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If I don’t win a title, that’s unsuccessful,” Green said of this season’s expectations. “There’s no moral victories, there’s no: ‘Oh, this is our first year together, we don’t have as many stars, Klay (Thompson) is out.’ I don’t really roll like that. You step on the floor, same 94 feet, two baskets, one basketball.”
It’s hard to get a clear read on much in this virtual reporting world. Everything is separated by a computer screen. But it’s not difficult to identify a different Draymond Green than the one who showed up at camp a season ago. He was exhausted then, drained from a five-year run, and quickly made it clear in conversation that he didn’t think the team would be very good. Too young, too mistake-prone, too vulnerable to believe they’d be any type of threat. So he tamped down expectations and went on a season-long snooze.
“The reality is we fucking suck right now,” Green said in one of his early news conferences.
Wiseman practiced for the first time Monday. Even if his first impression was a dud, Green and Kerr never would’ve revealed that to reporters. But they’re honest and typically pretty easy to read. The blandness with which both talked about the Russell experiment and readiness of the roster to compete last camp was obvious. So was the genuine reaction they had to Wiseman’s first practice.
“He was playing with huge energy, flying around everywhere,” Kerr said. “A couple guys came off the floor, shook their heads and said, ‘Man, this guy is massive.'”
“He can cover a lot of ground,” Green said. “Especially on the defensive end. He runs the floor great. Came up with some big offensive rebounds. There were times where he was way out of position defensively and most of it is because he’s covering somebody else’s assignment just because he’s all over the place, he’s excited.
“I’d much rather play with somebody like that, Steve would rather coach somebody like that, where you got to tell them: ‘Hey, slow down. Hey, your spot is here, that wasn’t necessarily yours to cover.’ As opposed to telling a guy: ‘Hey, you’re missing your assignment, you’re not playing hard enough.’ He was a bit all over the place. I thought it was great to see. Because it was all energy-related. When you need to tone a guy’s energy back, you can do that. But lethargic, laid-back guys, it’s very hard to turn their tick up.”
Green and Wiseman won’t play in the Warriors’ preseason game in Sacramento on Tuesday night. It’s possible they debut on Thursday, again in Sacramento against the Kings. But even if neither do, both are trending toward being available in the season opener next Tuesday in Brooklyn.
“Most definitely,” Wiseman said when asked if he felt ready to debut.
Kerr was asked about specific Wiseman practice moments that stood out. He gave a very Kerr answer.
“He made several great screens,” Kerr said. “He seems to be a very natural screen setter. A couple screen and dives to the rim where he opened up wide-open shooters on the weak side. He did it twice in a row during our drill work. He executed it perfectly — screen and dive and because of his size and speed, the help had to come and we got a couple wide-open 3s. Those two plays jumped out at me.”
There was also a Draymond-to-Wiseman lob.
“We had a drill where you have to get a stop and, if you get the stop, you take one trip down the floor,” Kerr said. “On defense, Draymond was talking James through the possession, their team made a stop, their team raced down the floor and it ended with Draymond throwing a lob to James for a dunk. It was a perfect snapshot of what we hope to see and what might be coming. The defensive synergy between those two and then the offensive
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Chase Young, pass-rusher, Washington. With the NFC East lead on the line late Sunday afternoon in Arizona at the (temporarily homestanding) Niners, this is what Young did in the first half in leading WFT to a 13-7 lead:
- Scooped up a fumble and scored on a 47-yard sprint to the end zone.
- Dropped in coverage for a millisecond, then charged the backfield and sacked Nick Mullens for minus-8.
- Forced a fumble with a jarring hit on running back Jeff Wilson Jr. The fumble was recoved by WFT and resulted in a field goal.
In addition, for the game, the second pick in the 2020 draft had six tackles, two more quarterback pressures and two passes defensed in Washington’s 23-15 victory, a win that gave the team the lead in the NFC East with three games to go.
But Jackson’s sudden departure, captured by the broadcast, led fans on social media to speculate that he needed to go for two.
Jackson returned a series later to throw a touchdown on fourth down to Marquise Brown that gave the Ravens a 42-35 lead with 1:51 to go in the game before eventually leading Baltimore on a game-winning drive in the final minute.
“I didn’t pull a Paul Pierce,” Jackson said in reference to the former Boston Celtics star, who was carried off the court in a wheelchair for an apparent bathroom break during the 2008 playoffs.
Instead, Jackson said, he had run to the locker room to get treatment for cramps because of the cold and required intravenous fluids.
But before Jackson’s explanation, fans on Twitter ran wild with speculation.
Even his teammate, and regular backup Robert Griffin III, added fuel to the fire.
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