Playoffs Round 2 Game 1: Warriors vs. Jazz

We should have won this game. Those final 3 minutes killed us. We need Baron to stop settling for the outside jumpers and attack the basket and put pressure on Boozer, Okur, and Kirilenko.

 

It sucks to lose but I think it will keep GS in check and remind them they NEED to close out games strong in order to win, and it will also give Nellie some good material to chew on for the rest of the series. A loss is a loss but there is still some good to be found in it.

I would rather they have won, though, lol.

 

As well as the Warriors played, the half-court offense at the end of the game was horrible. In the last 2 minutes the only scores were a Baron post up turnaround and the Harrington one on one jumper over Okur. That's not good. How about some motion/weave action? The Warriors have the athletes to make the weave work. Correction, there was the Baron drive and kick to SJax but that looks kind of stagnant too.

 

<div class="quote_poster">philsmith75 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">As well as the Warriors played, the half-court offense at the end of the game was horrible. In the last 2 minutes the only scores were a Baron post up turnaround and the Harrington one on one jumper over Okur. That's not good. How about some motion/weave action? The Warriors have the athletes to make the weave work. Correction, there was the Baron drive and kick to SJax but that looks kind of stagnant too.</div>

I don't think it was that bad. They managed to get some open shots, but missed. Of course when you lose there are always those couple of possessions where you might have been able to do something different and maybe that would have changed the ending result. But for the most part, Pietrus had an open 3 and missed (though I think he had another 3 and made it afterward) and Jackson got an open 3, and Matt Barnes was there to fight for the offensive board with another Warriors player but the ref called a foul very early and I think bailed out that Jazz player.

It's the rebounding down the stretch that killed them, just as it did to Houston in game 7 vs. Utah.

 

Second Chance points, rebounding, and lack of a strong post-game from our big men will kill us if we lose this series. But this is okay, this was to be expected.

We have to go into the offseason prepared if we win or lose. We have to make it so it adds to this franchise momentum. I probably said this before, but watch the Suns play the Spurs. The Spurs can pace themselves a little more and settle for less jumpers because of their big men. We're a small team, so we have to be fast every single time and avoid the halfcourt. To rebound, we have to be quicker and jump higher than the biggest guy just to come up with something. And that's painful sometimes because there's a lot more physical style of game going against bigger players that can get position.