Warriors lose to Lakers in OT

Anyone else watch this game last night on ESPN? Curry, Carney, D. Wright, Amundson didn't play. Some pretty interesting nuggets though:

1) Vlad Rad started. Its seriously concerning how much Smart is using him. At first I was surprised at how well he was actually doing. He wasn't balling by any means but seems to really take advantage of the motion offense by making some nice passes and although he gets burned on defense he also looked pretty decent at times going up against Artest/Kobe. Made a pretty tough and-1 and despite crappy shooting it seems like defenses really respect his shot and he can spread the floor just based on his (unwarranted) reputation.

Then the second half came. Made a shitload of turnovers and overall looked horrible. Granted this was likely a fluke of bad plays by Vlad but damn wtf are you thinking Smart? At this point I'm hoping Carney learns to mix it up, use his athleticism to get to the rim, get fouled, shoot from 3 better than Vlad, and rebound. Overall up and down effort from Vlad. Dude shows hes capable of being a decent player but also just screws up a lot of plays by forcing his way to the rim, missing perimeter shots, etc.

2) Reggie looked good. Seemed like he was struggling most of the preseason. He started last night and got 27 points and 8 assists in 49 mins on 8-14 shooting and 9-9 FTs. Also got 2 steals, 2 rebounds, and 2 TO and went 2-5 from 3 pt land. Made a few and-1 plays. Looked good overall but again goes back to my concerns that Smart is using him improperly off the bench. IMO hes not the type of scorer who can come in and just fore the issue and jack 10 shots in 3 minutes. He needs to have that passing element to his game to open up his offense IMO. If the defense knows hes just going to force up a shot he becomes much easier to defend. Besides, taking away a guy who is as versatile offensively as he is will only be a disservice to our club.

3) Brandan Wright played a lot of SF. He got 27 mins overall went 2-5 from the field, got 5 points, 5 boards (2 offensive), 1 steal, 1 block, 1 TO. Looked entirely outmatched defending Kobe or Fisher on the perimeter but there might be some hope that he can stick with guys like Artest who aren't that quick and aren't great pull up jumpshooters from long distance. He had some moments but also wasn't that great. Playing him at SF isn't a completely lost cause, he looks like he could be decent at SF some day but he'll need a lot of time to adjust and build up a SF skillset. Hes basically a zero on offense at SF though I thought he showed that he'll give you a distinct advantage by having another legit big on the offensive glass and he did well to play help defense in the paint while not allowing his man to get open on the perimeter.

Would I rather have him or Vlad at SF? Tough question. Ultimately we'll have to see a larger sample size- if Wright can hold his own defending SFs while also rebounding that position well and providing a shotblocking presence he might be more valuable. That being said Vlad gets respect on the perimeter and can stretch the defense, he makes some decent passes. Both have major holes.

BTW, Wright got a nice drive and dish from I think Reggie on the last play of regulation. He caught it on the baseline and rose above the pack and lost the ball 2 feet from the rim. Still don't know if someone hacked it away or he just lost it but it was a golden opportunity to win the game and he flubbed it.

4) Smart seems to like giving the ball to Lee and Biedrins in the post despite little positive results. Marc Jackson was railing him for it all night and I have to agree. Biedrins has nothing in the post. Lee makes a few herky jerk moves mostly based around fancy dribbling (got a nice handle for a 4 and some nifty moves) but they go nowhere. From what I've seen Lee looks more effective with the ball in the high post where hes got a pretty damn money jumpshot out to just a step or two in from the 3 pt line. He can pull up and shoot it very quickly and opposing 4's are already defending pretty far off him because he can drive a little bit. Made a few GORGEOUS passes from the high post to Monta. Ultimately hes at his best on the pick and roll/pop but if you're going to put the ball in his hands I think hes much more effective and dynamic in the high post facing the basket. He can get that shot off extremely quick and with high effectiveness, he can drive and finish, when he gets a head of steam going (off PnR or driving!) he gets a lot of fouls, hes a very good passer. When posting though it eliminates his jumpshot, he doesn't seem to draw many fouls, and he passes much less.

Although I'm liking Smart's motion offense we still need to run more PnRs.

