Man this is going to be a real good one. I can't wait to see run and gun vs run and gun once again. If the Warriors win, they will get a HUGE confidence boost.</p> This is the one game that could show how good we really are.</p>
Yep, lets see how this team stacks up at home, with a full roster, against a top notch team. I'll be at the game (got lower bowl second row tix woot!), unfortunately every game I go to is a loss. This could be a good one for Wright to get heavy minutes in and I'm sure Barnes will play a lot as well since hes fresh from having two weeks off.</p>
This is my first game of the year. (Whoops, nope went to Opening Night but that was so forgettable (Golden State of Mind crowd.) Actually, I'll be 5 rows off the floor so it will be a better night anyways. It will be fun to see the W's with a full squad and full of confidence and hopefully the W's can difend the pick and roll will Amare and keep Marion off the boards.</p>
I'm not expecting a victory. Usually when the Warriors win, they do it by outrunning the other team, but Phoenix is one of the few teams they can't really do that to. Plus, we have no answer for Amare and the Suns are a better fundamental basketball team that won't make mistakes down the stretch that the Warriors are prone to. When the Warriors play a perfect game and Phoenix has a little bit of an off-shooting night, sure, we can beat them. But normally this is an L, and I'm expecting it (how's that for lowering expectations?).</p>
Key factor for me, Suns make their free throws, Warriors don't. The Suns are arguably playing the best basketball right now and usually show up against division opponents.</p> This could be a potential trap game for Phoenix. It's one trip road game before they head back home to face a tough Houston team and then Orlando.</p> Warriors should be fired up after a successful road trip. The crowd will be pumped tonight and this is going to be a very entertaining game with a lot of momentum shifts.</p>
Should be an entertaining game. I expect that the Suns will by five, with Nash making last second three pointer to beat the spread. I hope Raja bell makes 10 three's this game also.</p>
This should be a fun one.</p> Its going to come down to Baron Davis and Steve Nash, whoever has the better night will decide the game.</p>
Nice team game! I'm loving Barnes with his passing and cutting. Barnes is much smarter than Pietrus and he actually makes others better.</p> Ellis was going crazy tonight! Yeah!</p>
Wow what a game. Non-stop action and a halftime the scores looked like it could be the final score for any game. I love the ball movement and how everyone contributed to an assist. What a turnaround from the 0-6 start!</p>
What a start and what a finish. Monta was unbelievable. The best thing I saw was that the Warriors passed the ball throughout the game. Now Monta was a lot of iso but it came from pick and rolls with Baron and taking advantage of Nash.</p> The Warriors did a great job on the boards.</p>
Wow, well I am shocked. The Warriors had a ridiculous shooting night at 51.5%, but the Suns weren't much worse at 48.9%. Plus they outrebounded us by a good margin and scored 8 more points at the freethrow line and we still won. Amazing. Monta played under control again and continues to impress, and Barnes had quite a nice game as well, which I never expect to get.</p> I think I may be underestimating how fast and athletic the Warriors are. I keep thinking they can't outrun Phoneix but now I'm not so sure. They may be the fastest team in the league. Why the Suns didn't continuously pound it down low into Amare and let him rack up fouls is beyond me, I think that's their best chance to beat the Warriors. Then again, this game was being called with a surprisingly (and refreshingly) light whistle, which wouldn't favor that strategy as much as usual (the usual being where the Warriors get called for fouls when they look at, breath on, or think about opposing players). If every game was called like this, the Warriors would go about 65-17.</p> Also, did anyone else notice it was Upset Night in the NBA tonight?</p> <ul>[*]3-9 Knicks beat 10-4 Utah [*]4-9 Kings beat the 12-2 Spurs [*]1-10 Twolves beat 10-5 New Orleans [*]6-7 Wizards beat the 9-4 Mavs [*]5-7 Warriors beat 11-2 Suns[/list] </p> Crazy.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> What a start and what a finish. Monta was unbelievable. The best thing I saw was that the Warriors passed the ball throughout the game. Now Monta was a lot of iso but it came from pick and rolls with Baron and taking advantage of Nash.</p> The Warriors did a great job on the boards.</p> </div></p> Philsmith you must have had a blast at the game! I read you had some pretty close seats, so I was curious how SJax was during timeouts and if he's the standout vocal leader of the group?</p> The Warriors are playing with a lot more confidence since his return.</p> </p>
