Getty Dillon Brooks of the Memphis Grizzlies and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors have been struggling mightily over the course of this season. After winning the NBA Championship last year, they have failed to string together wins on a consistent basis. Their biggest area of struggle has been winning on the road, as they are currently 7-29 away from home this year.
That issue continued on Saturday night, as the Warriors lost to the Memphis Grizzlies. It was a brutal beatdown, with Golden State failing to get anywhere close to the Grizzlies after the first quarter. After the game, Stephen Curry name-dropped Dillon Brooks, praising his defense.
“I felt fine. I think there’s never an excuse for anything in terms of how you play,” Curry said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “When you suit up, you expect to play great. So, physically, it was fine. Mentally, it felt like we locked in. We missed some shots, which happens. The way that they guard us, it’s putting a lot of pressure. Dillon does that a lot. Ninety-four feet, knowing he has a lot of size behind him, and it’s part of their game plan. So, whether you get up the normal amount of shots you do or not, you still just try to pick and choose your spots. A couple more go down, maybe things change a little bit. But was overall pretty- obviously, we lost, so I don’t really feel like talking about anything other than just, physically, I felt great.”
Curry struggled with his shot on Saturday night. He finished the game with 16 points, eight rebounds, and five assists on 5-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting from behind the three-point line.
As for Brooks, he played fairly well for the Grizzlies. The Memphis wing dropped 18 points, three rebounds, and three assists on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and a blistering-hot 4-of-4 shooting from beyond the three-point arc.
Dillon Brooks Calls Out Klay Thompson
After the game, Brooks had some words as well. He spoke about Klay Thompson’s and Draymond Green’s trash talk, explaining that trash talk is the sort of stuff that helps him get up for games like this one.
“Oh, yeah,” Brooks said when asked if it was easy to get up for this game via Clutch Points. “They got Draymond talking. They got Klay talking. So, it’s easy to get ready for this game I was ready. I only got four hours of sleep, and I was already ready to go.”
Steve Kerr Sounds Off on Jonathan Kuminga
In addition, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr showed love to Jonathan Kuminga, as the young big man poured in a team-high 24 points.
“Yeah, JK [Kuminga] was great,” Kerr said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “He played both ends. Knocked down his threes. Rebounded well. That was the biggest thing. That’s the thing that we’re looking for all the time. He had eight rebounds tonight. Three offensive. If he adds that to his game consistently, it’ll change everything for him. And so, we’re gonna stay on him about that. And he’s a young guy, so he’s learning so much every single day, and he’s making strides. So, very happy with his development.”