The Warriors' recent games have been really ups and downs, losing the Eastern Conference vice president Magic and winning the First Place Heat in the East, as did today's game against the Hawks.
With Collins and Pogdanovic injured, the Hawks have only one center, Capela, so the Warriors took the lead today, letting Cumminga start in place of Rooney.
It was Cumminga's 10th start of the season and will also be Rooney's first off the bench this season.
At the beginning of the game, the Hawks and the Warriors fought against each other, and the Warriors played smoothly, with the Warriors scoring 42 points in the first quarter and the Hawks scoring 36 points.
How smooth did the Warriors get off to? Poole scored 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first quarter, 3-of-4 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line. Clay shot 4-of-6 in the quarter and 3-of-4 from three-point range to score 11 points, and the "Tea Soup Combo" combined to blast down 27 points in the first quarter.
Poole, who was hilarious, threw a three plus one and got down on his knees and played the piano.
Poole has been in very good shape lately. When Clay returned, Poole returned to the bench and the game was very difficult for a while.
From his first time on the bench on Jan. 2 to his away game against the Timberwolves on March 2, Poole averaged just 14.2 points per game in 28 consecutive games, shooting just 42.4 percent from the field and 32.3 percent from three-point range.
But after nearly two months of adjustment and adaptation, Poole has changed back to "Tea Jordan", counting the last game against the Heat, Poole has scored more than 20 points in 11 consecutive games, shooting 54.6% from the field and 50.5% from three-point range during this period.
What is the concept of scoring 20+ in 11 consecutive games? Only four people have been able to do that in the last ten seasons. The remaining three are David Lee, Curry and Durant.
Unexpectedly, as strong as Clay could not do this.
Another set of stats: Since the All-Star Weekend, Poole has shot at 70.3 percent of the effective shots, the league's first, and the only one to exceed 60 percent. In addition, Poole dribbled the ball with an effective shooting percentage of 60.2%, also the only one to exceed 60%.
After Curry was injured, Poole was basically the Warriors' biggest ball holding point. According to statistics, in the past three games, Poole has touched the ball an average of 96.0 times per game, ranking first in the league in the same period, and the second place is the Nuggets' MVP candidate Nikola Jokic, averaging 94.7 times per game.
When it comes to digesting the ball, Poole is one of the Few Warriors players besides Curry.
In the first half, Poole scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting, which was also his 12th consecutive game to score 20 points, continuing to refresh his career record of 20+ consecutive games.
Of course, all this has to do with Poole's personal efforts. This morning, when the Warriors were shooting training at the Hawks home, Poole added shooting after normal training, and was the last player on the team to leave.
According to Kerr and the Warriors management, Poole has been training himself in this way.
However, in the second half, Poole only got 2 points in the second half, and in the third quarter, Poole did not score 5 consecutive shots, but he gave 8 assists in the second half, and won 24 points, 4 boards, 10 assists and 5 mistakes. 10 assists also set a new single-game high for his career, after nine against the Heat.
However, in the third quarter, the Warriors were not in good shape, the whole team shot 6 of 3 points, the whole team only scored 16 points, and the original yong three crazy suddenly became the yong three collapse. In the fourth quarter, the Hawks shot 1-of-8 and the Warriors shot 6-of-6, with Klay alone shooting three three-pointers.
In the whole game, Clay played a new season high of 40 minutes and 23 seconds, shooting 14 of 26, 9 of 16 three-pointers, no free throws, and the second highest point of the season, 37 points, and 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
The last time Tang Shen shot nine three-pointers in a single game was against the Nuggets on March 9, 2019, when Westbrook was still in the Thunder, Morant had not yet entered the NBA, and Nowitzki and Wade had not yet retired.
But because the Warriors suddenly lost power in the third quarter, even if the fourth quarter played a 21-6 attack wave, chasing 104 to 107, it was still played by the Hawks for a wave of 10-2, and finally lost 110-121.
Kerr said after the game: "In this game our attack was obviously no problem, our defensive end played badly. We must find a balance between attack and defense. ”
Kerr also said Clay's performance in this game was the team's "silver lining".
What 9 three-pointers, the second-highest 37 points of the season, is actually not the most important. Clay cared more about playing for 40 minutes.
Clay said: "It was a huge win for me, I can't even remember when the last 40 minutes were, it was a huge milestone for me and I will build on that. ”
In fact, Clay has been recovering from the protection of the team, and the last game to play the Heat was back-to-back, but Kerr chose to take his rotation.
After the game, Clay himself said: "On a mental level, I felt like I could play back-to-back games and believeD I could do anything. It's going to be tough this year, and that's why we need professionals to protect me. I will go with the flow and be patient. ”
In fact, the last period of the season is to make adjustments for the team for the playoffs. For example, Clay scored 37 points today and made nine three-pointers, which helped his confidence.
For example, after the comeback of the dream, he did not perform very well on the defensive end, and when he first played in the fourth quarter, he first missed Hult, let the latter hit the fatal three-pointer, and was pierced by Trey Young.
In the whole game, he played 24 minutes, scoring 4 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists on 1-of-3 shooting, with 5 turnovers, and a plus-minus of -24 lowest in the game.
But for the Warriors, everything needs to be adjusted, as Klay said: "Luckily, we have 7, 8, 9 games before the playoffs, and we need to do better in the deciding phase of the game, and we have to make adjustments in the final weeks [of the regular season]." ”
In addition to the loss of this game, there is another news. Prior to the game, the Warriors officially announced that the team's second-year rookie James Wiseman was officially reimbursed for the season and would not represent the Warriors in the rest of the season.
Cole said in the interview: "I just feel sorry for Wiseman, he has been working very hard, he has done a great job in maintaining positivity and optimism, and now that we have to slow down, I will remind him that there is still a long career ahead of him." ”
"We need to make sure that for his knee injury to recover, we are doing the right thing and making sure he is healthy in the long term and that's the main goal." He has a maturity beyond his age, and you can see a smile on his face. ”
In fact, before that, Wiseman had played three games in the development league, but after playing, Wiseman's knee was swollen.
In fact, this is not the first time wiseman's injured knee has seen water. As early as last December, he had already undergone a minor operation on his knee due to water accumulation, which delayed his comeback.
In fact, the Warriors' weak interior line has always been a problem, although they have been using the five small lineup to solve the problem, today sent a set of five small lineups composed of Thompson, Poole, Wiggins, Dream and Cuminga is OK, but it is still difficult to meet the top interior Warriors.
However, when the Warriors officially announced Wiseman's season reimbursement today, some Warriors fans were relieved.
Past reading: Locking in the league first, shouting MVP away, or saying that reaching the finals is by luck?