Warriors are in a very tight race for the 7th and 8th seed. They want this win, but are playing against a very competitive Hornets team. Hornets want to hold on to their 1st seed, and clinch homecourt advantage throughout the Western Conference. If they lose 2-3 games they could easily drop to 5th place. The game is nationally televised on ABC at 1:00 ET/10:00 Pacific Time.
They showed signs but basically the Hornets controlled the entire game. Chris Paul is a beast. I hate him
Fortunately (and amazingly), Seattle beat Denver, so it's not quite over yet. It looks like its basically going to come down to who wins the Denver-GS head-to-head matchup later this week. Denver has to play in Utah, that's probably a loss, and hosts Houston which I'm not sure about. Warriors get some creampuffs (maybe Sacramento is not a creampuff, but they play in Oakland), all at home, but have to play in Phoenix, which will be a tough win. So I see each team with one loss from 4 out of the 5 remaining games, plus the head-to-head which will be decisive. If the Ws get in, it won't quite be from the position of strength and confidence like last year (they have lost 6 of their last 10). Unless AlH and Barnes suddenly wake up from their slumbers and SJax remembers how to shoot, I don't have much confidence in them beating anyone. Anyone know when Pietrus is due back? He's been out a lot longer than I expected.
Nellie said on KNBR (with Ralph and Tom) last week that Pietrus will try to be back after their road trip, so hopefully we'll see him tomorrow vs. the Kings.
How thin is this team if we have to rely on Pietrus to really help us out here? Man... this doesn't look good for us. The key is hustle defense and running in transition. I don't think we have the energy even though we have the skill.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Custodianrules2 @ Apr 7 2008, 07:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How thin is this team if we have to rely on Pietrus to really help us out here? Man... this doesn't look good for us. The key is hustle defense and running in transition. I don't think we have the energy even though we have the skill.</div> Well, Peety was playing pretty darn well before the injury. Lots of energy, big shots, big defensive plays...smart defensive plays, and no silly mistakes. Losing that was pretty big, I think. That being said, we're not as deep as last year because of the inconsistency of pretty much the entire bench and also Harrington. Baron, Monta, Stack, and Biedrins have been pretty solid all year...can't say much for the rest (excluding Bellinelli and Wright).