Well, that's 9 in a row...
...And happily I didn't have the opportunity to watch this one. Just so everyone knows I actually have finals this week. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to blog about the next 2 games either since I won't be able to see them. On friday however, I'll be back in action and I'll also try to sum up anything important that happened over the previous games...
A few quick thoughts on the boxscore though:
1. leading scorer? Brandan Wright
2. in 14 minutes jackson had a -14. In 19 minutes Maggette went 1-10 and was -21
3. On the other side of the ball, Duncan played 20 minutes, was a +35 and finished with 20 and 13
4. The only + on our team was Randolph who was +1
This is becoming embarassing guys... But the scary part is our future is really questionable. Usually when a team plays this poorly, atleast you can look forward to a good contract situation. That's not the case with us as somehow we have guys locked in for 5 years who are supposed to be veteran leaders and aren't exactly leading us. Now if we could find a team stupid enough to take on their contracts hmmmm... Indiana, feel like another trade?
06 December, 2008
05 December, 2008
Warriors 112 Rockets 131
Well folks, that's 8 losses in a row. Once again, it was nice to see some fight in our team, particularly against a very good opponent, but in the end we fell to the Rockets in Texas by a score of 112 to 131. This game saw 2 ejections in Don Nelson and Stephen Jackson, as well as two foul-outs, in Ronnie Turiaf and Andris Biedrins. Things aren't looking good for this team, and it hasn't been for a while. Here's my very brief thoughts on the game.
Defense
Unlike most nights, I didn't see many ridiculous breakdowns in defense. The Warriors play a unique style of basketball in which the opposing team gets a ton of possessions and many opportunities to score the basketball. Whether it was because of their style or some actual breakdowns defensively, this Warrior team allowed a relatively low-scoring Rocket team to score 131 points in regular time without their second-leading scorer in Tracy McGrady. It seems like the Warriors are consistently giving up a 40 point quarter every few games, and it's just too hard to come back from that (particularly when it happens in the 4th quarter like it did tonight).
Keith Smart
With Nelson's ejection, we got a chance to see what Assistant Coach Keith Smart could do, and overall I was impressed. It seemed like he did a good job of keeping us close until we lost in the 3rd quarter, and countless times I saw him mentoring the youngsters (particularly Randolph after that technical-given stare down with Yao). Most importantly, he did something Nelson rarely does and that was give the youngsters some consistent minutes. Randolph looked like he was rolling tonight and Smart wasn't going to pull him. We even had an appearance from Anthony Morrow who had been invisible the past few weeks. I think that if Nelson is ready to call this year over (even though it's only 1/4 of the way done), then Smart should permanently take over for the rest of the season. This way we can develop all our youngsters and see who's worth keeping and who's not before the offseason comes and we have some tough decisions to make.
Top Performances
1. Stephen Jackson- 26 points 5 assists 5 boards
2. Corey Maggete- 23 points and 10 boards
3. Anthony Randolph- 12 points and 3 boards including several nice putback dunks
Defense
Unlike most nights, I didn't see many ridiculous breakdowns in defense. The Warriors play a unique style of basketball in which the opposing team gets a ton of possessions and many opportunities to score the basketball. Whether it was because of their style or some actual breakdowns defensively, this Warrior team allowed a relatively low-scoring Rocket team to score 131 points in regular time without their second-leading scorer in Tracy McGrady. It seems like the Warriors are consistently giving up a 40 point quarter every few games, and it's just too hard to come back from that (particularly when it happens in the 4th quarter like it did tonight).
Keith Smart
With Nelson's ejection, we got a chance to see what Assistant Coach Keith Smart could do, and overall I was impressed. It seemed like he did a good job of keeping us close until we lost in the 3rd quarter, and countless times I saw him mentoring the youngsters (particularly Randolph after that technical-given stare down with Yao). Most importantly, he did something Nelson rarely does and that was give the youngsters some consistent minutes. Randolph looked like he was rolling tonight and Smart wasn't going to pull him. We even had an appearance from Anthony Morrow who had been invisible the past few weeks. I think that if Nelson is ready to call this year over (even though it's only 1/4 of the way done), then Smart should permanently take over for the rest of the season. This way we can develop all our youngsters and see who's worth keeping and who's not before the offseason comes and we have some tough decisions to make.
