Posts tagged ‘Brandan Wright’

Word from practice today is that Brandan Wright strained his groin against the Kings last night and may not be available in tomorrow’s pivotal matchup against Denver. Wright has come on strong in recent weeks and was expected to play a role in defending the Nuggets’ Marcus Camby, one of the NBA’s top rebounders and defenders.

The W’s were otherwise very loose and in great spirits. Their practice was more like a shootaround, with players getting treatment in preparation for tomorrow’s clash.

Listen to Don Nelson breaking the news to us below, as well as thoughts from Baron Davis and Monta Ellis.

exclusive audio

Don Nelson

Baron Davis

Monta Ellis

Your Warriors ain’t dead yet.

Box Score

With some smart early play by Jack and Baron, and not a little bit of help from a dismal looking Griz squad, the Dubs’ youth movement got its most extended run of the season.

It’s all about perspective. If you were as down as I was on the team after the turrable Texas trouncings, this game should help. If we end up just outside of the playoffs this season at least we’ll have Monta, Brandan, Andris, and some combination of Marco, CJ, and Kaz to look forward to in the future. Grizzlies fans will have Rudy Gay, Mike Miller, draft picks and…..fantasizing about getting Darko off of their team. Pecking order you see, it’s all about finding someone worse off than you and making yourself feel better about your lot at their expense.

All Warriors all game.

Andris had 14 points and 12 rebounds by the end of the second quarter and BoomJack had already combined for 11 assists. The greybeards were obviously focused on moving the ball and Beans was the focal point on offense early on, running tight pick-and-rolls and boarding like mad. Andris finished the game with 21 points & 17 rebounds.

Kaz got another start, and his 40 minutes was the longest stretch on the team. He quietly went about his business, grabbing 10 boards and draining 3-5 threes. With Matt Barnes’ game on life support, Kelenna has really done well to fill the dirty work gap.

Marco Belinelli unexpectedly entered the game for Monta with a minute and a half left in the first, and stayed in for another 21 exciting minutes. In his post game interview he mentioned that Nellie told him to be ready to guard Juan Carlos Navarro, meaning that coach planned this whole circus out. It’s a bit frustrating to see Nelson start gambling with young player development this late in the season, but the results were hard to second guess. After floundering into two turnovers on his first two possessions, Marco shook off the jitters and got his summer league on. He was darting to open spots on the floor off of screens and blasting away with off balance jumpers from all over the court. 13 points on 6-11 shooting with 1 three.

CJ Watson also got a chance to get some licks in, running the point for the last six and a half minutes of the game. He racked up his 9 points in four minutes, going 4-4 with one three.

Brandan Wright’s go-go-gadget arms got 20 minutes of action and excelled against the unmotivated, soft Grizzlies front court. He looked smooth and silly skinny, getting two blocks.

Al looked like junk. He repeatedly tried to force his own shot in the paint, only to get rejected or brick it off the front of the rim. His thumb is wrapped and it seems to be completely throwing him off of his game.

Barnes once again made his presence felt via pain. He blatently shoved Kyle Lowry off of him during an out-of-bounds play in the fourth, earning yet another flagrant - and a suspension for the NO game on Sunday due to cumulative flagrant foul points. Frustration and pain are ruining Matt’s game, it’s a really sad turn of events for a player most of us want to see stick around and do well with the Warriors.

Oh yeah, Monta. The kid cruised through the game, looking like he was playing in high school again. He was a bit sloppy with the ball, picking up 4 turnovers, but was also opportunistic against the sloppy Grizzlies, picking up 4 steals. Mellow 19 points for All Day.

Conventional wisdom tells us that the extended rest for Baron and Jack is a positive sign for the Dubs’ chances against the Hornets on Sunday. The problem is that the Warriors repeatedly tell conventional wisdom to shove it. It’s an early one, 10 am local time on ABC so turn on, tune in and hold on.

PS: Dallas lost to the Lakers…damn I hate being happy about a Lakers’ win.

J-Rich and his Cats stole your Warriors’ cheese.

Box Score

With Gerald Wallace sitting due to a concussion, Jason is the Cats’ offense. He absolutely punished his former team tonight to the tune of 42 points.

The Warriors seemed to lose sight of the game after going up by as much as 16 in an effortless 38 point first quarter.

It took the Dubs almost 6 minutes to score their first field goal in the second quarter, but they did manage to turn the ball over well - coughing up 8. Meanwhile, Jason and Co. were running all those turnovers back down the Warriors’ throats and nailing open threes. Another former Warrior, Earl Boykins, had his best quarter since signing with the Bobcats, putting up 11 points including a big three with time running out.

The second half saw Raymond Felton get hot. When he and Jason took a break from nailing threes they were on the line making their freebies.

The Warriors were able to fight back and take a 1 point lead with 5:33 to go in the game, but they couldn’t stop the Bobcats from getting to the basket and couldn’t come up with enough magic of their own.

