Game Preview <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Matt Barnes' 20 points in a loss to the Seattle SuperSonics in December were fairly unexpected. Strong scoring from the Golden State Warriors forward has since become common. After wasting a career-best performance from Barnes, the Warriors look to match their longest home winning streak of the season when they face the SuperSonics on Saturday. Barnes set a career high with 36 points, but it wasn't enough as Golden State (17-17) lost 144-135 at Memphis on Wednesday night. Barnes, in his fourth season out of UCLA, entered the year averaging 3.7 points and has posted 11.4 for the season. But he scored 29 Tuesday night against the Hornets, and Wednesday's total marked the fourth time in the last six games he's scored at least 20 points. "It's (coach Don Nelson) having confidence in me," Barnes said. "You ask any player. If the coach is behind you 100 percent, the best part of your game is going to come out. Early on in the season, I was looking over my shoulder if I made a mistake and wasn't sure if I was going to be in or not. Now that he has confidence in me, no matter how I'm shooting, he tells me to keep shooting." Barnes' performance against the SuperSonics (13-22) on Dec. 10 wasn't enough to lift the Warriors to victory, as they lost 117-115 in Seattle. It was the fourth time Barnes reached double figures in scoring in his first 19 games. Since then, he is averaging 17.6 points and is shooting 45 percent from 3-point range. Barnes will now try to help Golden State continue its outstanding play at Oracle Arena, where it is 13-5 and averaging 109.3 points per game. The Warriors have won five straight at home, giving them a chance to match their longest home winning streak of the season. They won six in a row from Nov. 9-18. Seattle, coming off a 111-93 loss to New York on Friday night, has lost three straight and 11 of 14. After averaging 29.5 points in his previous two games, Sonics guard Ray Allen struggled against the Knicks. The All-Star was double-teamed nearly ever time he touched the ball, finishing with a season-low 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. "You've got to step up and knock down a couple of shots and make them pay for doubling," Allen said. Allen is averaging 30.0 points and shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc in his last six games against Golden State, but Seattle went 2-4 in that span. No one else was able to take the scoring load Friday for the Sonics, who are averaging 93.0 points in their last four games. Chris Wilcox led Seattle with 13 points. Damien Wilkins added 12 but shot only 4-of-16. Reserve guard Earl Watson scored 12. The Sonics have signed forward Andre Brown to a 10-day contract. Brown leads the NBA Developmental League in scoring at 22.8 points and is second in rebounding at 10.8 playing for Sioux Falls. Golden State and Seattle have split two games this season, with each team winning at home</div> Monta Ellis has been upgraded to "questionable" for tonight's game. Go Warriors!
I wonder when the Warriors hopes of playing interior defense/finding better shots become "questionable" rather than "laughable". Good for Ellis.
I dunno Custodian -- the Warriors are 3rd in the league in assists, and 4th in the league in scoring. I'd say they have been finding some pretty darn good shots -- they just haven't been defending well on the other end.
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I dunno Custodian -- the Warriors are 3rd in the league in assists, and 4th in the league in scoring. I'd say they have been finding some pretty darn good shots -- they just haven't been defending well on the other end.</div> That's true about the defense, but again we're looking at general stats from a distance rather than things that could lead to us losing our one strength on road games. What about shots attempted down the stretch? Players do get tired and lost in the 4th and might settle for jumpers when the defensive tempo has increased on the opponent's end. We might not be able to play certain guys if they've gotten in foul trouble or they've lost their rhythm. Also, we might not see some possibilities that on let's say... 20 of 40 3-point attempts might lead to no-second chance point opportunities for us or it leads to easy fast breaks going the other way on a long miss for them. We also might not see along the way that the opponent is shooting a better field goal % than us down the stretch, or if they're getting to the foul line more times than we are throughout the game. And you're right about not defending. If all we're doing is we're getting in foul trouble, and those foul shots become unanswered points because they slow down our tempo and we're not getting to the line, it becomes very difficult to look like this playoff team. We can't tell if our high scoring, high assists, is actually efficient offense for us because we're not counting the amount of points we give up to each opponent that we face, especially on turnovers and over the limit fouls. We're also not counting on our offensive variety in different tempos. The worst is that other teams could be ranked 10th or 12 in the league in scoring, and when they happen to play us they could emulate a team that's somewhere near 5th or 3rd that night. The offense game only works if they can't match its production, but we're just giving away points on some nights. The worst is when the Warriors have a big lead and the other team start stopping the clock! Time has become our enemy it seems, but we play every posession on a need to score before the other team sets up defensively. Otherwise, the halfcourt game kills us. I think that's something we need to work on or the clock will kill us. Either that or we need to get more shots on goal per average than the other team. But that requires a lot more offensive rebounding hustle and forced turnovers. That's another thing we weren't looking at. How many shot attempts do we get versus the other team and who is making the most of those shot attempts or getting to the foul line? It's just too difficult to tell from scoring/assist numbers. They don't mean anything because it's relative to the rest of the production line and what we're giving up to other teams on nights that we lose.
