They mentioned JRich leaving the game at halftime and flying back to Oakland for a personal reason. Any word on what happened and if he plans on flying back for tonight's game? I also listened to the game last night, I posted my thoughts on the Lakers in the Laker Forum, but I'll post my thoughts on the Warriors. The Warriors took advantage of the game early on by controlling the tempo and pushing the basketball in transition. The Lakers started McKie in this game, and Baron Davis just blew by him and found his shooters. The Warriors played with a lot of confidence in the game, and I expect them to be a team living and dying by the 3point ball all season. Troy Murphy and Adonal Foyle controlled the paint and really disrupted the Lakers offensive sets. This led to Laker turnovers and easy transition baskets by the Warriors. The chemistry between B. Diddy and JRich is amazing, they can read each other on the breaks and B. Diddy knows exactly where and when to get him the ball. Troy Murphy however, is settling too, fast for the 3pt shot. He clanged a couple last night when he could have taken the ball to the rim instead. I can only imagine how effective he would be in the Triangle though. He's exactly the type of player the Lakers need. Dunleavy played well on both ends of the floor. He's not getting pushed around like he was last season, and his lateral movement has improved. I'm sure being in a contract year has him extra motivated on the court. Andris Biedrins and Zarko sounded lost on the court for the few minutes they played. They picked up stupid fouls and were careless with the basketball. The one concern though for Warrior fans is when Baron Davis is out of the game. It's night and day when he's running the team and the offense is complacent when he's not on the court. I think the Warriors are going to have a similar season to last year's Sonics. They will have the edge every night in the backcourt and have solid pieces on the frontline. The offense is unbalanced at this point, because they don't have that inside scorer. However, if Diogu comes back and provides the 8 to 10 points inside the paint, the Warriors should win 50 games at the very least.
Wow! That was from a Laker fan, unbelievable. Murphy just looks more athletic than last year. I guess his foot injury is doing much better. I think Troy's a little gunshy about taking it to the hole. After all, that's when you truly injur your feet. He's gonna have to get over it and start driving by the time the season rolls around, it'll open up his whole game.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting upsidedownside7:</div><div class="quote_post">lol, I have to know what kind of camera you used to get the thought bubble.</div> It's magic!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">That is funny CR2, but I gotta say, Barnett's a great guy. I met him when I lived in CO and came to my first Nuggets/Warriors game. He is a former AF guy like myself. He introduced me to Foyle and Jrich. I know this is all in good fun, but I gotta stand up for him. BTW, you should send this to him with an explanation and make into a sig...</div> I never said Barnett wasn't a nice person, but he's always putting on a shill with Mike Dunleavy jr. What do you want me to say, gee shucks, Barnett, I like your every other minute commentary on all the things Dunleavy does to make viagara expendable. I like Dunleavy, but I think Barnett's got better things to do like call the game the way it is rather than pimp a particular player who has been disappointing thus far. It's as if Dunleavy was his real son or maybe it's some kind of unnatural obsession.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting wtwalker77:</div><div class="quote_post">Looks like the Warriors bounced back nicely. Hey Custoidain, how 'bout that Dunleavy? 16 points in the first quarter including 4 three's on 6-6 shooting. I'm sure Barnett was going off. </div> Good for Dunleavy. I'm sure Barnett was not only going off, he was probably getting --- well you get the picture.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting mylie10:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow! That was from a Laker fan, unbelievable. Murphy just looks more athletic than last year. I guess his foot injury is doing much better. I think Troy's a little gunshy about taking it to the hole. After all, that's when you truly injur your feet. He's gonna have to get over it and start driving by the time the season rolls around, it'll open up his whole game.</div> Shape is a pro when it comes to those things. Also, this year's Murphy is the guy I remember best like in 2002-03. He's hustling and he's moving really quickly for his size and weight.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">I never said Barnett wasn't a nice person, but he's always putting on a shill with Mike Dunleavy jr. What do you want me to say, gee shucks, Barnett, I like your every other minute commentary on all the things Dunleavy does to make viagara expendable. I like Dunleavy, but I think Barnett's got better things to do like call the game the way it is rather than pimp a particular player who has been disappointing thus far. It's as if Dunleavy was his real son or maybe it's some kind of unnatural obsession.</div> Yeah, I like Barnett and his job, minus Dunleavy praising. And, that's really a puzzling thing. If he were like Mike Krukou (sp?), the biggest homer announcer in any Bay Area sports team, I can understand his comment a bit. But, he did good job at praising and criticize Warriors for more than a decade, and all of sudden, he started to praise/cover up Dunleavy like there is no end. Either, he is obsessed with Dunleavy or maybe he is trying to improve Dunleavy's stock in general fans by mentioning positives and covering up negatives, because Dunleavy doesn't get a fair share of praise from general fans for various reasons. But, I think it actually hurts Dunleavy's rep among fans, because fans are getting really annoyed by excessive and obvious hyping ups by Barnett. Or, maybe Barnett really doesn't like Dunleavy, so he is using a reverse psychology on fans...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">Shape is a pro when it comes to those things. Also, this year's Murphy is the guy I remember best like in 2002-03. He's hustling and he's moving really quickly for his size and weight.</div> Yeah, Shape is basically overload in this site Murphy looks lighter, but the bottom line is that he needs to shoot near 45% range. In just two preseason games, his shooting % has been quite disappointing...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kwan1031:</div><div class="quote_post"> Murphy looks lighter, but the bottom line is that he needs to shoot near 45% range. In just two preseason games, his shooting % has been quite disappointing...</div> Isn't that the most case for big men who fall in the love with the three and can't do much else?
Well, Murphy never was a inside player and he still managed to shoot 45% in two years ago, so I am hoping that he will improve his shooting % to at least that level. It would be ironic if Murphy continue to shoot 40% and become a outside jumping PF like J. Smith. Twerdzik offered Smith 4 years/40 mils, and because Smith rejected it, we were able to avoid paying that contract. But, it might have come back and finally bite Warriors, when Murphy signed 6 years/60 mils contract...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kwan1031:</div><div class="quote_post">Well, Murphy never was a inside player and he still managed to shoot 45% in two years ago, so I am hoping that he will improve his shooting % to at least that level. It would be ironic if Murphy continue to shoot 40% and become a outside jumping PF like J. Smith. Twerdzik offered Smith 4 years/40 mils, and because Smith rejected it, we were able to avoid paying that contract. But, it might have come back and finally bite Warriors, when Murphy signed 6 years/60 mils contract...</div> But Murphy continually did two things well which was rebounding and the midrange jumper from the elbow. We had double teams from Arenas and Jamison and that left Murphy with the bread and butter thing that he does. Like the one we had with Jamison and Arenas. If only we had been in the Eastern Conference. I don't think Murphy will shoot as bad now that we have some guys that can draw the focus of the other team's defense. I think signing Murphy is a lot like how someone playing fantasy ball would look at him. He gets very solid numbers and that means anybody who wants to improve their defensive rebounding and not have to settle for a guy like Danny Fortson or Reggie Evans that can't score, will find Murphy a good solution (he can play starter or bench). He can pass well when there is someone to pass to, he can rebound, he can shoot almost unconsciously from a set position like if he was Dirk Nowitzki himself. He can also ocassionally drive from that triple threat position he likes to do from the left of the key. Probably the worst aspect of Murphy at starter is that he doesn't set the tone defensively and that can be trouble considering we have some weak perimeter D/team D that needs even more improvement if we want to pick up where other running teams failed.
Yeah, Murphy did shoot 45% at the end of last season, so as long as he can maintain that %, I will be happy. Of course, if he becomes an average defender as well, I can ask no more to Murphy...
