Wow, this is not starting well. Biedrins looks great, but everyone else looks terrible. Jackson is garbage tonight, that's a really bad sign. It's almost 10 minutes through the 1st quarter and the dude who just scored 37 on 75% shooting has taken ONE shot...are you kidding me? TERRIBLE play calling. The Warriors just have no freakin' clue about how to set anyone up for a shot, it's not rocket science. No ball movement at all.
Gotta drop in and say Morrow is un-fuckin-believable! The kid is in the ZONE! Plus the refs are horrible out there. Phantom calls, no calls, bad calls. Both sides.
Since when has Reggie Miller joined the Warriors? Oh wait, that's Anthony Morrow. That guy's good. Azubuike makes the worst looking turnovers and the least opportune times. I love him and think he's a good player and all. But he needs to limit those turnovers. He had way too many in the 4th quarter, from falling on his butt going to the hoop that led to a turnover, and then of course that inbounding pass. He's been like that through most of this season, from as much as I could see. I remember people getting mad at JRich for dribbling off his foot and stuff, but Azubuike, for someone who can handle the ball pretty well and seems like a relatively bright player, just makes really, really bad decisions sometimes and also very clumsy actions too - such as falling on his butt on a drive to the hoop tonight, and I remember another play where the ball was given right to him, in his hands, and he just loses the ball and gives it to the opposing player to go take down the court to score the ball against him. I don't know what to do about him. But overall, this was a very good game from both sides, I thought. Maggette drew some fouls, good for the Warriors, perhaps questionable for the Blazers once or twice when guarding the opposing bigs. Aldridge definitely had trouble with the officiating tonight. But I thought the officiating was decent. The Warriors were hot at the line, which was very critical. That was one of the reasons why I liked Maggette, because he can get to the line, one way or another. Plus he's good at knocking them down. Both a big addition from last season. I think the rest of the Warriors/Blazers games will be this exciting if not more this season, and I can't wait for them to come by. Oh yeah, I like how CJ Watson is emerging as a player. He's had a few good games going. He turned the game around for the Warriors in the first half. Unfortunately the Warriors went back to how they were playing before Watson entered the game, to close out the game, which meant danger and almost disaster.
Word. Dude's jumpshot is buttery and lightning quick. If you give him daylight hes gonna rail it. Most of the time is all net too. It's surprising when he doesn't hit a jumpshot. He really needs to learn to handle the ball though. Beans' double-double streak ended tonight .
Yep, I'm becoming a Morrow believer, his release is quicker than Marco's and the shot is sweeter. Did we get lucky again? Maybe so. No one can keep up this shooting percentage, but maybe, just maybe, he's going to be a keeper. (Good news is the W's hold options on him so he's not an unrestricted free agent next year.) I love Azubuike's strength and hustle but man he's got to learn to pass the ball. His vision must be narrow and slow because he just does not anticipate very well. He blew that 2 on 1 in the 4th that would have been an easy dunk for Maggette yet allows Rodriguez to block the pass out of bounds; blew 2 inbounds passes in the last 15 secs. and several times I saw Morrow and Jax open on the perimeter when he drove and he just put his head down. SJax hit that huge turnaround and played fairly well, just did not hit shots, plus they were decent shots, not just 3s. Maggette hit some key jumpers but I hate that pure iso for him at crunch time, just not a good look. Let's run some motion or something before he gets it, its way too predictable. Morrow is sweet but I am really disappointed that this means Maggette at the 4 and no time for Brandon and Randolph. You know I love Brandon but he blew that easy rebound with no one around that ended up being a Blazer 3. UGH! Warriors are still best in transition. They just need to get some more rebounds.
Lucky? I don't think so. He took it with confidence; he didn't just toss it up there as a prayer. At least that's what I thought.
I agree about Azubuike's passing. I've been watching him the whole season (now that he's on the floor consistently) and boy, he botches a lot of easy passes for easy baskets. This is where Bellinelli can have an edge over Azubuike but I'm just not sure Nellie's ready to put him in for long stretches yet. Also disappointed about Maggette at 4. Nellie mentioned he's going to have to play Wright at 5 on occasion. I guess this is typical of Nellie but as long as Wright gets his fair share of minutes, who can complain?
