Archive for the ‘Audio’ Category

Monta may be the current employee of the month, but Baron is still the boss at the Oracle.

Box Score

The big three were in the building and there were ugly patches of green scattered amongst the Warriors faithful. The mighty Celtics had come to town.

The Warriors opened with a brand new starting five, made necessary by Jack’s severe ankle sprain. Nellie threw out a squad of Baron, Monta, Pietrus, Biedrins and C-Webb to face the green monsters.

The first quarter started out rough. The Celtics charged ahead to a nine point lead. The Warriors picked up the pace and got back into the game behind some nice passing from Monta to Beans, a rare made three by Pietrus and some strong finishes from Baron and Monta. The intimidation factor wasn’t present and the Warriors were up three going into the second.

32-29 Warriors.

The loss of Jack really started to kick in during the second quarter. When Nellie rested Monta, the Dubs’ game faltered. Barnes was off and the turnovers started piling up. The Celtics had no such problems and were able to go on a couple of runs with Garnett and Ray-Ray resting behind some great shooting by their other Allen - Tony.

Celtics up 57-50 going into the half.

Play got very physical in the second half. The players started bumping, banging, and shoving, slowing the game down considerably. Ray Allen’s shooting was so pretty it made me sick. The Warriors got down by 12 before stepping up the D.

They started slapping the ball away and the refs were letting both teams play after a lot of contact. Pietrus stepped up big time and looked better than he has all season. Late in the third quarter, he soared in for a giant putback dunk after a missed three from Baron and then stole the ball from Pierce for an uncontested dunk on the very next play. The Warriors were back in the game and the stage was set for a huge fourth quarter.

84-82 Celtics.

The Celtics did not play much defense on this night. They had successfully shut Monta down in the third with tremendous pressure whenever he handled the ball, keeping him from scoring a single point. Ellis started the fourth determined to breakout and he got hot. He and Al stepped up, hitting their jumpers and drawing fouls while attacking the rim. Ray and Tony Allen went on a tear of scoring for the C’s and matched every Warriors run.

Baron had played his heart out all game and looked tired. He passed the ball to Monta early for most of the possessions, leaning on the young man to make the right decisions. The lead swung back and forth all quarter with both teams battling for every rebound and loose ball. Pietrus and Baron put the Warriors up 112-107 with made free-throws, but Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo shot the C’s back into the game.

114-113 Warriors with 1:28 left to play.

Once again it’s up to All Day Monta in crunch time. Al found Ellis open off of a low screen by Beans and the kid drilled a mid-range, baseline jumper to put the Dubs up by 3 with under a minute to play. Baron added a free throw after Rondo fouled him and the Warriors were up four with 38 seconds left.

Pierce sank two sets of free throws (one after Matt Barnes completely blows a play and airballs a floater - which Nellie harps on in the postgame below), and the game is tied with six seconds left.

After a time out, the Warriors inbounded the ball into Baron. He lowered his shoulder and started to drive, putting Tony Allen back on his heels. At the last moment, BD pulled up, stepped back and nailed a 20 foot jumper with .3 left on the clock. The massive crowd goes berserk, the bench goes berserk, I go berserk, you go berserk, the Celtics go home.

It was a wonderful showing by almost every player.

Baron is the boss, don’t mess with the man in his house.

Monta fought through some intense pressure and had yet another huge night. With Jackson out, he dished out a career high nine assists, many of them to Biedrins on pick-and-rolls and picked up 12 of his 26 points in the hard fought fourth quarter.

Al added 22 points and 12 rebounds coming off of the bench, and played stellar D against Perkins, Pierce and at times Garnett. His drives were under control and he didn’t try and hit every three–pointer he saw.

Pietrus had what was by far his best game of the season. He was all over the court as usual and came up big on several possessions offensively and defensively. Life would be a lot better for everyone if he could do that kind of thing more often.

Andris threw in a fat double-double with 21 and 13, a steal, and a monster block.

C-Webb watch: 20 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks. He’s looking better each game. He got severely scorched on D by the smaller guys and Garnett but those three blocks are a good sign.