5) Jeff Adrien. Didn't get a lot of playing time this game. Just 5 minutes but got 3 rebounds, went 0-1 from the field. The previous game he got 4 minutes, 4 rebounds and 2 pts (both those games against the Lakers). Prior to that he got 20 minutes against the Suns and pulled down 8 rebounds, 6 points, 1 steal, 1 block. And before that he got 8 mins against the Blazers, got 6 points, 5 boards, went 3-3 from the field. His overall averages for the preseason: 10 mpg, 59% FGs, 3.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg (2.5 OReb/game). In his last 4 games its 9 mpg, 5 rpg (3 OReb/game).

I don't understand why in the wake of Amundson's long term injury, B. Wright getting run at SF, and Gadzuric stinking it up Adrien isn't getting more minutes. Hes getting swallowing up rebounds and becoming pretty consistently active. Despite being 6'6ish he might also be the best post defender on the roster in what little we can derive from the preseason. With Amundson out 6 weeks, Udoh out longer than that, and Gadz being terrible we're going to need him off the bench along with B. Wright. Why the hell isn't he getting more burn right now? Guess Smart doesn't think all that much of him but so far hes just getting it done IMO.

4) Monta was really hot in the first half but we've seen him do it before. Nothing much to report here. Curry was out and he was hot so why not keep going to him. Marc Jackson was repeatedly beffudled as to why we posted Lee and Beans when Monta was so hot.

5) Felt like the Lakers had their way with us on offense but we held them to 41% shooting. We shot 47%. We lead the game pretty much the whole time till the 4th Q. We also outrebounded them by 8 rebs

6) Our 3 point shooting, or lack thereof, is going to hurt. Without Curry or D. Wright we relied on Monta, Reggie, and Vlad to space the floor. Enough said.

7) Charlie Bell played 12 minutes and did nothing. He blows. Lin got a few minutes and didn't do a ton but hes at least balls to the wall. It hurts you sometimes when he gets fouls from over aggressiveness on defense or a TO from forcing a drive. He doesn't handle full court presses well either and his lack of a jumper is hurting him, he seems to try to triple threat from inside the 3 pt line which is just awkward looking in the NBA. On the other hand he goes hard to the rim and draws fouls, I've repeatedly said hes underrated as far as athleticism. If he gets the handle and jumper sorted out he could be pretty solid. Seems like hes pretty boom/bust as far as contributions right now as opposed to Bell who is largely invisible but also won't kill the team with TOs and fouls.

8) Beans looked pretty solid. Seemed like he got way more than 3 offensive rebounds and was overall good on the glass. Didn't get the ball much on offense. Tried to block some shots on help defense but sometimes he tries when there is no chance of getting the block. BTW Lee is a fugging awful defender so maybe Beans feels like he has to lol. Pau tooled him a few times but Beans also looked decent on D a few times. Went 2-4 from FT. Overall looks like hes back to his old self on the glass and playing alongside Lee isn't going to hurt his rebound numbers (and vice versa). He is getting the ball a lot less though, getting fewer pick and rolls, and with another big man in the paint it seems like hes asked more to clear out and let Lee work down there whether it be one on one or with a guard.

Would still like a bigger, beefier C but for all the shit Beans gets from W's fans he sure can rebound with the big boys and isn't a complete zero by any means. Defense is pretty so-so and he seems to be much less of an offensive weapon than in previous years.

A final note: Its nice to have depth at PF for once. I really want the club to get Adrien some more playing time because a) he's swallowing up rebounds and providing energy, b) not bad defending in the post, and c) Amundson/Udoh are out and Wright can't be relied upon that much- it just makes sense to use him. With this in mind I think we could really set ourselves up for a trade at the deadline. With Wright, Adrien, Udoh, Amundson off the bench we have some cheap pieces to package with either our expirings or Monta/Beans. Lets get Adrien some run and see what we have. Lets try to build up Wright's value. These guys aren't blue chip prospects but the trade deadline can net you a good, highly paid player that a losing team wants to dump or an upcoming free agent that a team will take anything of value for instead of letting him walk. We've got the expirings. We've got some decent youngish proven players in Beans and Monta. None of those PFs are going to be the center of the deal but if throwing in Udoh or Amundson or Wright are the difference in us landing another core piece and we know Adrien will give us rebounding and energy in their place then go for it. This team still needs a legit starting SF, a backup PG, perhaps an upgrade at C, better bench play, more 3 pt shooting. We've got a lot of holes but we also have a lot of options.

 

Indeed, however I think they were on the same team. IIRC Lee won the MVP award for that game? Maybe I'm mixing things up...

 

Yep, I remember being pissed because Monta was the last player put into the game and he tore it up and still could have been the MVP even despite being last in.