hallway and the bowels of the arena and then the video tribute like the guy you could tell was touched by everything then we got into the game and we got steph versus clay the very first possession it was awesome

165.822 - 186.667 Trey Kerby

Yeah, he he was bouncing around the whole like last 24 hours kind of be like, oh, it's just a regular season game. It's not a big deal. And I love that the Warriors decided to do the tribute video out the gate. Like, let's just get it done with. Let's not do it in a timeout or first quarter or whatever. Let's just do it and then get back to the basketball strategy.

186.727 - 191.468 Dave DuFour

If you're hoping that his emotions can get the best of it, like trying to throw him off his game. It didn't work.

192.088 - 215.949 Es Baraheni

yeah unfortunately for them but yeah i thought that was a good touch too yeah that was really cool how they just got right into it and they're like look everybody knows this is clay's return game let's make it special there's it's not an elephant in the room situation per se but how can you ignore it how can you make clay thompson wait even six minutes till the first time out for his tribute video so i think everybody was excited that the evening kicked off like that

216.249 - 237.082 Dave DuFour

Yeah. So right out of the gate, man, let's get to the basketball game, because this felt like a weighty matchup. Number one, it's an NBA Cup game. And it does seem like from the overall tenor of the night that people are actually taking it seriously. That's great. But Draymond Green in particular tends to get up for games like this. National TV, Clay Thompson coming back.

Chapter 2: How did the Warriors perform against the Mavericks?

Chapter 3: What emotional moments were shared during Klay's tribute?

165.822 - 186.667 Trey Kerby

Yeah, he he was bouncing around the whole like last 24 hours kind of be like, oh, it's just a regular season game. It's not a big deal. And I love that the Warriors decided to do the tribute video out the gate. Like, let's just get it done with. Let's not do it in a timeout or first quarter or whatever. Let's just do it and then get back to the basketball strategy.

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186.727 - 191.468 Dave DuFour

If you're hoping that his emotions can get the best of it, like trying to throw him off his game. It didn't work.

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192.088 - 215.949 Es Baraheni

yeah unfortunately for them but yeah i thought that was a good touch too yeah that was really cool how they just got right into it and they're like look everybody knows this is clay's return game let's make it special there's it's not an elephant in the room situation per se but how can you ignore it how can you make clay thompson wait even six minutes till the first time out for his tribute video so i think everybody was excited that the evening kicked off like that

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216.249 - 237.082 Dave DuFour

Yeah. So right out of the gate, man, let's get to the basketball game, because this felt like a weighty matchup. Number one, it's an NBA Cup game. And it does seem like from the overall tenor of the night that people are actually taking it seriously. That's great. But Draymond Green in particular tends to get up for games like this. National TV, Clay Thompson coming back.

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237.842 - 254.993 Dave DuFour

And guys, look, he is one of the greatest defenders ever. I think he's the greatest defender of his generation. And tonight, he looked like 2016 Draymond. I just, you know, I made this joke that he had two spin bikes in the sauna all summer, Trey Kirby.

255.114 - 275.822 Es Baraheni

He was just doing extra time, buddy. Draymond was 100% locked in tonight. You could tell this was a special game for him. You could tell it was a special game for Klay. It literally felt at times like these three were brothers finally getting a chance to prove each other. prove themselves against each other. And man, you're totally right about Draymond. He was a takeover defensive player.

276.142 - 287.71 Es Baraheni

I thought in the fourth quarter, I was feeling bad for Daniel Gafford at times there. The ball just kept finding him with Draymond in a position to make a play. Sometimes it was taking a charge. He had the nasty block at the rim as well.

287.95 - 298.878 Es Baraheni

And then every time he made a basket, he instantly found Klay Thompson, whether it was on the court, whether it was on the bench and he was ready to stare him down and said, Hey man, I can shoot too. You may have forgotten, but I made some shots back in the day.

299.538 - 326.118 Trey Kerby

he brought it Steph brought it Clay brought it Luca brought it Kyrie brought it like this was just the perfect game for a November 12th matchup you got to respect the cup and both teams came out and they put it on their backs tonight man the Steph I mean sometimes when you watch it's a surreal experience right it's like this out-of-body experience that you watch and play basketball he had 12 points in that fourth quarter and just went nuclear and there's there's nothing like it they

Chapter 4: How did Draymond Green impact the game?

381.238 - 403.86 Dave DuFour

You know, for all the talk about and we just said Draymond was emotional and we were talking about Clay maybe being emotional. I think Steph Curry was the most emotional guy of the three in this entire game, including you mentioned the missed free throw. It was right after. He had gotten an and one and made this acrobatic kind of over the back of his head, over his shoulder shot on Clay Thompson.

