Dub Hub: Steph Curry’s 24 points leads Team USA to dominant 105-79 victory over Serbia

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Thursday, July 18th.

In today’s Dub Hub:

• Steph Curry’s 24 points leads Team USA to dominant 105-79 victory over Serbia.
• The Athletic’s Anthony Slater tells 95.7 The Game that the Warriors are “not actively” looking to trade Brandin Podziemski.
• Bronny James scores 12 points in Lakers’ 87-86 Summer League victory over the Hawks

Team USA remains undefeated in exhibition play after Wednesday’s dominant 105-79 victory over Serbia. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry headlined the stacked USA roster, scoring a game-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field and six threes.

This was a bounce back performance for Curry who scored only three points in Team USA’s close victory over Australia on Monday. After shooting 1-of-6 from the field in that game, Curry was determined to play better against Serbia, scoring 18 points in the first half alone, including the team’s first nine points to start the game.

Team USA’s next exhibition game will be this Saturday against South Sudan in London. They have two more exhibition games before the group phase officially begins in Paris on July 28th.

For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Thursday, July 18th:

Warriors News:

Steph Curry, Bam Adebayo lead Team USA in lopsided defeat of Serbia in Olympic exhibition game | The Athletic

“Warriors fans are hating me tonight like they hate me every time I take Steph out,” Kerr said. “We’re still in the process of getting ready, getting guys over the hump conditioning wise. But again, the whole focus for this team is defense, defense, defense. So as long as we are putting pressure on the ball and making things difficult for our opponent, it’s going to be a different guy every night scoring. These guys are all really talented.

“It was Steph tonight, next game it’ll be somebody else. And it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.”

LeBron James, Stephen Curry had a ‘healthy resentment’ — the Olympics offer something new | The Athletic

Both Curry and James acknowledged that there was a certain tension between them that has dissipated.

“It was like a healthy resentment of somebody that’s standing in your way,” Curry said. “But through it all, like there’s obviously the utmost respect for who he is as a person and a player and like how good he is and the challenge of trying to beat him and trying to solve that problem every year.”

James nodded in agreement when a reporter suggested an apparent rivalry existed between him and Curry years ago, though he said the idea that “they should hate each other” was a false media narrative. James went on to explain why he wanted to make sure it never came to that between him and Curry.

“The game of basketball don’t last forever,” James said. “You don’t want to waste the opportunity to be able to have a relationship with someone.”

Warriors ‘not actively’ looking to trade Brandin Podziemski, according to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater

How Warriors summer-league standout Daeqwon Plowden earned his two-way contract: ‘We need this guy’ | San Francisco Chronicle

“First in (the gym). Last to leave — and that was every day for five years,” said Huger, an assistant at Temple. “He was a machine. You knew you could count on him. I just loved coaching him. … He’s a coach’s dream.”

What did Vereen notice about Plowden while watching his footage with Atkinson?

“Every possession, you just saw him sprinting the court, showing multiple efforts. To see a guy go from minicamp and just show that constant effort the whole time, it’s amazing,” Vereen said.

Brandin Podziemski hopes to fill the scoring void for the Warriors next season

NBA News:

Lakers’ Bronny James scores 12 as shots fall in summer league win | ESPN

On Wednesday, the Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks 87-86 to earn their first summer league victory in 2024, snapping an 0-5 start. And the younger James played his best game yet, finishing with 12 points — 9 in the first half — on 5-of-11 shooting, including sinking 2 of 5 attempts from beyond the arc. James also sank a clutch 3-pointer late in the game to tie the score, and the Lakers clinched the win with a defensive stop in the final seconds.

Bucks’ Khris Middleton recovering from 2 ankle surgeries: Sources | The Athletic

In addition to that surgery, Middleton, 32, also needed a minor arthroscopic procedure to clean up a lingering issue in his right ankle. That surgery occurred in mid-June.

Middleton was walking without pain or discomfort when he visited his teammates in Las Vegas for summer league action Saturday afternoon. As far as a timeline for recovery, Middleton has already started light court work, league sources tell The Athletic, and he is expected to be ready for the start of the 2024-25 season.

Heat’s Alondes Williams throws down a highlight dunk during Las Vegas Summer League

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

Steve Kerr hopes Terry Stotts can improve Golden State’s motion offense

Stotts, for his part, understands his role on his new team. He praised Kerr’s motion offense and stressed that he won’t be in charge of anything, but added that “What I like to have is — you can have a play call, but within that play call, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You might have splits or flares or pindowns or pick-and-roll and that freedom within a structure.”

Again: music to Warriors’ fans ears. In the last few seasons, Golden State’s offense has excelled when it gets to the right spot and the right read, so long as Steph Curry and Draymond Green are on the court. But once that first option is taken away — or when one or both of those quarterbacks are sidelined — the offense often morphs into something more closely resembling a pickup game at the local Y.

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