Getty Golden State Warriors big man Kevon Looney looks on during a game against the Brooklyn Nets.
When it was announced over the summer that the Golden State Warriors would be squaring off with the Memphis Grizzlies on Christmas Day, the pairing represented a break from the NBA‘s tradition of scheduling a Finals rematch. Given the budding rivalry between the Dubs and the Grizz, however, the featured bout still had that December 25 sizzle.
Memphis’ players clearly had that contest circled on their calendars, too, after losing to the Warriors in the West Semis. In the wake of that series, everyone from Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks on down threw jabs in Golden State’s direction, and that continued during the holiday bout itself.
The Grizzlies’ penchant for trash-talking may have come back to bite them, though, as the Warriors ultimately secured a 123-109 win at Chase Center despite the absence of Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins.
According to Warriors pivot Kevon Looney, the nonstop jawing from Morant and Co. had lit a fire in some of Golden State’s more combustible ballers during the game.
Grizzlies Pushed the Wrong Buttons
While speaking to reporters after the win, the Dubs’ Kevon Looney used some colorful language to describe the Grizz, saying “they’re feisty and they talk a lot of s***,” as relayed by The Athletic.
As Looney tells it, a handful of his teammates were ready and willing to match that energy. “We’ve got a lot of petty people on this team,” he said. “They live for people to talk and do all that extra stuff. It just makes the game a lot more fun.”
It also resulted in emotions running higher than they maybe should have at times. The Warriors were whistled for six technical fouls in the game and Jordan Poole — who led the team with 32 points — was eventually ejected.
Still, there’s no doubt that playing with their hearts on their sleeves helped push the Warriors over the top in this game, which Looney noted was a big one.
“I think it gets us to the appropriate level of intensity,” Looney said. “We’ve had two guys ejected against them, which is never good. But we usually find a way to win those games. Every time we play them, we have our antennas up. We’re ready to play. Sometimes we overlook teams but we never overlook them because they talk a lot of stuff. So I think it’s good for us.”
DiVincenzo’s Upswing Continues
Between the early-season hamstring strain that shelved him for three weeks, the adjustment period he endured in his new digs and the fact that he’s not Gary Payton II, it didn’t take long for Donte DiVincenzo to fall out of favor with a segment of the Dub Nation populace.
In recent weeks, though, the baller has shown why both Steph and Draymond Green made personal recruiting pitches to him during his free agency.
Against the Grizzlies, DiVincenzo scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, hitting five of his nine attempts from three-point range and adding three rebounds, three assists and a steal with zero turnovers. Over his last five games, the 25-year-old has averaged 14.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 4.0 APG with shooting splits of 44-50-86.