Leftover Observations and Quotes on Game 1

I should be able to have one of these up either the morning after games or a couple hours after, with or without video. Here's the first playoff edition.

1. Anthony Davis is completely effortless playing basketball. He struggled for the first three quarters, sure, but that comes with the territory of being 22 and playing in the toughest atmosphere in the entire league and going up against the best team in the entire league. During his 4th quarter garbage time dominance, he chucked in a turnaround fadeaway J from about 15-footer from the baseline. And it was the most nonchalant move ever while simultaneously remaining completely unstoppable. And yeah, he ended up 35 points, seven rebounds, and four blocks. Not so bad for a postseason debut. Perhaps the greatest ever.

2. If the Golden State Warriors want to annihilate teams and stay there, they need Klay Thompson to play much better than he did Saturday. He doesn't need to drop 26 r 37 in a quarter but needs to remain consistent in a way that carries bench units when Stephen Curry isn't on the floor. He was a little shook after being blocked in the paint by Davis a couple times. We'll see how he combats that in the next couple games.

3. The Warriors back-cut the New Orleans Pelicans to death. That worked mainly because the Pels were fine with allowing paint points as long as threes weren't handed out for free. The Warriors got fine looks from all angles of the court so this is less worrisome to me than it is to other media members.

4. Tyreke Evans heard a pop in his knee and it doesn't sound good at all. What does this mean for the Pels' offense? It could be good and it could be bad. When Evans is right, he can drive and create lanes for the multiple shooters the Pels have. He was awful, however, on Saturday so this might work out for the Pelicans. It's hard to see that happening with Jrue Holiday also on a minutes restriction, though.

5. Some kind of defensive effort when it mattered from Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut. Green constantly swiped away at Davis when he put it on the floor. Bogut stonewalled Davis several times at the rim and closed out on several shooters, even blocking one. They are the Warriors best two defenders and carrying this team at times.

quotes:

1. Draymond on flexing against AD after scoring on him: "If you scored a bucket over Anthony Davis you better pound your chest too because it ain't happening often. You better flex and pound your chest too."

2. Anthony Davis is human! "I think the whole team was nervous. We gotta learn how to play fast but have our mind move slow. We did that in the second half."

3. Quincy Pondexter on guarding Steph: "Not give him much space. He's one of the best shooters in the history of the game. Any little air space, that shot is going up and you don't even want to look at it because it's likely going in...We have to try to limit some of those home run threes he takes."

4. Monty Williams on guarding pick-and-rolls was very interesting: "They set small-small screens. I didn't think we handled that well. It wasn't a bunch of blow-bys. Everything tonight seemed like it was in the middle a lot. When they did go side, it was a clear-side so we had a chance to rotate because we had four guys on one side. When it was in the middle, it created a lot of single side snap action and we didn't do a good job taking away the dive or the three." -

5. Steve Kerr is not worried about Davis scoring so much: I thought we were good on Davis. He got to the line a little bit more than I would have liked. Great players do that. we made him take some tough shots and he scored a lot down the stretch when the game was kind of a frantic mode. great players are going to get their points. it's one thing we talked about before the series. We're not worried about Davis scoring a lot of points. We're worried about covering the other areas like the three-point line, not fouling, not reaching and that kind of stuff.

6. Curry on if he feels any pressure: "When you get to the playoffs everything resets and you have to not forget who you are and how you got there but just enjoy the moment."