Pacific Notes: Warriors, Curry, Green, Sabonis, Beal, Nurkic

The Warriors endured a 40-point beatdown at the hands of the Celtics on their home floor on Monday and they admit that the 2022 Finals, in which they defeated Boston, feels like ancient history, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes.

“Yeah, we have an entirely different roster pretty much, obviously,” Stephen Curry said. “Especially without Draymond [Green] out there (due to injury). But you look [at what] they have, besides [Kristaps] Porzingis, they have pretty much the whole rotation still, and they are the defending champs. So, they’re coming in with a level of confidence and swagger about ’em, and it’s the exact opposite of what we have right now. So yeah, obviously great memories, but definitely feels like a long time ago.”

“Seems like an eternity ago,” Warriors center Kevon Looney added. “We have had a lot of iterations of the team since then. Each season brings on a new challenge. That year seems further and further away. But hopefully, we can get back to that feeling of being a champion. But we got a long way to go.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

• Is it time for the Warriors to hit the reset button? Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo.com endorses that approach, saying they should look to deal Curry and Green while they still have a lot of value. O’Connor explores a number of trade possibilities involving Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, the Lakers and Orlando to demonstrate what the return could be for each player.
• Domantas Sabonis has knocked down 48.4 percent of his 3-point attempts this season, far above his 34.9 percent career average. The Kings big man told Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee that he has gradually developed his long-range game. “It’s something I’ve been working on ever since I started playing basketball,” Sabonis said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve got to keep doing it one summer, another offseason, another offseason. You just hope at one point you’re going to break through, and so far this year it’s been going in, so I’ve just got to keep sticking with it and shooting with confidence.”
• The Suns list Bradley Beal as questionable to play against the Nets on Wednesday due to a left ankle sprain (Twitter link). Beal returned to action on Monday at Cleveland after a two-game absence but contributed just five points and four assists in 25 minutes. Jusuf Nurkic, who last played on January 7, remains out due to “return to competition reconditioning.”