Damian Jones had a nice season opener as the new Warriors starting center, with eye-popping highlights and young mistakes as well. Here are some brief notes taken during the game, followed by a video breakdown of Damian Jones’s scores. In brief, Jones looks like he can adequately play the roles of Zaza Pachulia (as giant defender) and JaVale McGee (high-flying vertical spacer) if he can keep catching up to game speed and getting chemistry with his teammates.

Brief Game Notes

• Standing figure on OKC bench is Westbrook right after he talked trash to Durant when Adams posted him up. Adams knocked Durant back about 5 feet but Durant got the strip and turned to ask Westbrook how his day was going.

• GSW, in their endearing way, is force feeding their new toy, Damian Jones. Results are spectacular dunks and horrible turnovers. Jones looks okay on defense except for a jumpy foul.
• DJ stoned Adams on a post up, then made a nice find of KD in the corner, got an OREB and nice dish for a layup, then happily skipped down the court. Then another turnover with KD forcing to to DJ. It’s a roller coaster ride with the new guys.
• The Q1 closing lineup (KD, Quinn, AI, Dray, Looney) looked discombobulated. Missed the 2 for 1. Gave up sloppy points.
• An older person dance troupe, the Hardwood Classics, got a wild ovation from the crowd. Don’t remember seeing them before...
• The Oracle crowd, upon careful reflection, have decided that the bizarre charge call on KD is evidence that the referees do in fact suck.
• Standing O for David West on Legend Cam during the break.
• Is this some weird hazing to have McKinnie debut by guarding the tiny guards Schroeder and Felton?
• And why is Kerr denying us the only true Steph we have left, 2-for-1 Steph? Stop pulling the man and let him roam free for 40 seconds!
• DJ with great hustle putbacks, bad mistakes leaving PG13 open for 3, sloppy offensive fouls, JaVale-like finishing on lobs, tough play inside, let a rebound fall to his feet and get stolen. He will improve and he can definitely play JaVale’s role.
• Quinn Cook tries to dish to Jerebko under the hoop, hits him in the butt
• Klay keeping his streak alive of shooting in under 0.5 seconds when touching the ball after an offensive rebound.
• Klay has been trying to create more off the dribble, but it hasn’t really been happening for him.
• Looney with a hustle putback dunk, then a huge block. Damian with a nice finish, and a block, then stones Adams again posting up. Young bigs showing more good than bad in the 4th so far.
• Looney with a nice finish in the post to probably ice it. Steph got caught isolated on PG13, played great denial D, then passed him off to Klay.
• Then the whole arena had a heart attack when KD went down. We can all laugh about it now.
• Dray with a nice play to force jump ball. Steph was so pumped, he raced over and paddled Dray’s rear.
• Well, the Dubs played with their food some, and played with their new toy bigs, but generally played okay, except for every play with a young big, which were all crapshoots. Promising stuff though.

Video Analysis

I chose to highlight the good instead of carping about issues for future improvement. Damian Jones was sturdy on defense and did a good job punishing OKC for doubling Stephen Curry. Here we track how he got his 12 points on thunderous dunks and contained the massive Steven Adams. Co-starring Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

(alternate YouTube link)

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