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Steph Curry's heroics in wins vs. Spurs sends message to Warriors teammates

Steph Curry's heroics in wins vs. Spurs sends message to Warriors teammates originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

As Stephen Curry’s teammates were celebrating him for being the blessing that he is and surely was this week in San Antonio, his performance over those two games stands as an unspoken message for the Warriors.

To his teammates: Even at age 37, I can do enough to lift us to great heights. But I’m going to need more help, as it is essential for us to reach our goal of being a serious contender.

Curry realizes none of the Warriors possess his deep box of offensive skills. There is a reason he is the only unanimous MVP award winner in league history. There is a reason he is widely considered one of the 10 best players to step onto an NBA court. It is safely assumed that he is the most influential player of his era.

But Curry also knows everyone wearing a Warriors jersey can be as committed as he is to do whatever it takes to win. Is that too much to ask?

After playing 34 minutes and scoring 46 points to lead Golden State to a 125-120 win over the Spurs on Wednesday, Curry came back on Friday to play 36 minutes, his highest total this season in a regulation game. His response was to blast the Spurs with 49 points – 31 in the second half, the last two being the clinching free throws in a 109-108 victory.

This is a man who missed three games last week with an illness.

“I think he’s fully healthy now,” Gary Payton II told reporters at Frost Bank Center. “I don’t think he’s sick anymore. It’s just good to see him out there getting his normal runs. his normal jogs, normal bounce, normal rhythm. Once he gets going, we just try to find him, try to get him open, make it easy for us.”
When Curry goes nuclear, it does make the game easier for his teammates. Their priority becomes, as Payton said, getting the ball to Steph and letting him destroy the opposing defense.

But 95 points over two games is 47.5 per, a totally unsustainable number for anybody who ever graced the NBA, aside from Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. As great as Curry is, that absurd level of production is bound to dip. And when it does, he does not want to see his teammates inspecting their fingernails.

And all he wants is for them to lend a more reliable helping hand. Because that’s what it’s going to take.

For a while on Friday, there wasn’t much aid. Curry accounted for 10 of the 18 points the Warriors scored in the first quarter and 18 of the 47 they totaled in the first half. Jimmy Butler III and Will Richard rode shotgun, each putting in 10 points. The other seven Warriors contributed seven points.

So, coach Steve Kerr turned to Curry and extended his minutes beyond what he would have liked.

“We just couldn’t really get our offense going and it felt like we were going to have to ride him a few extra minutes,” Kerr said. “We didn’t plan on playing him the whole third. I tried to take him out with about two minutes left, but there was no stoppage in play, and he played the last eight.”

Kerr had spent part of the morning addressing the team. He talked about the components of success, using the various elements of a music band as an example.

“He was in his bag in terms of the speech he gave in our pregame meeting this morning,” Curry said. “And you could tell like he still has that fastball if he needs it.”

Kerr explained how bands thrive best when every member of the touring party knows their role, accepts it and commits to it, from lead singer to guitarists to drummer to stagehands. If any member of the group isn’t focused and on point, the whole show suffers.

“But it speaks to how it all matters,” Curry said. “There’s value in all of that when a band is going on a tour. I think Phil Jackson instilled that in (Kerr), and he used that as a reference for how we need to play and how we need to approach our identity.

“It’s going to take a long time to get through this year in terms of doing that but it’s great to have a reference.”

For the Warriors to become the team they think they are, Buddy Hield, averaging 5.4 points over his last 12 games, shooting 30 percent from deep this season, will have to rejoin the band. Brandin Podziemski must be quicker at moving the ball and more careful with his decisions. Jonathan Kuminga, once healthy, will need to become the player he was in the first two weeks of the season. Al Horford must knock down triples at 37-to-40 percent.

Once they were humbled by a blowout in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Warriors did some soul-searching. They then landed in San Antonio late Tuesday night and spent Wednesday and Friday following Curry. He gave them what they needed.

If his teammates were watching him closely, they saw someone setting an example of a total commitment to victory. Which seems worthy of following.

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Pelicans fire coach, ex-Warriors assistant Willie Green after rough 2-10 start

Pelicans fire coach, ex-Warriors assistant Willie Green after rough 2-10 start originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Former Golden State Warriors assistant Willie Green has been dismissed by the New Orleans Pelicans just 12 games into his fifth season as head coach.

Green was part of Steve Kerr’s staff during the Warriors dynasty, helping Golden State capture back‑to‑back championships in 2017 and 2018 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After years of observing the greatness of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, Green transitioned into a head coaching role in New Orleans.

In 2021, he brought stability to the Pelicans, guiding them to their first playoff berth since 2017‑18 by defeating the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers in the play‑in tournament. They went on to fall to the Phoenix Suns in the opening round. His time with the Pelicans was marked by flashes of promise, including a 49‑win season in 2023‑24, but also by challenges with injuries to stars like Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.

