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
05 December, 2008
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1 comment:
Agreed. Smart all the way. Brandan Wright comes off a 15 point performance with 4 rebs, 2 blcks, a steal with 0 turns, and Rob Kurz is getting more PT than Brandan. I mean, come on. Finally Nelson gets ejected and Brandan comes in, and of course makes 3 out of 3 shots in about 6 minutes.
I know Brandan doesn't play the best defense, but when guys like CJ Watson are ahead of Brandan on the depth chart, I just don't see Brandan having a future with the team as long as Nelson is coaching. (No offense to CJ, but his defense is pathetic) I'm not saying BWright has no future in the Nba, I actually think he is going to be a great up and coming talent if he can bulf up a bit. (He's my favorite player)
Anyway, during the course of this 8 game losing streak, I'm just really frustrated with Don Nelson.
Great recap, as always!
2toneTom
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