Posts tagged ‘Kelenna Azubuike’

Your Warriors are out.

Box Score

What the heck was that?

Baron Davis played 17 minutes, Kosta Perovic played 13. The nuttiest thing about that information is that it seems like the correct move. Baron was dismal in his limited play. He ended up 2-13 and looked more like he was messing around one-on-one with his buddy Steve Nash than trying to help his team win their very last chance to stay in playoff contention. Nellie benched him the entire second half, one of many strange occurrences last night.

The Dubs came out all thumbs, just missing layups and bricking jumpers. The Suns took the lead after three minutes behind fat Shaq post points, and a deadly Nash/Amare pick and roll connection.

The Warriors’ game in the first half was an oddity of freak show proportions. We got to see line ups including Kosta P, Andris, and Uncle Austin at the same time. The strangest thing about the geek squad getting time was that they looked a lot more active and driven than the much touted heart and soul of the team. Kosta was a bit clumsy, but not inept. He didn’t back down from Shaq contact, fought hard for offensive rebounds, and ran the best he could. It was obvious he was sucking wind after a few minutes of real time game, but didn’t quit.

It’s tempting to get very gloomy about the fact that Nellie sat Baron for the entire half. There were no damage control quotes post game to put any kind of speculation speed bumps up either. Nellie merely said that he gave Baron some much needed rest, and BD left without speaking to reporters. If you want to delve into far reaching, pot stirring speculation head over to Tim Kawakami’s blog for his take on Boomgate.

The second half featured a new Dubs squad, and a new spark. Jack finally came alive, pouring in 16 points in the third - including 3 threes. The off brand Dubs managed to not only get out of the first half pit, they actually got up by as much as 8 behind solid play from Kaz, Austin, and their default point guard, Monta Ellis. Two things went right, Jack started bombing with accuracy, and they actually played some gosh dern defense.

Monta and the B-Team managed to push the lead up to 11 in the first few minutes of the fourth before the Suns got down to business and began waxing their playoff mustaches. Amare started getting to the line with a vengeance, while Bell and Barbosa hit some key three pointers. 

The Suns got back on top with 4 minutes left to play as the Dubs went cold. Jack was able to nail a very clutch three to tie it up once more, but the game was over when Monta missed his next jumper and the Suns put up 5 unanswered points.

Andris deserves more of a mention. He put up yet another double double, and had his old stickum grip back, catching Jack’s spitball passes on pick and rolls. Watching him and Kosta on the court together was entertaining, not in the look at the bizarre foreign giants way, more in the hey, those dudes can kinda get after it way.

The final game against Seattle is at home on Wednesday. I’ll be watching with a little tear in my eye. It won’t be a tear of shame, I’m just going to miss the guys, ya digg? 

Peace out 2007-2008 season, I’m not mad at ya. 48 or 49 wins is nothing to be ashamed of and there is plenty of hope for the future.

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.