What's going on with the Santa Cruz Warriors? Sea Dubs broadcaster Kevin Danna provides an insider's look at the team.
1. How’s the team doing?
The Sea Dubs are 7-0 heading into Thanksgiving, and, well, you can’t get off to a much better start than that. To put that into historical context, the 7-0 start by the 2018-19 Santa Cruz Warriors is the third-best start to a season in G League history – only the 2013-14 Rio Grande Valley Vipers (9-0) and 2013-14 Idaho Stampede (8-0) started a season with more wins than these Sea Dubs.
Of course, there’s still 86 percent of the regular season to still be played and only one opponent has had a winning record at the time the game was played, so we are a ways away from crowning Santa Cruz as anything, but it’s still a perfect start to the new campaign. What is probably most impressive is how they have won games. After fumbling double-digit leads and losing close games with regularity last year, the Sea Dubs have already erased deficits of 11 points or greater in two games this year and have had to grit it out down the stretch in all but one of their games this season.
Some of the metrics aren’t pretty. Santa Cruz turned it over a franchise-tying-high 31 times on Sunday against Northern Arizona. The team’s assist numbers are down a good bit from the 2017-18 campaign. But this team plays hard. Yes, it’s only seven games in, but this might be the grittiest team the Sea Dubs have ever fielded to this point in a season. With injuries up in Oakland, Santa Cruz hasn’t had the services of two-way players Damion Lee and Marcus Derrickson as much as perhaps expected to this point. Santa Cruz had nine guys available on Friday against South Bay and just eight healthy bodies on Sunday against Northern Arizona, but as a 7-0 record would indicate, they won both.
This team is getting after it on the defensive end, holding both the South Bay Lakers and Northern Arizona Suns to under 100 points last weekend, not exactly a regular occurrence in the G League. They rebound the heck out of the ball, with an offensive rebounding percentage of 35.5 that is good for fourth in the G.
They guard. They create extra possessions. I’m at practice right now as I write this, and guys are all smiles as they go through drills. They’re having fun playing together.
2. Who’s getting it done?
They’re not the leading scorers, but perhaps this team is best personified by the work of Kevin Young and Juan Toscano-Anderson. These two are all heart, all hustle and a major reason why Santa Cruz gets as many as second-chance opportunities and late defensive stops as it does. With Santa Cruz clinging to a 92-90 lead in the final minute, Toscano-Anderson blocked what looked to be a sure game-tying layup on one end before beating his man off the dribble and laying it in on the other end to help put the game away.
Delivering the final blow to the Suns was Darius Morris, as the four-year NBA vet drilled a filthy step-back three with 10 seconds left to put the Sea Dubs up 97-92. He hit a similar shot earlier in the season at Agua Caliente – right angle step-back 3-pointer to give Santa Cruz a late five-point lead on Nov. 9. The former Los Angeles Laker, Memphis Grizzly, Philadelphia 76er, LA Clipper and Brooklyn Net is second on the team in scoring at 20.9 points per game and leads the team with 6.3 helpers per contest, all the while shooting at a 46 percent clip from bonus distance. He is the reigning G League Player of the Week after averaging 23.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists over three games last week.
Kendrick Nunn’s scoring off the bench has also been huge. He told Santa Cruz head coach Aaron Miles heading into the season that he does two things well – score and defend. So far, he has lived up to his own hype, averaging 19.0 points and 1.6 steals per game and becoming the first guy in franchise history to lead the team in scoring in three straight games while coming off the bench in all three. The super sub was in Summer League and training camp with Golden State and certainly hasn’t seen his last NBA experience.
Antonius Cleveland has been a welcomed re-acquisition as well. After getting called up to Dallas and Atlanta from Surf City last year and being cut by Chicago at the end of training camp this year, Cleveland has provided the Sea Dubs with scoring, rim protection, on-ball defense, and countless breathtaking highlights. He already has one SportsCenter Top 10 play this season (it was No. 1 and had Steph Curry jumping out of his courtside seat), and it probably won’t be his last.
3. What about the two-way guys?
Oh they haven’t disappointed either. Damion Lee has only played two games with the Sea Dubs this year, but he’s averaging 27.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.5 steals on 67 percent shooting from the field and three when he is here (is that good?). Super small sample size, but it kinda feels like he got that “two-way bump” that Quinn Cook got last year when he was on a two-way deal and absolutely dominated the competition in the G League at a higher level than when he was in the G League before he got called up. Marcus Derrickson has been very good as well. He made a great impression in Summer League and training camp with Golden State with his shooting ability, and the former Georgetown Hoya is shooting 44 percent from downtown in four G League games this season while averaging 15.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
4. What's Next?
The Sea Dubs were supposed to have a chance to get to 8-0 on Monday when they were scheduled to play the Stockton Kings, but the game was postponed to Feb. 20 due to air quality concerns in the Stockton area. So now Santa Cruz has to wait until Black Friday to take on a very solid Salt Lake City Stars squad that features 152-game NBA veteran Willie Reed and Utah Jazz two-way players Naz Mitrou-Long and Tyler Cavanaugh, both of whom are in their second NBA season. If the Sea Dubs are able to get past the 4-3 Stars, they can tie the record for best start in G League history on Monday against the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario in Southern California.
Get through those two games with wins, and Santa Cruz can make G League history on Nov. 30 at home against the Texas Legends.
If you come on out to Kaiser Permanente Arena on Friday night for the Salt Lake City game, you’ll get a Kevin Durant bobblehead if you’re one of the first 1,500 fans in the building, so come on down 17 and join the fun.