Top Performances
1. Stephen Jackson- 26 points 5 assists 5 boards
2. Corey Maggete- 23 points and 10 boards
3. Anthony Randolph- 12 points and 3 boards including several nice putback dunks
01 December, 2008
Boy, is it tough being a Warrior fan?
Jeez, it seems like every game Warriors fans are being crushed in a different fashion, as if opposing NBA teams are thinking about how to pierce an arrow through our flesh in different and unique ways every night. Tonight, the fatal loss came at the hands of a buzzer-beating put-back by Udonis Haslem to send the game into overtime, and then the ultimate "please go in" three pointer by Chris Quinn, and subsequent stealing of the inbounds pass and getting fouled (Beasley, making 1 FT). WOW, what a way to lose it. To be honest, it sure beats being embarrassed by some of the weakest teams in the NBA, and in this fashion I'm certainly more entertained, however this definitely breaks your heart in the end. Anyway, here's my thoughts:
How did we stay in it?
It wasn't because of our defense, although we did play much better compared to our last few games. It wasn't because of our solid work on the glass (we lost the rebounding battle by about 15). We gave ourselves a chance because in spite of our deficiencies in those categories, we valued our offensive possessions and did the things we were supposed to. We moved the ball around better than we had in 7 or 8 games. This led to easy dunks and layups, something we're used to seeing, but not in our uniform. We also got something I haven't really seen too much of since Baron Davis was around; penetration in the paint. Jackson and Crawford opened the game up by showing Miami that we were willing penetrate and dish any time those two didn't have a jumpshot initially that they preferred. Finally, Maggette was incredibly efficient tonight and had rarely any jumpshots outside of his range.
This is what I meant by valuing our possessions. We shot a relatively high percentage (46%) and got to the line and ended up with points a ton of times (we shot 52 free throws tonight). In the end, the difference was amount of possessions, and they were not in our favor. Sure, we shot the ball well and certainly valued our possessions, but we had 15 less shots than they did. This wasn't a result of carelessness and turning the ball over (we only turned it over 9 times). This was a result of a lack of rebounding.
What Did We Learn?
If we can't improve our defense and rebounding, we're never going to ourselves a great chance to win. Later in the season, we'll have Monta Ellis to make up for a lot on offense (assuming he can come back at the level he was playing before) but he won't be able to set the tone defensively or on the glass.
I think we learned another thing. If Nelson really wants to get a stop late in the game, he's got to go with his big lineup. It killed us tonight that he didn't use the Turiaf/Biedrins combo more with Maggette at the SF and Jackson at SG. When he went to it that one time it worked, and I feel that more often than not that lineup will get us stops down the stretch. Our problem tonight wasn't necessarily getting stops, it was after we got the stop, we couldn't secure the board. Had Biedrins and Turiaf been there at the end of the 4th, Haslem never would've gotten that rebound (Maggette was "boxing him out"). This is something I'd like to see more of maybe even when Monta comes back because since we'll have 1 less scorer out there with Turiaf, we're going to need some extra potent offense from someone else to make up the difference. It would be very interesting to say the least.
Top Performances
1. Jamal Crawford- Welcome to Oracle Arena. He finished with 40 points and 7 assists and only 1 turnover. That's just nuts!
2. Corey Maggette- I'm usually displeased with his performances but he stepped up and was solid tonight. He had 29 points and 5 boards, and also went 17-18 from the line.
