Five observations from the Warriors' wild 124-123 win over the Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY — Here are five observations from the Warriors’ dramatic 124-123 win at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Saturday night.

1. Jonas Jerebko, revenge seeker

Even before the right-handed tapback, in the 47 minutes and 59 seconds that preceded one of the most unlikely daggers in NBA history, Jonas Jerebko’s Warriors career, sputtering at the start, had picked up a bit of life.

But let’s first go back to early July. The Jazz faced a deadline. They needed to decide whether to guarantee Jerebko’s $4.2 million contract for the upcoming season or cut him. Before the buzzer, they let him loose, freeing Jerebko to sign with the Warriors on the veteran minimum.

The decision was probably a wise one by Utah. That’s a bit pricey for Jerebko. But even shrewd moves stir up sour feelings. His Warriors teammates were well aware of the details that led Jerebko to them. They murmured a bit about it pregame. It’s a pastime David West introduced in this locker room: Bring up someone’s history with the opponent (“They didn’t want you,” West used to bellow in huddles) and siphon it into in-game motivation.

That’s part of the reason Steve Kerr penciled in Jerebko as a Friday night rotation piece, despite his preseason and opening-night struggles. The offseason signee needed a confidence boost. Maybe a decent night against the Jazz would give it to him.

He entered midway through the first quarter, for Draymond Green. Then, zing, there was the Jerebko the Warriors thought they were snagging away from the Jazz this summer, the confident stretch 4 who could provide much-needed spacing off the bench, not the clunky, scattered guy who was on display in the preseason.

Thirty seconds after entering, Jerebko drilled an open wing 3, set up by a double-teamed Steph Curry. Three minutes later, spread to the deep right corner, Jerebko waited intently as Kevin Durant, in the opposite corner, saw an unbalanced floor tilted his way and tossed it cross-court over the top.

Jerebko caught, fired and hit, his second made 3 in four minutes — more 3s than Durant (1 of 6) and Klay Thompson (1 of 10) have hit through two games.

Jerebko still had his rough moments. He’s pretty physical, but sometimes overly so on defense. He hacked the Jazz twice while in the first-quarter penalty, giving them four free throws. Plus, his below-average NBA footspeed makes him a regular target. The Jazz attacked him plenty during his 24 minutes, coming up successful a chunk of times.

“I think I was solid,” Jerebko said. “A few plays here and there, I might have got lost a little bit.”

But in all, Jerebko performed fine. Even if Durant’s miss had been rebounded by Rudy Gobert in the final moments and the Warriors had lost by one, they’d be exiting the night feeling decent about their new stretch 4, a tiny, irrelevant bright spot lost in the thrill of this wild early-season game.

But Gobert didn’t rebound that Durant miss. Jerebko, inbounding on the play before smartly sneaking through for inside position on Gobert, found himself in the perfect spot for a soft tip, flipping the night’s result, pushing himself onto center stage, ripping out the heart of his former franchise and inciting a mob scene in front of the Jazz bench.

“Forget the win,” Green said. “Forget the game. My favorite part was him yelling in their bench’s face.”

Here’s the play.

This is a Warriors core that struggles to get overly excited for too much on the basketball court these days. Winning brings relief, not euphoria. Even series-clinching playoff celebrations have mostly been tame the past two years.

But this eruption — which included a walk-off home run dogpile, a shirtless (and injured) Andre Iguodala sprinting out from the locker room to chest bump Jerebko and a rare Thompson taunting tweet — was as genuine as it was rare. This is as happy as we’ve seen the Warriors after a regular-season game in a long time.

A chunk of that was because of the arc of the game. The Warriors gave up 81 first-half points, were down by double digits and spent most of the night crawling back. Some of it was because of the opponent and environment. This Jazz team is a conference threat, and this Salt Lake City crowd is loud and angry.

But much of the joy came because of who was at the center of it. All the main Warriors have had their big crowd-silencing, in-the-fire moments. Jerebko hadn’t. Until Friday night against the team that cut him.

“That’s the moment where he’s one of us,” Kerr said. “Any time you’re a new guy with a team, you’re trying to make your mark, you do it in practice by going hard. You do it with your work ethic. But as soon as you hit a game-winner, that solidifies it.”

They didn’t want ya Jonas.

— klay thompson (@KlayThompson) October 20, 2018

Draymond Green on the Jonas Jerebko tapback winner and ensuing celebration: “Forget the win. Forget the game. My favorite part was him yelling in their bench’s face.” pic.twitter.com/D5Qj4XivlK

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 20, 2018

Full Jonas Jerebko postgame sound on his game-winner pic.twitter.com/WFSaN2JCLz

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 20, 2018

Steve Kerr on the Jerebko game-winner: “That’s the moment where he (becomes) one of us.”
On the Iguodala shirtless celebration: “Andre can do that. I don’t think I can.” pic.twitter.com/Tu5Sbzbxfz

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 20, 2018

2. Draymond’s defense

Durant scored 38 points on 14-of-25 shooting, keeping the Warriors within striking distance with a huge first half. Curry scored 31 points on 13 of 24, keying that Warriors’ second-half strike with a string of huge 3s.

