Ranking the PGs in the league- 1. Nelson..................2. Paul, 3. Nash, 4. Deron. Should be a fun night. Wonder what will come of the Al Harrington situation.
So far so good. I like how they're going inside more. The Warriors did start out by being 3 point happy, but they're pounding it in.
Dang, after nice 23 minutes, we are only up by 1 pts. I guess this is when we miss Davis. Still, very nice half by Warriors. If we can keep rebounding like this and stop Hornets from shooting 55%, we may have a chance to win this game...
I don't know why Demarcus Nelson was inserted. He's so out of control as a guard. He dribbles, terminates and passes while caught up in mid-air? Not a very good move if defenders are already waiting and there's no where to go. Close loss. Oh well. Good start nonetheless. I liked what I saw. There's more variation in how we play, we just need to execute better and get some guards who take advantage of a foul situation.
Ugh. SJax | C- | Typical SJax. A lot of points but on poor volume shooting and a way too many turnovers. Biedrins | B | Typical Biedrins too. 14/12, highly efficient but terrible, game-killing freethrowing, and fouled out. Maggette | A | Awesome, exactly what we hoped to see from him. 8-11 shooting and then 9-10 freethrowing and only one turnover. Fantastic. Harrington | C- | 5-17 shooting is horrendous, props for 7 boards but we will not win many games if he's playing big minutes, period. Azubuike | B- | Rough night shooting but he was very active and hit his freethrows. Plus let's not forget this is a guy picked out of the D-League a year ago. Turiaf | B | Maybe not a gamechanger, but we finally have a very competent backup center, I feel much better this year having him behind Biedrins. He's active and unselfish. DeMarcus Nelson | C- | About as expected, he did OK considering but didn't really bring that much. 1:2 ast/TO ratio for your PG is not good in any case. Don Nelson | C- | Didn't learn a lesson from last year by not playing his bench really at all except for Turiaf, and I think it hurt them in the 4th quarter. Wright and Belinelli should have gotten at least a few minutes. And no idea what he was thinking by having D. Nelson drive with 14 seconds left on the shot clock. Allowed players to drop back into that old, demoralizing, one-on-one chuck mode that Baron loved from last year. SJax was the worst offender and obviously Nelson never punished him because he played all 48 minutes of the game, and Harrington 42. The defensive rotations were also lax and time and time again the Hornets outrotated the Warriors and found wide open outside shooters. Overall | B- | Hard to complain about having a chance at the end against one of the NBA's better teams, but the Warriors ultimately shot themselves in the foot and let a great opportunity slip away. They beat themselves in this game, for one thing leaving 10 points at the freethrow line. There were some encouraging signs but they have a lot of work to do.
The Warriors should have won this one, but we played against a good team and the Warriors just didn't have that much needed point guard to get scorers involved. Biedrins was really good, but he will never be an elite guy hitting free throws the way he does and failing to finish after contact. Guy should have had 18/10 at least. If he's not that guy, we need a power forward that is. That means Harrington has to go because he's not very graceful as a SF and he's almost useless every other night as a PF.
To be fair, that was DeMarcus Nelson's first game as a pro, and he was inserted after sitting a long time. He almost made a crucial turnover. That was a rookie mistake, but other than that, I thought he held his own tonight. Pretty good for an undrafted rookie who we didn't know about until recently. He was inserted for Turiaf for more ball handlers. I don't have a problem with the substitution by Nelson. I liked Maggette tonight...if we can get that consistently, good signing. I wouldn't be too hard on Nellie as he played the best players against one of the best teams in the NBA AND we almost pulled it off. Missed free throws and inexperience (with each other) killed us. It was a good loss, if there is such a thing. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of Wright, Marco, etc. on this road trip.
Nice effort against one of top teams in NBA, and very nice defense in 4th quarter (especially after 6 minute remaining in 4th quarter). The problem was that we also ended up with only two field goals and five fts in last 6 minutes. Hope 4th quarter scoring problem is just one game thing. Excellent game for Maggette, and Biedrins/Turiaf center combo looks pretty nice. But, Harrington for 42 minutes? More Wright please...
Yeah, I shouldn't be hard on Demarcus Nelson... I think it's maybe because I expected to see more Wright and Belinelli. Belinelli at point, buike at the 2, mags at the 3, sjax at the 4, and Biedrins at the 5 would have worked for me ...or nelson at the 1, sjax at the 2, mags at the 3, with wright and biedrins at 4,5. This is also very difficult without a primary ballhandler and competent playmaker. We have to trade with Portland. I'd take Blake or Sergio Rodriguez right about now. Or get Hinrich or Ridnour!
I'm pretty sure we'll see a lot of Wright and Bellinelli on the road trip. Everyone was expecting to see them this game, but I guess Nellie wanted to go with his top guys. I do think Jax could have used a short rest in the 4th quarter, but oh well. It was his choice to chuck up those "fatigue" shots.
Harrington going 5-17 in 42 minutes is not a recipe for success. Was that Nellie just trying to patch things up? Or being stubborn? Because we all heard him say he will finally be playing the young guys this year. And I'm puzzled as to why Wright & Belly didn't enter the game. Wright for his inside activity with Chandler + West. But more importantly, GS was without a PG at times, and at times looked awful controlling the ball (See the last play of the game). Belly can at least dribble well and that is needed from our guards. I like both players, but watching Buike/Jax trying to be a PG tandem is very uncomfortable. Can we please get a ball handler in there?
It's only one game so no need to panic. I bet you Marco and Wright will get heavy minutes this road trip. I'm hoping for an Anthony Randolph sighting as well...hell, might as well throw in Hendrix and Marcus Williams too.
