Warriors Vs. Knicks, Nov. 11, 2005 7:30pm (FSN)

If you need a key 3 pts, I guess you can just slap Fisher's head. Nice 3 pts by Fisher...

 

Live and die by 3 pts. With 80 to 80, Richardson, Fisher and Murphy all shot 3 pts. 83-82.

Lol, Davis is killing me. First, he passed to Foyle, then almost committed offensive foul, not to mention his 6th foul and missed first FT. But, as long as we won the game ...

 

Jesus, these wins just keep getting stressful. But when you get them, they are nice.

Murphy with a big game, JRich a typical game. BDiddy with a bad shooting night (probably because of the hammy), but got his teammates involved with 12 assists.

Daily Dunleavy Update:
Still sucking
22 min, 4 pts, 1-6 FG, 2-3 FT

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting BDiddyJRich:</div><div class="quote_post">Jesus, these wins just keep getting stressful. But when you get them, they are nice.

Murphy with a big game, JRich a typical game. BDiddy with a bad shooting night (probably because of the hammy), but got his teammates involved with 12 assists.

Daily Dunleavy Update:
Still sucking
22 min, 4 pts, 1-6 FG, 2-3 FT</div>



That is 6 games so far. I say give him 3-4 more games before he has a 20pt night...

 

That was a gutsy play by B-Diddy any other Warriors and we get call for a foul. I don't really know if I can get used to these defensive types of games but if they keep playing D like they have we will defitnely get into the playoffs.

 

Where in the world this thing called 'Defense' come from? We aren't running anything close to last year, but our defense suddenly stepped up from nowhere.

Davis: Again, his hammy is bothering him a lot, and he really can't shoot much. But, when it matters, he made all key plays, from assists to Foyle, FT and the steal at the end. Also, he managed to dish 12 assists and grab 6 rebs.

Richardson: The most dependable player right now, and it's really good to see him doing all those with Davis. Also, he had 6 assists. Nice change from unusual 1.4 assists in his previous 5 games.

Dunleavy: It's nice to give a starting job and given mins to Dunleavy to find his groove. But, his confidence is shrinking game by game, and we have a game to win. He shot more air ball than the basketball today. At this point, there shouldn't be a reason why Dunleavy should play more mins than Pietrus.

Murphy: Another defendable player, and he even grabbed 11 rebounds, gaining his usual number. Very nice game.

Foyle: Whew, that last bucket surely stopped my breath. Defended the middle very well, and did very nice job on Curry, when we needed him the most.

Fisher: Didn't have typically nice shooting night, but when it mattered, he made key FT and 3 pts.

Pietrus: When he entered, the game changed with his speed and defense. Again, there is no reason for Dunleavy to play more min than Pietrus, until Dunleavy find a clue.

Taft: His injury clearly bothered him. Couldn't make layups and fumbled rebounds. Too bad, because he could have very good game.

Law of average caught up as well. If we were screwed by refs in Chicago, we got number of breaks from refs as well...

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">Agreed, our defense is very solid and its responsible for us keeping close in most of our games. Hopefully once Baron is healthy our offense will be back to normal and consistent. With our previous offense and shiny new defense this team could surprise some people.</div>

Well, the problem is that hammy injury can go all season long, if he doesn't get a rest for quite some time. But, can we afford to rest Davis for 3-4 weeks? Because, he still can play 70%, and we desperately need 70% Davis every game...

 

I am not too sure, but hammy injury seems to take a lot of times, at least two weeks to four weeks to fully healed. And the worst thing is that you can still play somewhat with hammy injury. Probably the most annoying injury in sports. I also would love to give him about couple weeks rest and see what happens...

 

I really want to see more Bdiddy, Jrich, and Pietrus lineups this year. I think that it has a very good chance of going on some runs and giving us some w's. We need to get more end to end action going, we're gonna get killed against the good teams if we keep launching threes like this. We need more easy buckets on the break and at the line. Time to shorten Dun's minutes as Kwan said. We can't afford to lose games in our early season schedule. Either Dfish or Pietrus should be in there at this point. If Dun recovers than fine but right now his presence of the court prevents our other guys from contributing.

 

Mike again had a horrible shooting night. What was the good thing I saw? 22 mins from Dunleavy instead of the usual 35 mins. And the player of the night was given to Pietrus!

 

Gusty gusty win and boy did it feel good. Any other Warriors doesn't get that call that Davis got, good aggresive basketball. Key defensive shots and huge 3's.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting jzblaze:</div><div class="quote_post">I really want to see more Bdiddy, Jrich, and Pietrus lineups this year. I think that it has a very good chance of going on some runs and giving us some w's. We need to get more end to end action going, we're gonna get killed against the good teams if we keep launching threes like this. We need more easy buckets on the break and at the line. Time to shorten Dun's minutes as Kwan said. We can't afford to lose games in our early season schedule. Either Dfish or Pietrus should be in there at this point. If Dun recovers than fine but right now his presence of the court prevents our other guys from contributing.</div>

The way Dunleavy is playing right now, I am sure you will see Davis, Richardson and Pietrus line up a lot. For first 4 games, Dunleavy averaged over 35 mins, but in last two games, he played 25 mins and 22 mins. With Pietrus on the line up, our temp changed quite a bit. Sure, he does make dumb mistakes time to time, but his speed and defense far outweight his minus. I don't mind Dunleavy starting, because he is better player than what he is putting right now, and since we locked him to eternity, we better utilize him sooner or later. But till he gets over this slump, Pietrus and Fisher should play majority mins...

