Warriors vs Lakers in 1 hour...

Game is coming on soon...

 

Must Win

 

Groan...

 

If we want to continue to be close in the playoff race we must win this game and show to the rest of the western conference that we could beat one of the top teams. We will have many troubles with Kobe, like usual. Jason Richardson or Stephen Jackson will guard him, but a double team should be used at many times. We lost yesterday to the other L.A. team, but hopefully we win this one.

 

One thing that just deeply disturbs me is that our wins at home aren't really blowouts of the other team. We just took one of the worst teams in the conference into an overtime win and we're excited to be in the 8th seed on that day we won? Heck we're all tied for first place at the start of this season does that mean anything? The season don't end after a week after all-star break. I just hope today we win and continue to win after that. I hope we play good enough ball that referees give us the benefit of the doubt on calls.

It's very hard following the team I love (even without ref interference) when it's just so so very disappointing to do things like rebounding, cycling the ball, inside presence. Not having our two best players was crucial, but this is even with having Jrich or Baron. But we're doing (I guess), "okay" for a franchise that had no freakin clue what they were doing back in 2004 and before that. But they had to undo some costly mistakes when they couldn't afford to have made that. A team that doesn't make the playoffs for 13 seasons has a lot to answer for and they had to play perfect in order to compete the teams that did make the playoffs in those 13 seasons.

We'll see how the players grow over the next few weeks. But I'm not sure if we should call this a team. It still doesn't fit to me. That's why I'm praying for a good offseason for once that includes good FA's and good picks, and trades.

 

How about Ellis, though? The guy is looking like a superstar.

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">How about Ellis, though? The guy is looking like a superstar.</div>

The next Iverson.

 

Dammit, I'm so sick of Pietrus' game. It got to go if it cannot improve. He takes bad shots, he's not even smart enough to draw in defenders to open up the lanes for his teammates, he's missing free throws, he's doing only one thing out there that's good. And like Foyle's one good thing, it's just not enough.

They got to throw in Azu or something or whoever will make the right play. Attacking the rim and just finishing inside and hitting from outside is crucial. We just don't have enough variety in our offense to play such lousy transition D.

The other thing is these guys are getting deep position on us when we do play defense and they're spreading the floor that way when they leave shooters to double team. It's freakin' rough. Also now this team is so dependent on Ellis trying to create things because nobody else can really drive like he does and finish inside. Too many players on our team just can't make the layups it seems or they're getting out of control.

 

Ugg... I'm going to stop watching until the 4th quarter comes on.

I'm all for substance over style at this point. I'd rather watch a boring game where we could win at the end, versus a sloppy fast tempo game where we don't get off to a good start and we don't end winning or we get off to an exciting good start and we don't end up winning. Either way I hate this prolonged style of ball. Arggg. Nothing good can come of it if we try to play this way with these current players or even with the best players. Playing small is a substitute for teams that don't have any good big players or big player depth. And if we're going to play small, at least learn to shoot, pass, and dribble and be fast.

 

Actually nevermind what I said. I'll watch for Ellis. He was what Baron Davis was to this team before he got hurt. The other four guys depend on him.
Now they depend on Ellis for getting shots on goal.

 

Dying by the three

I agree get Barnes out of the game.... front rim lay up miss, three pointer,,,, then shot sent.... no d

At least Pietrus got the crowd up when he packed Kobe

Harrington looks awful

j-rich sitting too long

why is ellis the only one attacking the rim?

 

MOther freakin PIetrus!!! Arggg. Not only does he get in the way of Richardson trying to push the ball, he also calls for a 3 point play on the baseline? You idiot!

Pietrus IMO is as bad as Barnes or Foyle. Both low b-ball IQ type of guys with a lot of hustle.

Pietrus packing Kobe was like one play and he did a few other dumb moves to undo it.

Harrington playing this way is something typical I expect him to do to round out his high %'s to regular 45% on field goals. He's not a power forward with the way this guy finishes. Weak!

Point guard and guard I think are great, but we sure need talent at the PF spot and more depth at C. Jeez... horrible way to play if it's going to be guards that are quick and talented, but they can't even shoot. Our best free throw shooters are d-leaguers or guys who see 3rd string backup point.

Okay pant pant, time to do something else. Obviously I was not in a good mood to watch this game before the tip off. LOL!

