<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">OAKLAND ? With his team on the cusp of the NBA's version of manhood, he is rounding into shape at the practically perfect time, as the pests are departing and the beasts arrive. Here is where we begin to get an idea of how far Baron Davis can lead the Warriors. Twelve of their 13 games remaining this month will come against teams who were in the 2005 playoffs. Only five of those games will be in Oakland, beginning with defending Pacific Division champ Phoenix tonight, followed on Friday by defending Central Division champ Detroit. "This is a big week for us," Davis acknowledged after practice Tuesday. "It's a measuring stick. We should look at it like that because these are two tough opponents, and we have to play well. We have to be at our best to beat both these teams." Davis, the Western Conference Player of the Week, is surging toward his peak. The point guard's aching hamstring has been reduced to a tickle. His conditioning is better than it has been for maybe a year. That he's feeling good enough to handle either end of an alley-oop lends even greater weight to his presence, because the Warriors can't even dream of reaching the playoffs unless Davis is a regular at practice, in the locker room and, naturally, in the starting lineup. Not that having BD in uniform ensures a competitive team. Certainly not during this stretch. The W's are going to need a little more from everybody ? especially the starters. While Jason Richardson "carried" them through the first month, according to Davis, Davis himself played through pain.from Sports 1 Mike Dunleavy slumped. Troy Murphy was inconsistent. Rookie big man Ike Diogu, whose post game complements just about everybody else, sat out until his fractured hand healed. </div> Source
"Troy Murphy was inconsistent." I'm not sure I agree with that...he was one of the brightest spots of the W's first month. Each game he has progressed and shown us something new.
Whatever happens, the Warriors are a far cry from last year. While I liked the Musselman teams (he got the most he could); this team is the best since the Webber days and I will not forget that come January, whatever the results.
It will be very interesting month for this club, and good time to measure this team's ability. Yeah, while this team seemed to play every day in Nov., the competition wasn't exactly top notch. We basically beat every teams that we are suppose to beat and we lost every single game that we expected to loss. But, there really wen't that many games that we can measure our own strength. Now, Suns game will measure how good we are, and if we plan to make PO, games like Sonics and Rockets are basically must win. It will be interesting to see how we handle 5 games Eastern road trip, which we traditionally struggled. If we can come out well in December, I will believe that this team is serious. If not, we have to hang onto making a last spot in PO...
The suns game should be interesting, the guys will probably be pretty rusty in the first half with all of this time off.
I predict our first 2 game losing streak of the season against the Pistons. I am hoping for close to .500 against playoff teams to believe if this team is for real...
