Defending Jordan Poole: The shot that caused Stephen Curry’s ejection wasn’t so bad

Jordan Poole spent an eventful 80 seconds to cap off the Warriors’ wild victory over Memphis on Wednesday. After his slightly inappropriate 3-pointer attempt that irritated Stephen Curry to the point where the Warriors star threw his mouthpiece into the stands, Poole pulled the game-winning layup off the baseline. I redeemed myself with. Bounces play as Golden State escaped with his 122-120 win.

So layups were cool. Steve Kerr said Draymond Green demanded the play. Another example of Splash Brothers’ gravity creating backdoor opportunities for teammates as the three Grizzlies followed Klay Thompson around into a strongside corner and Poole topped Ziaire Williams I put it on the side, opened the rim and made a nice cut.

But what I want to talk about more is this terrifying shot Poole took in front of the game winner. I obviously didn’t like the curry, and Poole spit on Twitter, but I’m here to say it wasn’t such a bad shot.

Here’s the situation: Golden State was 120-118 in possession and he was two points behind. The playing time was one and a half minutes. After Klay Thompson came up with his offensive rebound on a loose ball off his own missed pull-up from his jumper, he brought it back into the pool and the pool saw him 3-pointer with his 1:20 on the clock. I tried.

You can see that before the shot, Curry was clapping to pass the ball into the pool. Below is a good view of everything that happened from Curry’s perspective, ending with the mouthpiece fastball that tossed him.

Everyone will say, and I know they say, that the smartest play in this situation would have been to have possession of the ball and have a little more time in overtime. prize. After the offensive rebound, the shot clock is full and he is never put back 24 seconds. It just goes back to 14. So even if Golden State squeezed the shot clock down to the last he-1 second, it could have ended up with a much worse shot than Poole took. Over a minute to play.

If the game is within the last two possessions, or definitely the last possession, squeeze the clock. But with just a one-bucket lead and time for the Grizzlies to take at least two more possessions, the Warriors needed more scoring than they needed to exploit a few more seconds on this trip.

With that in mind, they were looking for the highest quality shot they could get on that possession. Any coach in the world would say his 3-point attempt from an offensive rebound is some of the cleanest looks. The pool was wide open. He caught the ball rhythmically. He’s a good shooter who had a good shooting night. Taking that shot in that situation wasn’t a terrible decision.

but it is number one decision? Probably not. I think handing the ball to Stephen Curry is always a better play. Actually, this is the main content. Pool does not have fairness to ignore Curry if Curry is demanding the ball. But what about the shot itself? It wasn’t a bad shot.

Also remember that the Grizzlies have the best defense in the league. Shortening the shot clock and forcing Memphis to reset their defense would have made it harder for the Warriors to create the same look Poole had in front of him. I did.