Drayage Brokersin San Francisco, CA

The Golden State Warriors have had some time to reflect after they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. After the exit, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters the group was "not a championship team." He elaborated in his exit interview Tuesday, citing chemistry as a key roadblock.

"There's no hiding from it — the incident with Draymond [Green] and Jordan [Poole] at the beginning of the year played a role in that," Kerr said. "It's hard for that not to impact a team."

A Warriors veteran, Green punched Poole during training camp. The incident was captured on video and leaked to the public. Green spent a week away from the team in what was said to be a mutual decision with the organization. He was back on the court for Golden State's season opener.

Poole, 23, signed a four-year, $128 million extension with the team shortly after the altercation. While he averaged 20.4 points and 4.5 assists this season, both career highs, he also saw a drop in his efficiency rating.

Amid Poole's intermittent struggles, the Warriors dealt with an 11-30 road record and ranked second-to-last in transition efficiency. To Kerr, lack of trust among the team changed the trajectory.

"Anytime some trust is lost, then it makes the process much more difficult, and there was some trust lost," he said. "That's as blunt as I can be. We have to get back to what has made us really successful, which is a really trusting environment and a group that relies on one another and makes each other better."

Green spoke with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Tuesday and echoed Kerr's sentiments. The Warriors "would still be playing" had he not punched Poole, he said. Green claimed the altercation compromised his ability to lead in the locker room as he normally would. He also said it prevented him from helping Poole, as their relationship predictably took a hit.

Draymond speaks on how his altercation with Jordan Poole affected Warriors' season.@Money23Green | @stephenasmith pic.twitter.com/ZSSE3yhyE2

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 17, 2023

When asked Saturday about how the situation impacted the season, Poole definitely had less words to say than Green.

"I mean, we made it to the second round of the playoffs," Poole said. "We had a good season, guys stepped up and had a lot of exciting moments. I don't think there was anything that was changing any of that."

JP on if the preseason incident with Draymond affected the Dubs' season pic.twitter.com/4AE8SisoVT

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 13, 2023

He was also asked about his relationship with Green in an interview with The Ringer. “I don’t have no answer for you,” Poole said. "Other than that, we was just on the court and teammates, and we was out there trying to win games."

Poole and Green are both facets of a group of key members the Warriors dynasty could lose this offseason.

Green has a $27.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season. If he declines, he will become an unrestricted free agent. Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers, Jonathan Kuminga, Klay Thompson and even Kerr's futures are reportedly up in the air.

Chinese cuisine in the Bay Area tells an obvious story of migration across the Pacific Ocean. But if you know where to look, you can find another story: the one of Teochew cuisine.

Known for its seafood dishes, delicate flavoring and distinct style of rice porridge, Teochew cuisine originated in a region of Guangdong province, in southern China, and traveled all over Southeast Asia before landing in the United States.

In countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, you can find Teochew influence everywhere, from a piping hot bowl of white hủ tiếu noodles to a plate of khao kha mu — braised pork that’s tinted deep brown with caramelized palm sugar and black soy sauce. In Singapore and Malaysia, Teochew immigrants turned the same noodles into the stir-fried dish char kway teow, and simmered pork in a broth of herbs and spices for bak kut teh.

As Teochew people traveled through the Port of Swatow, they brought pungent Southeast Asian ingredients and techniques back to their motherland, too. Indonesian peanut satay sauce, for example, made its way back to Teochew (or Chaozhou, in romanized Mandarin) to be served with beef in hot pot and in stir-fries. Fish sauce, commonly associated with Southeast Asian cuisines, is used frequently in Teochew cooking.

“It was a two-way street over a long stretch of time,” said Diana Zheng, author of the cookbook “Jia! The Food of Swatow and the Teochew Diaspora.”

But Teochew people love the ingredients of their homeland, too. The coastal cuisine leans on fish and mollusks, and plants like taro, sugarcane, sand ginger and basil make local dishes stand out. Dishes are often lightly cooked and lightly seasoned in order to highlight the natural flavor of the ingredients, as Singaporean chef Eric Low wrote in his cookbook “Teochew Heritage Cooking.”

