National Basketball Association
Monday 28th November 2016
Tip Off 19.30
Golden State Warriors 105 Atlanta Hawks 100, attendance 19,596
Warriors Starters ;
Draymond Green, 4 pts, 3 reb, 7 ast, 1 stl, 4 blk
Stephen Curry, 25 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl
Klay Thompson, 20 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast1 stl, 1 blk
Kevin Durant, 25 pts, 14 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk
Zaza Pachulia, 4 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk
Playing Reserves ;
Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Ian Clark, David West, JaVale McGee, Patrick McCaw
Hawks Starters ;
Dwight Howard, 14 pts, 16 reb, 1 stl, 1 blk
Paul Millsap, 14 pts, 14 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl
Dennis Schroder, 24 pts, 1 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk
Kyle Korver, 3 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl
Kent Bazemore, 8 pts, 7 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk
Playing Reserves ;
Thabo Sefolosha, Mike Muscala, Malcolm Delaney, Tim Hardaway
@ Oracle Arena
7000, Coliseum Way
Oakland, CA 94621
Admission $100 + $16.50 fees, Resale, Print at Home ticket
Team Sheet, free.
We hadn’t visited San Francisco for about 10 years, so were surprised to see how far it has gone downhill in that time. Walking around the city was like being an extra in the film ‘Zombies, Dawn of the Dead’ as it is another city plagued by hordes of homeless and drugged up junkies, and this was just during the day. It got worse at night. Thankfully, Golden State Warriors play in Oakland, across San Francisco Bay, to the east. The Oracle Arena is easily reached by subway, taking the blue line from Downtown and getting off at Coliseum, which is also the stop for Oakland Coliseum, home to the Oakland Raiders of the N.F.L. and the Oakland Athletics of M.L.B. The journey took about 35 minutes due to problems on the line, sitting at one station for over 10 minutes, but it was only $4.50 each way.
Oracle Arena was opened in 1966, making it the oldest arena in the N.B.A. It has been home to the Warriors since 1971, except for a one year hiatus during renovations. Talks are currently ongoing for a new arena, which will see a move away from Oakland to San Francisco. The arena is really showing its age, but the atmosphere here is easily the best i have witnessed for basketball. Warriors have sold out for the last 190 odd matches and unlike so many American sports teams, this actually means all seats are taken, rather than a claim that all tickets are sold.
When i first arrived in the States I hadn’t really seen much top level basketball. It was going back to the mid 1980’s when Channel 4 Television had covered the NBA and a much later visit to see Phoenix Suns v Charlotte Bobcats, whilst on holiday 7 or 8 years ago, where the great Shaquille O’Neal played for the hosts, that got my interest. Living in Dallas, or more so, living in the Central Time Zone, means more often than not, Golden State Warriors are the second live match of the evening on television and this rekindled my interest in the game.
Warriors have become ‘my team’, mainly because they have two of the best 3 point shooters ever to play the game, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Known as ‘The Splash Brothers’, they hold the record as the fastest (least number of games) players ever to reach 1000 ‘3s’ in NBA history, with Curry scoring a ridiculous 402 ‘3s’ last season to break the record he already held.
Curry is also the reigning MVP (Most Valuable Player), having become the first player ever to receive 100 % of the votes, having also won in 2015. This season sees the arrival of Kevin Durant from Oklahoma City Thunder and MVP from 2014, so the Warriors are now being seen as the team everyone loves to hate. Last season saw them go 73-9 in the regular season, the best record ever in the NBA, before losing out in the Finals to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 7. The addition of Durant should surely see them go one better this time, although both Curry and Thompson seem to have lost a little something as the shots are shared out more.
Warriors made hard work of this one, having trailed the Hawks for over 24 minutes of the game, finally regaining the lead a minute into the fourth quarter and holding on from there. It had taken less than 3 minutes for both Curry and Thompson to shoot a 3 pointer, so at least i had seen them do what they do best. Without doubt, this is by far my favourite sporting event i have been to since living here and i doubt anything else will come close.
