Is Don Nelson finally starting to realize that it’s usually not a great gameplan to play Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry together for 40 minutes at a time? And that any belief that this is a good long-term backcourt is… foolishly naive? Anecdotal, but interesting from tonight’s loss in Oklahoma City: The Warriors were down 85-70 late in the third quarter tonight in Oklahoma City. Nothing unusual there, except… That’s when Nelson either woke up from slumber, forgot that he doesn’t actually care or just decided to try something new. At that point, Nelson substituted C.J. Watson for Stephen Curry and played out the last few minutes of the third with Watson and Monta Ellis as the backcourt. (The Warriors out-scored the Thunder 7-2 in this timespan, to make it 87-75 at the end of the third.) Then, to start the fourthNelson took Ellis out and put Curry back in with Watson, and went the next 7:46 with a Curry-Watson backcourt and NO Ellis. (The Warriors out-scored the Thunder 21-16 in this timespan * NBA.com play-by-play doesn’t record the quarter-break substitution, but I’m sure Ellis didn’t start the fourth. Ellis finally checked back in with 4:14 left in the fourth, with the OKC lead down to 103-96. He came in for Curry, so it was Ellis and Watson for 2:52, until Curry got back in for the final 22 seconds and last two free throws by OKC. (The Warriors out-scored the Thunder 8-7 in this timespan.) Add it up: Nelson went away from the Ellis/Curry backcourt for 13:30 of full-tilt, non-garbage time basketball, and the Warriors were +9 in that span–they out-scored the Thunder 34-25. In the rest of the game, most of it with Ellis and Curry together, the Warriors were -17–the Thunder out-scored the Warriors 87-70. http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawaka...iors-finally-start-splitting-ellis-and-curry/
That's a lame blog. Just grasping for material. How is inserting Watson going to change anything over Curry or Ellis? If it were something like "Nelson decided to go big with Maggette at the SG" or something, then you may be able to compare differences. But Nellie put in Watson because he's a replacement for both those guys. He's the same size, same weight, it's not like he would put in Watson if he thought the Curry/Ellis thing won't work. If anything, Watson will just make things worse defensively. So what would be the point to that thinking? None, which makes me wonder how Kamikazi can squeeze out an entire blog from thin air like that...