In the Bay Area, Teochew cuisine ranges from noodle soups at hole-in-the-wall shops to banquet-worthy dishes like braised whole goose. Most Teochew restaurants are noodle shops; many were opened by Teochew refugees leaving war and political crisis in Southeast Asia in the 1970s and ’80s. You might recognize one by the number of languages on the menu, or by the staff switching effortlessly among English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Teochew, which has its own dialect. But you’ll also find restaurants run by more recent immigrants who came directly from China, as well as Southeast Asian restaurants where one or two dishes come from Teochew. This guide will help you find 10 dishes of Teochew origin or influence, where you can experience the history of migration in every bite.

Two sections of Highway 1 along the Big Sur coast will take months to reopen after fierce winter storms forced partial closures. Travelers coming from the Bay Area can drive to Monterey through to Big Vista Point, but not to Los Angeles and Southern California using Highway 1.

Highway 1’s southern closure is scheduled to move 21 miles north of Ragged Point, about half a mile south of Paul’s Slide on Friday, May 26, at 4 p.m., Caltrans District 5 said in a statement. Drivers will not be able to park in the turnaround area, and Limekiln State Park will remain closed, the agency said.

Crews working on Paul’s Slide, an active landslide area in Monterey County, will have a more exact reopening date July 1, Caltrans said. The agency said the closure will continue for “several months.”

Officials are considering opening the Big Sur Coast for one-way traffic, but that won’t be determined until July 1, Kevin Drabinski, spokesperson for the Caltrans district, told SFGATE.

The repairs at Paul’s Slide, which is causing many of the road closures, are “really at another level,” Drabinski said.

Most landslides required about 30,000 cubic yards of debris removal following the winter storms, Drabinski said, but Paul’s Slide has about 50,000 cubic yards of debris to be removed.

He added that the slide reactivated, which means debris began falling again, around the second week of February.

Dani Creek Slide, which is north of Paul’s Slide, is expected to reopen by mid-July as crews complete repairs there, Caltrans said.

After the highway’s southern closure moves north, people traveling north of Ragged Point may experience various traffic control measures as repairs continue, the agency said. People traveling about a mile north of the San Luis Obispo and Monterey county line will also experience traffic control due to road work, Caltrans said.

Officials said Highway 1 will remain open though Morro Bay, Cambria and San Simeon. The Ragged Point Inn and all businesses on the San Luis Obispo coast will be open, Caltrans said.

Additional businesses will remain open with full access using the highway along a 50-mile stretch from south of Monterey to the Big Creek Vista area.

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y Phil SheridanB

Baseball teams on losing streaks beg for an ace starting pitcher to get them out of it. Take the mound, restore order, and let the offense do its thing without pressure.

Whatever his salary says, Taijuan Walker was not an ace for the Phillies Wednesday -- more of a joker. The $72-million right-hander got exactly two outs in his start against the San Francisco Giants. Walker gave up four runs on four hits and two walks before being mercy-yanked by manager Rob Thomson.

Walker had already thrown 40 pitches and had given up base hits to the last three batters he faced when the manager left the dugout. It was quite a display.

“He was a little erratic,” Thomson said. “It all started with a runner on and two out, so it was a little strange. I didn’t take him out because he was pitching poorly, necessarily. It was just pitch count. He was at 40 pitches, and really, 35 is sort of my max for an inning. I just want to keep him healthy.”

After Bailey Falter’s similar implosion Monday, the left-hander was sent down to Triple-A. That is not really an alternative for a man with Walker’s contract. Besides, Walker had pitched better in his previous couple of outings, showing signs he was over his early-season struggles.

TRENDING

20H ago20H ago

Then this.

Walker’s contribution left the Phillies in a 4-0 hole and needing 25 outs to get through the game. Maybe the craziest thing is they almost pulled it off.

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Left-hander Matt Strahm, who had the lowest earned run average among Phillies starters and was rewarded with a ticket back to the bullpen, did what Walker could not. He pounded the strike zone, getting a grounder back to the mound to end the first inning and striking out four to get the Phillies through three innings.

Strahm was the first of five Phillies relief pitchers to close down the Giants. Unfortunately, they needed a sixth. But that return to order provided by the bullpen enabled the Phillies’ tepid offense to chip away at the early lead and tie the game.