Two stats jump out at me as indicative of the night: steals (Cats 9, Dubs 5), and turnovers (Cats 10, Dubs 14). When a steal and fast break driven team like the Warriors puts up those kind of upside down numbers it’ll usually add up to a loss.

Monta, Baron, and Jack did their part, scoring 83 of the Warriors’ 109 points, but the bench was absent after a couple of strong games. Monta had an especially solid night, cutting through traffic in a flash and finishing beautifully. Brandan Wright played 23 minutes, but had a relatively quiet 6 points and 5 rebounds. There was a brief POB sighting in the second. Watching seldom seen shaggy Pat lope down the court was a rare treat, a bit like catching a glimpse of the mysterious Sasquatch.

Tomorrow’s a travel and rest day. Time for the Dubs to shake off the loss and get ready to face Dwyane, Shawn and Miami’s….finest?

Your Warriors held it down at home against the upstart Blazers - keeping themselves relevant before heading out on a busy road trip.

Box Score

It was a good weekend for the Dubs. They calmly dispatched the Sixers on Friday , and earned an excellent win against the Blazers tonight.

Portland has been problematic for the Warriors this season, dominating their first two match ups. This game was different. The Dubs ran wave after wave of different looks at the Blazers, consistently out hustling them and keeping one step ahead all four quarters.

Brandan Wright started his second game in a row and he made an immediate impact. He was a jolt of energy for a team that has looked sluggish at the beginning of games for most of the season. Jughead was everywhere on the court, grabbing 6 rebounds (3 offensive) and pouring in 8 points before being subbed out. He didn’t look jittery at all and did everything we need him to with Andris recovering. Captain Jack also started off in fine style, hitting 3 threes and adding 11 points total in the first.

The Blazers kept it close for entire game and even got up by 2 early in the fourth, but the Warriors were able to impose their chaotic style and pull back ahead each time their lead was threatened. They kept the energy high on defense and challenged almost every possession, racking up fast break points and keeping Portland back on their heels.

Monta had yet another gloriously efficient night, going 9-16 for 22 points, dishing 6 and grabbing 10 big boards. Captain Jack was on fire, ending the game with 29 points (6 threes) and 9 rebounds. Baron struggled for his second game in a row, but his teammates made sure he didn’t have to try and play the hero.

The Dubs started and ended the game strong. They got big plays from everyone and look hot heading into an important week of road games. It’s a back-to-back with Atlanta and Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday off, and then Miami and Orlando on Friday and Saturday.

Denver lost to the streaking Rockets tonight, giving us a small bit of breathing room in the standings, but things are still tighter than gnat booty in the West.

There’s been a lot of hype coming from the Warriors’ coaching staff about how Webber’s passing is going to help the team. After a rough start, they’ve qualified it by saying that his teammates need to move better without the ball in order to create passing opportunities. Geoff Lepper on Nellie’s new drills designed to get the cutters cutting and the slashers slashing:

“For the first time since coming back as the Warriors coach in August 2006, Nelson dusted off his set of extra-defender drills. Where the Warriors ordinarily run various groups of players up and down the court in four-on-four or five-on-five battles, Monday the offense went four-on-five or five-on-six.

The point was to make it so much harder for someone to dribble-drive their way to an open shot in the lane that Nelson’s players would have to sharpen up their skills at making quick, precise passes meant to free up their teammates.”

The only good thing to come out of the loss to the Hawks last Friday was Brandan Wright’s performance. Suddenly it seems like there’s a reason beyond mere curiosity to get our first round pick more playing time, he can actually help. John Crumpacker on Wright’s upcoming opportunities:

“Had he returned for another year at North Carolina, Brandan Wright would be a sophomore. A star sophomore, no doubt. Instead, he chose to enter the NBA.

Of course, being 6-foot-9 with leaping ability helps, and now Wright is on the verge of getting more playing time with the Warriors as they confront the last third of the season with less than a full squad.”

Finally, big news about a big man in the West. Henry Abbott on Yao’s injury and the shock-waves it will send throughout the league (and Olympic play):

“Two years later, Yao Ming’s Rockets have at last, apparently, turned the corner. They have won a dozen in a row, and 16 out of 17, to put themselves a mere three games out of first place in the brutal Western Conference.

And now Yao Ming is out for the season, thanks to a reported stress fracture in that same foot.”

Brandan Wright’s ’send it in’ moment was the only highlight from what was an otherwise miserable night at the Oracle.

The Warriors once again looked flat in the 1st half, allowing Atlanta to get off to a 68-50 lead, which proved to be insurmountable.This pattern of lousy first half play is something both Nellie and Baron couldn’t explain after the game, but it’s clear that if the Warriors want to make the playoffs, they have figure out a way to just stay relatively competitive early on.

Their poor starts are hampering what has been a fantastic, exciting season.The Warriors expend far too much energy in their comebacks, and as we saw once again in this game, they couldn’t muster up enough of it to thwart the young, nimble and very underrated Hawks.