Some mellower games coming up with the Hawks on Friday, and the Sonics on Tuesday. But if you know the Warriors, you know something nuts is going to happen.

exclusive postgame audio

Baron Davis

Al Harrington

Stephen Jackson

Don Nelson

Celtics audio:

Ray Allen

Kevin Garnett

Paul Pierce

Doc Rivers

The Warriors are facing off against the Jazz tonight in Salt Lake City. Hopefully everyone is well rested and hungry for some revenge against the derailers of last year’s We Believe train.

The dreamcrushers in powder blue have been on a quiet tear of wins ever since they picked up the sharp shooting forward Kyle Korver from Philly. They’re 22-3 at home this season and always give the Warriors a headache. Put in your mouthpiece, it’s going to be a tough fight.

In other Warriors news, Janny Hu from the Chronicle called into KNBR from Utah this morning and gave a quick interview (audio link). She had some insight into the locker room feel with Monta on the rise and spoke about her piece on the kid from today’s edition.

Geoff Lepper has a wide array of NBA head coaches talking about the Warriors’ defensive techniques:

“Slap and hold” is how Theus described Golden State’s defensive plan after his team was forced into 19 turnovers in a 105-102 loss Feb.9.

“Their game, in a nutshell, is they’re betting the referees won’t call them all,” Theus said.

Adonal Foyle made the media rounds last week and was his usual benevolent, well-spoken self while speaking with “The Razor & Mr. T” about contract buy-outs and the Van Gundy & Dwight “Superman” Howard situation (audio link).

Adonal also wrote a guest spot at the Huffington Post news blog, imploring young folks to get involved and change the political machine from the inside:

“For the fact is that registering and voting — even working for a candidate — isn’t enough. Not nearly. The problems that the last eight years have left us with are huge. Everything from the economy to the environment to foreign policy to health care and education need serious fixing. That will happen only if we stay engaged in the political process.”

He’s official, it’s official, notify the authorities. Monta’s jumper? All day. Monta’s name? Pronounced Mon-tay. You know what rhymes with Monta? All day. Baron’s old nickname? Too Easy. Too Easy, All Day. I’ve sent Fitz an email already, mark it.

Box Score

The Warriors had a lot to answer for after hosting a stinker against the Bulls on Thursday.

They came out with great defensive intensity in the first quarter, creating steals, forcing bad passes and running out on the Kings. In his second start, Chris Webber played a solid, if quiet quarter and the team seemed to flow well. With Webber at the top of the key during a Warriors’ possession, the ball moved well. The team looks more under control in the half-court offense with Webber up top, which is what Nellie has been aiming for. Baron was especially active on defense and personally picked up 3 steals in the quarter.

The Warriors were up by 9 at the end of the first.

Second & third quarters went as follows: Ugggh!

Whistle, screams and curses, booo, free-throws, turnover, brick, rebound! Brick, brick, screams, Artest chest thumps, brick, whistle, free-throws, etc…

The middle of the game was a complete meat grinder. Both teams were banging hard and watching Artest and Jackson play off of each other gave me bruises. The Warriors couldn’t hit a jumper and Bibby started running circles around the defense. The Kings played with focus and energy. Lead by Artest, Bibby and Udrih, they outscored the Dubs both quarters and took their first lead of the game late in the third. Monta converted a silky drive with time running out to tie the game at 78 going into the fourth.

Everyone came out to play in the fourth. Both teams were fighting for every possession and the superstars all answered the call. Jack and Monta played beautifully off of each other and each executed tough, clutch shots. Andris proved once again that he won’t be pushed around. He towed the line against Artest, Mikki Moore and Brad Miller in the paint, pulling down big rebounds and making some key tip-ins. The Kings made their run when Baron fouled out of the game with 2:11 left, but Monta and Jack answered. Monta hit an absolutely clutch jumper to put the Warriors up by four with 12 seconds (All Day!), and Jackson was able to make his free throws at the end to seal it.

The Kings are bruising and just as emotional as the Warriors. Watching Artest on the court makes Jackson and Baron seem cool headed. Ron-Ron is a powerful asset, but really does seem out of control emotionally. After watching this battle, complete with three technical fouls (Artest for taunting, Biedrins and Nellie for protesting), I hope these teams never meet during a full moon. The NorCal rivalry is here and neither squad is going to roll over.

