Former Golden State guard exposes Dubs in Bucks win

Two of the most dangerous words in the NBA are “trap game.” And among those dangerous two words are “revenge” and “game”. Put it all together and you get it what happened to the golden state warriors when they met former guard Ryan Rollins on the way to Milwaukee.

With the Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is out with knee pain, the 44th pick of the Dubs in the 2022 NBA draft career high 32 points on 13-of-21 shooting to blow out the Warriors 120-110 in a true trap game, revenge game.

After the game, Steve Kerr talked about Rollins’ career night.

“His speed gave us a lot of problems; he would get past us, break through, score at the rim or kick the shooters,” Kerr said. “He was fantastic tonight. He just played a great game.”

As Kerr pointed out, Rollins had his way with the Warriors’ perimeter defense, getting wherever he wanted. As the facilitator of the Bucks’ offense, the 23-year-old Toledo looked calm and composed, setting up teammates en route to eight assists.

Rollins has come a long way since leaving the Warriors as a throw-in in the Jordan Pool-Chris Paul trade with the Washington Wizards. He was waived by the Wizards that same season before signing him to a two-way contract with the Bucks. From there, he worked his way into Milwaukee’s rotation as a solid combo guard off the bench behind Damian Lillard, earning him a modest three-year, $12 million contract last offseason.

But the jump he made with Milwaukee this season as their starting point guard, with 6.2 points, 1.9 assists and 0.8 steals per 18.6 points, 5.0 assists and 2.4 steals is incredible. It’s early, but he might be an early sleeper for the player of the year.

Golden State fatigue and sloppy turnovers

For a special like Rollins was against his former team, the Warriors didn’t do themselves many favors either. Golden State turned the ball over 22 times, which the Bucks directly turned into 27 points. They also conceded 19 made 3-pointers to the Bucks on 41.3% shooting. Those two things didn’t help the Warriors, who had to play catch-up in the fourth, especially with Rollins scoring at will every time he touched the ball.

“It looked like fatigue to me,” Kerr said after the game. The loss in Milwaukee was the Warriors’ sixth game in the last 10 days.

“Mental, physical fatigue. It didn’t look like our team was there. Our spacing was bad. It didn’t seem like we had our usual pop. And I thought Milwaukee was brilliant. They made 19 3s. They made one after another down the stretch. But we let them hang around too long, and that was a problem, and that’s a problem if you’ve got nothing to lose a team.”

Kerr was at pains to point out that fatigue is no excuse. He credited Milwaukee’s offensive execution and noted how the defense looked sluggish all night.

“We didn’t handle our substitution very well. Our defense struggled tonight. They were small, so we went​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​a

Jimmy Butler agreed with Kerr’s sentiments when asked about it fatigue factor.

“No, very winnable game,” Butler said. “A very winnable game if we go out there and do what we need to do. It’s tough though. When one of their stars goes down, I’m not going to say they have nothing to lose, but it makes everybody play at a whole different level. So hats off to that.”

Golden State will try to bounce back on Saturday with a road game against the Indiana Pacers before returning home.