Kawakami: On a day full of events and deep emotions, Mike Brown was the perfect interim leader for the Warriors (again)

The crowd was sighing in relief, and the players were roaming around the stadium after the WarriorsThe victory of the rough game and the tumble of the 4 game, Mike Brown and Draymond Green They headed straight for each other, then shared a long and strong hug that conveyed many feelings.

Huge man hug. A moment when two people who seemed to have meant a lot to the warriors tended to each other and mingled with each other, exchanging things that no one else knew.

A lot happened on Monday before the Warriors played a game grizzly In this crucial game in Chase Center. So much pain, moving, surprise, and adapting quickly. So much so that they had nothing to do with each other. And a lot of that had to do with each other and with the community of this team.

Early in the morning, news broke that Draymond’s former Michigan teammate, Adrian Payne, had been shot dead in Florida. Later, Brown was officially designated as Sacramento kings‘ Coach. Then, a few hours before notification, Steve Kerr tested positive for COVID-19, meaning he couldn’t coach the game (and possibly Game 5) and Brown was suddenly the man, as he had been in 11 games during the 2017 postseason when Kerr was struggling From the effects of a failed back surgery.

A lot is happening.

“I love Draymond, and when he hurts, we all hurt,” Brown said after the match. “So that was hard for me personally. Then to find out that Steve was outside too, it was a volatile or emotional day for me as well.”

But the warriors had to pass this game. It was no small game. The 101-98 victory, which looked ugly, gave them a 3-1 lead as they headed to Memphis in Game Five on Wednesday and a shot to end a grueling streak. Warriors didn’t like much to lose this game. So they had to deal with everything as it happened on Monday, which was pretty much all at once.

They had the perfect guy to deal with, though. Which the Warriors knew, because Brown had dealt with this before.

“You know, we’ve had this exercise before,” Brown said after the match.

Once Kerr called to tell him he wasn’t feeling well and then after he tested positive, Brown made perfect warriors: he leaned on the ruling figures of the franchise. Driven by letting them drive too. They leaned on them and they leaned on it.

“Andre (Iguodala), I know he’s not playing, it’s just his voice, his presence, he’s always saying the right thing,” Brown said. “It elevates the capabilities of all of us. And for me, you’ve raised me up. I told him, I told Draymond, I said, ‘I want you guys tonight. I need you guys. I’m going to be counting on you guys.’ on Earth, and we’ve found a way. You can do it when you have it steve curry And (Jordan Paul) On the ground. “

Perhaps the clearest indication of the currents that flowed through the players and crew came when Brown refused to talk about the Kings job because he wanted to stay focused on the Warriors situation and didn’t want to talk about the Kings until his full attention. He was in his next turn. And then, about 20 minutes later, Draymond stood patiently in the interview room waiting for Curry’s press to finish, and then said politely that he couldn’t speak at length now.

“So my feelings are kind of all over the place now,” Draymond said. “I’m going to come home and sit on my podcast and talk because I can pause that and cry if I need to cry. I don’t like crying in front of people. What I’m going to say is that I (my wife) Hazel is going to donate $100,000 to a fund in the name of Adreian.”

“Call my Spartan family, Coach (Tom) Izu, Charm (Johnson), Garen Jackson, Miles BridgesEshbea is dead, all my Spartan family to come, and let’s do something in honor of Adrian. If this is naming something on campus after him, if this is some scholarship for some kids from Dayton, whatever that is, I’m inviting my Spartan family to get together and do something in the name of Adreian. So I’m going to go home and talk about Adreian, and I’m going to talk a little bit about this game.

“But I can do it at my own pace and in my own space. I apologise. I’m going to give you guys the greatest press conference after Wednesday’s game, but I didn’t get it tonight. I really apologize.”

It would be a cop to say that the streak of events leading up to the game caused the Warriors to be incredibly stagnant in the first three quarters of Monday. They knew too Ja Morante He was unlikely to play due to his knee injury, which could have disappointed the Warriors. Also, warriors could not shoot for a long time in this game.

They are late after the first quarter. They barely managed to score in the second quarter and were late in the first half as well. curry, Klay Thompson And Paul were struggling. Everyone in the Warriors was struggling. They were lagging 69-62 going to fourth thanks Desmond BenThe 32-foot-tall bell rang.

But the warriors had been together for too long and held together for too long to despair of facing any of that.

“I had a feeling we were going to win the game when Banny took the hard shot to finish the third game, we wanted it for four, and I knew we could,” Clay said. “We were going to win the match. I just had a feeling. It was ugly, but at this time of year all that matters is that win.”

Curry got hot in the fourth quarter. Clay made a huge leap out of the corner. Warriors defense rose. Grizzlies’ offense, without Morant, hit a wall. Draymond got rid of his unpleasant problem and stopped Garen Jackson Jr. In a few crucial moments.

Brown managed the match calmly. He didn’t call a million timeouts. He did not deviate from his rotation plan and Kerr. He didn’t try strange things to show kings and the world how bold and creative he could be. He just ran the team. And when it was over, he accepted congratulations from the rest of the coaching staff and patted a few players as they headed to the locker room and tied them up with Draymond.

“Yeah, it was an emotional day,” Clay said. “Prayers for Adrian and his family, and Draymond, I know they played together. Just a terrible loss of life and his legacy will live on. It was just a sad day.”

“I’m really happy for Mike B., though. He’ll do great things for Sacramento. I think his record as a Warriors head coach is undefeated. We’ve missed Steve a lot, just his voice and presence. But we were here before in 2017 when Mike took over and we had a lot of wins. I’ve thought about it a lot. Just a fickle day in regards to emotions.”

Brown’s warriors will be missed. They know it. Join the cast for the 2016-2017 season, just in time for the arrival of Kevin Durant And Kerr’s filling during those 2017 playoff games, en route to the championship.

“Coach (Kear) talked about it, I think this morning, about what he (Brown) meant for our team and this coaching staff,” Curry said. “And maybe the way they approach it all year round in terms of everyone having a voice for us and being able to hear that all year round, it makes situations like tonight a little easier to move on. He had a lot of good words tonight.”

“I don’t know in history if you can name the head coach for two teams in 24 hours. He continues to set many trends.”

Of course, being the warriors in a moment of victory, she should have had a sense of humor as well. During a TNT postgame interview, Carey joked that when things were going so well, it felt like the entire team had been traded to the Kings. (He tried to back out a little later, and that was almost as amusing as a single line.)

“Yes, we have a lot of funny people on the team, and I’m OK with that,” Brown said with a smile when asked about Carrie Crack.

You get used to this kind of thing when you are around warriors. You get used to big swings in emotion, surprises, drama, emotion and a lot of victories. And in the end, sometimes, you just hug someone who needs them, and realize that you need them too.

(Photo by Mike Brown and Draymond Green: Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)