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After going off a few times about how uninspiring summer league play has been, I have to admit that I'm starting to get more excited about the Golden State Warriors' summer league run.
I mean, it's not all that often that Warriors fans can say their team won anything - a division, a conference, a championship, or a lottery - so I guess we have to take whatever we can get right?
Well with a win tonight against the Charlotte Bobcats in the Las Vegas Summer League semifinals, the Warriors would advance to the inaugural championship game for a chance at the title.
With the Bobcats resting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeff Taylor, Cody Zeller and Bismack Biyombo for yesterday's win against the D-League Select team, it should be a game that we expect the Warriors to win on paper (again, an idea that might take some adjusting for Warriors fans to get used to). However, the Bobcats got a strong performance from former Pac-10/12 point guard Abdul Gaddy who had a game-high 17 points last night.
For the Warriors, the big key should be pretty obvious and really simple: they have to make shots if they want to win this game. They shot over 50% in the second half last night while cutting down on their turnovers to overcome a 30% shooting first half against the Los Angeles Lakers.
But another theme to watch is point guard play, with Ian Clark coming up big last night while Scott Machado continues to struggle generating offense for himself. Clark has been increasingly impressive with his ability to shoot the basketball as well as his effort on defense, although he's more of an undersized combo guard at 6'3". A steady performance from him again - as well as scorer Cameron Jones - with a strong dose of Warriors defense (how great is it that it's no longer an oxymoron?) should help put the Warriors over the top.
Vegas Summer League schedule for June 21
Both times Pacific, both games on NBA TV
3 p.m. - #3 Phoenix Suns vs. #18 Miami Heat
5 p.m. - #1 Golden State Warriors vs. #5 Charlotte Bobcats
For a full summer league tournament bracket, click here. For more on the Warriors' time in Vegas, check out our 2013 Warriors Summer League section.