Bryce Harper got the Phils moving in the fourth inning, stroking a one-out single to right field. Nick Castellanos followed with a base hit to left, then Kyle Schwarber drew a walk to load the bases for catcher J.T. Realmuto.

Runners in scoring position! What to do?!?! Realmuto knew, and he hit a two-run single down the left field line. After Giants starter Ross Stripling, from Blue Bell, Pa., left the game with a sore lower back, Alec Bohm scored Schwarber with a sacrifice fly to deep right to cap the rally.

Bryston Stott crushed a solo home run to right field off Giants left-hander Sean Manaea. That tied the game and gave the Phillies four innings to find a way to escape with a victory.

Gregory Soto, the Phillies’ seventh pitcher of the game, came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Giants manager Gabe Kapler sent pinch-hitter J.D. Davis to the plate. Davis lined Soto’s first pitch into right field. Pinch-hitter Mitch Haniger singled to center. Catcher Joey Bart dropped a bunt and then beat it out for a base hit that loaded the bases with nobody out.

Thairo Estrada singled to center to give the Giants a 5-4 lead. With one out, Wilmer Flores hit the first pitch he saw from Soto into left field for a two-run single.

And that was that. The Phillies had the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, but Trea Turner struck out to end the threat, the game, the series and the road trip.

When Tom Hanks took the stage at the Sydney Goldstein Theater, he wasted no time declaring his local roots.

“I’m a Bay Area boy and miss Herb Caen,” he said to a roar of applause. “You all know Herb Caen, right?”

Given the literary theme of the evening, which was centered around the release of Hanks' first novel, most of the audience likely appreciated the nod to Caen, whose column in the San Francisco Chronicle earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 and helped define the image of the city until it concluded in the late 1990s.

Hanks was back on his home turf for an interview conducted by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs who founded the philanthropic organization Emerson Collection. The event was organized by City Arts & Lectures, a nonprofit live lecture series that has been produced locally since 1980 and broadcasts on more than 130 public radio stations across the country. Although Hanks spoke broadly about his film career, the occasion for the interview was his debut novel, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.”

His first remarks, aside from the Caen shoutout, were about the theater itself.

“I was told backstage that we are in a building that is two things. Number one, it’s registered as a historic place. And it’s also condemned. So if the roof falls down, we’re going to go out in a blaze of glory,” he said.

As the title of Hanks’ novel suggests, the book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the film industry, inspired by Hanks’ own experiences on sets. Throughout the evening, Hanks stressed how important each member of a film crew is, down to the prop masters and greenskeepers, who are full of incredible stories for those who take the time to ask.

“I’ve made enough movies that I’ve collected so many stories that literally begin with ‘How did you get started? What was your first job?’ — and out of that comes all of humanity,” Hanks said.

Although he didn’t have much to say about the current state of San Francisco, Hanks did share some anecdotes about growing up in Hayward and working as a dishwasher in Oakland before an acting class at Chabot College inspired his eventual film career.

“I was on my own. My parents were divorced; my dad was not married for the better part of two and a half years. Me and my older brother and older sister, we were latchkey feral kids,” he said. “We didn’t get in trouble. We were not delinquents or anything like that. But essentially Dad would say, ‘There’s some frozen steaks and a can of tomato soup, and that’s your dinner.’ Then we wouldn’t see him because he was working at the Castaway restaurant in Jack London Square.”

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The most exciting moment of the night came when Jobs asked Hanks about his experience doing voice work on the “Toy Story” films, produced by Emeryville-based Pixar.

“The hardest work I’ve ever done as an actor, or a human being, has been recording Woody,” Hanks said. He explained the concept of “repetitions,” in which a voice actor is required to repeat a line over and over in different cadences and tones so that the filmmakers have multiple options to choose from. Hanks stated that he'd often do up to 80 repetitions for each line of dialogue. He then launched into the voice of Woody and rattled off 10 different versions of the phrase, “Ah, for crying out loud, Buzz. Get back in the box.”

To hear the full interview, tune in to the City Arts & Lectures radio broadcast July 2 on KQED and on the CA&L podcast.

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