This is probably the best game I have ever seen live (didn't go to any playoff games and like I said I usually only see losses). Was a lot of fun and everyone played great. Not much to say regarding the actual game that wasn't obvious; we played awesome and beat the hell out of them. We put up 101 shots!? Thats insane. Seems like the last few matchups Nellie has really gotten to Nash. He attacks Nash almost every play, which frustrates Nash, and on defense Baron is all over him. You don't see him flustered like that very often. I was shocked to see he had 23/13, but he did have 8 TOs (two off his career high apparently).</p> Anyone else think we'll roll with this starting lineup for a while? We used a similar lineup toward the end of last season with Barnes instead of J-Rich but look at Barnes numbers as a starter this season; 3 games, 12.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 7.0 apg, 1 spg, 1.7 bpg, 43% FGs, 54% 3 pt FGs. Some of those numbers will fall off but if Barnes keeps up his excellent passing I'd love to keep playing him. Keeps Pietrus off the floor more too. If we keep employing this lineup our bench looks better too with Biedrins, Azu, Monta, and Pietrus, maybe even B Wright if he works his way into the rotation.</p> Jax is also stepping up really big this year. Hes averaging 22 ppg and nearly 6 rpg in addition to 3.7 apg and 1.2 spg. Hes a huge X factor for us and really embracing his role as a leader on this team. Hes calmed down a lot more and argues with the refs less, he expects to win every night and his hustle and passion are contageous.</p> I saw CC Sabathia and Randy Wynn at the game. I had tix in row 2 (7 rows back from Phoenix' bench). On the way out CC Sabathia and his boys came out some VIP door (I suppose) and were walking like 10 feet away from me. Dude hopped into a brand new, all black Rolls Royce on rims that went up to my thighs. Sabathia is fuggin huge too, every bit as tall as his 6-7 listing.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shapecity)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> What a start and what a finish. Monta was unbelievable. The best thing I saw was that the Warriors passed the ball throughout the game. Now Monta was a lot of iso but it came from pick and rolls with Baron and taking advantage of Nash.</p> The Warriors did a great job on the boards.</p> </div></p> Philsmith you must have had a blast at the game! I read you had some pretty close seats, so I was curious how SJax was during timeouts and if he's the standout vocal leader of the group?</p> The Warriors are playing with a lot more confidence since his return.</p> </p> </div></p> Shape, I was lucky enough to be pretty close to the action and across from the Warriors bench and had a blast. Sorry but during the TOs I did not watch SJax. My gut tells me that Nellie has got the respect of everyone and he's going to be telling everyone to do during the TOs. He's vocal, but so is Baron.</p> One thing I did notice is that Pietrus needs some coddling and I saw Baron do it a couple of times. A few times I saw Baron talking to MP after a fastbreak and I'm guessing but Pietrus was wondering why he did not get the pass. (Although someone else made the bucket SJax/Monta, Pietrus looked down)</p> SJax looked into the game but not out of whack or out of control. He complained about a couple of calls but not too long. He looked professional.</p> </p>
Wow Run and Phil must have had a blast. I knew this game was going to be good, but I didn't want to fan jinx it. So it's just better to let the skeptics say we're going to lose so that way we win. Ha ha ha! Also, I have to give props to Bob Fitzgerald because he believes in the announcer jinx and even helped out the Warriors a few times to get the Suns to miss free throws. All right, with all ridiculousness aside, this win was due to excellent teamwork and guys distributing the ball to one another. I was really impressed with Barnes, Ellis, Baron, and Sjax that night. They really outhustled the Suns' biggest guy getting him into foul trouble, outworked their best defender/best out of position rebounder, and ran at their best player and worst defender in Steve Nash right off the floor. The warriors were quick, were smart, and they hustled. Good game!</p> And Hirez was right, it was sort of Upset Night that day, but Pietrus was pretty much the same guy since his rookie year so I'm kind of upset every night that he plays awful... He's already the super one dimensional athlete with a junior high school understanding of the basketball game. Contrast that with Ellis who actually has a natural understanding of the game with the ability to learn from his mistakes. Pietrus never learns and never corrects his bad habits or makes adjustments. Pietrus plays a 100 mph hour game whereas Ellis can go that speed and also adjust his speed so that defenders blow right by him on the overplay. Ellis is a lot more disciplined and responsive to when coaches point that out to him. His ability to learn after games where Ellis was out of control shows he's maturing. He listened and learned, and he adjusted and it shows in games where it just looks so easy. Ellis still ain't the playmaker just yet, but he's showing signs he could be as suitable as Jason Terry, Bobby Jackson, or Gilbert Arenas with the right experience and chemistry. That's not bad considering most top pure point guard prospects usually only appear in the top 6 in drafts. They're as valuable as big men if they're Jason Kidd or Steve Nash type good. Oh well, I can't fault Pietrus' lack of opportunity to be coached as well as most top American high school players, but that shouldn't stop his ability to learn and I don't think he has that ability, discipline, or potential to understand/correct what he's doing wrong in the nba. Matt Barnes, on the other hand, has corrected a lot more in his raw game and that took hard work. This is despite Barnes being essentially among several dime a dozen jumping jacks in the nba who don't really shoot that well or have exceptional fundamentals needed to play a game like Sjax or Baron. But he's really improved this year where he could relieve Sjax more reliably than Pietrus at either SF or PF.