OK so this game was very frustrating for me to watch because I felt like the Suns gave the Warriors plenty of chances to take it and they just couldn't do it. First of all I'm mad again for Nellie not playing Brandan Wright again (yeah I know he played for 2 seconds to foul Shaq). Croshere, Barnes, Pietrus, Jackson, and Harrington were a combined 10-43, that is 23 freakin' percent shooting. Those 5 players also had a combined 18 rebounds in 108 minutes of play. Now there's no way you can tell me that Wright couldn't have helped there on a back to back when they needed energy and high % shooting. Once again Nellie completely ignores young talent for "experience". I'm sick of it. Next, in the third quarter when the Suns made their big 15-3 run, Nellie failed to call a time out. It was very obvious play after play that the Suns were exploding and they needed a timeout to cool them off and adjust, but Nellie failed to give it. I couldn't believe as they piled points on top of points that he didn't do it. By the time he did, the Suns were up 14 points and the Warriors never recovered from that run. Finally, what was up with Monta? Terrible game by him, he seemed to be taking a lot of off-balance outside jumpers where normally you see him square up to the basket. Plus, he missed two big freethrows in a row down the stretch. It's not so much that he seemed tired, but I don't know...tentative or something, it was weird. He definitely had some lanes to drive but instead he'd pass the ball away or take an awkward shot. It's easy to make excuses for losing this game but it's a game they could have won, and may need in the end.
I concur. Let's hope it was just a fluke. We all know the Dubs can play better, but you do have to credit the Suns for exposing the Dub's inside weakness.
I wouldn't put too much weight on this game though its still tremendously disappointing. Our defense was absolutely terrible. They never helped on Amare when they needed to, they never closed out on wide open 3 pt shooters. On offense no one showed up except Baron. Monta had as bad of a 23 pt game as I've ever seen. He just looked out of sorts and discombobulated. Where the hell was JAckson at the end? He must have gotten hurt pretty bad if he wasn't in the game. Biedrins was also not his normal self, Amare always owns him and it seemed like he never got into the flow of the game. Nellie definitely waited too long on that timeout. He should have called it when we went down nine but waited for the Suns to drop another couple of treys. I don't think Wright had much of a place in this game against Amare at 240 and Shaq at 300+. Maybe it would have been a good move to get him some run and see what he does but I don't blame Nellie for not playing him. We just got outclassed in the second half. We were still in the game to the end despite terrible play by everyone except Baron. Its understandable to drop one to the Suns on the road on the back end of a back to back but no matter what the excuse we have to win a lot of these games against conference rivals.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CohanHater @ Mar 14 2008, 12:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Stoudamire was pushing Beans around like a rag doll, and you wanted Wright to come in?</div> I didn't say he had to be matched up on Amare. He could have filled in any number of places. And Beans only played 20 minutes anyway. Suns shot 55% in this game, at least Wright brings some legit interior shotblocking. Even if he was matched up on Amare, how could he have done any worse than anyone else did? I swear most of the Warriors have never even heard the term "box out" before. Sure they were getting pushed around but the F/Cs didn't even try to rebound half the time.
And this is why despite the fact we're an over 500% team, why Nelly ball can just flat out suck. It's a one trick pony because a team who has a center or a power forward can just flat out beat us up inside. We're especially screwed if nobody is causing deflections and we're not hitting the perimeter shots. Well... I guess we gotta ride this one until one of our bigs can develop... but there's lies the problem... does Nelson develop any bigs at all? Big men take the longest time to develop but he will not give them any burn or try to run some plays to get them involved... Meanwhile Barnes and Pietrus get more burn... I agree with HiRez completely. Plus, Nelly is so predictable when it comes to going smaller against opposing bigs. But it just doesn't work if the other team is getting all the high % shots inside (which also means the foul line), and we're not hitting any of our shots. I just wish for the Warriors now to get some kind of inside outside game and not just an outside game. We got guys that can drive the ball some, but there's a lot more efficiency when big players can hit at point blank ranges. We have to rely on Ellis as our high fg% player. Maybe if we gave Brandan Wright a shot, he could score some (we did draft him as an offensive player), and he could also snag some rebounds and block some shots. I mean for gosh sakes, the guy has a 7'5 wingspan compared to Biedrins 7'1 wingspan. I almost guarantee that even though Brandan Wright would get pushed around because of his lack of base, he'd alter a lot more shots because of that incredible reach of his. Even POB could probably do some damage. But nooo.... Nelson has to play his tiny ball which looks good in regular season but doesn't do diddly in the playoffs unless we're playing some team that also doesn't have much inside presence.
