After the Santa Cruz Warriors lost to the Texas Legends 104-102, these two teams were back at it again at the Kaiser Permanente Arena on Saturday night.
The Santa Cruz Warriors that lost on Friday was a completely different team on Saturday night. Aaron Miles decided to put the newest Sea Dub Trayvon Palmer in the starting lineup along with Marcus Derrickson, Deyonta Davis, Darius Morris and Will Cherry.
New adjustments resulted in a blowout 121-89 win for the Sea Dubs. On today’s edition of TimeOut, I am going to compare the Sea Dubs performance on Friday and Saturday.
From the field and three
Although the Sea Dubs shot seven more attempts from the field on Saturday in comparison to Friday’s matchup, they almost shot identically percentage-wise. They shot 47.7% on Friday on 42-88 shooting and 45-of-95 on Saturday. From three-point range, they made one more three on Saturday (eleven), but they attempted more threes on Saturday (thirty-two on Friday vs thirty-six on Saturday).
Free throws
The one factor that played a role in the Santa Cruz Warriors loss on Friday was the number of fouls called against the Warriors. Nothing ruins momentum more than foul calls and the free throws that may result from it.
The Legends attempted thirty free throws and made nineteen whereas the Warriors who were better from the free throw line (66.7%) finished 8-for-12. Eighteen free throws separated the Legends and two of those free throws cost the Sea Dubs the victory.
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Last Saturday, however, the Sea Dubs being the more aggressive team went to the line more attempting twenty-six free throws making twenty of those free throws.
Offensive vs. Defensive Rebounds
A growing theme this season for the Golden State Warriors is the lack of offensive rebounds in comparison to defensive rebounds and that was in full effect last Friday. On Friday, the Sea Dubs had not one not two but four offensive rebounds which was the lowest for the season thus far. Meanwhile, they grabbed thirty-seven defensive rebounds. The polar opposite occurred last Saturday. The Warriors on the tail end of a back to back grabbed twenty offensive rebounds and one more defensive rebound in comparison to the previous night (37 on Friday 38 on Saturday).
There were two key things that occurred in the Warrior win last Saturday:
- They won yet dished out the ball less. When the Warriors lost last Friday they recorded thirty-three assists. In the following game, they dished out twenty-six assists, seven less than the previous night.
- Another interesting feature of that win was the reality that the Warriors got into more foul trouble. The Sea Dubs had twenty-nine fouls on Saturday while the night before they had twenty-one. One thing is for certain- pressure is nothing for the Santa Cruz Warriors. They can adapt and make enough changes to win games.
The only hindrance to their success is themselves.
Side note: It was great to see Jaleel Cousins play more than three minutes on a back to back.