Warriors 125, Knicks 94: Jambagate

It was a cute little Pi Day in the Bay Area. The Knicks and Warriors, with their reciprocal records, got together and played a friendly game of basketball that just never seemed to end. Stephen Curry celebrated his 27th birthday by trying to get 27 points (came up short) in 27 minutes (4 seconds shy). In the beginning the Warriors ran around entirely carefree. They tossed some wild, looping alley oops, uncorked some lazy shots and casually ambled back on defense when they felt good and ready. Then the Warriors bench entered the fray and just absolutely torched the Knicks.

From there Steve Kerr brought the starters back in fresh, and they positively trounced every Knick defender the rest of the way. Their early lackadaisical effort was all a trick to scare local fans into believing these ragtag New York hoop hobos could eclipse the 100-point mark. You see, there was a promotion going on that if the Knicks scored under 100, there would be Jamba Juice for everyone! This rubbed some in the game thread the wrong way, including BAGGY EYES DIET COKE ALONZO'S LEG, and thus spawned Jambagate!

- New York was officially eliminated from playoff contention. I guess they can plow thru the rest of these teams en route to the 14th slot in the lottery. We're trying to win, right? Not tanking?

- Golden State's largest lead was 40 points. They shot 50% overall, 56% from three and 94% at the line, 19 three-pointers made, 34 assists. That's probably a playoff team when it's all said and done.

- Steph Curry, the birthday boy, put up the most impressive stats with 25 points and 11 assists. Klay Thompson honored Steph with 27 points. It was too easy for these guys. They practically got the night off.

Here goes Steph's 5th three of the first half. It was a nice way to put the game officially out of reach.

- Alexey Shved's favorite Triangle play is to let everyone get set where they need to go, then wait for them to wonder what he's waiting for. Once this happens Alexey either calls for a high screen or an isolation. I suppose being uninterested in Triangulating may work for certain stuff, but breaking the offense to call you own number doesn't make any teammates really want to pull for your success.

My favorite classic Shved moment was when he decided to iso with about 18 seconds left on the shot clock, Bargnani asked him if he wanted a screen, Shved waved him off and decided that he would take Klay Thompson straight to the hoop by his lonesome. One crossover begot a second, and a step back jumper was cleanly blocked. Much bad, very lol.

- Langston Galloway flew his parents out to the game. They had never been to California! They were exceedingly gracious and kind hearted. Langston's dad, Larry, said he hadn't stopped crying (tears of joy) the whole game. Langston must have felt good coming in to the game, scoring 8 of his 10 in the first quarter.

- Cole Aldrich had a great set of meaningless stats. In a mere 15 minutes Cole swatted five shots, wrangled nine rebounds and assembled five assists. Still the best.

- Andrea Bargnani continues to be the most effective offensive player the team trots out. He is still largely ineffective, and he needed 14 shots to get his 18 points. Only 1-2 at the stripe in large part because Draymond Green could stick with him on the drive and didn't bite on his up-fakes. My heavens, fifty some losses deep, I hadn't realized players can do that type of stuff.

- Spike Lee was at the game, and may be doing something for NBA2K16. Hopefully they get him saying this. Would be nice to have Gus Johnson in there too.

Tomorrow the Knicks get to tangle with a Phoenix Suns team that is probably going to be head hunting in an effort to get on track as we close in on the NBA Playoffs. They are sliding out of the race for the eighth seed and have had a semi-tumultuous season (comparatively). A win where they can recalibrate their offense might do them some good. My guess is Brandon Knight has his best game as a Sun and Markieff Morris bodies Bargs. Over/under on a double technical? Would be nice to see if the Knicks can get through an entire game without committing or garnering a foul. See if we can't shave 30-something minutes off the overall duration.