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

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