3. Stephen Jackson- I could give this to Biedrins who had a stellar game, but I'm going to give it to Jackson who had one of his worst statistical nights. He finished with 8 points and 11 assists but I can honestly say I'd prefer that line from him than when he takes 25 shots to score 30 with 11 isolation plays to do it. Nope, today he was looking to setup his teammates (thanks Steinmetz, I think the fact that you pointed out his comment played a roll in this)
Steinmetz blog post re: Jackson's "It ain't me" quote
l
Jeez, it seems like every game Warriors fans are being crushed in a different fashion, as if opposing NBA teams are thinking about how to pierce an arrow through our flesh in different and unique ways every night. Tonight, the fatal loss came at the hands of a buzzer-beating put-back by Udonis Haslem to send the game into overtime, and then the ultimate "please go in" three pointer by Chris Quinn, and subsequent stealing of the inbounds pass and getting fouled (Beasley, making 1 FT). WOW, what a way to lose it. To be honest, it sure beats being embarrassed by some of the weakest teams in the NBA, and in this fashion I'm certainly more entertained, however this definitely breaks your heart in the end. Anyway, here's my thoughts:
How did we stay in it?
It wasn't because of our defense, although we did play much better compared to our last few games. It wasn't because of our solid work on the glass (we lost the rebounding battle by about 15). We gave ourselves a chance because in spite of our deficiencies in those categories, we valued our offensive possessions and did the things we were supposed to. We moved the ball around better than we had in 7 or 8 games. This led to easy dunks and layups, something we're used to seeing, but not in our uniform. We also got something I haven't really seen too much of since Baron Davis was around; penetration in the paint. Jackson and Crawford opened the game up by showing Miami that we were willing penetrate and dish any time those two didn't have a jumpshot initially that they preferred. Finally, Maggette was incredibly efficient tonight and had rarely any jumpshots outside of his range.
This is what I meant by valuing our possessions. We shot a relatively high percentage (46%) and got to the line and ended up with points a ton of times (we shot 52 free throws tonight). In the end, the difference was amount of possessions, and they were not in our favor. Sure, we shot the ball well and certainly valued our possessions, but we had 15 less shots than they did. This wasn't a result of carelessness and turning the ball over (we only turned it over 9 times). This was a result of a lack of rebounding.
What Did We Learn?
If we can't improve our defense and rebounding, we're never going to ourselves a great chance to win. Later in the season, we'll have Monta Ellis to make up for a lot on offense (assuming he can come back at the level he was playing before) but he won't be able to set the tone defensively or on the glass.
I think we learned another thing. If Nelson really wants to get a stop late in the game, he's got to go with his big lineup. It killed us tonight that he didn't use the Turiaf/Biedrins combo more with Maggette at the SF and Jackson at SG. When he went to it that one time it worked, and I feel that more often than not that lineup will get us stops down the stretch. Our problem tonight wasn't necessarily getting stops, it was after we got the stop, we couldn't secure the board. Had Biedrins and Turiaf been there at the end of the 4th, Haslem never would've gotten that rebound (Maggette was "boxing him out"). This is something I'd like to see more of maybe even when Monta comes back because since we'll have 1 less scorer out there with Turiaf, we're going to need some extra potent offense from someone else to make up the difference. It would be very interesting to say the least.
Top Performances
1. Jamal Crawford- Welcome to Oracle Arena. He finished with 40 points and 7 assists and only 1 turnover. That's just nuts!
2. Corey Maggette- I'm usually displeased with his performances but he stepped up and was solid tonight. He had 29 points and 5 boards, and also went 17-18 from the line.
3. Stephen Jackson- I could give this to Biedrins who had a stellar game, but I'm going to give it to Jackson who had one of his worst statistical nights. He finished with 8 points and 11 assists but I can honestly say I'd prefer that line from him than when he takes 25 shots to score 30 with 11 isolation plays to do it. Nope, today he was looking to setup his teammates (thanks Steinmetz, I think the fact that you pointed out his comment played a roll in this)
Steinmetz blog post re: Jackson's "It ain't me" quote
l
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