Charles Jenkins in for Curry. Wonder why hes ahead of Ish Smith. Set up Monta on a 3 and hit a jumper, so far so good. Udoh with two decisive, aggressive post moves going toward the rim. Hes still sloppy down there but when you go up strong and go toward the rim good things will happen. Offense looking much better with Monta back.
Beans isn't playing poorly but you have to wonder when Jackson moves Kwame into the starting lineup. He just makes more of an impact. Monta played the whole quarter and the offense looked better. Called his own number a few times but hes continuing to drive and dish effectively, finding McGuire and Kwame under the rim. He was running the point most of the time when Jenkins came in. If I had to guess I would think MJ is trying to put another scorer on the floor and reduce over-dribbling by giving Jenkins the minutes that Ish usually has.
Missing David Lee showed that the team isn't very deep rebounding wise. Plus, I'm sure he is the guy that sets up easy plays for a lot of guys that don't really score on their own or are afraid to take it to the rack. See D. Wright. The guy is 6'9 but he is just afraid to go inside and take the bump and foul. The last two games we played and lost, he posted 0 for 0 for free throws.
The Warriors talked about getting bigger and stronger. Look at the score sheets. Biedrins and Kwame play a combined 25-30 mins and no big in the last 8-10 mins of the game. Jackson is no different than Nellie/Smart, he goes small and the Warriors cannot get key rebounds. I hate that kind of basketball. In fact, I see it going on throughout the NBA and I hate it. If you have the size, use it. Forget about "going small" and hoping Maggette outscores Yao. Even the Knicks did/do it, after signing Chandler for $15M/yr., they use him for 20 mins. Stupid.
As for DW: Its more than simply the absence of Lee (or Monta or Steph before him). Hes been freaking terrible all season. Not having the shooting stroke is one thing but the guy is absolutely terrified to try to make something happen off the dribble. He had little confidence in his handles last season as well but he could take what the defense gives him. This year hes so tentative that hes in slow motion "attacking" after a pump fake and the defender has plenty of time to re-group. He may be out of shape but I think its a mental thing with him. He is rebounding decently and plays ok defense but thats pretty much the bare minimum production you expect from your starting 3. To me, thats the biggest hole on the roster right now. I wouldn't say Mark Jackson is a Nellie/D'Antoni. He prefers to go big in general but he'll adapt. The problem with phoenix was two fold in that a) we were playing behind pretty much the whole game, and b) Frye and Markeiff Morris had to be contested on the perimeter. Kwame or Beans can match up with Gortat well enough but Morris/Frye/Warrick are a bit of a nightmare for them or Udoh to keep up with and we've got McGuire on the roster and playing well. We do have the size advantage but our big players lack skill to punish smaller guys, though Udoh has been scoring in the post on favorable matchups lately.
Make them match up with you, otherwise you're reacting all the time and they are setting the stage,not you. Put Kwame and/or Biedrins out there and pound those weak guys on the glass, both offense and defense. Oh no, now you've got small guys playing the perimeter on Frye and Morris then those guys are bigger on the glass. Dorell had a great year. But look at history, whenever you become a 3 pt shooter, you become stagnant. Quentin Richardson was a pretty lively player, then he became a standstill shooter. Same for Keith Bogans, Pietrus. They don't develop other parts of their game and wither away.
They've got Gortat to match with Kwame/Beans, is Udoh vs. Frye/Morris anything to take advantage of? That's as big as we could go yesterday unless you want Kwame and Beans together on the floor. Udoh is a poor rebounder and opportunistic scorer. They would have had no trouble rebounding or defending that front court while simultaneously taking advantage on offense. We have size as a team but its not like we can dump it into Kwame and Beans and let them punish people. Udoh can score on smaller players but I reckon we actually rebound better with McGuire at the 4. Lee would have allowed us to play big a bit more because hes actually capable of scoring but even then could he really punish Frye or Morris? Good call on Dorell. Hes definitely sterilized his game with the excessive 3 point shots. I actually heard an interview with him before this season where he said he would take fewer 3's because he know defenses saw it coming this season. He needs to go to the rack with abandon like Rush does when he sees an opening. It should only take him one dribble to get from the perimeter to the paint anyway.
Yeah, that was true how Jackson opted to go small for a second game and it caused us to get into a really bad habit of casting long shots up and not being able to rebound the ball on offense or defense. For the little scoring that Biedrins or Kwame Brown do, they are still wearing opposing defenses down in the block by setting picks up top or posting up down low. That totally has an effect on the other team physically. We go small, we start going soft and it becomes the Nelly brand of ball that is just a crappy gimmick. We can take the three ball any time we want (uncontested, even) but it doesn't mean it's a good shot, especially if it's quick in the shotclock. We cannot close games out that way because we're too limited in what we can do offensively and we're too limited with what we can do defensively in the paint. We've got to get defenses collapsing inside the paint and get those contact fouls at close range or kick out for uncontested deep twos or threes. Our guards have go to do a better job of taking care of the ball and to stop reaching for steals. You get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, the whole team pays for it, especially the big man if the guard is failing to stay in front of his assignment. Biedrins has also got to be more effective in his minutes. He can't do anything if he is reaching like the other guards do. He gambles as much as the guards sometimes.