Seeing Monta step up once again really drives home the idea that he and Andris are the future of this franchise. I have a co-worker who is a San Francisco native and a rabid Bay Area sports fan. He hasn’t been to see the Warriors play in person for over a decade, but he can’t stop talking about Monta’s game. He’s hustling to scrape up enough money to get to a game this season because he wants to make sure that his kids get to see number 8 playing in a Dubs uniform. Every time he talks about Monta he just starts shaking his head and saying, “They better find a way to sign him man, otherwise it’s going to be just like Gil, just like Gil.”

exclusive Postgame Audio

Don Nelson

Andris Biedrins

Monta Ellis

Al Harrington

Webber’s back, TNT was in the house and the hype machine was in full swing at the Oracle, but the end product was too ugly for TV.

Box Score

The young Bulls upended your Warriors on a night full of anticipation and expectations. The Dubs’ defense was pudding soft and all the energy and hustle came from the players in red. Chris Duhon dropped a career-high 34 points, Josh Smith and Tyrus Thomas gorged themselves on easy buckets in the paint, and even offensively stunted Ben Wallace got his licks in.

You can’t blame this kind of flat defeat simply on rust from the time off. There was some severe lack of execution at fault. Baron and Stephen had horrible shooting nights and no one seemed able to deny a pass into the post. Biedrins worked very hard on the boards, but got destroyed down low on defense.

The Bulls were without three of their main players in Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon, and they came into Oakland after a hard loss in Portland the night before. They are an extremely young, raw and physical team. They caught the Warriors sleeping and basking in their own hype, never let up, and took one on the road.

Chris Webber:

Number 4’s debut was definitely more of a fizzle than a bang, but it wasn’t a complete bust. His conditioning is nowhere near what it needs to be to hang with this team for any extended playing time, but he clicked a bit with everyone in the second quarter. He hit a couple of jumpers and dished out two assists in his 12 minutes. Webber absolutely slowed the team down when he was on the floor, but I think he’ll be able to sync up with practice and contribute down the road.

Andris Biedrins:

The big Latvian seems to be getting stronger and stronger. He more than held his own on the boards against the flailing power of the Bulls’ young big men and came up with 18 rebounds, nine of which were offensive. His offensive execution leaves a lot to be desired, but no one else can provide that kind of rebounding.

Monta Ellis:

Is a superstar. Once again, the Mississippi Bullet was the only consistent offense for most of the game. His jumper was spot on and he was finishing with ease. Monta went a mind-boggling 11-12 from the field. That kind of consistency is sorely needed on this sketchy, unpredictable team. He finished the second quarter with an absolutely monstrous dunk that brought the entire arena out of their seats.

The whole game was a sloppy mess and a huge let down after the spectacular, gutsy wins against the Hornets and Bobcats.

Time for the Dubs to lick their wounds and get their heads back on straight for a NorCal grudge match against the Kings on Saturday.

exclusive Postgame Audio

Stephen Jackson

Don Nelson

Chris Webber

Boxscore

The Dubs have now won seven of their last nine games, but this win, like a number of the others lately, left us wanting more - more discipline, more consistency and more of a bench. The bench part may be addressed soon - to my shock -but if the boys are going to land a spot in the upper echelon of the Western Conference, it’s time to lay the hammer down for 48 minutes.

The W’s played great in the 1st quarter and poorly in the 2nd. They were average in the 3rd and played like world-beaters for most of the 4th. Their saving grace was Andris Biedrins, who pulled down an NBA league-high 26 rebounds. Jack hit some big shots in the 4th, as the Big Three all scored more than 20 points each, but ‘Dre stole theshow. Playing well for 36 minutes will not get it done in the playoffs and we emphasize that point in our latest podcast.

After a long respite, Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News and I go over (download - mp3) the most recent eight-game stretch (including the two ugliest losses of the season), explain why we have such high
expectations for this squad, predict where things will shakedown in the Western Conference…and we even talk about the rumors involving Chris Webber rejoining the squad.

I’m numbed just writing that, let alone perhaps having to confront it in the weeks to come. This season is just getting started, my friends. Prepare for what could be an even wilder ride than last season.

Holler at us: mailbag@warriorscast.com or (415) 691-6185.