 

Please someone tell me they saw that horse sh__... parker launches a three top of the key.... AB has position and Bymun boxed out...... Odom crashes boards just smashing into Biedrins back..... odom gets the board... AB turns around and gets called on a no contact foul....

It is just ridiculous....

If Kobe put his hands on my face like he did to Jason .... i would take the suspension and break his hand off.

Got my Kobe doll out .... putting pins in it..... career ended injury..... career ending injury.... it is coming... i almost got that shoulder reinjured....

 

Simply the Warriors had their shots, but they missed. They had layups and open jumpers all game but couldn't hit anything, especially when they had that huge slump in the first half. One possession they had like six shots but failed to convert on anything including layups open jumpers anything and everything. The only players who are showing up are JRich and Monta Ellis. I also take back my comments about JRich and Stephen Jackson possibly being an effective duo. Stephen Jackson makes the laziest and sloppiest turnovers ever, so does Harrington. Jackson also needs to come into the game with the Baron Davis mentality that he is going to make JRich a top scorer in the league, along with Monta Ellis. Sure he should take some shots when they are open, but when he starts trying to create stuff, it just looks ugly. The team desperately misses the boss and has lost all sense of who they are as a team.

Also I agree that the referees are like clowns. Steve Javey seems to do every Laker game, at least that I see. The play where that Lakers player is hopping on one foot and I think even changes feet while falling out of bounds, and there is no travelling violation called was a joke. The biggest joke was that that player passes it to someone on the top of the 3 point line and Jackson grabs the ball and knocks it loose the ref calls a foul on Jackson. Now granted the Warriors got some calls too, but just overall the officiating in the NBA sucks. We need to like write to the NBA about how horrible their referees are. I assume if we get enough input and letters they'd have to do something. I mean the refs just look like clowns. The refs didn't lose this game for the Warriors like they pretty much did in the Clippers game, but still, I don't understand what they are doing out there.

I agree that Pietrus and Barnes were horrible. The Warriors need more JRich action, Monta doing his thing (it was horrible watching Barnes be the PG during that cold streak), and the Boss back.

Man I it is still evident how HORRIBLE Mullin's extentions on Murphy, Foyle, and Dunleavy were. Jackson and Harrington's contracts are slightly better, but man, they aren't a piece of cake to get rid of either. Yeah, basically I am just extremely frustrated once again about this team. In Mullin we trust, hah. Also after watching these last two games on the Lakers and Clippers tv networks, I definitley say the Clippers have better broadcasters. The Lakers' broadcasters are extremely arogant and kind of annoying. It's Lakers all the time. Ok my rant is going on too long. AGH!

Why didn't the Lakers wear their away purple jerseys? I don't understand why they decided to wear white. This isn't a big deal but another team wearing white in your home just seems weird for basketball/NBA. Oh well.

 

Sjax made some stupid turnovers, but that's to be expected. He is only decent as a guard role ("point small forward") because of his inconsistency and his tendency to get sloppy with the ball and make dumb decisions.

What I don't like are players like Barnes and Pietrus who constantly do stupid things to ruin the team chemistry. The other guy I don't like is Al Harrington because for a power forward, not only does he do the same dumb stuff Sjax does, but he also can't rebound worth crap. The only time he gets rebounds it seems are off his own misses. It's pathetic also how he just can't score inside like a basic starting power forward is supposed to. Even Murphy could finish better than him. That's why I couldn't even condone Murph for AH trade right in the offseason. It's too much of a wash or it's too much losing in the important areas like being able to rebound. Defensively I already think Ah is just as bad as Murphy was, but Murphy could be a top 10 rebounder.

I just wish Nelson could have gave Ike another chance and that if it weren't for Foyle, Dun, Murphy signings we'd still be keeping Taft, Ike, and guys who could be tough and finish around the hoop if given minutes. I really don't think they were given much time to be looked at compared to AH, Murphy. Even if we had Murphy and Ike playing behind one another, I think it would give us at least some rebounding ability and consistency when we're talking half court play. Because without Baron, Ellis is just going to do what he does best, which is pull up and shoot or drive to the hoop. His playmaking skill is still a work in progress and he's nowhere near consistent as Baron Davis running a team.

... jeez... it's hard.... to play good ball when we don't have a real team yet. A real team has roles that fit together. I think we just have more of the same in every position except the one that Andris Biedrins plays.

