<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Las Vegas -- The start wasn't quite what Ike Diogu envisioned: Five points and no rebounds in 11 first-half minutes. In his professional debut, the Warriors' No. 1 pick was overthinking and underproducing, and if he thought he was doing any better, coach Mario Elie set him straight. "He said I wasn't giving him anything," Diogu recalled. "He's a guy that's going to issue challenges as a former NBA player, and it's a challenge you got to take." Diogu took it all the way to the rim Friday -- three times, and almost in succession. He started in the fourth quarter with a one-handed dunk off a Monta Ellis missed jumper, followed that with a two-handed putback slam, then added another dunk a few possessions later. Diogu tried to cap the spurt by blocking a Travis Outlaw shot, but was whistled for a questionable foul. As Outlaw stepped to the free-throw line and bricked his first attempt, Elie hollered at the referees: "The ball don't lie, the ball don't lie." Neither do the final numbers. After an admittedly tentative first half, Diogu finished with 16 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes during the Warriors' summer league opener, a 90-74 loss to the Trail Blazers' entry at Cox Pavilion. Diogu went 5-of-10 from the field and 6-of-7 from the foul line, wrapping up his initial summer start looking like his dominant college self. "I think he was feeling his way the first game, but I got on him and he came out and did a great job the second half," said Elie, who is handling coaching duties for the summer squad. "I think that dunk got him going. It always takes a highlight play to get a guy going, and I think that got him involved in the game." </div> Source
