Well, it was an intriguing game to say the least. On opening night, the Golden State Warriors put up a heck of fight, but ultimately fell to their favored opponent 108-103. Questions circled the team heading into the contest on and off the court, and to be honest I think a lot was left unanswered. With Al Harrington seemingly demanding a trade in recent days, and some trade speculation floating around regarding Stephen Jackson and the Detroit Pistons, who knew what to really expect on opening night? I'll try to break down what we learned tonight.
I was hoping that after tonight, I would grasp what the Warriors identity would be this year without Baron Davis and Monta Ellis (for now), but I have a strong feeling that what happened tonight was not indicative of what's left to come for the remainder of the season:
-Are we a fastbreak team anymore? I assumed we still would be heading into the season, and maybe we still are, but tonight the Warriors didn't show any of the fastbreak Nellie offense we saw last season. To be honest, this game actually had some of the most half court offense I've seen from a Nellie-team period. Aside from a few pushed rebounds, the Warriors looked to secure the rebound first, wait for the defenders to clear out, and then slowly bring up the ball. That's not what we're accustomed to in Oakland, and I'm not sure it was really a good thing. Obviously we won't know more until we see this offense further, but I'm not at all excited about us playing one-on-one offense the majority of the time from a halfcourt set. If halfcourt basketball is what Nellie wants, I'd prefer to see more set plays.
-What are we doing on defense? Sure, we got some stops here and there, but I lost count of how many times Andris got switched on a screen and was matched up with Chris Paul. I understand in the past Nellie and the Warriors have used alot of switching on defense, but the idea of Demarcus Nelson on Hilton Armstrong or Tyson Chandler, or even Biedrins on Paul is ludicrous. Nellie claims he spent the entire training camp working on the defense, and I do see some improvements: Our zone was effective in the short amount of time that we used it, and our on the ball defense individually wasn't bad (although David West just continued to hit turn around after turn around). I just refuse to believe the plan for the rest of the season is to continue switching the way we do.
-Another thing we saw tonight was Nellie's lack of use of our new-found depth. I highly doubt this was indicative of the rest of the season simply because Nellie saw we had a chance to upset a great team on opening night, and he didn't want to risk blowing it by putting any of the youngsters in. NO, JACKSON WILL NOT PLAY 48 MINUTES A GAME! I strongly believe we will use the depth we have as a huge asset, it just wasn't in the gameplan tonight.
-Jackson played a large majority of the time at PG tonight, and if that's the plan for the rest of the season I think we're in trouble. Sooner or later teams are going to catch on that we lack ball handlers, and I think if they set a few more traps, pressure the ball more, and heck, even press us, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. For that reason, I think we need to limit Jackson's minutes at the one as a precaution against teams who decide to challenge our ball handling abilities without a PG on the floor.
All in all though, the Warriors obviously put up a good performance, one that Warriors fans can appreciate. We played well against excellent competition, and that sends a message around the league that even though we are without Baron and Monta (for now) we can still compete with the best out there. Like I said though, we still have alot to learn about this Warriors team as I don't think this game exactly previews the rest of the season by any means.
I'll end the post with something new, being that this is the first game of the season... I'm introducing my top 3 individual Warriors performances of the night, which will be highlighting things you may or may not have noticed as key performances.
1) Maggette- 27 pts and 8 boards. He was huge tonight and was our go-to guy besides Jackson. When he had to leave because of foul trouble, we really struggled.
2) Jackson- Where would we be tonight without Jackson? Led the team in assists with 5 and made 5 threes. He finished with 26 points as well.
3) Turiaf- With Biedrins in foul trouble, Turiaf had to come in and have a good game. Even though he didn't score, his defense was huge and he finished the game with 4 blocks, 4 boards, and 3 assists. This is something we sorely lacked last year off the bench. Great pickup.
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2 comments:
Good post on the first game. Nellie needs to go 9 or 10 deep, or he'll blow out the starters after 20 games or so. Bringing in Nelson at the end of quarters is useless as well. Let's see if they activate Hendrix for the Toronto game to offset the twin towers. I think I reas somwhere that Wright is nursing an injury. That may be why he didn't play. You didn't mention Azabuke, who is getting better and better. Most improved candidate? Keep up the good work. FS
Indeed I did not mention Buike but only because I thought this particular post should be more team-oriented since I noticed so many bigger issues. He almost made my top 3 performances, but then I wouldn't have been able to mention Turiaf. Anyhow, Buike has been extremely solid all throughout training camp and we saw it tonight too. For a guy coming off the bench though, I still worry about that playing time (42 minutes). I think he'll eventually start when Nellie decides to go with Jackson as the starting PG but unless we give guys like Jackson and Azubuike some rest, they're gonna burn down really quickly just as you pointed out.
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