The San Francisco 49ers handled business on Saturday, blasting through the Minnesota Vikings and setting themselves up for a shot at the NFC Conference Championship, and then eventually (hopefully) the Super Bowl. While the Golden State Warriors have abandoned their championship aspirations for this season, it would still be nice to see the good guys get a win.
Golden State has been blanked in the year 2020, catching nothing but L’s - the team’s last win was on december 27, 2019. But hopefully the return of D’Angelo Russell (who will be playing his first game since December 28th) can turn the tide.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (9-31) at Memphis Grizzlies (17-22)
WHERE: Memphis, TN
WHEN: Sunday January 12, 2020: 3:00 pm PST
WATCH: NBC Sport Bay Area
DLo is back, but Bowman is just about out of time
It’s a bit of good news / bad news for the Warriors as today will see the return of All Star point guard D’Angelo Russell. Russell, who has been sitting for a couple weeks as the result of a scary collision against Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks will return to provide exactly the additional ball handling and shooting that has been so noticeably absent.
His return is timely because Ky Bowman, the only other true point guard on the roster is just about out of time on his two way contract. Once the allowable days have elapsed - and we are down to just a few now - he’ll have to be relegated to the G League until their season ends (end of March) or the team wrangles up a roster spot for him.
Ky Bowman will play vs Clippers tonight, fly to Memphis with team, probably not play vs Grizzlies (with Russell back) and then join Santa Cruz (who will be in Memphis on Monday).
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 10, 2020
It’s shockingly hard to tank
As bad as this Warriors team has been, the tank update is not ironclad as one would be led to believe if they were just watching the games. Seven straight losses haven’t done much to separate the Warriors from the bottom of the pack.
Remember that the bottom three teams all have the same chance at landing the #1 pick in the upcoming draft. As per Anthony Slater, here’s the bottom of the barrell:
30. Hawks: 8-31
29. Warriors: 9-31
28. Knicks: 10-29
27. Cavaliers: 11-27
26. Bulls: 13-26
Prediction
The Memphis Grizzlies are shocking the world. With exciting rookie, Ja Morant at the helm, the Grizz find themselves holding on to the 8th seed. While it’s still too early to talk about playoffs, Memphis is going to be hyper aware of the importance of each and every game in what promises to be a tight Western Conference.
They should handle the Warriors fairly easily, Russell or no.