The future beckons for James Wiseman. It’s a big open canvas, like the court before him Tuesday night when he changed the game in Detroit. What he did with the event, which fueled the Warriors’ 116-106 victory, became the prelude to a novel to come.
We know that Wiseman sometimes looks like a shuttlecock while golfing out of the hallway, with nothing specific in mind, and he’s been watching 19 in an NBA full of tough players. We see how he makes silly mistakes, and there may even be times that the Warriors’ decision on draft day is worth watching.
Then came the point 6:25 of the fourth quarter against the Pistons, the game is very much in doubt, and Wiseman’s biggest step yet to masculinity. With two quick steps to the scene, he gently blocked a 7-foot shot by Mason Plumlee. It was taken off the air by Juan Toscano-Anderson, who transferred it to Wiseman, who decided to complete this episode alone.
Keep in mind, Wiseman is left-handed. From that spot in the key, he uses only a single left dribble on a coast-to-coast ball waste with which he threw a violent, right-handed dunk into traffic for a 95-89 Golden State lead. You thought to yourself, “How many big men do that? Everyone of that? “There are not many, and that covers the whole history of the league.
Wiseman is not about to take over the NBA, and the Warriors do not expect anything like that either. They see him abandon the basic defensive principles – do not be false to the pump, stay vertical when he challenges certain shots – and are forced to the bench without good reason, as he did on Tuesday night with 2:53 left. They see moments where he does not seem assertive, not for a player of his amazing talent. As the ball sometimes eludes its grip, they wonder if its hand power matches the stripes wandering around in the NBA landscape.
But then everyone realizes what legendary broadcaster Hubie Brown noticed during the Warriors ‘Christmas Day game in Milwaukee:’ He’s 19. No training camp. No exhibition games. Match two, and this young man plays as if he were in his backyard. ”
Surprisingly, for someone who is known to need work on his outside shot, Wiseman’s accuracy is a problem. He shoots calmly and comfortably from a three-point distance, and on Tuesday night in a particularly eloquent sequence he is caught tightly between two defenders, each chasing him with raised hands, still managing to make a lovely 20- foot by threading the narrowest. of windows.
Even when the bench went wild after Wiseman’s game-changing dunk, and Bay Area TV viewers shouted in surprise, the Warriors still had to win this game. What followed was just as impressive in its own way, as it was mostly about Andrew Wiggins.
As much as he likes a very energetic player like Kelly Oubre Jr. or Marcus wants to be Smart, Wiggins just does not have that kind of temperament. As he recently admitted, he constantly reminds himself to ‘stay aggressive’, as if there is another way to conduct your case in court. It’s an ongoing issue for Wiggins and the Warriors to resolve, but in the wake of Wiseman’s big splash, Wiggins caught up with some big three-pointers to make a 27-point night of full aggression.
Other moments also spoke loudly. As if Damion Lee had not properly shown his thirst for the big shot in Chicago on Sunday (a three-point winning effort), he cut the ball with 1:25 left, Golden State’s lead to five points – and he still buries’ a long-distance beauty. Oubre, whose first instinct is to attack the basket and paste someone, must learn to find Curry a habit when his superstar teammate is open. Oubre did just that at the 1:09 mark by bypassing the ride with a kick to Curry, who was pushed off the three-point distance and (of course) hit all three of the free-throws.
As the scene shifts to San Francisco, it’s hard to say what’s more uncomfortable for the Warriors: to open a season with pandemic weights with four games on the way, or to come home to an empty house. Starting Friday night against Portland, they will have seven consecutive games at Chase Center, without a hint of the home field advantage. The emptiness can become completely creepy after a while.
However, the nature of the opposition is changing dramatically. How much can you learn if your first two games are against Brooklyn and Milwaukee, possibly for a game in the Eastern Conference Finals, and then get two of the league’s worst teams in Chicago and Detroit?
Now everything changes. The first five home games are against the Western Conference, including two with Portland and two with the Clippers, as the NBA draws up a baseball-like schedule to ease the travel burden of teams.
One thing we know for sure: Whatever the Warriors tormented after two games – Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated described it as a tangible sadness – has disappeared. James Wiseman was afraid he would have to insist.
Bruce Jenkins is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ Bruce_Jenkins1