That lethal night from the costars (69 points combined on 49 shots) will lead the non-Jerebko headlines. But Green’s second-half defense, plus a couple clutch buckets, was just as important.

Green wasn’t great in the opener and didn’t look good in the first half. He front-rimmed a couple wiiiiiiide-open 3s, flailed up a few no-chance layups over the towering Gobert, whined to the referees that Gobert wasn’t vertical and looked sluggish in the altitude, still working through some conditioning issues resulting from a sore knee and a missed week in training camp.

But then he got into a little shoving match with Gobert and Derrick Favors in the third quarter, the crowd got all over him, the deficit was at a manageable place and, for the first time this season, Green flipped the switch that’s always been there.

Down the stretch during the comeback, he was everywhere defensively, blasting up plays like the one below. From behind the play, Green, a help-side terrorizer, recognizes the lob to Favors, flies over and swats it away, saving two important points with nine minutes left.

Said Green: “Sometimes, you just gotta do something to get everyone going. I kind of felt that tonight. And that’s on me. I gotta feel that and, when I feel it, act on it.”

3. Film room

When Damian Jones is not right next to the hoop, opposing defenses are ignoring him. The Warriors counter that by bringing him into pick-and-roll action and using him as a lob pogo stick.

But there are other ways to leverage a team’s lack of interest in guarding Jones, a virtual non-threat if he’s not dunking or laying it up at this point of his career.

In Friday night’s first quarter, the Warriors showed one. On one particular possession, Jones received a pass at the top of the key, about 20 feet out. He’s uncomfortable in that spot, and you can see that here. Gobert lays about 7 feet off of him and Jones doesn’t even think about taking a jumper, dribbling aimlessly for a second before picking the ball up.

Thompson senses the island Jones is on and sprints toward him, perfectly setting up a dribble handoff, using Jones’ big frame to brick-wall a trailing, defending Ricky Rubio. Gobert, laying so far off Jones, can’t get up to a curling Thompson in time. He steps right into a wide-open mid-range jumper.

4. Klay’s quiet start

Early in the week, Thompson planned to be in Pullman, Washington, on Saturday morning for Gameday, serving as ESPN’s celebrity guest picker during the famous pregame segment, riling up the Washington State crowd before a huge game against Oregon. The Warriors were going to send the three NBA title trophies with him.

But then Klay started thinking about the logistics. The Warriors’ game on Friday night in Salt Lake City tipped off at 8:30 p.m. local time. It didn’t end until after 11 p.m. The team didn’t leave the arena until after midnight.

If Klay were to execute the plan, he would’ve had to charter a plane from Salt Lake to Pullman, land some time after 2 a.m., get a tiny bit of rest, but then be on set (and on national TV picking college football games) by 8:45 a.m.

Following that, Thompson could’ve either stayed in town for what will be an incredible atmosphere and a big game, kicking off at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night, or jetted back to Denver, meeting the team there before their Sunday game against the Nuggets, a second in a row at high altitude.

That was too much, Klay decided, so he declined. And he’s probably feeling better about his choice after his clunker in Utah on Saturday night. After a scorching preseason (in which he went 16 of 29 from 3 in limited minutes spread out over four games), he’s bricked his way through the opening week.

Against the Thunder, Klay made only 5 of his 20 shots. In Utah, he made 4 of 9, missed both of his 3s and then, appearing a bit disengaged, sunk to the background while Durant and Curry shot the Warriors back in it. In all, he’s 1 of 10 from 3 in two games.

He’ll spend his Saturday in Denver, not Pullman. The Warriors are scheduled to practice upon landing. Thompson will try to bust out of his early-season funk.

5. Jordan Bell, currently out of the rotation

Not all that surprising: Jacob Evans got his second straight DNP on Friday. The rookie is still yet to debut.

Much more surprising: Joining him in that department was Jordan Bell, the highly touted, occasionally electric second-year center who came into the season with big expectations but has played only seven total minutes in two games, including zero seconds against the Jazz.

Why? Kerr is committed to giving Jones an early-season chance at center, and it’s clear he trusts the more reliable Kevon Looney right now, saying Looney had the best camp of all the team’s bigs.

But even so, you’d figure Bell, one of the team’s more energetic options, would get some run. Instead, Kerr has played more Green small-ball center than expected and gave Jerebko 24 minutes as a stretch option on Friday. We’ll see if that continues.

Warriors All-82 podcast

Ethan Strauss recaps the wild night.

https://soundcloud.com/warriors-all82/wild-win-over-the-jazz

— Reported from Salt Lake City

(Top photo: Melissa Majchrzak / NBAE via Getty Images)