Sans Curry and Green, Warriors Bow to Pacers; Boston, New York Lose to Western Foes at Home
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 11 Jan 2025
We got a glimpse of a future Golden State Warriors without Steph Curry and Draymond Green early today and it was not very promising.
The Warriors were without Curry and Green, both out due to back injuries, when they took on the Indiana Pacers, who like them in the West, were also struggling for a better standing in the East. The Pacers held their fort in winning, 108-96 with the front court tandem of Paskal Siakam and Myles Turner and forward Bernard Mathurin having their way in and around the paint and Tyrese Halliburton booming from the outside.
Trayce Jackson Davis, Kyle Anderdpn and Kevon Looney tried to hold fort with firepower support from Buddy Hield, Dennis Schroeder and newbies Pat Spencer and Gui Santos. But without the pesky hardnosed defense of Green and the leadership and dependable pointmaking of Curry, the Warriors could only keep the game close until the Pacers unleashed a strong finishing kick.
Golden State drops to #10 in the West at 19-19 while Indiana rises to #6 in the East at 21-18.
Also today, Boston and the New York both boasting a rabid home crowd, uncharacteristically dropped their games at home with the Celtics succumbing to Domantas Sabonis and the Sacramento Kings, 114-97 and the Knicks losing again to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 126-101.
Sabonis pulled down a high 28 rebounds, including 8 from the offensive glass on top of scoring 23 points as he combined with new trade acquisition DeMar Derozan, veteran Malik Monk, Keegan Murray in dominating Boston. Exemplifying the Kings board rule was reserve Trey Lyles grabbing 11 rebounds on top of 7 points. Devin Carter also came off the bench for 11 points
Jaylen Brown led Boston in scoring with 28 points and he was backed up by starring center Kristaps Porzinghis who managed 22 points and 10 rebounds but usually high scoring Jason Tatum only came up with 15 points but a team high 12 boards. They were just about the Celtics in double figures.
Meanwhile, OKC dominated the Knicks from start to finish as Shai Gilgeous Alexander poured a night high 39 points and Isiah Joe adding 31 points with center Isaiah Hertenstein, an ex Knick again making up for low scoring (9) with high outputs in rebounds and assists topping the Thunder. OKC set the tenor of the rout by scoring 70 points in the first half while limiting New York to 43, including just 17 points in the opening quarter.
Center Karl Anthony Towns returned to action and scored 23 points plus 10 boards to support Jalen Brunson's 28 points and Josh Hart 16 points and team high 13 rebounds for the Knicks. Cam Payne added 11 points but OG Anunoby could only put up
an anemic 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.
The losses put the Celtics and the Knicks farther away from the East and league leading Cleveland Cavaliers ( 33-4) by 6.5 and 9 games respectively.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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