Preview: Santa Cruz Warriors take on Sioux Falls Skyforce
The Santa Cruz Warriors will host the G-League affiliate of three-time champions Miami Heat, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, on Friday at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.
This matchup will help Sea Dubs fans and critics alike figure out if that early season run was a fluke or a record we should take notice on long term. On today’s edition of TimeOut, I am going to discuss three actions the Santa Cruz Warriors can take to get the W at home against a stack Skyforce team.
The bench needs to be consistent at the end of games.
The bench stats-wise has been very solid for the Santa Cruz Warriors so far this season. They currently are in the top five in points, field goals made, field goal percentage, free throws made and attempted, offensive rebounds, rebounds, steals and have the league’s best plus-minus.
These are weapons that the Warriors can use to win the game regardless of whether the starters are in the lineup or not. One of the Warriors issues recently is the bench’s ability to consistently score coming down to the end of the game and no better opportunity to improve than against the Skyforce.
Be a pest on both sides of the ball.
The Skyforce have been a force to reckon with offensively for the season thus far. They currently are in the top five in seven areas: points per game, assists per game, steals per game, field goal percentage, three points made, three-point percentage and win percentage.
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The Santa Cruz Warriors top the Sioux Falls Skyforce in one area: steals, which can come in handy especially when the Skyforce are going on a run. The Warriors need to be able to consistently shoot but also ensure that they execute their defensive assignment for the game despite the Skyforce being over the Warriors in defensive rating.
Use turnovers as an advantage
The Sea Dubs currently score 17.9 points off opponent’s turnovers which is 1.4 points less than what the Skyforce score.
Although one point doesn’t look bad on paper, one point in a close game can determine a win or loss for a team as in the case of the Lakers and Vipers game last weekend. For the season thus far, the Warriors in the fourth quarter score 4.8 points off turnovers which needs to improve in order for the team to make the postseason next year and to be a force to be reckoned with right now.
Each possession matter. Dealing with a multidimensional player like Yante Maten who is currently averaging 27.7 points and10.6 rebounds will be no easy task but the Sea Dubs have the ability to push the pace to the point of that the opposing team will be turning the ball over regularly.
The team has to ensure the turnovers convert into points throughout the game.
Next. Warriors: Ranking the Dubs biggest threats through 30 games. dark
The Santa Cruz Warriors will have their hands filled with Briante Weber and the Skyforce gang on Friday and Sea Dubs fans and Dub Nation fans alike will get to see the action live on Facebook Live at 7 p.m. PT/11p.m. ET.