Warriors 121 Clippers 103

Baron Who?

In the highest scoring game of their season, the Warriors handled the Clippers 121-103 in the Staples Center on a quiet Sunday afternoon in LA. Perhaps the loudest the arena got all night was when, with less than a minute left in the game, the crowd was cheering for Anthony Morrow to take a three pointer, which if made would record his 40th point of the night! WOW! Absolute Shocker! Let's get right into it...

Anthony Morrow
Without doubt, Anthony Morrow deserves all the spotlight tonight. In his first ever career start in the NBA, he had quite an impressive game. Not only did he grab a ridiculous 11 rebounds for a 6'5 guard, but he scored 37 points on 15-20 shooting, demonstrating an incredibly smooth and confident stroke throughout. Don Nelson has recently developed a knack for finding those gems in the offseason, and once again it seems like another Warrior try-out will have a huge impact on the team this season. Over the course of the next few days, I can already predict alot of "Marco Belinelli who?" talk and similar conversations, and well... It's somewhat deserved. Although Marco hasn't had an opportunity to play 40+ minutes a game like Morrow has, he also hasn't deserved it. Morrow started and was hot from the 1st quarter, so Nelson couldn't take him out. With reports that Belinelli's been told he may be soon traded to the New Jersey Nets, this could get very interesting over the next few days.

Offensive Efficiency or Defensive Lapses?
Whether it was the now 1-8 Clippers lack of a defensive effort, or just a lucky night for the Warriors, I was very pleased by the ball movement, lack of isolation plays, and the fluidity on offense. The Warriors finished the game with 29 assists (10 from Jackson, 8 from Watson) with their former star point guard playing for the other team. I've said this before and I will continue to say it: When we actually have a halfcourt game plan, one that involved giving Biedrins the ball and moving it around rather than forcing the Isolation plays every other play, the Warriors are so much more efficient. Maybe the addition of Anthony Morrow will aid this, since we'll have another jump shooter out there who can really spread the floor and give Biedrins some room to work. One way or another it certainly worked this afternoon and I look forward to seeing more of this down the stretch.

Decisive Third Quarters
Once again, the third quarter was a concern this game. Late in the third quarter the Warriors relinquished a 14 point lead and allowed the game to get close again. Fortunately, they closed out the game and Morrow was just impossible to guard but if we didn't have that initial lead in the first place things could've gotten rather scary. Of all the quarters in the game, we only lost this one, but it wasn't by much and we certainly didn't lose as much momentum as we have in previous games during this quarter, but it still is something that needs to be kept an eye on.
Overall
Overall this was a great game, one that we finished very strongly and convincingly. I thought the defense was solid and we were very efficient on the offensive end. We probably won't shoot such a high percentage on jump shots the rest of the season, but if we can get Maggette to the line or have Morrow bail us out in those cold stretches, we can hopefully avoid some of those painful quarters. Finally, 10 games into the season I think we're starting to learn more about the identity of this ball club. I'll get into this after a few more games, but Warriors fans... Enjoy this one :)

Top Performances
1. Anthony Morrow- DUH
2. Andris Biedrins- 17 points and 16 rebounds... These numbers are starting to become normal
3. CJ Watson- I thought he had another great game with 10 points and 8 assists in only 28 minutes.