</p> Anyway, I should concentrate on the win and stop making Pietrus the constant whipping boy because he is being played way out of position and he's not enough of a factor to make us lose. It's really hard on him, but where else do you put him without the guy being a liability handling the ball? At small forward or guard he can't initiate offense reliably, so it's just better to make him a catch and shoot guy or a cutter to the hoop. The sad thing is if the guy had brains, he could be the guy that Ellis is at SG/SF. And that means a lean, laterally quick, long armed, on-ball-defender that can drive on anyone. But then I forget the guy also can't shoot very well. Without the feet being set he's essentially got a useless feel of where the shot should go from midrange to just inside the arc. Just three pointers and dunks with him.</p> Okay this time for reals enough. I really loving Sjax and Ellis at their best! Plus, when Baron and Barnes are rocking, it's great too.</p>
CR2,</p> Pietrus bugs the hell out of me too. He bails guys out with reaching fouls when they are off balance and about to chuck up a prayer. But with respect to his shooting off the dribble, it really looks fluid and good. He actually looks like a NBA player on the pull up (at least what I saw in the Celtics game where he was the only guy with any scoring). However, he's still lost on offense.</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> CR2,</p> Pietrus bugs the hell out of me too. He bails guys out with reaching fouls when they are off balance and about to chuck up a prayer. But with respect to his shooting off the dribble, it really looks fluid and good. He actually looks like a NBA player on the pull up (at least what I saw in the Celtics game where he was the only guy with any scoring). However, he's still lost on offense.</p> </p> </div></p> Yeah, Pietrus definitely has his moments on offense where he looks like Kobe Bryant in a type of dribble move. But that's very rarely because he's usually out of control and not reacting to the defense. He's out of control because he's not reacting to the defense is what I meant. He doesn't think... It's sad because the player he wants to be is a Kobe Bryant type of guy, but he doesn't have the basketball IQ. I've pretty much given up on the hope he could learn and correct his bad habits... he doesn't even fix his free throws and you know that takes practice or a better mental game and I don't think he really practices or has a good mental game. Maybe Pietrus understands why he didn't get extended. He doesn't deserve what he's asking for because he's not a good consistent player for the shooting guard role.</p> Pietrus is like somebody who is in a open field battle and has a gun but can't shoot accurately. And the guys facing him in battle only have a knife and they actually end up winning when they get close. Pietrus has the best quickness mismatch against most guys 6'6, even going with a lateral or off balance move, but he's got no finesse or ability to think one step ahead. There's really no inside game with the ball in his hands when there's traffic and his outside shot is pretty streaky. We'll see if he makes some more improvements... I'm sure Nelson wants him in a limited role for that exact reason. He can be a liability.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shapecity)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> What a start and what a finish. Monta was unbelievable. The best thing I saw was that the Warriors passed the ball throughout the game. Now Monta was a lot of iso but it came from pick and rolls with Baron and taking advantage of Nash.</p> The Warriors did a great job on the boards.</p> </div></p> Philsmith you must have had a blast at the game! I read you had some pretty close seats, so I was curious how SJax was during timeouts and if he's the standout vocal leader of the group?</p> The Warriors are playing with a lot more confidence since his return.</p> </p> </div></p> Shape, I was lucky enough to be pretty close to the action and across from the Warriors bench and had a blast. Sorry but during the TOs I did not watch SJax. My gut tells me that Nellie has got the respect of everyone and he's going to be telling everyone to do during the TOs. He's vocal, but so is Baron.</p> One thing I did notice is that Pietrus needs some coddling and I saw Baron do it a couple of times. A few times I saw Baron talking to MP after a fastbreak and I'm guessing but Pietrus was wondering why he did not get the pass. (Although someone else made the bucket SJax/Monta, Pietrus looked down)</p> SJax looked into the game but not out of whack or out of control. He complained about a couple of calls but not too long. He looked professional.</p> </div></p> Thanks for the inside scoop. Philsmith reporting from the Warrior sidelines!</p> Good to hear the team still supports and listens to Nellie. I thought he might have lost some respect with the contract negotiations this summer and the overall uncertainty of his tenure as GSW headcoach.</p> You can tell Pietrus has a lack of confidence in himself. I think he's still stung by the lack of offers and interest from this past summer. He's playing a little better this year, but his game has so many holes in it still. He has no fundamentals to fall back on and once his athleticism drops off he'll be out of the NBA. He needs a crash course in basketball 101.</p> </p>
