San Francisco – After a week of embarrassment and shame, Jordan Poole is back better than ever. Poole lead all scores with 25 points tonight for the Warriors despite their 124-121 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in tonight’s preseason opener.
“The thing I’ve told him is that I would like to play him a lot more in this year’s plans,” said Steve Kerr. “I think he played 17 minutes a game, so the improvement has to come at the defensive end, and I think it will.”
Kerr impressed with Poole’s performance mentioned that he wants to increase the guard minutes more in the playoffs. Last year Poole averaged 17 minutes and Kerr would like to see that increase. He would also like to see him become an All-Star.
Poole has been under a lot of scrutiny after getting into a fight with his teammate Draymond Green. Green has taken time away from the team for awhile and has since apologized to both the team and Poole. Since the video of the fight has leaked it may take more time for healing.
But in the meantime, Poole keeps soaring. Tonight he was given the award for last season’s NBA Free throw champion by the former and still reigning MVP of free throw’s Stephen Curry. Poole will just add this hardware to his NBA championship. Poole finished with 25 points, he scored 18 points in the third period.
“What’s exciting with Jordan is that he’s a shot creator and there’s so much value to that in the league,” James Wiseman said. “To be able to see Jordan over the last couple of years, see him blossoming, confidence growing, he’s someone we’re gonna rely on for many years to come and that’s exciting. We got a lot of good young players but, Jordan is by far the most advanced and we’re gonna lean on him heavily now and well into the future.”
The Lakers were without the starters except Anthony Davis who finished with 28 points and 8 rebounds tonight. Kendrick Nunn had 21 points and Matt Ryan had 20 points. LA maintained their lead throughout the game while Golden State recorded 17 turnovers. This was a problem when they payed in Japan.
Curry scored 24 points, had four rebounds and fours assists in 25 minutes. Moving past the violence that occurred last week, the team must move on. And from what we see Poole is simply amazing on the court. With his contract extension looming, Poole continues to shine on the court, tonight he did a behind the back pass to himself then made a smooth layup (clip via NBA).
Kevon Looney who praised Poole on how well he’s adjusted despite the distractions that occurred last week. Looney also had a few words about Green’s behavior and what he hopes to accomplish when the veteran returns.
“He doesn’t really let stuff phase him, if things not going his way, he kinda just putting his head down and working,” said Looney. “You can’t tell if he’s up or down most of the time. So, that’s kind of what we expect from him. He’s a professional. He’s a hard worker and he’s been showing it.
It’s been different. It’s been complicated… he’s got some work to do to get that trust bay from us. But I think he’s willing to do so.”
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
