Defense, depth key Warriors win over Grizzlies

SAN FRANCISCO — Early in the second quarter, Brandin Podziemski sprint to a loose ball in front of the Warriors’ bench, caught up with it just in time and flung a behind-the-back pass up the court.

Somehow, the blind pass found a streaking Jonathan Kuminga, who started the play with a deflection in the paint, for a dunk.

Podziemski, Kuminga and the Warriors’ bench tallied a total of 67 points. It was the 11th time in 12 games that Golden State’s bench has scored at least 40.

Beyond the bench, the Warriors cruised to an easy win, maintaining a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, behind its defense. Draymond Green (13 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) was everywhere and the Warriors took several charges while holding the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies to 7-for-42 shooting from 3.

The formula on Friday has been the formula for the Warriors throughout their 10-2 start: defense and depth. The combination brought them their second straight NBA Cup win — a 123-118 final.

Even if it was ugly. Draymond Green got ejected late, and Steve Kerr screamed at officials after the final horn. The head coach called the last quarter and a half “disgusting” while saying he felt bad for the fans who had to watch what transpired: endless stoppages, fouls and a game that took almost three hours.

“They were aggressive and the referees called it in their favor,” said Buddy Hield, who led the Warriors in scoring with 18. “I feel like we were up by 17, 15 and the referees didn’t give us the benefit of the doubt. So we’ve just got to find ways to be more aggressive and don’t be soft with the ball.”

Without De’Anthony Melton, who’s still awaiting further tests on his sprained left ACL, the Warriors started Lindy Waters III. Waters had been out of Golden State’s rotation for the past week, but provides shooting.

Waters fouled a 3-point shooter in the opening minutes, but made up for it by hitting a pair of 3s on the other end. The Warriors wanted to continue with Melton in the starting-five and don’t yet know how long he’ll be sidelined, so they’ll once again have to trial-and-error through starting combinations.

The starters played Memphis even, and so did the bench in a tightly contested first quarter.

Golden State’s bench — with Draymond Green moonlighting as small-ball center — ripped off a 10-2 run to start the second quarter. The starters kept their lead steady, running in transition and limiting the Grizzlies to abysmal shooting from behind the arc.

Waters got another bucket and then made a terrific chase-down block after a Green turnover, but fell hard and limped off the court with trainers. He was later ruled out with a left knee hyperextension.

Steph Curry was quiet in the first half, but two minutes after Waters exited, he swished an impossible fadeaway over two defenders along the baseline. That sent Golden State into halftime with a 55-48 lead.

Green, who’s shooting 45% from 3 this season, hit a pair of triples early in the third quarter, making Friday his fourth straight game with multiple 3s. According to the team, the Warriors are now 140-30 in the regular season in games Green makes at least two 3s.

The outside shots never fell for Memphis, and the Warriors kept getting defensive stops. Memphis shot 17% from deep in the first half and 16.7% total.

Curry, on a rough shooting night, took a charge on Jake LaRavia and then swiped Jaylen Wells in the backcourt before hitting a 3.

A Podziemski corner 3 stretched the Warriors’ lead to 14 and Buddy Hield’s 3 at the buzzer put the Warriors up by 15 entering the fourth. It was their largest lead of the night to that point.

With the Warriors’ lead ballooned to 18, Santi Aldama airballed a 3 from the corner, bringing Memphis’s 3-point shooting mark to 4-for-35 (11%). On the other end, Green sank his third triple of the night.

Earlier in the game, Green got called for a take foul when he grabbed Grizzlies center Zach Edey’s leg, preventing a fast break. The play was correctly officiated, but nonetheless inspired head coach Taylor Jenkins to make a callback to “the code” from the teams’ 2022 playoff series in his postgame press conference.

“We were about to start the break, and (Edey’s) been playing really hard to try to outlet. Draymond grabs his leg and pulls him down. Doesn’t get reviewed. I know there’s a code in this league and I don’t understand how that wasn’t reviewed. Very disappointed.”

Golden State, as disappointed with the officiating if not more, declined to comment when asked about the refs after the game.

Green was jawing at officials throughout the second half after a variety of calls — or no-calls — didn’t go his way. Eventually the officiating crew had enough and gave him a technical with 1:47 left. Roughly 30 seconds after, he hit the showers.

“I don’t need an explanation,” said Green, who has four technicals on the year. “I did my job. My job was done for the night. We won. Moving on.”