Steph Curry Returns and Jordan Poole Goes Off

Photo of Steph Curry giving the stink face by rocor

Steph Returns and Jordan Poole goes off. Jordan Poole dropped 30 in his playoff debut. It’s only one win in a best of seven series but damn it felt good. The only other Warrior to drop more points in a playoff debut was the legendary Wilt Chamberlain with 35. You might have heard of him, for whatever reasons. This is on the heels of Mayor Breed raising a flag to nobody on 415 day and claiming it blue and gold day at City Hall. To someone’s credit nobody heard about this and she was accompanied by Adonal Foyle #31 who we love from those stark years.

Draymond Green handled the defensive end against MVP front runner Nikola Jokic along with Kevon Looney. The D was there. Draymond was there on both ends and proves, while Steph is the fan favorite, he is the glue of this team. But let’s talk about the new death lineup. We all know the original. There is a wikipedia page about it. It’s small ball. You throw Draymond at the 5 (center) and let the wings run and shoot. Wait for it. While Poole, Thompson, Curry, Green and Wiggins were on the floor together they outscored the Denver Nuggets by 14 points in only 5 minutes of action. It set the tone going into the second half. Jordan Poole on the lineup “It’s pretty lethal.”

“It’s really hard to guard us,” Thompson said. “Technically, I guess, we are undersized, but you have to bring a defensive force and effort and energy…It’s a scary sight when we really get going, This is really only our first time really playing together.” Yikes! In a not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good way.

Steph came off the bench by choice and had 16 points over 22 minutes. Klay dropped 19 with a solid first half but the star of the show was Jordan Poole. While talking about his performance he dropped this gem on Draymond’s 12 point 3 block and 9 assist effort. “Him being our leader, we feed off his energy and being able to see head honcho go out there, be aggressive, knock down huge stops against the MVP, we feed off that. Being able to have the force that he is back there, and the way he controls our offense helps a lot.” 

So the question becomes, how do you fit Poole into the starting lineup? He was only there Saturday night because Steph opted to come off the bench due to his minutes restriction in coming back from his ankle injury. Does Poole take his role as 6th man back? Does Wiggins slide to the bench? That is for Steve Kerr to decide. What we do know is that Jordan Poole is here and he is ready. He will get his minutes. Warriors win 107-123. See you tonight Denver.