The defending champions as of late, i.e. The Golden State Warriors, fondly known as dubs kicked off this year’s preseason game with a 97-87 victory over the Washington Wizards on 30th September 2022 in Saitama, Japan at Saitama Super Arena. The Warriors won 53 games last season and are off to a fairly good start this pre-season.
In the very first preseason game of the new season, the halftime score was 41-37 in favour of the Warriors.
The 7-foot 21-year-old didn’t disappoint with 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting and nine rebounds in a 96-87 win to start the Warriors’ two-game Japan trip.
If the Warriors overcome their projected 42-win mark and go on to win another NBA championship next June, it can be attributed to their pre-season form that was able to hold on to their title defence.
Unfortunately, not all is good with the dubs as they lost three key pieces of their rotation this summer – Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II, and Nemanja Bjelica. In turn, they replaced those players with DiVincenzo and Green, who should be set up to play crucial roles in Golden State’s rotations.
Photo by: Takashi Aoyama
The Warriors’ main guard Klay Thompson will miss the team’s two preseason games against the Washington Wizards in Japan.
Thompson is entering this NBA season healthy and well but coach Kerr in an attempt to be cautious with the veteran in his first full campaign after his two-year injury absence and out of consideration of the condensed scheduling that put these early preseason games in Japan on the Warriors’ plate has decided not to immediately put him in action. The Warriors will slowly put Thompson into action after they make their return to the U.S. In the meantime, Jordan Poole will take his place in the lineup at the beginning. Coach Kerr has attributed this to being cautious and doing the smart thing and both he and Thompson have put their vote of confidence in DiVincenzo’s form and practice. Hopefully, this will leave much to look forward to this season.
Thompson aged 32, warmed up before the dub’s first game against the Wizards on Friday night, and he has not been restricted in any other way after this.
Last season, Thompson averaged 20.4 points in 54 regular-season games in 2021-22 while shooting 42.9% from the field and 38.5% from 3-point range. After last season’s return in which he completed his recovery from ACL and Achilles injuries to play his first game in 941 days, he was second in the postseason 3-pointers and steered the dubs in playoff minutes as they won their 4th NBA championship 8 seasons.
After two games against the Washington Wizards in Saitama, Japan, the Dubs will return home for an October 9 preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers. We all look forward to seeing how the progress of the game!
In a happy coincidence of worlds, BTS’s SUGA happened to meet Stephen Curry and the rest of the Golden State Warriors in Japan! On September 29, SUGA stopped by during the Warriors’ practice session ahead of their NBA pre-season games this weekend and gifted the players with signed BTS albums. The singer even snapped photos with players like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala, and also received a signed #30 jersey from Curry, who informed that his children were big fans of the singer.
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball crew based in San Francisco. Founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, the Warriors later shifted to the San Francisco Bay Area around 1962 and soon assumed the city’s name, before once again altering its geographic nickname to The Golden State. The team plays its home tournaments at the Chase Center. Nicknamed the “Dubs” as a shortening of “W’s”, The Warriors hold numerous NBA records such as the best regular season, most wins in a season (regular season and postseason combined), and best postseason run.