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404.08 - 420.851 Dave DuFour

He makes this shot and then he's kind of, you know, goofing off in the way you do. If you score on your buddy, he's trying to make eye contact with him. He's looking around guys and then he misses the free throw. I think he was so worked up and we never see that from Steph. This is a little bit of a continuation of carry over from Team USA. You know what I mean?

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420.892 - 436.561 Dave DuFour

Like we saw him kind of wearing his emotions a little bit more on his sleeve, I thought. But are you with me on this Warriors team, Trey? Like, I think that this Warriors team has some special. Are you buying stock? And I'm going to tell you, look, we're going to go look through this box score.

0

436.941 - 451.91 Dave DuFour

And, you know, you'll see that Luca and the gang, they did really, really well against this bench because the bench can't score. But when Steph Curry's out there, they were plus 24 in a game that they only won by four. I mean, this team has something. They just need maybe one more guy.

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453.212 - 469.623 Es Baraheni

Exactly. They need one more guy. We heard all the stories during the summer about the other stars they were pursuing. They ended up going the strength in numbers route instead. And like you're saying, Dave, as long as Steph is on the court, this is a team that can beat literally anybody. There were obviously issues, especially in the second quarter.

469.663 - 482.912 Es Baraheni

I thought when they went to the bench and they just don't necessarily have somebody who's creating advantages the way Steph is. But he also can make up basically any deficit, it feels like. And I'm sure if you're in the Warriors locker room, you're thinking as soon as 30 checks in, we're good.

484.073 - 506.011 Dave DuFour

man I mean that's worked out pretty well for them over the last few years go and check out Trey Kirby over at No Dunks they come on right after us on your podcast app I think it works that way right it's just like TV coming up after the break me and S we're going to dig in a little bit more on the NBA Cup opening night especially Joel Embiid's comeback music

508.092 - 534.181 Dave DuFour

Joel Embiid made his much-anticipated season debut for the NBA Cups opening night for the Sixers. As it wasn't great. Did not go all that well. The Knicks, I think they handily beat the Sixers. They had this game at hand. They won it 111-99, but... Embiid is the big story. Physically, I think he looked about the way you would expect a guy to look who's coming off injury, who had no training camp.

534.741 - 556.293 Dave DuFour

He looked beat. He did not shoot the ball well. In this game, he was only two of 11, only had three rebounds, wasn't super active. Honestly, they didn't do a lot with him. He did shoot a bunch of free throws. It is Joel Embiid. So that part of his game, he's in regular season form there. That's That's right. But what did you think about Embiid?

Chapter 5: What were the highlights of Steph Curry's performance?

556.573 - 562.017 Dave DuFour

Aside from him just like kind of moving slow and looking rusty, what did you think about him overall?

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562.377 - 583.911 Trey Kerby

Yeah, I mean, I think that slowness actually, you mentioned the offensive stuff, but I noticed it on defense a lot too. Just was not crisp in his rotations, was not really effective as a guy who was kind of protecting the paint for them. I mean, the Knicks just dominated inside all game, right? And I think part of that is the Embiid equation, right? Yeah. Came out attacking him. Yeah, exactly.

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583.952 - 599.383 Trey Kerby

They just went at him. They were more physical, especially at the start of the game. Carl Anthony Towns really set the tone physically with him to be like, hey, you're not going to get easy stuff here offensively. You're not going to get easy looks in the post. You're not going to get easy shots over me. And I think that had a trickle-down effect for the rest of the game with Embiid.

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599.763 - 623.176 Trey Kerby

That being said, you and Zena mentioned it yesterday, but giving grace to the fact that he hasn't played for over a month and he just looked exactly how you would expect him, which is exhausted. I don't know how much grace I want to give, because if you're ready to play, you got to play. That's right. You need to be able to play. But he did look as rusty as he could possibly be in this game.

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623.276 - 636.041 Dave DuFour

The Sixers dropped to two and eight. Obviously, they've had injury issues all year. Tyrese Maxey is going to be out for a while. They started Kyle Lowry in place of Tyrese Maxey the last couple of games. I think that they got to make a little bit of a change there.

636.101 - 656.308 Dave DuFour

Jerry McCain came off the bench, gave him 30 minutes, closed the first half, was plus three in a game where no other player for the Sixers had a positive plus minus. Just gave him a little bit more, gave him some legs. I think I'd like to see them put him in the starting lineup. Move Kyle Lowry back to the bench role where you've got him.

656.408 - 673.84 Dave DuFour

Number one, it allows your rotations to just stay a little bit more sense. And that way, when Maxie comes back, you plug him right back into that starting lineup and you at least have, you know, he's not as good as Maxie clearly, but it's someone who plays a little bit more that speed at least. And that can help him out, especially while Embiid looks so slow.