If he starts reducing Biedrins minutes to get Wright minutes at 5 we all should complain. Beans has without a doubt been the best player for the Ws this year and, as much as I want to see Wright play and develop, his minutes should not come at the expense of Biedrins and Turiaf-who has been everything we could have hoped for from a backup center. If Morrow's not just a flash in the pan, which I'm still not sure about becuase no one can continue to shoot like this and he doesn't bring much else, his minutes should come from KA/Watson/Jax. Nelson only plays 7-8 guys anyway. It shouldn't be that hard to get Wright 20-25 minutes at the 4. I think he should go with a rotation like this: PG CJ- 30 min SJax- 18 min SG Jax- 10 min Morrow- 18 min KA- 20 min SF Mags- 32 min AR- 5 min Jax- 11 min PF Wright- 25 min Turiaf- 12 min AR- 11 min C Beans- 35 min Turiaf- 13 min
I'd rather just keep Morrow in the starting lineup, especially with more than 18 minutes per game. He's been the team's leading scorer for the past 2 games. He will take the pressure off the other players, and open the floor for everyone else to play. I want Morrow in there, unless if he proves that he doesn't belong in there. I was surprised he wasn't in there at the end of the game. Perhaps he doesn't play so well when he's emotional, which may be the reason why he was taken out last night? Or maybe he was just tired from playing the whole game, just about.
I agree with this and I think also you're just setting Wright up to fail by playing him at the 5, he is not a center and never will be, never should be put in that situation. With Harrington out or traded, there are plenty of minutes for Wright at his natural position. Don't like Maggette at PF either.
Jax did redeem himself in the 4th quarter, but his play in the 1st half was atrocious. I'm surprised Nellie waited so long to bench him in the 1st quarter (he benched him at the halfway point but it should have been sooner). As soon as CJ Watson came in, and Jax went out, the team started playing SO much better. Yes, Jax had some good stats, but look closer. He was ball-hogging like mad in the 1st half, barreling into triple teams and ignoring his open teammates. He had 20 points, but shot 5-18 from the field. In comparison, Morrow had 25 points on 8-12 from the field. He had 8 assists, yes, but 5 turnovers (1.6 A/TO ratio). While he does make some good passes (keep doing that, Jax!) he also makes some sloppy, careless decisions with the ball. Compare that to Brandon Roy, who had 9 assists with only 3 turnovers (3.0 A/TO ratio). If this were just one game, I wouldn't be so critical of Stephen Jackson. But this has been happening all year. What is his FG % for the year? .373% As a team leader, and a guy who is taking SO MANY shots every night, that statistic is plain embarrassing IMO. Jackson came out last night in the 1st quarter and played awful, ignoring teammates and trying to get into personal ego-challenges with Batum and Roy. Then Nellie benched him, which is exactly what he deserved. I'm sure Nellie talked about ball-movement in the second half, because the team came out moving the ball and Jax made some beautiful plays. I have been a huge SJax fan and that's why it frustrates me to see him play the way he did in the 1st half. The dude dribbles more in one possession than Beans does the whole night. When he starts to rely on his teammates, and stops trying to be Baron Davis, the Warriors play so much better. I just hope Jax can realize he's not Baron Davis, and doesn't need to be. If that happens, GS can make the playoffs no doubt.
jackson's inbound pass to morrow at the end of the gamewas one of the most retarded things i've seen an nba player do...with 3 seconds or whatever on the clock, and just a 2 point lead, he decides to lob it into the backcourt?!?!?!?!? it was essentially a footrace for the game, and the warriors were rediculously lucky that fernandez grabbed morrow's jersey. if i was coaching a middle school team i would be furious about a boneheaded play like that!! my other huge issue with jackson is that after he doesn't get a call on the offensive end, he stays and complains to the ref while the other team has a 5 on 4 for an easy transition jumper. i don't give a shit if he argues with the refs, but wait for a fucking dead ball or something. it's beyond me that nelson puts up with that. also, when he makes a turnover, he goes nuts trying to get the ball back, usually resulting in a stupid reach in foul. don't get me wrong...i am a big jackson fan, but sometimes he pisses me off to no avail.
