Posts tagged ‘Jack’

Your Warriors got cold in Denver.

Box Score

Baron Davis: 28 pts, 7 assists + Monta Ellis: 22 pts, 7 rebounds + Stephen Jackson 25 pts, 5 rebounds + Andris Biedrins: 17 pts, 17 rebounds = a loss!??

Perhaps we should look at this figure. Kelenna Azubuike: 6 pts, 0-5 for threes + Al Harrington: 2 pts, 0-4 FG, 0-3 for threes <  Kevin Martin: 30 pts, 11 rebounds.

It was a bad Saturday night in the mile high city for the Dubs. Small bursts of personal heroics from Baron & Jack as well as a much needed strong outing from Beans were all negated by the ice cold shooting touch from Kaz and the bench. Kelenna and Al couldn’t hit a wide open three to save their lives, or their team’s 8th seed position.

Denver’s bench had no jitters. JR Repeater Smith put up 20 points, and Eduardo Najera piled on 11 points, including two dagger threes in the fourth quarter.

AI had an unusually quiet game, preferring to sit back and watch micro-fracture mogul Kenyon Martin go for a season high 30 points.

Welcome to 9th. The Warriors flew home on the outside looking in. Dirkless Dallas is coming to the Oracle tonight. The Dubs have a chance to kick Dallas while they’re down and bleeding their way out of the playoffs. Kick ‘em, kick ‘em good!

Well, at least Kobe got his grill piece busted open.

Box Score

Regulation was insane. The Warriors again came out strong and swarming in the first half. They attacked on offense and defense, leaving the Lakers scattered and turning the ball over. Jack and Baron lit it up, going for 17 and 20 respectively.

Al’s three-point shot woke up; he added 12 points and pounded the boards hard - snaring 8. Warriors up by 11 into the half.

It was another gut check third quarter for the Dubs. They looked tired and were unable to get any kind of consistent scoring runs going. Kobe got his head into the game and he teamed up with Fisher and Odom to outscore the dubs 35-23 in the third, putting the Lakers up by one going into the fourth.

The Warriors looked dead in the water halfway through the fourth. Their legs looked gone and Kobe started doing that annoying superstar thing, hitting step back jumpers, threes, and grabbing rebounds. He had possible the lamest sidekick ever in the form of the floppy haired, flop prone Yugoslavian, Sasha Vujacic.

Vujacic was deadly from three point range and he hit two big ones, helping the Lakers stretch their lead to nine points with a little under 4 minutes to play. Things looked bleak, but Monta and Kaz saved the day by converting drives off of steals to bring them back within one with 33 seconds left. Odom missed one of his free throws and Baron made two huge ones of his own and the game went into OT, much to the delight of the raucous crowd.

OT was a battle. The Dubs got up but Fisher and Sasha “Vermin” Vujacic nailed killer threes to keep the Lakers on top. Kaz made a tough, tough tip-in off of a Monta miss to tie it up with 30 seconds left, but the Lakers went up once again as Odom found himself deliciously open right under the basket.

Final play: Warriors inbounding the ball down two with nine seconds left. The Dubs run a congested rotation of screens and Monta goes down in a heap on top of Fisher. It looks like they got tangled up and Fisher may have stumbled while pulling Monta down on top of him.

Referee Bob Delaney called an offensive foul on Monta giving the Lakers two free throws and ending an incredibly exciting and hard fought game with a huge let down. The call was a bad one. Fisher either fell back and grabbed Monta as he fell, or he intentionally pulled Monta down on top of him for a call.

Talk about anti-climactic. The Dubs and Lakers battled for 52 minutes straight only to have the game be decided by an official. No one wanted to see that. Horrible.

exclusive postgame audio

Don Nelson

Phil Jackson

Kobe Bryant

Derek Fisher

Lamar Odom

Your Warriors create mad drama.

Box Score

If you ever need a time capsule game to demonstrate to our future robot overlords what the big deal in Oakland in 2008 was, this is the one.

The Warriors completely controlled the first half. They ran circles around the Lakers, tricked them into trying to play their chaotic game, and robbed them blind. Monta, Baron, and Jack ran the show with tough defense and blazing breaks. Kaz chipped in with a few points and out-of-nowhere D on Kobe. Bryant didn’t score a single point in the second quarter, Kaz absolutely blanketed him.

The Dubs went into the half with a 23 point lead and the sweet, sweet sound of Lakers fans booing their own team.

There’s a popular anti-apathy slogan out there: ”If you’re not outraged you’re not paying attention.” Here’s the Warriors version: “If you’re not concerned about losing this massive lead you’ve never watched this team.” As much as I wanted to believe that the game was in the bag after such a dominant first half - I knew nothing was safe.

The third quarter was a horror-fest for the Dubs. The Lakers stopped trying to run wild with the Warriors, executed their offense, shut down Monta, and proceeded to outscore them 32-15.

The Dubs couldn’t get anything going and didn’t seem all that concerned with trying. They started walking the ball up the court, dribbling around at the top of the key and hefting a three-pointer. 7 of the Warriors’ 15 points in the third came from free throws, they shot under 20% for the quarter, and went into the fourth with a tentative 6 point lead.

The Lakers continued to pour it on in the final quarter, eventually taking a 2 point lead with 5 minutes left. The Warriors were still having trouble shooting the ball, but Al hit a couple, and Monta and Jack were making their free throws. Brandan Wright got some good minutes, and some great blocks. The Dubs weren’t able to shut the Lakers out like they had in the first half but they were at least playing them a lot tougher.