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">... jeez... it's hard.... to play good ball when we don't have a real team yet. A real team has roles that fit together. I think we just have more of the same in every position except the one that Andris Biedrins plays.</div>

Yeah, perhaps that is what it comes down to. The team is still getting together after the trade. Now that JRich is back and the Boss is gone, there definitley isn't that continunity that teams need. Man smelling the playoffs as a Warriors fan is like a Palestinian/Israeli finally settling with peace. I wonder what the odds in Vegas would be on such a bet of what would happen first - peace in Israel/Palestine or the Warriors making the playoffs...hmm...haha so so sad. so very very sad.

Back to basketball, Ellis getting PT as PG and the team adjusting to that I suppose also doesn't help, but that would fall under the Boss being gone I guess. The Warriors aren't out just yet. Losing to the Lakers is better than losing to the Clippers. But man it still doesn't help. I need to lower my expectations again, hah.

 

I just wish we drafted Bynum over Ike in that draft. It seemed obvious then and it seems even more obvious now. Supposedly the reason going for Ike was that he was NBa ready and seasoned at the college level. Uh yeah, I would venture that Bynum has gotten more laying time than Ike in their NBa careers and has been more effective. Is that coaching? bynum does have jabbar mentoring him? is that intelligence? we have all heard how slow ike is to pick up offenses? is it desire? .... what is it?

I think bynum/AB would have been a pretty solid 4/5

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I've watched the last two Warrior losses, and this team suffers from standing around on offense. It looks like Nellie wants to run his offense through SJax in the post. He does a great job of backing down his defender, but once he gets the ball in the low post or high post, none of his teammates move around. They just watch SJax dribble the ball, and SJax ends up taking a tough shot, because he doesn't have an option to pass when a double team rotates over.

The same goes for when JRich has the basketball or Ellis has the basketball. They are forced to beat their defender one on one and settle for low percentage shots.

There's a lack of fundamentals with this team, and Nellie will have to spend the summer teaching his players how to move without the basketball. In the morning the Pistons were playing, and if you just watch the way Rip Hamilton runs all over the court, it's exactly how the Warrior guards should play.

It still looks like Nellie hasn't really put his imprint on this team and taught them his motion offense. Seems like he's still trying to figure out what he has with this roster and which players mesh well together.

The Warriors have to improve their free throw shooting to get to the next level. 9-21 tonight isn't going to get it done, especially when your team can't make defensive stops.

Talent wise I think the Warriors are one of the best in the league, especially Monta Ellis. He's amazing in his ability to finish in traffic and just blow right by the first and second line of defense.

Al Harrington really looks out of place at PF, it's probably better if he comes off the bench in a 6th man role for the Warriors. Harrington just doesn't get the lift on his drives anymore. Maybe he has a nagging injury, or is out of shape, but he's not the slasher he was when he played with the Hawks.</div>

Very good observations.

I was courtside at the Clippers game in LA yesterday, about 7 rows back from the Warriors bench. Then I watched today's game on DVR.

Let me just say:

Harrington is NOT fit for the power forward role. The dude is 6'9" and he can barely touch the rim, let alone dunk. He never gathers himself on 2 feet, and even if he does he's getting blocked or throwing up some fady-away prayer or reverse lay-up that has no chance. He has a big mid-section, skinny ankles and small hands. He gets overmatched inside and people beat him for position on rebounds. He just has NO bounce to his step and always seems flatfooted (like he's tired or out of shape). Great shooter, mind you, but he needs to lose 25 pounds and start playing a shooter-type SF.

Tonight, on TV they showed that Biedrins averages the most fouls in the league at 3.8 -- they discussed what he needs to do to avoid those fouls, but do you want to know why he gets so many fouls? It's because he's surrounded by a cast of defensive liabilities. Having Harrington play PF is just asking for Biedrins to have a hard night, because he has to guard Bynum AND contest Odom every time he smokes Harrington in the paint. The perimeter defenders aren't any better. SJax has played pretty tough out there, and Monta is quick at hassling the ball, but between Pietrus and Barnes there are more brain farts than.... <fill analogy here> I mean those two guys get plain LOST half the time, it seems. Pietrus WAS a tough one-on-one defender at SOME point in his career, but when he was asked to learn TEAM DEFENSE... it all went to sh!t.

JRich is okay at times but he's undersized. Monta too. But really it's mostly because of the PF position.

