Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/606231
DAVIDZALUBOWSKI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, center, picks up a loose ball in front of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, le , of Serbia, and guard Jameer Nelson during the first half on Sunday in Denver. ByCarlSteward BayAreaNewsGroup OAKLAND Have the doubters been driving this historic sea- son-opening Warriors win streak? Has a lack of respect for their NBA championship actually pro- vided fuel to the streak they hope to stretch to an unprecedented 16 games Tuesday night? Depends who you ask. A few players buy into that hy- pothesis, and interim coach Luke Walton definitely thinks offseason and preseason doubters provided some fuel for fire. But for two pil- lars of the Warriors' title run, Ste- phen Curry and Draymond Green, don't subscribe to it. "If they doubted us before, we won the championship so it didn't matter," Green said Monday. "If they don't doubt us now and we lose, it doesn't matter. So in other words, the doubters don't matter." The Warriors aren't expected to lose when they meet the Los An- geles Lakers at Oracle Arena for a chance to win their 16th straight game without a loss, which would break a 67-year-old record for the best start in league history. Even with a healthy Kobe Bryant, the Lakers are 2-11, so this stacks up as one of the easiest challenges Golden State has had during this incredible burst out of the blocks. If they accomplish it, it'll be the latest "take that" response to the undercurrent of doubt about what the Warriors did in June. Center Andrew Bogut said recently that it's a bit unclear what has driven the streak, and perhaps the lack of respect factor was part of it. "All the talk in the summer, I guess," Bogut said. "I'm not sure. We've got a chip on our shoulder, and we're a bunch of guys that didn't take too lightly to com- ments that it was a fluke and it was luck and this and that. I guess that has given us a little bit of added motivation that we prob- ably didn't need." Added Walton,"I'm sure a lit- tle bit of that is why we're on this streak right now. We weren't lucky to win a championship. We earned the championship. Just hearing all that stuff every- one was saying in the preseason and the offseason is enough fire our guys' competitive spirits that much more. I'm sure it added to the fuel of wanting to get out to a great start." NBA Warriorscontinuetodefydoubters Staff report LOS MOLINOS Bulldogs captain Vanesa Cota has been named MVP of 5-Star All League Vol- leyball and her coach, Chas Ko- nopka, earned coach of the year honors. Also earning All League hon- ors for the Bulldogs were soph- omore Rachel Rogers and ju- niors Liset Castillo and Henna Acevedo. For the Mercy Warriors, All League honors went to seniors Tasha Pimentel and Madeline Flynn. Cota led the league in assists with 916. The next closest was Mercy's Pimentel with 565. For the season, Cota posted 77 aces, 124 digs and 41 kills. Cota was named player of the match twice during the season, a 3-0 win over Mercy Oct. 6 and a 3-1 win over Liberty Christian Oct. 27. "I think setters get overlooked sometimes but not tonight," Ko- nopka said following the win over Mercy. "Vanesa did an ex- cellent job of getting our hitters into a position to swing tonight. She posted 29 assists, spread the ball around to all 5 hitters for kills tonight and had 10 digs." The numbers Cota put up for the season are truly impressive. "'Ness' has had two career games against Liberty Chris- tian," Konopka said following the Oct. 27 win. "In her first match against Liberty she had 41 assists and in this match she ended with 36 assists. That's an average of over 8 assists per game between the two match ups." Rogers led the league in kills with 429, was second in aces with 99 and third in hitting per- centage with .314. Castillo was second in hitting VOLLEYBALL VANESACOTANAMED 5-STAR ALL LEAGUE MVP Bulldogs, Warriors earn league honors CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Bulldogs captain Vanesa Cota (4) was named MVP of 5-Star All League Volleyball. She led the league in assists with 916. By Steve Reed The Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. Kemba Walker scored 39 points, and the Char- lotte Hornets battled back from 22 points down in the second half to beat the Sacramento Kings 127- 122 in overtime Monday night. Nicolas Batum had 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Hornets, who have won four of their last five games. Jeremy Lin had seven of his 14 points in overtime. It was the second-largest come- back in franchise history. DeMarcus Cousins had 30 points and 11 rebounds for Sac- ramento, and Rudy Gay had 28 points and 10 boards. Rajon Rondo had 14 points and 20 as- sists. Walker had 21 points in the fourth quarter and appeared to win the game on a driving scoop layup down the right side of the lane with 0.7 seconds left. But Gay scored on a side inbounds pass from Rondo to send the game into overtime. The Hornets trailed 91-74 in the third quarter before Walker got hot. He was 9 of 10 from the field in the fourth with three 3-pointers. NBA Ki ng s bl ow hal ime lead, ed ge d by Hornets in OT By Daniel Brown Bay Area News Group SANTACLARA Upon hearing that Marshawn Lynch would be sitting out against the 49ers because of an abdominal injury, safety Eric Reid's first reaction was relief. "Your immediate thought is: 'We have the advantage here,' " Reid recounted Monday morn- ing. "In my mind, I'm thinking we stop the run and make them throw the ball." That plan unraveled quickly Sunday, as did just about every- thing else in the 49ers defense. The Seattle Seahawks cruised 29- 13 as undrafted rookie Thomas Rawls, filling in for Lynch, rushed for 209 yards, the most ever by a back against a San Francisco de- fense. The 49ers were still groping for answers Monday after falling to 3-7. Coming off a bye week, the 49ers looked outmanned, out- coached and underprepared. "De- fensively, none of us were happy with the way we played and the way we went about it," coach Jim Tomsula said. In reviewing game film, Tom- sula saw what he called a "com- mon thread" to the 49ers' slew of missed tackles. He said he noticed that defensive players played ten- tatively, as if afraid to make a mis- take. "Just go get it, you know what I mean?" Tomsula said. "Don't read your way through it. Attack." 49ERS To ms ul a: Defense didn't ha ve ' Go g et ' em ' drive in Seattle MVP PAGE 2 49ERS PAGE 2 WARRIORS PAGE 2 KINGS PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 24, 2015 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1