Well, Warriors are 15th in the league in point differential at -.08, which is basically -.01, which basically means they score the same amount as their opponents, which basically means that they're not giving up any more on the other end. So there's that. 15th is dead center of the league, basically average. (remember, 16 teams go to the playoffs). A side note (not pertinent but just a note) is that they've had a few blowouts that have skewed the number a tad. A few solid wins and they'll be + in differential. Here's a stat -- the Warriors are 8th in the league in FG%, at .467. You can choose to take it in or out of context, of course, and I don't have a 4th quarter FG% (which would be very interesting), but overall they're still 8th at shooting efficiency, and 12th in 3pt FG%. What's more, their opponents are shooting .459 FG%. That means the Warriors, on a consistent season-long basis, have shot better than their opponents from the field. So while they score a lot of points, the Warriors still do it by shooting better than their opponents from the field and 3pt, and they also do it while basically yielding the same amount of points on the other end. Thus the dead %.500 record. The Warriors suck at FT% shooting and aren't very good at defense. They're already one of the top overall offensive teams in the league -- if they can yield even 2-4 points fewer per game, They'd probably be 5 or 6 games over %.500. I'm not saying they're the best team in the league, I'm just saying I don't think their ability to find better shots is "laughable." They just need to start putting defense together for 4 quarters. A solid PF would help with the interior defense.
Okay, I get it. I'm being too harsh on this team because I already have judged this team beforehand. You called me on it, 'oop
heh -- well I think you're dead on about interior defense at times -- though Beans has been good -- because Murphy and Dunleavy offer no interior presence. I really agree with you there and think that's the missing ingredient. Beans is getting over taxed right now and Barnes is a bit too small to stop large PFs like Dirk, Duncan, Brand, etc.
You also have to take into account that the team gets 20+ plus fast break points a night. That skews their field goal percentage a lot. I wonder what their percentage would be minus those fast break buckets. That would give us a good idea of how well they shoot in the fourth quarter.
That's a pretty good argument Alley Oop. The Warriors aren't solid playoff contenders because they're so weak on the road. Defense and rebounding aren't real strong either for a playoff team, and those factors become critical during the POs.
This is pathetic. The Warriors can't hit their free throws. If they hit a decent percentage this game (70%+), then they would have this game in hand.
<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Man, this game is much better in the 2nd half.</div> Don't get too confindent. Seattle is outhustling and outrebounding us. If they start hitting their shots again -- oh oh. They aren't that good a team. We should beat them, but tonight ??? Edit: Wow. Monta is hitting some big shots tonight!!!
<div class="quote_poster">jason voorhees Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don't get too confindent. Seattle is outhustling and outrebounding us. If they start hitting their shots again -- oh oh. They aren't that good a team. We should beat them, but tonight ???</div> Oh don't worry you know me. I think we might lose, but I'm liking the fact we're not settling for threes. That's lazy ball. There's a few plays going on that have been nice execution and plus, we're getting them in foul trouble. Plus, there's very few of Dun/Murph.
<div class="quote_poster">jason voorhees Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This is pathetic. The Warriors can't hit their free throws. If they hit a decent percentage this game (70%+), then they would have this game in hand.</div> yeah, but they're getting impact players in foul trouble. You have to love that and the fact they're not settling for jumpers. They're attacking the lane.
<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">yeah, but they're getting impact players in foul trouble. You have to love that and the fact they're not settling for jumpers. They're attacking the lane.</div> Getting Ray Allen out is huge. Man, he's a nice shooter though. Ike is in. Maybe Nelson read about his complaints .
And we're not allowing a guy like Mike Miller, Pau, and Stro own us. So I like our chances. Plus, we have Ellis back. He's attacking.