674.06 - 693.674 Trey Kerby

They just need someone out there who can run. I hear you. And I think the thing that, you know, if you were to vouch for McCain is that he's so aggressive offensively compared to Lowry. Like, like Lowry at this point in his career, that's my guy, by the way, like that, that is the Danny green for me to you. You know what I mean? Um, but he, he's a table setter at this point.

693.774 - 706.322 Trey Kerby

He's not trying to look for his shot. He's not trying to be aggressive offensively. And especially with, by the way, Paul George had a really great game tonight. He did. He shot the ball really well. Yep. Shot the ball. Well, like this was the best PG game we've had since his return. Uh,

Chapter 6: How did Joel Embiid fare in his return to the Sixers?

833.295 - 851.869 Trey Kerby

He's shooting 32% on threes this season on seven and a half attempts, only averaging 10 points, shooting 36% from the field in general. That's a guy that I'm curious about in this Minnesota system because the whole cat Randall trade was about getting him to be this guy to play next to Anthony Edwards and

0

851.869 - 863.999 Trey Kerby

and shoot the lights out, stretch the floor offensively for them, really bolster their offense. But if he's not hitting his shots, if he's not making plays, then what purpose does Dante DiVincenzo— Oh, he's not even getting shots up.

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864.019 - 882.616 Dave DuFour

That's an even bigger problem. In this game, he only gets up three attempts. And for a guy who's meant to provide some volume for them and space the floor, I mean, that's a big problem. And, you know, look, Nas Reed comes off the bench and gives him 28 points. Yeah. Right. There's a there's a point where it's just like 34 minutes. Is that enough for Nas Reed?

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882.656 - 896.851 Dave DuFour

Like, do you need 38 minutes of Nas Reed? You know, there's a Conley decision, a Mike Conley decision that I think the Timberwolves are going to have to make. I had been thinking that maybe the lineup change would be putting DiVincenzo in with the starters and replacing Conley.

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896.871 - 899.273 Trey Kerby

Well, that's what I thought it would eventually happen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

899.593 - 902.196 Dave DuFour

But but to your point, he just hasn't been good enough.

902.396 - 902.896 Trey Kerby

Exactly.

902.956 - 921.113 Dave DuFour

To push the issue. And so, you know, you start looking down, down the depth chart and it's like, well, they have to have Nikhil Alexander Walker come off the bench because they need somebody who can guard a guy. And all of a sudden, this team that felt so deep last year, it's just how many guys do they have that you can trust right now? Yes.

922.711 - 937.411 Trey Kerby

man. I mean, I still, okay. Rudy, right. And, and then Nas Reed. And I'm going to take Randall in there. I'm especially in the regular season. I'm taking Randall as the four, but that's, yeah, that's, that's about it. Really?

Chapter 7: What went wrong for the Timberwolves in their game?

1216.236 - 1230.105 Dave DuFour

This coach called a timeout with one second left on the clock with a tie game. He had no fouls left, no timeouts left, and that gives the opposing team a game-winning free throw and a ball. Which coach was that tonight?

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1230.125 - 1245.492 Trey Kerby

I'm so sorry, Mr. Eric Spolstra. I'm sorry, man. Look, I think he's the best coach in the NBA, but man, that was like... That was the biggest blunder probably of his entire career. And he was really mad about it post-game, too. Shout out to him, though.

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1245.512 - 1258.718 Dave DuFour

You know what? That's hard, man. Coaching basketball is tough. You're paying attention to a lot of things. And yeah, it's not as hard as a lot of jobs. But there's a lot going on right there. And this guy at the press conference, man, I'm a little bit worried about.

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1258.798 - 1259.598 Trey Kerby

Owned up to him.

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1259.778 - 1279.707 Dave DuFour

He looked exhausted, but straight up owned up to it. Talked about how he feels like he robbed his players of a chance. And I'm putting a pin in this moment for the Miami Heat because I think we're about to see what it looks like when Eric Spolstra locks in on the regular season. I like it. And maybe we're going to see some wild stuff. He is the best coach in the sport.

1279.727 - 1285.77 Dave DuFour

So expect a big bounce back from Eric Spolstra. Crazy game in general. Like Tyler Hero went off to bring.

1286.05 - 1286.791 Trey Kerby

them back into it.

1286.831 - 1291.436 Dave DuFour

Tim Hardaway Jr. took a really hard fall, had to leave the game. He had to be wheeled off the court.

1291.896 - 1298.463 Trey Kerby

Seems like he's okay, though. Apparently, he's got an update that there's no CT scan came negative and all that stuff.

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