Late in the third quarter Monday night, Atlanta Hawks forward Cam Reddish cut in the lane and was confronted by Draymond Green. The savvy veteran poked the ball free, Steph Curry picked it up and the Warriors exploded into transition.
From there, Curry’s intuition took over. He felt someone in his peripheral streaking down the floor behind him, looked over and saw it was Draymond. Curry dropped off a quick pass to Green, who then lobbed it up 37-year-old Andre Iguodala for an easy alley oop over a helpless Hawks defender.
“I smiled on that possession, because it was kind of a blast-from-the-past type moment,” Curry said. “We’ve had a couple of those. Obviously, we’re patiently waiting for No. 11 to come back, too. Gonna be even better. There’s that familiarity and the comfort of knowing how much this matters to us all to get us back to this level.”
Curry and Green played through the Dubs dark ages of 2019-21. As Steph noted, Klay Thompson is potentially just weeks away from rejoining the Warriors on the floor. But for now, Curry, Green and Iguodala are the ones defining the winning ethos around this 9-1 squad.
Iguodala doesn’t have flashy box score numbers but he does make his impact felt on defense and in intangible ways outsiders will never realize. He also still has plenty of bounce in the springs, as all three of his buckets were dunks Monday night, including two alley oops.
“Did he really?,” Curry said. “He had a day off yesterday so it worked.”
The three vets were in position for big minutes for Monday’s contest, the second leg of a back-to-back. On Sunday, Curry and Green each played their season low in minutes while Iguodala rested (as Steph loved to note).
Iguodala is the NBA’s second-oldest active player behind the Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem, who has only played in four minutes this season. The title of league’s most sage player is debatable (and dubious), but you’d have to think the 18-year vet Iguodala is up there with anyone in the league.
“Andre’s like the Wizard of Oz in the locker room, in terms of his presence,” Curry said.
Need an example of his wisdom?
Following last Friday’s win against the Charlotte Hornets, Iguodala made a tongue-in-cheek comment about third-year guard Jordan Poole, who finished with 26 points but zero free-throw attempts.
“He likes those Klay stat lines,” Iguodala said.
Guess what happened next game?
Poole went to the charity stripe a season-high nine times, knocked down all of them, and scored 25 points on 13 shot attempts.
“No coincidence,” Steve Kerr said Wednesday on 95.7 The Game. “Everybody listens to Andre. He’s such a great counterbalance to Draymond. Draymond’s gonna lead kinda more in your face, he’s going to let you know. Andre’s going to be a little more cryptic with his messaging and to have that combination is great.”