 

I just got back from the game. The Arena was rockin' tonight. It was a very fun game to watch live.

Some observations:

Richardson guarding Marbury - I liked this match-up because of three reasons...
<ul>
[*]It gave Davis a rest
[*]Richardson's size didn't allow Marbury to 'muscle' his shots in. Additionally, Richardson proved that he can stick with Marbury, which was impressive. I think it was a very good test for Richardson and he succeeded. He played Marbury smart by forcing him to go left.
[*]It gave Davis a rest.
[/list]

Warriors played through their mistakes and made up with their defense...

<ul>
[*]Very good rotations and double-teaming at the right time...TEAM DEFENSE ;-)
[*]Various match-ups on Marbury, including Richardson, Fisher, and Pietrus. They all played very solidly and it's encouraging to see we have a lot of defensive quickness from three players not named Baron.
[/list]

Mike Dunleavy...I will admit, I have been a very strong Dunleavy supporter and will continue to be, but it would be stupid of me not to point out his flaws right now. He has no confidence in his shot. His timing is off. His presence, to be blunt, is detrimental to the team.

I think it was a very good move by Monty to bench him. If you remember, this was done last year too...I believe around mid-season or so and Dunleavy responded when he got his opportunities. This is a good lesson for him...just because he got a fat contract extension does not give him the priviledge to get free minutes...they must be earned. I am hoping Pietrus starts the next few games and let Dunleavy get his confidence back slowly but surely. I still have faith.

Overall, a very satisfying victory, albeit against the worst team in the NBA, but a victory nonetheless. I'm so happy for Foyle who was able to catch the ball and put it in that thing they call the basket. Good for you! DEMOCRACY MATTERS!

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rudeezy:</div><div class="quote_post">Gusty gusty win and boy did it feel good. Any other Warriors doesn't get that call that Davis got, good aggresive basketball. Key defensive shots and huge 3's.</div>

"Gutsy" my friend?

 

Kensaku, thought I'd never hear you say something like that. But I'm impressed and you're dead on with your post. He has to earn those minutes and so far he hasn't been earning squat so far, he's airballed once or more in almost every game. Until he scrapes whatever confidence he has left and gets his act together, he needs to see less minutes. Hopefully he did what he did at the end of last season, the Warriors will need it in future games.

Will Pietrus be like Joe Johnson last year? The kid is 42% from beyond the arc, much props to him for improving his shot.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AnimeFANatic:</div><div class="quote_post">Kensaku, thought I'd never hear you say something like that. But I'm impressed and you're dead on with your post. He has to earn those minutes and so far he hasn't been earning squat so far, he's airballed once or more in almost every game. Until he scrapes whatever confidence he has left and gets his act together, he needs to see less minutes. Hopefully he did what he did at the end of last season, the Warriors will need it in future games.

Will Pietrus be like Joe Johnson last year? The kid is 42% from beyond the arc, much props to him for improving his shot.</div>



Yeah, I may be stubborn, but I ain't stupid. Hey, I've been where Dunleavy has been...on a much, much, much smaller scale, obviously...and some times you have to do what's right for the team AND yourself (in the long run) and step aside.

What the coaches need Dunleavy to do is focus on one thing at a time and not try to do EVERYTHING. He is scouted as the "all-around player" who can do a little bit of everything, and this has proven to be a detriment in his progress. I think part of the problem with Dunleavy is that he may be too balanced. In other words, he does too many of the little things and not enough of the big things, like locking down a player defensively, sucking in the rebound after rebound, or being the #1 scoring option in a particular game.

That's why he has gotten scrutinized so much and on the flip-side, has gotten so much praise. It's rare to find a young player who can do both the little things only veteran savvy players can do and excel in spectacular fashion like a young player such as Carmelo Anthony. Obviously, Dunleavy has not been spectacular. Yes, he's shown SIGNS that he can be such a player, like scoring 30+ in a couple games last year, but overall, he has proven to only be a role player.

Now, the reason why I have so much faith in him is because I think he wants to be an All-Star caliber player. I think he has the mentality to be one, but it's shown that his failures this young season have all been MENTAL ERRORS, which is not good because he does not have athleticism to make up for mental weakness. He knows he was the #3 pick and he knows that he has to produce far more than he has been to justify it. And to top it off, he has just been given a huge contract.

I really think it boils down to a few simple things for Dunleavy to prove his doubters wrong:

<ul>
[*]Shoot over 45% in FG and over 40% in 3FG
[*]Get to the foul line 4 times per game and convert the FT's
[*]Average 15 ppg and 5 rpg
[/list]

At this point, expecting him to be a defensive stopper is laughable. He's got great defensive instincts but simply doesn't have the body and/or the tenacity to bother any above average SF.

Just my .02 cents.

 

Good points Kensaku on everything you said about Dunleavy.