Don't give up Warrior fans, today the Lakers are going to play the Nuggets, hope for a Laker win, that in one step closer. Also we play the Clippers twice. Very tough race still.
<div class="quote_poster">The Legend Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don't give up Warrior fans, today the Lakers are going to play the Nuggets, hope for a Laker win, that in one step closer. Also we play the Clippers twice. Very tough race still.</div> Yup, I'm definitely rooting for the Lakers. Hard to tell with the Lakers this year though, they seem to be unpredictable sometimes in their play these last few months, so I'm hoping Kobe goes for 100 each of those games.
Hey does anyone know about this guy here? <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="2"><font face="Arial"><font size="4"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Nicolas Batum 6-8 210 SG France 1988 </font></font></font></font></font></font>I'm looking at a variety of swing players in the draft since I think all the semi-nba ready PF's and C's will be gobbled up by the time we're up. A lot of things bother me about the college guys that will play SF/PF or SG/SF at the nba level. A few of them can't even shoot free throws well compared to players' supposed great shooting ability or high fg%'s. That really bothers me. Guys should be shooting at least 75% while standing alone at the line with nobody guarding them. ...And yet there are some guys that can't even make at least 73% of their shots at the foul line while they shoot a very good 45%++ from the field and beyond the arc. What is up with that? All I know is for players like that, they better rebound, finish inside, play some mad defense while getting us extra possessions and blocked shots... That's just sad to have all this talk about guys being Brandon Roy or Joe Johnson or some guy with a good shot and they can't make free throws... I don't understand that problem. I feel like those types of players will be the ones most likely to choke in the playoffs or in a close game that could spell the difference between making the playoffs or sitting at home watching the playoffs. The other guy that is interesting is Marco Belinelli, but his game beyond the 360 dunk highlights and the three point shooting is a mystery to me. He could be like a Brent Barry type role player rather than a star. Underweight guards worry me... Will we get more athletic Jiri Welsch disappointment or some guy that is surprising like a Rip Hamilton or a Jamaal Crawford at full potential? These lightweight guards may tend to shy away from physical contact because they ain't heavy enough to absorb the body bumps... unless they have great strength, body control, balance, and reflexes. In case people are wondering why this is in the "playoff run" page... well haha, you know. Besides, I'm not jinxing anything. Just check out how hard the Warriors are trying to push playoff priority list when we're technically back in it. That's like counting the chickens before the eggs hatched. http://www.nba.com/warriors/
Yeah the Lakers have screwed around with the Warriors all season long, with the last example being last night's game vs. Denver. In the draft I like Brewer though he may be out of reach and Rudy Fernandez. I think, from what I have read, Rudy is like a Manu Ginoboli or maybe more like a Brent Barry type of player with good one-on-one skills and pg-skills. He is 6-6 with a good shot, a leader, and a good overall game who may be a little bit more of a natural pg than Monta, it seems. Also I would be interested in Mike Conley if he decides to enter the draft, though I have a feeling that he and Oden might return to college for next season.
Last night was a great win for the Warriors, but it was a bit heartbreaking to see the Clips and Nugz win. It was a good opportunity to pick up a game, especially against the Clips because the Lakers were playing at home, too. Oh well, there will be other chances, but the Warriors have to continue winning. Since the tiebreakers go to the Clips and Nugz, I figure we have to win five more games out of seven (get to .500) and hope the Clips or Nugz falter. It will be very, very tough to do.
Here is the schedule for the rest of the season: @ Mem @ SA vs Utah @ Sac vs Min vs Dal @ Por @ Mem, vs Min, and @ Por are all games that we should win. @ Sac, vs Utah and vs Dal are tossups while @ SA is on the second half of a back to back is a sure loss. The schedule really doesn't seem that tough IMO considering how well we played Utah and Dallas this season and both of those are home games, Dallas will probably be resting its starters by then as well. 5-2 is possible, hell even 6-1 is possible if we don't drop the Jazz or Sac game.
Considering this team is the Warriors, I am worried about tomorrow's game @ Memphis. A stumble there takes away last night's win, for sure.
Here's how I would break it down: Clippers ---------- DEN pick @ DAL L @ NO/OKC L @ LAL pick POR W SAC W @ PHO L NO/OKC W 3-3 + 2 pick Warriors ---------- @ MEM W @ SA L UTA pick @ SAC W MIN W DAL pick @ POR W 4-1 + 2 pick Of course injuries or teams resting their starters for the playoffs could radically affect these games, but if we give each team a split on their two tossup games, that leaves the Clippers with 4-4 for a final record of 41-41. The Warriors would go 5-2 for a final record of also 41-41. I think the Warriors win that tiebreaker because they went 3-2 vs. the Clips this season, right? I don't know why, but for some reason I was thinking they lost 3 out of 5 to the Clips this year. Or does it go by division record? I think the X-Factor is JRich. He is really emerging, leading by example, willing this team to win each night.
