Posts tagged ‘J-Rich’

The Warriors redeemed themselves in grand fashion to cap off their road trip.

After suffering a brutal loss at the hands of J-Rich and the Bobcats, GSW ended their roadie with back to back wins over flameless Heat and a solid Magic squad. The Warriors have won every road trip longer than three games this season, ending this trip 3-1, while keeping pace in the absurdly competitive Western Conference.

The Dubs’ defense, non-existent for stretches of the road trip, magically appeared in time to stifle Orlando’s stud center Dwight Howard. He torched the Warriors for 19 points in the first half, but Superman was “held” to 26 and 12.

Credit Nellie and the staff for sending double-teams to attack the big man in the second half before he got in too close for easy buckets.

Baron poured in his standard 33 and 9, MP nearly had a double-double again and Jack hit three treys, on the way to 20 points.

After a win like this, against a team that beat them on their home court, it’s hard to find much to complain about.  As you’ll hear in our latest effort, Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News and I gush over the successful road trip, the stellar contribution from the bench and whether the Dubs are officially an elite squad.

Some interesting games against the Raptors and the Suns await.

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?