Wow, Vlad fuggin SUCKS. I mean we knew he sucked but who would have thunk that Carney and Gadzuric are our two best 7th and 8th men. BWright hasn't even entered yet. Amundson and Udoh can't get healthy quick enough. Gadz aint terrible for a backup. Gets some blocks and makes a few things happens when hes out there. Keep in mind its a contract year for him so hes got some motivation much like he did before he got that big contract. We're shooting like sh*t but Jazz aren't doing much better.
Carney is a good defender. Although hes a tremendous athlete with great length he seems to stay down on shot fakes well and stay close to his man. Guys do get by him occasionally but overall hes solid on the perimiter. He needs to stop shooting 3's and just focus on mid-range shots and getting to the rim. He and Gadz doing a nice job here in the mid-4th quarter. They've earned spots in the rotation.
Lol and right as I post that Carney makes a beautiful drive forcing his way to the rim and uses the athleticism to finish and 1. Then misses the FT.
Curry TAKING OVER here at the end. Awesome to see from him. Hes got the gimpy ankle but didn't get a ton of burn this game so hes fresh in the 4th. Hit a few mid-range J's off of the drive, came up with a big steal (Raja Bell seemed to elbow him in the face- clearly trying to get under his skin- a second or two before he got this steal) then drives the whole court, busts a spin move in the paint and lays it in with the foul.
Lee with a tip in, another big shot to keep us up by two scores. 26 seconds to play 81-76 Warriors (this score is not a typo).
Man when is the last time we scored 85 pts and won a game? Got a ton of offensive rebounds and the Jazz turned it over a lot. Both good efforts by us but to be honest the Jazz just looked sloppy a lot of the time. Beans with 20 reb, Lee with 15. We out rebounded them and put up 17 more shots than them. Held them too 39% shooting- again you can't discount the W's effort but the Jazz didn't look great. We shot terribly all night as well and it was the typical physical Jazz defense crowding the lanes. Curry had some great late game heroics at the end but made some absolutely disgusting turnovers. For a guy so smart he makes some absolutely horrible plays some times. Overall nice to beat another competitive team at home. We did it without any 3 point shooting and really we had a rough shooting night but man can the W's rebound the ball. This upcoming road trip will be a big test for us IMO. The west is weaker this season- after LA almost every other team aside from Minny looks to have similar talent and anyone could make the playoffs. So far at home we've taken care of business against these kinds of teams; Hou, LAC, Jazz, Mem. Our home court advantage is huge and so far we're beating these teams that we'll be competing for the playoffs with at Oracle. The season is still very, very young but we could really make a playoff run if we can take care of these inferior eastern clubs on the road. Our road trip is @ Det, Tor, NYK, Chi, Mil. These are teams that we should beat but thus far we're very unproven on the road. It'll be fun.
It was a good game for sure. I'm pretty surprised that even when we had trouble offensively, we were able to stick in it with tough rebounding and some defense, like you pointed out. Even that I'm typing that is surprising. It's too early to get too optimistic, but it's great to get wins. It just "feels" like we're better than those bottom dweller teams, instead of being one of those bottom-dweller teams, but how much better is still up in the air.
I read somewhere that Smart took out Biedrins in the 4th and put in Gadz to clothesline Raja Bell as payback for that play . I'm not going to say that this is going to be how the Warriors will continue to play, but it was a pleasant surprise to hear they won a game because of their 'D.' Their shots weren't falling. The real test is will be if they can win a game like this on the road.
Gadz did pretty darn well IMO. He reminds me of Foyle with his clumsiness -- this big galoof who wasn't meant to play hoops but nonetheless wound up in the NBA. But he's got a motor... hustles like Foyle... doesn't seem to have an ego or a need for the ball, ala Foyle... he strikes me as someone who doesn't mind diving for a loose ball, ala Foyle... he's a big body who stays moving and keeps his engine running, which sometimes is a good thing and sometimes he seems to just get in the way, lol... But I don't mind Gadz at all... the only thing wrong with Gadz is that he's getting paid $7 mils... but for GS, ironically that's actually a good thing, because it's going to be a nice exp. asset, whether we trade mid-season or let him come off the books... In the meantime, I think he might become the "are you serious?" player of the year for GS... frankly I didn't think he'd even make the active roster, but after losing Turiaf, Udoh, Randolph, he did. He's an active, big body who goes for rebounds, blocks, and doesn't mind fouling... I'm surprised to say I like the guy from what he did last night. 6pts, 6reb and 1 block in 12 minutes... but really the constant hustle, banging with people, going for loose balls, even trying to go for rebounds when he doesn't have much of a shot at getting it... he seems to be trying to impress Smart / the league and I don't mind that at all...
