Interested to see Minny's frontline. I've always been a fan of Love and Wesley Johnson. Milicic and Beasley are beginning to play well.
Lee loses the tip- has he always been doing tips instead of Beans? I usually miss the beginning of games. Darko puts a post move on Beans for a score. They went back to him the next possession and Curry swooped in for a steal from his blind side. Lots of crappy foul calls on both sides so far. Monta-Wes Johnson at SG spot is an interesting matchup.
Jeez why the hell hasn't anyone told Andris to stop trying for steals on entry passes? Its a foul 95% of the time and works maybe once every 5 games. Lee beautiful righty hook shot from the post.
Man Curry makes some gorgeous 3/4 court outlet passes to a streaking Monta. Hes like a QB making a pinpoint pass to a moving target through double coverage. Beasley playing with great energy, I can see why hes breaking out this year. Lee faces up from 20 feet on Love and blows by him for a dunk. Nice to see a post move (with his off hand no less) and a face up move. IMO he should work a lot on his face up game. Hes got a plus jumper and plus handle for his position and hes clearly better finishing with a head of steam. Improving the post game would be welcome too though. Funny to see Lee and Love tearing each other up though, neither of these guys can D up worth a damn. DW another 3. Unbelievable how many open looks he gets.
They're pounding the ball into Milicic. Apparently hes averaging 20 ppg on 60% shooting the last 3 games- and hes making Beans look bad. Curry and DW hot form outside. Damn Beasley looks good. Great moment from Monta- Curry kicked it out to him where he could have put up a jump stop 3. Instead he pump faked, let the defender fly by, took a dribble in and hit his money mid-range J.
Charlie Bell in I'm oping Smart talked to him and told him not to heave up shots. So far hes been moving the ball and hasn't shot yet. Hes tolerable when hes not shooting. Pretty sure Lee has played the whole game so far. I'm saying it officially: Dorell Wrightleavy Jr. Worse handle, better 3 pt shot, but other than that they remind me a lot of one another.
Carney just airballed a 3 about 6 feet high and to the right of the rim lol. Beasley looks like a poor man's Melo. Monta hitting everything. Lee still hasn't come out of the game. Also hasn't gotten a rebound. Bell hits a corner 3. wow Monta crazy 3 to barely beat the buzzer, they;ll review it. He and Beasley are hitting EVERYTHING.
Curry handling a lot of the offense and doing well early in the third. Gadz giving us good hustle with his second half start (Beans has 4 fouls).
Awesome game! Dorrell Wright shoots a new franchise record of 9 three pointers in a game. Plus, with David Lee back in the lineup we halt the 5 game losing streak. I tell ya David Lee makes everyone around him better. We put Curry, Ellis in the game along with David Lee, we got a huge chance to win.
Great stat I just read on warriorsworld: when Lee is in the lineup, D Wright shoots 57% from 3, when Lee is out of the lineup he shoots just 19%. The team is just a lot better with him. I know its just the Wolves but they're not horrid at home and they've got a tough frontline.
Highlights: [video=youtube;SZJHP6bAUe0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJHP6bAUe0&feature=feedu[/video]
i agree with all the praise that's been given so far, but i want to give some extra props to gadzuric. i think all of us thought he was going to be useless and absolutely awful. i really can't complain though. he has given us some solid minutes off the bench. is he worth what he's being paid? hell no, and i hope we package him, vlade, and b-wright for something nice....but for the time being, he has played far beyond my expectations. if he was getting about $5m less than what he gets now, i wouldn't mind him as a backup center.
oh and let me add...i don't like carney. i was pretty optimistic when we picked him up, but i'd put him and vlade at the furthest end of the bench.
Yes, I agree, I really liked Gadz last night. The thing I like most is that the guy is not about himself, he's not afraid to sacrifice his body for the team, does the ugly stuff, gives the hard foul, fights for loose balls, and for a 7 footer, he sure as hell keeps his engine running. If he had some touch around the basket, and a decent jumper, he'd be worth every penny of the $7 mils. As it stands, he's starting to deserve those backup minutes. Dorell Wright was AWESOME from three, and pretty blah from everywhere else. Beasley kept lighting him up. Where's the "Kobe Stopper" lock-down defense we were all told about? Also, some ugly, sloppy ball-handling on a few possessions, some careless turnovers, some weak-sauce attempts at finishing, including getting the Adonal Foyle treatment by Beasley when trying to go for a dunk... Still, all in all, he was outstanding. I guess I just have to adjust my expectations of his game. He's very good at the things he does, it's just I expected some other things, and I guess he can't be what he's not. But he's poised, intelligent, usually makes good decisions, and when he's shooting that well from three... damn, he looks fantastic. P.S. Also, he's so much better for this squad than a guy like, say, Maggette. Or even SJax. Because he's what I've been wanting at the three spot. A guy like Battier. Wright doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective. His numbers are very good -- 16 ppg, 5 rpg, 3 apg, 1 spg, shooting 44% from three. And he is kind of like a point SF out there with his playmaking. He's a great 4th guy who doesn't need to be just a scorer. The main thing I've been let down about is his jumping and finishing. I was expecting an explosive athlete, and he's the opposite. Slow, plodding, with no lift. He shoots worse from the field than he does from three... 41% FG versus 44%3ptFG. That's because he has no lift and misses many easy finishes around the basket. But that's okay, because he uses what he does have -- vision, timing, pump fakes, passing... to end up being very effective in his own way.
Gadz has been our best bench player. We know what we're going to get from him. He gives great energy and obviously hes got the best size on the team. Even though his rebounding numbers weren't good last night it wasn't indicative of how he battled with the surprisingly tough Love/Darko combination. Also hustled for a few loose balls and just did a good job of parking down low and taking advantage of passes off of penetration from the guards to get some easy dunks. Also, check out that highlight video posted above again and you'll see he hit DW for a few of those open threes- they weren't brilliant plays but its as simple as knowing who you are, that hes not going to shoot that ball or drive it on either play so he knows exactly where the hot hand is and wastes no time in shoveling the ball to him. Did all of this when being asked to start the 3rd Q after not playing prior to that. And yeah, DW drives me nuts sometimes but on the same token hes also perfect for this team in many respects. Like mentioned above, we haven't seen any breakout defensive performances yet and hes had plenty of opportunities against some great SFs lately. That being said hes far from the weakest defensive link. Dude gets ridiculously open looks of of Monta, Curry, and Lee and hes drilling everything. He dose make some excellent passes but there are plenty of plays where he passes when he should finish aggressively, or he should pass instead of forcing up an awkward shot. You can see why people thought he had potential to be like a McGrady and being in an open, up tempo offense I'm sure Smart is encouraging him to try to make dynamic plays but I think its clear that while hes got great skills hes just not that guy. Hes confused right now as to whether to play like a pure role player a la Battier or try to be more of a dynamic, do-everything multi-threat player. Hes got the skills to drop some great dimes and make some tinhg happen but IMO he needs to err more on the side of role player and just take what hes given. Oh yeah and Christmas came early last night- VLADIMIR RADMANOVIC DNP-CD HEY OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also nice to see Beans have another good rebounding game. Offense wasn't there but we don't expect him to drop 28 every night- we do expect him to bring it on the glass and he followed up his 20 rebound game with 12 tonight.