Green finished his tenure in New Orleans with a record of 150‑190 over more than four seasons.

Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars has named assistant James Borrego as interim coach. The Pelicans are set to host the Warriors on Sunday night.

Green played in the NBA from 2003 to 2015, spending most of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers (2003–2010) before stints with the New Orleans Hornets (2010–11), Atlanta Hawks (2011–12), Los Angeles Clippers (2012–14), and Orlando Magic (2014–15). He appeared in 731 games and averaged 8.3 points per contest.

After retiring, he joined the Warriors as an assistant in 2016, later helping the Suns reach the 2021 Finals before becoming head coach of the Pelicans.

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Schaefer’s Historic Night And a Controversial Call Hand Mammoth a 3-2 Overtime Loss

It was looking to be a quiet night for Matthew Schaefer against the Utah Mammoth defense.

Utah was holding Schaefer in check, only managing one shot on goal heading into overtime. He was playing tough hockey, leading the Islanders in time on ice despite awkwardly skating to the bench twice in pain, but Utah wasn’t allowing him to make an impact on the offense.

But despite all of the adversity, it was Schaefer who handed Utah Mammoth its first overtime loss of the season — all while becoming the youngest player in NHL history to score a game-winning goal in the regular season.

The lane opened for the Islanders when JJ Peterka decided to keep following New York’s Bo Horvat. Rather than switching with Lawson Crouse to pick up Schaefer, Peterka stayed behind Horvat.

But when Nate Schmidt picked up Horvat, Peterka was left without a man to guard and on the wrong side of the ice. With the sudden opening, Matthew Barzal took advantage of the 2-on-1, passed to Schaefer, and history was made.

"I think we knew we had better for sure," said Schaefer "In the second and third, we wanted to come out hard, and then we got a great bounce there to tie us up. Then we fought hard, and Barzzy (Barzal) found me. It was a great game and really hard fought."

On his way to making history, Schaefer also overtook future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby, who previously held the record. But Crosby was a whole 31 days older when he set it; Schaefer, on the other hand, earned the mark at just 18 years and 70 days.

Never having a chance to possess the puck, the Mammoth were forced to keep covering the Islanders throughout overtime. Though Karel Vejmelka was able to save the first two shot attempts, Utah still was never able to get its own shot at scoring. 

"So, yeah, when you don't have the puck, it's all about coverage, communication, and making sure you're not getting tested," said Crouse. "Obviously, they're two great players. I mean, Horvat's got one of the better sticks in the league right now, and Barzal has incredible speed and skill and incredible passing and vision. So yeah, it's unfortunate."

Before the game even got to overtime, the Mammoth looked like it was in firm control of the game, leading 2–1 halfway through the third. But like in its 4–2 loss to Ottawa, Utah would find itself on the wrong end of yet another controversial call.

Rather than Utah having its own goal disallowed, like in the Ottawa game, this time an Islanders goal from forward Jonathan Drouin was allowed to stand despite him clearly kicking the puck toward the net.

In most cases, any time a puck is scored with a kicking motion, the goal is disallowed. But as explained in the NHL's own video review, Schmidt was seen touching the puck just before it crossed the goal line and it was deemed that his "stick propelled the puck into his own net."

The NHL does acknowledge that Drouin does indeed kick the puck as well, but because the puck touched Schmidt’s stick, the goal was still allowed to stand.

"It's an instinctual thing," said Schmidt. "In hindsight, do I wish I would have pulled my stick back so they would have called it back? Yeah, but that's gonna be really hard for me to do. You're trying to get it out then I almost step on Vejmelka in the process."

While the goal was allowed to stand in this game, there is still a compelling argument that says the goal should have been disallowed. 

As rule 37.4 of the NHL's official rules stats, "A goal cannot be scored on a play where an attacking Player propels the puck with his skate into the net (even by means of a subsequent deflection off of another Player) using a 'distinct kicking motion.'"

When watching the replay, it’s clear that Schmidt’s stick only touches the puck for a brief second. He never gains possession, and the puck hardly alters its path even after touching his stick. Saying Schmidt propelled the puck in feels like a bit of a stretch considering the path of the puck never changes direction.

Ironically, if Schmidt hadn’t touched the puck at all, the goal would have been disallowed without a second thought. But instead, Utah found itself tied at 2–2, with the referees’ call proving to be costly.

Though the Mammoth still came away with a point in the standings, it was a tough way to lose, considering it has only managed two wins against the Buffalo Sabres in its last eight games.

To make matters worse, Utah looked like the better team for the majority of the night, albeit with another rough performance on the power play, going 1-for-6. But even then, Utah was able to break a seven-game drought without a power-play goal.

