http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?id=310109012 Don't sleep on this one. I would've penciled it in as a win earlier in the season, but the Clips are right on the Warriors' heels right now. They are 11-24 but they've won 6 of the last 9 games. They beat Denver on Wednesday, and in that game DeAndre Jordan had 14 points, 6 blocks, and 20 rebounds! So Jordan is playing well, obviously Eric Gordon is playing out of his mind, Blake Griffin is a beast, but now Baron is supposedly getting healthy and playing well. Seems to be a team with some attitude. Their bench is very weak, however, especially with bigs. So that's where GS will need to take advantage, IMO. Push the pace, run the floor, and make guys like DeAndre Jordan have to rest. Their only other bigs are Ike Diogu and Jarron Collins, who only averages 7.5 minutes per game and is usually DNP. So attack the bigs, run the floor and make them need a breather, and take it to them to draw fouls. We have a ton of bigs to rotate in and out and to wear them down inside. But don't sleep in on the Clips. It's a noon game, so get your rest, get up early, and then get geared up, GS!
Feels like we're getting our asses kicked but we're only down 3-5 points most of the game thus far. DW is hot, he and Law are keeping us in this. Curry with more stupid early fouls keeping him out of the game.
All the starters got in early foul trouble, except for Monta, and Monta just had a horrible night. Backups were pretty lousy except for a few moments. I mean, Vlad kept turning the ball over like crazy.
How about Keith Smart benching Steph Curry for pretty much the entire 1st half? He had 2 fouls. Two. Since when is that sudden panic time? He took him out 3 minutes into the game, okay. But then didn't put him back in until 4 minutes left in the half? That was just awful coaching. You had Randy Foye out there for the Clips, Curry could have eaten up that second string for the Clips, instead you had Reggie Williams out there, and the Warriors failed to build a lead. Then Baron/Griffin come back in and they go up by like 12 at half time. Just terrible management of minutes there. You HAVE to put Curry back in at the start of the 2nd quarter, let him create some mismatches, find guys, get out and score on that weak-ass bench of the clips. What if he gets a 3rd foul? Who fuggin cares? Take him out then, if it makes you so uncomfortable. Hey, I know... Miami should just bench LeBron the 1st half of every game, that way he's guaranteed not to be in foul trouble for the second half... Anyway, when Monta goes 4-19, there isn't much hope there. David Lee had 3 rebounds in 25 minutes, and Andris Biedrins had 0 points in 26 minutes. The Warriors starting five had 0 offensive rebounds. Zero. The Clips starting five had 10. I could go on...
I don't think Curry was the answer for anything. He was off the whole game. I don't blame Smart for that. Law played pretty well in Curry's spot in the first half. It was a pretty even game until that huge run by the Clippers to end the second quarter. That was ignited by 9 turnovers in the quarter. Sometimes the ball looks like a hot potato when the warriors touch it, going to the other team a lot. Get possession at one point, give it away before even the next moment. I'm surprised Monta had so many shot attempts. I don't think he took very many at all in the first half. Perhaps a lot of them came in the second half in garbage time? I'm not sure about putting a lot of blame on Smart, perhaps besides too much leaning on the turnover prone Vlad? With all the fouls it was a challenge to put in the best lineups.
Disappointing effort. I'm with Clif on this one...don't think you can really blame Smart. The Clippers were not going to lose. We play them again Friday at Oracle. Expect the Warriors to win.
Baron knew he could out-muscle our backcourt and the Clips as a whole did too. I don't expect a much different outcome in Oakland, we'll live or die by the 3.