Hornets are officially out of contention. They lost three starters in last night's loss to Seattle. The Clippers are really benefitting from the Jason Hart acquisition, but I just don't see him capable of playing at a high level the rest of the way. The Clippers rely on getting to the free throw line to win games.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Hornets are officially out of contention. They lost three starters in last night's loss to Seattle. </div> That's not good. We need them to beat the clippers...
<div class="quote_poster">HiRez Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> Of course injuries or teams resting their starters for the playoffs could radically affect these games, but if we give each team a split on their two tossup games, that leaves the Clippers with 4-4 for a final record of 41-41. The Warriors would go 5-2 for a final record of also 41-41. I think the Warriors win that tiebreaker because they went 3-2 vs. the Clips this season, right? I don't know why, but for some reason I was thinking they lost 3 out of 5 to the Clips this year. Or does it go by division record?</div> We only play each team a maximum of 4 times. We split our games with the Clips this season 2-2. The next tie-breaker is by division record. The Clips have us there. When we see we are a game and a half behind them, we actually need to beat them by 1/2 a game in order to take the spot fyi, we used to play each team in our conference 4 times (2 home, 2 away) and each team in the other conference twice (1 home, 1 away). That's how they came up with 82 games. With the Charlotte expansion team, that messed it up. So, in order to keep 82 games, we still play all Eastern conf teams twice, but a couple of western conf teams only 3 times.
We can still tie the clips for division record. They have to lose the their last three division games and the W's have to win their last. Long shot, but there's still some hope.
Oops, I was counting the preseason game by accident. Crud...we're screwed. We basically have to go 6-1 to have a good shot. 5-2 small chance. 4-3 or worse, we're out.
If the Warriors continue to play like this and since no team in the East seems determined to make the 8th spot, maybe David Stern will let the Warriors play in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. haha most likely not. It's looking like there is another season where the Warriors end with a lot of hope and promise going into next season. Hopefully there is no lame rule that keeps the Warriors out of the playoffs if there is a tie or something that then gets changed - a la what happened with Gilbert Arenas.
It sure doesn't look good now. Time is running out, and we are getting zero help from other teams. When we thought nobody wanted 7th and 8th seed, Clippers are in 8-2 run and Nuggets are also in 9-5 run. And, it also doesn't look like we will have a tie breaker either. I guess the only thing Warriors can do is to win basically all games and hope for the best. And, they are doing a great job lately. 7-1 at home and 3-3 at road. We may or may not make PO, but Warriors surely looks good with 6 core players. So, I guess there is something to rely on for the next season...
Next season..... I think I'm gonna make a Warriors hat that says, "Wait 'Til Next Season." The W will be the Warriors W with a lightening bolt going through it or the "Wait" will look like the "Warriors" on the front of the Jersey.
"Wait till next season" is what we say every year for the last god knows how many seasons. The Warriors, to me, always find some way to be the statistical anomaly that says we will never improve to the point where we can make some sort of cycle of winning for at least four years and then going back to being a lotto team. The Warriors always find some way to play like crap during the middle of the season and then finishing the season strong but falling short. I guess we should be grateful that we're seeing some improvement, although the window of opportunity to get even better might be still very small. The window of opportunity to get better rests in good trades, stealing the draft, improvement from rookies that are of decent potential and getting impact FA agents without blowing the budget.
CR2, I feel your pain, but if we finish this season without a playoff spot as our reward because we were 1 game back or lost due to a tie breaker, I think this team will be REALLY hungry next season. We have all the excuses (injuries, Dunleavy/Murphy vs Harrington/Jackson etc) and hopefully all of those excuses will be rectified this summer. Hopefully everyone can get rested up and come back next year in the best shape of their careers so no one will have chronic injuries next year. Even though Baron had that surgery, he still was pretty healthy for most of the season. I think if Al Harrinton can come back next year in better shape, he will be such an explosive player that he could potentially be an All Star. If all of our players work on 1 thing over the off season that they need the most improvement on and everyone comes back improved (especially the young guys like POB, Beans, Ellis, etc) then this team will be much improved. Beans can work on his shooting form so he can hit his FTs and possibly play some PF. POB can work on his low post game and his PF game. After that we can see which piece belongs where and play them side by side so we dont have the same rebounding issues next year. Ellis needs to be our PG of the future in case Baron goes down. I dont care if he is an Iverson type PG or a Nash PG, he just needs to be able to get our offense sizzling like Baron does. Lastly, Mullin needs to make sound financial/basketball decisions this offseason to get rid of Foyle's contract and turn it into a couple of useful contracts so we can play them off the bench instead of having $10m/season riding the pine. Pietrus can be a valuable trade piece or be brought back at a decent price (a little above MLE). As dumb as he is some times, his defense/corner 3 pt shot has won us some games...