And with its next game against an impressive Anaheim Ducks team on the road, Utah will have to fight hard to get out of its recent funk.

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Graham Ike scores 20 points and No. 19 Gonzaga outlasts Arizona State 77-65

Graham Ike scored 20 points, Tyon Grant-Foster had 14 points and 12 rebounds off the bench, and No. 19 Gonzaga outlasted Arizona State 77-65 on Friday night. Up 13 at halftime, Gonzaga struggled offensively through most of the second half as the aggressive Sun Devils (2-1) trimmed the margin to five. The Zags kept Arizona State at bay behind their defense and consecutive 3-pointers by former Sun Devils guard Adam Miller that pushed the lead to 67-52.

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Observations from Blues' 6-5 Shootout Loss Vs. Flyers

ST. LOUIS – Another one that got away.

How many times have we said that about the St. Louis Blues this season?

This time, it came in the form of a pair of two-goal leads.

The Blues got a point, but it felt like losing another one despite getting a big offensive night, only to lose 6-5 in a shootout against the Philadelphia Flyers at Enterprise Center on Friday.

Robert Thomas, Jimmy Snuggerud and Jordan Kyrou each had a goal and an assist, while Jordan Binnington made 26 saves. But the Blues blew two two-goal leads, 3-1 in the second period and 5-3 in the third period to fall to 6-8-4 (16 points) and a date with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Let’s look at Friday’s game observations:

* Blowing a pair of two-goal leads – The Blues had this game in hand multiple times.

They had a goalie (Sam Ersson) on the ropes, allowing five goals on 17 shots (.706 save percentage).

When they took command with a 3-1 lead on goals by Snuggerud at 9:42 of the first period, then Justin Faulk at 6:54 of the second period (on a Cam Fowler assist, his 500th NHL point), that’s when the mistakes started:

The response wasn’t good.

Cam Fowler, who had two assists in the game and reached 500 points in the NHL, lost coverage at the net when Christian Dvorak popped in and backhanded in a rebound 23 seconds after the Faulk goal, it’s a one-goal game again:

And when Trevor Zegras was parked at the net front and tied the game at 18:24, it opened got the Flyers back on level ground, and it came after Pavel Buchnevich (we’ll get to him later) missed a great chance to make it a 4-2 game moments earlier, then Colton Parayko was beaten to the wall by Owen Tippett as the puck was then at the blue line, and a shot got to the net for the tip past Binnington:

But the Blues regained the advantage in the third period, when coach Jim Montgomery moved Brayden Schenn back between Dylan Holloway and Kyrou, a line that carried the Blues on their shoulders in the second half of last season, and Holloway’s third in three games made it 4-3 just 40 seconds into the final period:

And when Thomas scored on a one-timer from the slot, off a pretty feed from Snuggerud, at 4:56 of the third, the Blues were up 5-3 and should have had that game under control:

But again, they didn’t.

Dvorak scored at 7:53 to make it 5-4 after Matthew Kessel slipped to the ice trying to turn and move up with the puck, creating a turnover and shot from the slot:

And when Tippett tied it 5-5 at 10:27, it marked a plethora of errors, including at the end, Mathieu Joseph vacating the high slot where Tippett was, and ultimately, three Blues wound up screening Binnington on the shot:

“Quite high to be honest,” Montgomery said when asked of the level of disappointment and frustration blowing two two-goal leads. “I didn’t like that we gave up the first two-goal lead. Those were some net front miscues and then the last two goals were guys not owning their quadrants or turnovers. Regardless, we scored five goals. You’ve got to win that game. There’s got to be more desperation in us.”

* All possession in OT, no shots at the net – The Blues, unlike their 4-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken last Saturday in overtime, had majority of the puck in the extra session, but they cycled it out on multiple occasions and really never generated the kind of chances that would quantify winning.

They had a couple looks, and Fowler had one great opportunity from the inner edge of the left circle that was stopped, and Snuggerud had a puck roll off his stick with some pressure from behind cutting to the net from the left side.

“There’s a lot of speed. It’s a fast game,” Snuggerud said. “I thought we had good chances and in overtime.”

What has to be most peculiar is that even with all the possession, how do the Blues allow the Flyers to make TWO changes to get fresh guys on the ice when they have possession?

That was a big issue and can’t happen.

Players failing to recognize the odd-man chance when players are changing was puzzling.

“We’ve had a lot of success. Coach (Steve) Ott has done a real good job and it’s worked a lot in past years of building, taking it back out of you don’t like your entry,” Montgomery said. ‘I think we were a little impatient. I think we could have hit the last time Thomas got it. I forget who had the puck, they stopped, they hit him coming late and that led to a good opportunity. I think it was 21’s opportunity when he skated in, which I thought were in on the hands or he might have scored. But we’re not having the same purpose of attacking inside the dots.