Kobe Bryant did his best to take over and win the game. If he had been up against anyone else he probably would have gotten away with it. He nailed a deadly three to cut the lead to 1, Captain Jack answered with a three of his own, Kobe hit another cold blooded three with 30 seconds left and the place went bananas. The LA fans could smell the win, their superstar was working his magic and there was no way the Warriors were going to leave Staples alive. Captain Jack got the ball well behind the three-point line, hesitated just a second, and launched….swish. Jack’s second three pointer to answer Kobe put the lead back up to 4 with 8 seconds to play - game over. The man only made two (non free throw) shots in the entire second half, and they were the biggest ones possible.

This is the 2008 Warriors. This is why they had such an awful start to the season. Jack is that important.    

Your Warriors have finally won in the Staples Center.

Box Score

The Dubs gunned the Clippers down in the first half and absorbed a few blows in the second to earn a win. This is the first win in Staples for the Warriors since March 2004.

Captain Jack bounced back from his horrible shooting night in Sacto with a vengeance. He hit 5-10 of his threes, 3 coming in the first quarter alone. Monta came alive after his own troubled Tuesday performance, awing the Clippers’ crowd and the ESPN announcers with his speed and finishing ability. Baron was able to cruise for once, logging a mere 27 minutes. Pietrus had an outstanding 15 points and 12 rebounds.

It wouldn’t be a Warriors game without a little bit of heart trouble. The Dubs were up by as much as 26 points in the third quarter but the Clippers were able to come back to within 11 in the fourth. Corey Maggette, Al Thorton, and Tim Thomas were able to muscle their way inside at will. If the Clips weren’t converting their drives they were shooting free throws. The small Warriors’ front-court is painfully unable to stop large, quick players like those three. Nelson was forced to insert Monta after watching a Barnes led bench squad fail to score on at least 4 possessions with time running down. All Day responded by going for a perfect 6-6 in the fourth quarter and that kept the game out of reach for L.A.

Wright had a trying 13 minutes playing against Al Thorton. Brandan failed to make a field goal while Horford positively went off. The Clippers’ big rookie finished the game with a team high 24 points, and 13 rebounds in his 44 minutes.

There was a brief, uneventful run for Kosta Perovic and Marco Belinelli at the very end of the game. Marco made a nutty off balance turn around jumper and Kosta looked really tall.

All hail the Sixers - they beat the Nuggets tonight, extending the Warriors’ 8th seed cushion to 2.5 games over Denver.

Andris speaks on surgery, Vegas, his love of magic and cats, and his bff Zarko:

And then I went to the animal show. This guy, Gregory Popovich, he has his own show where he teaches cats to do crazy stuff. I had a cat when I was back home and I love cats, so the show was really cool. The cats were standing on two legs pushing carts and walking on the tall stilts, it was crazy stuff. It was ridiculous. He has 16 cats on the stage and every cat he had taught something. It was funny.

Tim Kawakami has an extended Q&A with Nellie, Baron, and Jack about the Warriors’ picking up Nelson’s option and a bunch of other team biz:

 -Q: Will you talk to Baron about this?

-NELSON: I’m going to talk to Baron and Jack for sure. I won’t talk to everybody because some of them are mad at me and I know they’d say, ‘Why don’t you get out!’ It might sound good to them, too.There’s a few people that we’re building around and I think I already know their answer, but it’s important that we’re all on the same page.

Jeff Wong wrote on why the Raptors should be scurred of Monta, and he enlisted a squad of the best local bloggers to break down All Day’s game:

History smacks Raptors fans upside the head with this fact: our Raps have trouble defending athletic wing players. And few are as athletic and wingy as tonight’s opponent, Monta Ellis (a.k.a. “The Mississippi Bullet”) of the Golden State Warriors.

Your Warriors dispatched the despondent Heat.

Box Score

With no Dwayne Wade, no real chance of sniffing the playoffs, no hopes, no dreams, and no motivation, the Heat quickly lost their heart.

The first quarter was fairly competitive. Miami ran the ball well while the Warriors seemed a bit lazy and jumper happy. Jack and Al held their own private shooting contest, going for 6 combined threes - 10 total for the game. Beans started and he came on strong, scoring the Dubs’ first bucket on a pick-and-roll with Baron. He looks fully recovered from his surgery but Nellie was careful about keeping him out there for too long, limiting his time to 6 minutes stretches - 18 total. The Warriors got more aggressive in the second quarter, scoring inside and out while harassing the Heat ball handlers. The lead widened and the piling on began.

The Dubs kept their foot on the Heat’s chest for the entire second half. Monta came alive, scoring 14 of his 16 total points in the third. Peety got hot after throwing up a brick fest for the first half and added 9. The Heat were rolling over and showing their bellies by the time the buzzer went off and Nellie was able to rest his starters for almost the entire fourth.

CJ and Kaz both played over 20 minutes and did well. CJ looked especially aggressive and ended the game with 4 steals.

The Warriors fielded their biggest line up in recent history during garbage time. We got to see 6-10 Uncle Austin, the 7 foot Patsquatch, and 6-9 (is that all? his arms really are ridiculously long) Jughead packing the lane together and generally looking funny.

This was the perfect outcome against a severely wounded team like the Heat. The Dubs didn’t let up for three straight quarters and were able to cruise with the subs in for the fourth - saving the big guns’ legs for what will be a much tougher game against the Magic.

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?

Jack flew in some Port Arthur youngsters for a day on the town in the City, followed by a Warriors’ win against the Sonics. Peep the massive group hug coming off the plane, now that’s gangsta.