To make matters worse, Nellie has REFUSED to play Powell and Beans together. He hasn't had those two players on the floor together ONCE since Powell got here. Not ONE time. Every time he brings him in... it's at center... with SJax or Barnes or Harrington playing PF.... WTF?

There are times when these little run-n-gun line-ups just get manhandled like highschool kids inside, and still Nellie refuses to abandon small-ball.

The Warriors aren't even a good running team, lol. For the most part they are POOR ball handlers and POOR passers. Even Monta is sketchy at times, but JRIch, Pietrus and Barnes are just a turnover waiting to happen -- either a dribble off the toe, or a one-handed pass that just gets eaten up lol.

Further, they run the fast break so damn sloppy. It's like no one ever coached them. You'd think when Nellie got here and said "okay, I don't care who we have, we're going to be the next Phoenix Suns," he would have at least coached the fast break. But apparently that hasn't happened, because even in year 4 Pietrus still looks like he doesn't know where the hell he's supposed to be on a fast break, there's rarely any synchopation or rythm, some guys run too fast (Barnes, Pietrus, Ellis at times) and some guys run too slow, they don't split the defender, they hang onto the ball way too long, the dribbler doesn't jumpstop at the freethrow line and deliver a simple bounce pass, guys get awkward deliveries and have awkward finishes.... I mean DAMN! if you sat down with a good college coach and watched tape of the Warriors fast break execution, he'd laugh in your face. Why is it so f'ing hard? WTF are they still so terrible at executing?

Pietrus seems incapable of learning anything, poor guy. It's sad because I love the guy's heart, too, but he's just got such a thick skull, I don't think he'll ever be anything more than what he is now.... a mere liability.

There's no way this team is going to the playoffs. The only way is if all the other teams in contention dive-bomb too, and just suck a$$ like the Warriors suck a$$, but even then they'll get swept in the first round -- 4 blow out losses. This team is sad, and frankly they don't deserve POs. I'd rather have a draft pick and hopefully a few trades.

What really confuses me is how Mully was reported to really "love" Harrington, and they were aggressively pursuing him all this time, and Baron and JRich were his buddies, and Mully wanted to get him for Nellie's system.... I mean, sh!t, did you watch TAPE of this guy? Why was Mully so in love, like Al would be the savior for this team? He brings nothing that the Warriors need -- rebounding and interior defense -- so what made them think he'd be the answer? Don't get me wrong, I still love the trade overall, but I don't get why Mully targeted this guy as his man...

In order for "Nellie-ball" to work this roster needs a drastic make-over, IMO. It's an ugly conglomoration of talent in awkward areas, and it's stagnant. Baron coming back won't change that. Just as Shape noticed tonight, the Warriors will be standing around even more as Baron pounds away 20 seconds of the shot clock.

The only play they have is the pick-n-roll with Beans (bless his heart for playing so damn hard) and then they have Monta goinging one-on-five and just making pure magic. But that's not enough. What this team needs is a friggin IDENTITY and they don't even have a hint of one. Who the hell are they?

I say keep Monta and Beans and blow up everything else. It would be nice to keep JRich too, as he's been the heart and soul of the team, but if GS got a true PG then Monta could be the starting SG for the next 10 years and I'd be fine with that. I also like Baron, but at this point I just feel frustrated with the whole damn thing. The way Chris Paul and Monta teamed up at the All-Star game, I wouldn't mind seeing those two together...

But Pietrus, Barnes, Harrington, and the rest? They can go. I don't care. I like what SJax has done for the team, and he's got a good value at $7 mils. But if he is needed to complete a trade for a legit PF, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

If Biedrins is going to be the starting Center for this team, he's going to need some help. He's thin and gets in foul trouble. He needs to have a compadre in the paint. Someone who will have his back. Camby or Udonis Haslem come to mind as tough rebounders. Or we can go top tier with Garnett etc...

As it is now, this roster is just waiting to get embarassed... like they did tonight.

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">

It still looks like Nellie hasn't really put his imprint on this team and taught them his motion offense. Seems like he's still trying to figure out what he has with this roster and which players mesh well together.
</div>

Agreed...imo, the remaking of the roster is still a work in progress. Look at his work in dallas...it took more than a season.

I must mea culpa now..I've been feeling good that this would be a playoff year, but i think that's less than a 50/50 shot now. between injuries to major contributors and a much needed roster shakeup, i think we're looking at another late lottery pick :/