Getty Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is officially “worried” about the Golden State Warriors, after their Game 1 loss to the Sacramento Kings. The day after, Smith fired off a long rant about the “special” Kings, saying that they’re going to make this first-round series a close one, at the very least.
“Guys, I’m very worried about the Golden State Warriors,” Smith said via Sunday’s “NBA Countdown” on ESPN. “I think I need to say that on national television. I think we need to pause for a second and understand what we saw last night. De’Aaron Fox is special. And I’m talking potentially Ja Morant kind of special, I’m talking about when Derrick Rose was at the height of his career. The athleticism, the speed, the quickness — he’s unguardable. They cannot guard him, OK? And this is when he was running around in the first quarter and then the fourth quarter guarding Steph Curry. Let’s take that into consideration. Let’s take into consideration Malik Monk, his former teammate at Kentucky, who was a Laker last year, who had us questioning ‘why the hell did he leave the Los Angeles Lakers?’ Excuse me, him there that’s special. Sabonis with his 16 rebounds, Trey Lyles hitting jumpshots, Harrison Barnes’ experience. Look, I’ve been talking about Golden State, you know how I feel about them. I looked at Sacramento last night and I was like ‘oh my lord, I have been asleep on these brothers, they’re something special, this is going to be a series.'”
“I’m very worried about the Golden State Warriors… De’Aaron Fox is special… He’s unguardable. They cannot guard him… I looked at Sacramento last night and I was like this, ‘Oh my lord.’ I have been asleep on these brothers.”
🗣️ Stephen A. Smith
To Smith’s point, Game 1 is often an important one.
Throughout NBA playoff history through 2021, the winner of Game 1 in best-of-seven series went on to win the series 75.6% of the time (433-140).
De’Aaron Fox Jokes About Guarding Warriors’ Stephen Curry
Like Stephen A. said, Fox was special in Game 1. The Kings star finished with 38 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter. And again, he did it while trying to chase Curry around.
After Sacramento’s 126-123 win over the Dubs, Fox joked about how difficult it is to chase the 3-point King on the defensive end.
“Did you all see that clip with JR Smith talking about Delly guarding Steph? That sh— real,” Fox said, laughing, via the Sacramento Kings official YouTube channel. “It’s real. I mean honestly I didn’t guard Steph the entire game, but most of the first quarter, most of the fourth quarter I guarded him. Yeah, that clip is real. Obviously, my team wants me to do things offensively. Mike [Brown] talked about it as soon as he got here, he’s not worried about what I can do offensively. He wants to see me be better defensively. And that’s something I want to take the challenge of doing. I think we’ve all seen it in spurts, but I want to do it throughout the course of a game. Playing 40 minutes and scoring 38 points is cool, but just trying to be as disruptive as possible while guarding the best player to ever shoot a basketball, not just off the catch but off the dribble. Guy’s probably one of the craftiest players to ever touch the ball. Just being able to be try and be disruptive for me is the biggest step and I think that’s kind of something that… I want to prove to myself that I can go out there and just try to hound some of the best guards in the league.”
JR Smith Says Cavs’ Guard ‘Almost Died’ Guarding Warriors’ Stephen Curry
The JR Smith story that Fox mentioned at the beginning of his answer, went viral earlier this week. The ex-Cleveland Cavaliers guard shared the anecdote during a recent appearance on The Old Man & The Three With JJ Redick and Tommy Alter, telling the hosts that his then-teammate Matthew Dellavedova “almost died” while trying to guard Curry back in 2015.
“Delly almost died guarding Steph Curry,” Smith said. “No, he literally almost died. We have footage of this man in the ice tub like literally up to his neck trying to guard this man.”
Matthew Dellavedova you will always be famous
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Stephen A. Smith Fires Off Rant on Warriors’ Hopes vs. Kings After Game 1 Loss