<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Monday's Nets-Warriors game was partially overshadowed by two injuries. Warriors swingman Mickael Pietrus left with a right knee sprain with 4:35 remaining in the second quarter and did not return. He had his knee in a blue wrap and was walking on crutches in the postgame locker room. The Warriors are officially listing Pietrus as day-to-day, but Pietrus estimated he would be out two to six weeks. He said the injury occurred when the Nets' Marc Jackson attempted to draw an offensive foul on Derek Fisher and instead was hit with a blocking foul. Jackson tumbled backward into Pietrus, who was trying to position himself for a rebound. Pietrus immediately knew something was wrong. "That's why I asked for a timeout, because I could not run, I could not do anything," said Pietrus, who was taken to the locker room for X-rays and will be re-examined today. "That's basketball. I'm young, 23 years old, I'm still a puppy; I got time to wake up. I think I'm going to be all right. It's not like I'm going to lose a year. Couple of weeks and I'm going to be back." </div> Source
Get well, Pietrus! The guy doesn't always make the best decisions, but he plays with such heart, talent, energy, and guts on both ends of the floor. Hopefully Zarko or Fisher can pick up the slack on the 2nd unit. Zarko may be struggling but I think he'll be able to ball once the game opens up for him. One thing is for certain, Dunleavy will have to step up his offense more than ever. We need at least double figure scoring from him each night.
Dang, it's a significant blow for us. And, it's time for Dunelavy to step up as well. Pietrus has been basically covering Dunelavy's performance, but since he is gone, if Dunelavy plays like right now, we will have a gigantic hole at 3. And, it's not like Mullin believed something called 'back up SF' before. Richardson will play a lot of SF and Fisher will play SG, but since we were running 7 men rotation, somebody has to fill the hole. will Dunleavy turn the season around? Will Zarko play 3? Cheaney? Miles? Monta? Or will we simply collapse?
one thing i agree with Barnett is the stupid charging calls. I hate that type of b*tch Duke basketball. It rewards the cowardly, disrupts the flow of the game, and definitely enhances the threat of injury. Be a man and try to contest the shot. I really hope the rule changes where the offensive player gets most the calls, it's become ridiculous.
The warriors will have one less person to attack the rim, so I'm hoping Dunleavy can do that since he's the only other guy with ballhandling skills and quick steps off the dribble (those 2 and half steps ought to make up for some slowness). Dun's not a good finisher though but I think he could draw the foul. I hope it's not a no call because he's got no body control once in the air (all 0.5 seconds of hang time). Richardson and Pietrus don't have the best handle, but they can move fairly quickly with the ball and can finish and do a lot of things when soaring above the rim. Zarko is the only other guy after that, that can penetrate toward the rim. I wouldn't be suprised if Zarko sees some minutes at center if we're in no way able to hold any team down defensively and we're not running halfcourt.
Losing Pietrus too injury is a big loss for the Warriors until he comes back. Things will be different without having him come off the bench. I hope Mullin realizes that.
