All the need-to-know info from Monday’s slate.
Treymond Green
Golden State is affiliated with some of the league’s most beautiful shooting and execution. (If its offense were a person, it would make bank selling Flat Tummy Tea on Instagram.) Monday was ugly. The Warriors still beat the Heat, 97-80, naturally, and in that respect, it was a typical Warriors game. But not in the stat lines: By the half, the team was shooting a collective 25 percent from 3. The entire roster sans Draymond Green went 1-for-12; that same group finished 7-for-26, while Draymond finished 4-for-6.
Enter Tr3ymond:
One week ago, Green told The Mercury News that he felt he was “relying on the 3 too much,” ironically, because, he said, “I’m not Steph. I’m not Klay. I’m not [Kevin Durant].”
Schröder Speed
Way back in the orange-slices-and-halftime–Capri Sun years of youth soccer, there was always the one kid who was too speedy for his or her own good — the real-life (and real-height) Sonic who would pass up everyone and everything, including the ball.
Dennis Schröder has always struck me as that kid all grown up. His first year in the league, a critique was that he was too fast, speeding up the game excessively. Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer told reporters in 2014 that “[Dennis] has to understand when to use his speed — going from slow to fast, letting the game slow down and then using your speed.”
Yeah. About that ...
I’d say Schröder now knows exactly how to use that speed.
Speaking of Schröder
Kyrie Irving left our German pal on the perimeter and never looked back:
Boston won its ninth straight, beating the Hawks 110-107 for the Celtics’ third road win in four days.
Devin Buckets
The 21-year-old—who celebrated his birthday just last Monday—became the fourth-youngest player to reach 3,000 career points. But this is the same Devin Booker who blacked out last March and dropped 70 points on the Celtics, so who is surprised here? (Two fun facts from that night: He was by far the youngest of the six NBA players to ever reach 70 points in a single contest, and Phoenix still lost that game.)
The Suns, who lost to Brooklyn, 98-92, on Monday, are still a hot mess, but at least they have a hot streaker.
LeBron Is on Social Media Again
1. James posted this within an hour of Boston beating Atlanta (and one day after the Cavs lost to that very Hawks squad).
2. Boston won largely thanks to a huge effort from Kyrie Irving (35 points, seven assists).
3. Kyrie asked to be traded from Cleveland this summer; by proxy, Kyrie left James.
I’m not saying these dots should be connected with Gorilla Glue certainty. Maybe something else upsetting caused LeBron to Arthur-meme. Maybe he just finished Stranger Things Season 2 and is anti-cliffhanger endings. Maybe he took the under on Lions-Packers. Maybe he is the centerpiece of a professional sports team preloaded with Finals expectations that has lost five of its past six and is watching his former point guard thrive through nine straight wins.