“We don’t put teams on their heels in those situations. Twice they changed, and the guy with the puck didn’t see it and he didn’t bypass them so we could have a 3-on-2. I think that was the bigger mistake that we made, the natural execution on the 3-on-3. They changed when we took it out and we let them change. It was still 3-on-3. You’ve got to see it, you’ve got to go.”

“We didn’t do a good enough job keeping them in three-quarter,” Thomas said. “We let them change twice even though we had the possession. We’ve got to be a lot smarter there (and) set up the next guys. If you have the puck, they should never be able to change. Your guys should be able to change at least once, maybe even twice, get them tired and take advantage of it.”

And despite the difference in possession in OT, the Flyers somehow still managed to outshoot the Blues 6-1.

* Top guys produced – The Blues need their top end players to make plays, and to score.

They got seven points (four goals, three assists) from Thomas, Kyrou, Snuggerud and Holloway. They generated enough, despite the low volume of shots on goal (47 attempts), from their top end guys.

Kyrou made a savvy read picking off a Zegras pass in the neutral zone and darting in along the right side before beating Ersson from the right dot for a 1-0 lead at 1:19 of the opening period:

“Yeah, but at the end of the day, you need everyone to win,” Snuggerud said. “Not saying we were top heavy or bottom heavy today. Everyone in the lineup needs to be at their best if we want to win games. I thought we had chances as every line. We just have to bear down at the end of the game.

“… As the games go on, more and more games, I feel like you build more and more chemistry. As a team, I feel like that’s what we’re really most worried about right now keeping our energy up throughout the whole game and bearing down and finishing with a win.

“… Any time you score five goals in a game you should be happy because we were creating offense, but on the flip side defensively, I feel like you don’t want to give up that much as well. It’s living and learning and we have to keep moving forward.”

“Yeah, we had some chances,” Thomas said. “We’ve still go to get better.”

* Blues blowing points in OT, SO – Four games, four losses for the Blues in overtime and the shootout.

That’s four points banked, but the potential of an extra point left on the table in those four games.

“Those are big extra points,” Thomas said. ‘We’ve got to find a way to get those done, especially in overtime. We’ve got to bear down and get those in the net and if it comes to shootout, we have our spots, we have our stuff we need to do. We just didn’t hit them there.”

* Buchnevich turnover, ensuing penalty shot – Pavel Buchnevich nearly cost the Blues the extra point in overtime after losing a puck, turning it over that would have resulted in a Zegras breakaway. But the Blues forward was able to trip Zegras from behind at 2:51 of OT, awarding the Flyers forward a penalty shot.

Binnington would make the save when Zegras tried beating him five-hole. It prolonged the game, but it came after another lengthy possession for the Blues.

“I think he had to,” Montgomery said of Buchnevich. “It’s the same situation that would occur, but usually when a forward doesn’t have too much time to think, he’s going to trust his instincts. You understand why he did it. To me, the turnover’s the issue. Not what happens next.”

Also an issue, Buchnevich is not producing offensively at all. Nothing.

He was a plus-1 but had just one shot on goal and two missed nets in 18:40. It’s the 11th time in 18 games Buchnevich has produced zero points.

* Skinner’s debut – Defenseman Hunter Skinner got the traditional rookie lap at the start of warmups, a dream-come-true playing in his first NHL game:

And it wasn’t a knock-your-socks-off game for the 24-year-old, but he managed his ice time (10:45) well with four hits and was a plus-1 in the game.

“I thought he was aggressive,” Montgomery said. ‘He was fine, but my brain’s more on how we give up two two-goal leads.”

* Dvorak line torched Blues – Dvorak (two goals, one assist), Tippett (one goal, three assists) and Zegras (two goals, one assist, shootout winner) combined for 10 points in the game and were all the offense the Flyers needed.

They were allowed to have their way throughout the game, and it wasn’t even the line that Montgomery said the Blues focused on as much because he was playing Thomas’ line against the line of Matvei Michkov, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.

“For whatever reason, their second line gave us fits,” Montgomery said. “I was matching Thomas against Couturier’s line. That’s their top line. And their second line gave us fits defensively.”

* Schenn rejoins familiar linemates – At the start of the third, Montgomery reunited Brayden Schenn with Holloway and Kyrou, and it paid dividends.

It set the tone for what the Blues were hoping would be a win when Kyrou set up Holloway for a left-circle shot to give the Blues a 4-3 lead just 40 seconds into the final period:

“Yeah, and it paid off with that fourth goal,” Montgomery said. “Sometimes you’re going to have games where you’re not on. I thought Schenn was skating so I moved him up and I dropped (Dalibor) Dvorsky back on the third line at left wing.”

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