Baron was terrific, pouring in 35 points to go with seven assists, but he concedes he “didn’t think that we [GSW] came with a sense of urgency early.”

Monta scored 26 points and Wright’s eight points and eight boards opened up Nellie’s eyes, as you will hear in the postgame audio, but they are mere footnotes in what was a truly disappointing effort.

In addition to the lackluster start, the Dubs once again allowed an average NBA guard to get off. On this night, it was Salim Stoudamire’s turn to make the W’s perimeter defense look bad. Like Chris Duhon and Roger Mason Jr. before him, Stoudamire recorded a season-high 18 points and looked as if he was reliving his days as a stud guard at Arizona.

Joe Johnson is truly a beast. He ripped the Warriors for 27, 8 & 8, and was the point man in the low post that facilitated wide open shots from downtown for any Hawk so inclined.

I may be going over the deep end on this post, considering how thrilling the Warriors win versus Boston was, but if the boys don’t get it together during this very winnable stretch of games - Seattle is next - then it really would be difficult to expect them to sneak into the playoffs. Somehow, they’ll have to pull together while Webber continues to get into shape and Andris recovers from surgery.

If there’s any good news to report, I overheard Stephen Jackson in the tunnel say he will be back for the game Tuesday versus the Sonics. His emotion and firepower is just what the doctor ordered.

exclusive postgame audio

Don Nelson

Monta Ellis

Brendan Wright

Baron Davis

The giant Jazz monkey is still firmly attached to your Warriors.

Box Score

This Jazz team is a cold, calculated killing machine, and they’re also built like hockey players - that moonlight as underground bare-knuckle fighters.

The game was competitive for the first quarter with both teams pouring in 36 points. As the game wore on it became apparent that, at least on this night, the Warriors defensive liabilities far outweighed their offensive assets, and they were down by double digits going into the half. If it wasn’t Kirilenko lighting the Dubs up from outside, it was Boozer or Okur ripping them up on the inside, or Harpring pounding them midrange. Williams ran his defenders ragged, bouncing them off of endless screens and breaking them down with ease. By the end of the third, he was already at 24 points and 10 assists. The Warriors were incredibly overmatched on the glass and the huge Jazz players ran an offensive clinic. When they weren’t scoring inside, they were driving and dishing to a wide open Kirilenko or Korver.

Nellie pulled both Baron and Jack near the end of the third and both headed to the locker room for treatment. Something was up with Baron’s knee and Jack’s toe was bothering him.

The fourth quarter was pure garbage time. BWright, C.J. Watson and Azubuike got an extended run to end the game. C.J. was aggressive on offense and his shot was falling, but he got his lunch money swiped by Williams.

Kaz struggled for most of the quarter, missing layups and turning the ball over. He woke up and poured in a few points in the last three minutes, but generally had a poor outing.

Brandan was on the court for nine straight minutes, but didn’t impact the game much. He did make a few nice passes, which you can put on the giant ’hope we can see more of that’ list.

Baron, Monta and Al all looked like they were going to go for big offensive games, but nobody could save the Warriors from their own anemic defense.

The only silver lining I can come up with is that the Webber experiment finally got interesting. C-Webb was actually a positive contributor on offense. His much tauted passing prowess was on display in the first quarter and he hit Baron on a gorgeous back door cut early on. He hit several jumpers, and even completed a drive with a pretty reverse lay-up. Can’t write the big man off yet. Final line for Webber: 9 points, 3 assists, 1 steal and a block in 16 minutes.

The key to the Warriors’ D is intensity. They are successful when they can get their hands on the ball and shake up their opponents. Forcing the disciplined Jazz into 19 turnovers is no small accomplishment, but the bullies from Utah don’t rattle. That’s the last time we’ll face them in the regular season. A meeting in the playoffs would be a serious buzz kill.

Another tough game with Boston tonight.

It appears that Al Harrington, a NJ native and a big NY Giants fan, had to give up his prime Super Bowl tickets due to Webber’s last minute mini-camp. He may be giving up some more minutes to the new old kid as well.

From the Chronicle article by Janny Hu:

Again, it’s Harrington who figures to make the biggest adjustment - not the least of which was selling his 50-yard-line tickets to Sunday’s Super Bowl when Nelson re-instated practice after Webber’s arrival.

In a recent KNBR interview, Brandan Wright claims Al never brought up missing the big game in practice, but that had to have hurt a bit. I can’t imagine that Al’s too nonplussed about the hypothetical minute reduction as it seems only Baron, Stephen and Monta are consistent starters.

The rest of the league is buzzing about Gasol’s debut with the Lakers and collectively scratching their heads about the possible Shaq Diesel trade. Meanwhile we’re all sitting on our hands waiting for Nellie’s grand experiment to be unveiled tomorrow night against the Bulls.

The second Webber era is almost upon us.