Entertainment

Golden State Warriors Take The Lead In The NBA Weastern Confrence Semifinals 3 to 2 Against The Memphis Grizzlies

Published

11 years ago

May 15, 2015

By Sir William G. McCray, ObnoxiousTV

The Golden State Warriors won the all-important Game 5 over the Memphis Grizzlies 98-78 on Wednesday night.

It was some star power in the Oracle cheering for the Warriors with a few of the Oakland Radiers in the building and Floyd Mayweather. The World Champ was booed we shown on the screen and presence announced due his refusing to sport the Golden State t-shirt when offered.

2014-15 NBA MVP Stephen Curry scored 18 points, all on three-pointers, but it was Klay Thompson who led the Warriors with 21 points.

Zach Randolph had 11 points in the first quarter, but the suffocating Warriors defense limited him the rest of the way, and Randolph finished with 13 points.

The series returns to the “Grindhouse” in Memphis for Game 6 on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Early on it looked as if it would be a long night for the Warriors, the way Memphis forward Zach Randolph made everything he hoisted. The Grizzlies were humming in the first quarter.

Then it all stopped. Memphis came to California and got caught up in a drought. The Warriors’ 3-point barrage stole the show Wednesday. But the Warriors won Game 5 comfortably, 98-78, because their defense was off-the-charts good.

After the first quarter, the Warriors shut down the Grizzlies. In the second and third quarters combined, Memphis totaled 32 points on 31.1 percent shooting. The Grizzlies looked helpless. They couldn’t buy a bucket if Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. was paying. And he might’ve wanted to help the Grizzlies the way Warriors fans booed him in his courtside seat Wednesday.

Warriors head to Game 6 in Memphis on Friday with a chance to close out the series because the defense has turned the tide of the series. But this was the reality all along. Memphis bottled up the Warriors in Games 2 and 3. But as long as the Warriors score 100 points, the Grizzlies can’t win.

After Game 4, Memphis coach Dave Joerger concluded his team would have to score 100 points at some point. But if the Warriors are defending like they did in Game 5, he can forget about it.

“I think I said the first couple of games our defense was good enough,” Steve Kerr noted after his team held Memphis to 1.6 points per minute. “I was wrong. It wasn’t good enough. This is what it’s going to take, this kind of defense.”

In Game 4, the Warriors used a gimmick to slow the Grizzlies. The Warriors had Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green each defend the Grizzlies’ worst shooter, Tony Allen, which allowed them to help in the paint. But Allen missed Wednesday’s game with a strained hamstring. The Warriors switched back to a straight-up defense and still frustrated the Grizzlies’ offense.

While the attention was focused on the Warriors drilling nine first-half 3-pointers, it was the defense that seized control. A nearly four-minute scoring drought by Memphis in the second quarter helped the Warriors push the lead from four to 12. Then Memphis was held to one basket over a three-minute stretch in the third quarter that bubbled the Warriors’ advantage from 10 to 17.

The Warriors’ plan, which began in Game 3, is three-fold. First, and it’s key, is ball pressure from the guards. Klay Thompson switched over to Mike Conley, and the Memphis point guard hasn’t been the same since. But also, Shaun Livingston and Stephen Curry are ballhawking aggressively, taking a page from the Grizzlies.

The second component: the Warriors are doubling, or at least aggressively helping, when Randolph and Marc Gasol get the ball inside. Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes — along with David Lee off the bench — are working to stay in front of Gasol and Randolph in the post. Even when the Grizzlies’ bigs do get the ball, they aren’t nearly as deep thanks to the Warriors’ forwards holding their ground.

Once Gasol and Randolph get the ball, Andrew Bogut is coming over to protect the rim and a guard– mostly Curry, who finished with a playoff career-high six steals — is collapsing down to swipe at the ball. And even when the players are left one-on-one, Green has done a much better job of contesting. He’s learned some of their moves and is taking away their first options.

That leads to point No. 3. With all the pressure, the Warriors are hoping Memphis’ post players dish the ball back outside. And the Warriors are going all out to chase them off the 3-point line or contest their shots.

After scoring 11 points in the first quarter, Randolph finished with 13. Gasol needed 22 shots to get 18 points. Memphis finished with just 30 points in the paint and went 4 of 15 from 3-point range.

“This unit is very dynamic because we’ve been together for a year so we can kind of understand each other,” Andre Iguodala said. “Just the way we’re moving out there and we’re all in sync. It’s hard to really describe.”

It was the kind of defensive performance that reminded viewers why the Warriors can actually be champions.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.

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50 Years Later, ‘Wake Up Everybody!’ Still Resonates During Black Music

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Hazel Trice Edney, Special to The Post

Hazel Trice Edney

“Wake up, everybody, No more sleepin’ in bed

No more backward thinkin’. Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed so very much from what it used to be.

There is so much hatred, war, and poverty.

“The world won’t get no better If we just let it be.

Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw.

The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah– just you and me.”

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

In a rare, nearly somber moment, the group’s celebrated lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass, introduced the song on Soul Train, the weekly dance and live performance TV show that aired roughly between 1971 and 2006. Pendergrass told the attentive live audience and thousands watching by television that Wake Up Everybody, the title tune of their most recent album, was intended to inspire people to take action with a goal to change America for the better.

“I’m sure that you will all agree that there are things that need to be done in this country today,” he said. “So, what I’d like for you to do is listen very carefully to see what you can do to lend a hand.”

The song’s appeal worked.

“I played that song over and over and over again because it was a constant warning to keep ourselves prepared for the society that we were living in,” says A. Peter Bailey, then a 37-year-old former aide to Malcolm X.

When “Wake Up Everybody” hit the airwaves, Bailey was working as an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. “It was a call to be aware of what we were dealing with in the country that we lived in, the world we lived in, the neighborhood we lived in, the cities that we lived in,” Bailey said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

He concluded that during Black Music Month 2026, such songs should be recalled and celebrated as a key to changes for the good across America; especially because such songs successfully encouraged people to deal with the issues that might otherwise denigrate the promises of America, including the promise that “All men are created equal,”as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

“The rhythms and blues expressed our joys, our sorrows and our fears,” Bailey recalls. “It was those songs and the singing of those songs by our people that attracted us to the campaigns for justice.”

With his life inspired by that song and others, Bailey, now 88, went on to establish and teach a Black Press class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Also, he has since written three books, including a memoir, “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” in which he expounded upon successful principles of social justice, some of which are reflected in “Wake Up Everybody.”

Long before the term “woke” became associated with campaigns for justice, Pendergrass led the song that reverberated across America and still holds deep meaning.

The ‘wake up’ call exhorts teachers to ‘teach a new way,’ doctors to heal elders, and builders to ‘build a new land… we can do it if we all lend a hand.”

The song concludes:

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw. The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah – just you and me.”

Hazel Trice Edney wrote this story as part of a four-part series powered by AARP in commemoration of Black Music Month, June 2026.