Jordan Poole smiled as he stared at the iPhone 13 Pro Max in his hand. A sarcastic smile, as if he knew this would be the next attack on him.
He was watching a video of the game in the middle of the fourth quarter when Memphis hinted that he had deliberately tried to hurt Grizzlies star Ja Morant. He watched the delayed cadence of the play, where he and Andrew Wiggins caught Morant, with Poole waving and hitting the ball, then reaching out again and grabbing Morant’s right knee. He showed him pulling Morant’s knee toward him with his right hand as he pushed Morant with his left.
“Yes, it was a basketball game when we doubled it,” Poole said after seeing him, “and I hit the ball and headed for the ball. I mean, obviously, you don’t want to see anyone hurt. I’m not even that type of player. I respect everyone. … Let’s hope he gets better and we can see him there next game. I don’t even play like that, really. This is not my type of game. “
Maybe Morant stretched his knee when he set the trap. Maybe Morant injured his knee earlier in the third quarter in a race with a 3-pointer by Clay Thompson. Whatever the case, Poole and Morant are now inextricably linked in this series of the second round of the Western Conference, which the Warriors are leading 2-1 after Saturday’s 142-112 victory at Chase Center. Morant began the relationship by attacking Poole mercilessly in the area of Game 2 and causing Poole to fall as if dancing in praise. And Poole responded – as you knew he would – by returning to Morant in Game 3.
Everything rose to another level as Morant limped off the court. He looked depressed as he tore the pillow from the seat next to him and pushed her away in disappointment. He looked in great pain as the athletic coach pushed his right knee. It was the same knee that protected him from nine games away. Then Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said he was “curious” about what Poole was doing. Morant then tweeted “breaking the code” over the video Poole was watching, a reference to Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s claim that Grizzlies guard Dylan Brooks “broke the code” when he hit Gary Peyton II in the back of the head with a quick break.
Now this is a complete controversy with Poole and Morant at the center.
“It’s a talk of the playoffs,” Thompson said. “I personally suffered a severe knee injury and I don’t think there is any malicious intent on the part of Jordan. I don’t even think he’s strong enough to hurt someone’s knee. But we are not trying to hurt people or try to hit people in the back of the head during a quick break. We play the game the right way and I will keep it. He doesn’t want to. “
From what we know about Poole, he certainly doesn’t want Morant out of the show. He wants the measuring stick of Morant’s greatness.
Poole sat for three days until the series shifted to his defense or lack thereof. Highlights and memes went well with Morant, who missed Poole, one of his many mind-boggling games, when he scored 47 points in Game 2.
“It’s basketball,” Poole said. “We are going out there. We play hard. We compete. These are the best players in the world, you know what I’m saying? So I just go out there, we just play hard, we stick to our game plan, we reject it, we keep pushing, we come back the next day, we go to the drawing board and just try to get better. ”
His attempt at humility aside, Poole – who is only two months older than Morant and was selected 26 times after the Grizzlies star in the 2019 NBA Draft – simply would not allow this to be the end of the story. Poole has managed to get here, from the bust label that haunted him in 2019, to a major member of the championship because he believes he belongs among the big ones. He did not stop Morant, who scored 34 points in 13 of 21 shots with seven assists. But Poole was trying to prove that Morant had no chance of stopping him. None of the Grizzlies did well on Saturday.
Poole is enemy number 2 now in Memphis. Maybe he even passed Draymond Green now that he was accused of injuring Morant. Some of the Grizzlies were already hoping Poole would be penalized for Game 3 for walking the court when Peyton fell. Now there will certainly be complaints to be kicked out for Game 4.
This is also completely logical, because Poole is a big problem for the Grizzlies. And he is the main option for the Warriors to get Morant to work in defense.
The Warriors withstood the hot start of Memphis and took the lead in the second quarter. Morant, an unstoppable third-year Grizzlies guard, returned to the game after 9 minutes and 36 seconds until the end of the first half. In Game 1, Morant ended his break with 5:38 until the end of the second quarter. He returned at 7:40 in Game 2. But the Warriors escaped with eight consecutive points, caused by Thompson’s game with 3 points. The Grizzlies’ lead, once at 13 points, was a six-point deficit about nine minutes later. So even with Warriors star guard Stephen Curry still on the bench, Morant returned to the ship’s right.
But this part of the game belongs to Poole. When Curry sat down to start the second and fourth quarters, the offense belonged to the third-year Warriors guard for about six minutes. And he greeted Morant at the pool party, pulling him to the deepest end.
Morant set De’Anthony Melton up for laying. Poole responded by chasing Morant, calling for a screen to get Grizzly’s face to protect him. And Poole walked straight toward him, using hesitation and stepping back to reach a jumper pulling the baseline. The next time he called Morant again, this time he worked from above and dialed over Morant on the free throw line.
The Warriors were 10 points ahead of the Grizzlies as Curry sat in the second quarter. The game changed when Poole went against Morant and kept up the pressure on Memphis’ defense. Warriors are plus 26 in minutes without curry in this series.
Like any defense, the Grizzlies are focused on taking Curry away. After Brooks was sent off in Game 2 and penalized for Game 3, the Grizzlies turned to Melton and rookie Ziair Williams to protect Curry and prevent his open eyes. Their support is a large Grizzly bear – whether Jeron Jackson Jr. or Wayne Wilman or Brandon Clark – is waiting for help if Curry makes a move.
But Poole gives the Warriors another player who can attack, another player who can control pick-and-roll, or even go into isolation. And with Thompson on the court with him and the attention that Curry attracts, Poole has a place to work. He can take his collection of crossovers and hesitant movements to get where he needs to go. He’s not Morant around the edge, but Poole’s laying package is cold in itself.
“Jordan, it’s just our ability to spread the floor and make it go down,” Kerr said. “What he added to our team is so important. We are able to put Steph on the bench and I would say for the series, we probably win the minutes that are not Steph, which is a big deal for us. Because it’s been a problem for a long time. “
But what impressed Poole’s teammates is how he competes in defense. Green and several veterans told Poole that they needed more of him in defense. They needed him to compete. If that means being defeated, so be it. If that means finishing in Morant’s accent, so be it.
“This will continue to happen,” said Curry, who knows something about being targeted by the defense. “Whether it’s me, whoever it is. That’s the nature of the playoffs. But you just have to take this challenge seriously. You need to have some pride in that, knowing that they are trying to get you into action for a reason. This does not mean that you will stop every time.
“It simply means you’ve done your job. First point of attack, be physical, no crashes. Whether they score or not, you’re just trying to get them to win and obviously not a foul. I think he made the right adjustments and he had to keep doing it, because when playoff basketball slows down, those games matter. And if you do your job on the ball, you have help behind your back. More times than not, you will be in a good position. ”
The controversial game that will dominate the talk of this series was a product of Poole, who competes in defense. This is not the best look for Poole. He will again be the center of attention on the weekends between matches, especially if Morant misses a moment.
But we know Poole. We know how it was built and what it does. He wants Morant on the court. He wants to return to the superstar immediately. Because that’s how he shows that he belongs on this stage.
(Photo by Jordan Poole: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
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