Yeah Gadz is similar to Foyle but hes gotta be 2 or 3 inches taller. Sort of an oaf out there but big body, not bad athleticism, gets a few blocks and boards. Heh, at that point in the game Gadz was out for good and Beans was back in, there was less then 2:30 left. I had seen Bell instigating with Curry a few times though. Would have like to have seen Curry dish it back but then again thats exactly what Bell wants to happen. Curry did very well to brush it off. Anyone see when Smart was screaming at David Lee during a timeout because he didn't get a foul call and then pulled an S-Jax and argued with the ref while a fast break began the other way? Someone asked Smart about it in an interview and he said that he and his players have an agreement that he'll get on them when they need it but on the flip side once it happens, its over and Smart won't hold onto it or hold it against the player afterwards. One of his comments was : "We had a disagreement. We came together. And now we’re going to go get ice cream."
[video=youtube;r5CFLCyQDZc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5CFLCyQDZc[/video] Sweet highlights for the game. This guy also made highlights for the Mem game.
Keith Smart gets mad at Lee at the 2:25 mark. But I don't know why. Lee ran back on D.... so it wasn't because of that...
Missed defensive assignment? Maybe that guy who got the feed and finished (dunno if it was Millsap or Jeff) was supposed to be his man.
Yeah, it looks like Lee goes down to double Milsap, and Jefferson (Lee's man) sneaks in right behind him for an easy lay up... maybe he wasn't supposed to double, or maybe he was supposed to go "half way" and seal Jefferson off from the bucket while simultaneously providing presence on the back end... either way I like how fired up Smart gets...
Yeah Smart has been a pleasant surprise thus far. As bad as the team still looks at defense they're sneakily good at getting stops in stretches and when they need them. Hes giving our key players a blow at the right time which allows them to be effective at the end of the games. So far I have no complaints about his substitution patterns as he gives everyone a fair shake. Everyone is really playing together. Ball movement is beautiful. BTW Millsap looks amazing. A few times last night he busted a sweet post move and I had a double take when the Jazz announcer said it was Millsap and not Al Jeff. Dudes putting up 19/11 with 3.6 ast a game this season. BTW Beans' 20 reb game shouldn't go unnoticed. Hes been excellent rebounding the ball this season and its beautiful to see that thus far neither Beans nor Lee seem to be taking boards away from one another. Beans has had a few impressive post moves as well. I'm still not very confident in him scoring down low but hes got the athleticism and great touch around the rim, maybe if he gets more comfortable down there he could be a decent option.
Doesn't it feel weird to be constantly outrebounding our opponents?? It's awesome. Without our 4/5 combo pulling down 35 boards, including 14 offensive, there's absolutely no way we win this game. Like the announcers and Monta said, last year's team would have lost that game by 20 points easily. The awesome thing is, we have been able to add some bulk in the frontcourt, and put out a more traditional starting 5, but we still play that fast-paced Warriors run and gun offense that the fans love. I can't believe we were able to increase size without losing much speed. Awesome. Kudos to Larry Riley, because everyday the Lee/Randolph trade looks increasingly genius. We have a tough road trip coming up...not in terms of who we're playing, but 5 games in a week with a couple back-to-backs. It'll be very telling. Either way, I'm having a hell of a time watching this team. Go Dubs!
Yeah adding Lee at PF hasn't really slowed the team down much. Dude is athletic and skilled. Both he and Beans are suited for up tempo basketball and they're both excellent rebounders and capable of starting the break themselves. Monta is a one man fast break and obviously Curry, D. Wright, and Reggie have all the skills to be excellent fast break players. They do screw up a lot more fast breaks than they did last year. Lots of 3 on 1s when it should be 2 on 1s or trying to get a pass to the guy who the defender is most strongly shading towards and trying to take away. Can't wait to get Amundson playing. This bench is sorely lacking in NBA quality players so it will be nice to add a proven reserve big man to the equation. Just as exciting though is adding another elite rebounder. Seems like Beans, Lee, and Amundson are all at the top of the league in rebounding rate when they're right. Subbing Lou for either one won't have any drop off. Hard to imagine our rebounding getting stronger.
