Posts tagged ‘t-wolves’

It was a MLK day matinee at the Oracle and the Warriors decided to teach all the young ones in attendance about life’s little disappointments.

Box Score

There were some great parts of this game and at times it was a fun one. What’s not fun is losing to the team with the worst record in the league at home while most of your competition (Houston, NO and Utah) for limited playoff spots notch wins.

It’s completely obvious at this point that the Warriors’ Achilles heel is an active big man, and that happens to be one of the only things the Wolves have going for them. Gomes and Jefferson combined for 56 points and 23 rebounds for Minnesota and both looked automatic as soon as they got the ball. Andris came up with 12 rebounds, but he and Al were thoroughly out-muscled and out-maneuvered in the paint all game.

The one true positive to come out of this Monday matinee debacle was the play of Matt Barnes. I forgot about the surge of energy Matt can bring to the team when he plays at a high level. He’s been struggling with well documented personal grief all season and it’s carried over to his play on the floor. On MLK Day, Matt was the Barnes we saw during the 2007 playoffs. He was a rebounding devil and got a season high 20 points. It’s wonderful to see him back in sync and playing so well.

Monta had another terrific night offensively and looked smooth as silk finishing. He fought hard for a couple of rebounds, but seemed to be a step behind Marko Jaric at times on defense, which is not good.

Baron got some good rest and was going full speed when he was in.

C.J. Watson played a solid 16.5 minutes, mostly alongside the Baron. He didn’t put up much in terms of numbers, but was quick on D and passed a big test when he nailed two clutch free throws late in the fourth to tie the game.

Jack came in off the bench during crunch time in the fourth and nailed two amazing threes in a row, but missed the killer third.

Patrick O’Bryant got a few minutes in the second quarter and hustled for some tough rebounds, got a few points and looked nice overall. No minutes for Wright for reasons we’ll never really know, but will perpetually ponder.

At times, the Dubs really got after it on defense and created turnovers, but they didn’t execute any kind of sustained pressure. The rotations were slow or missing at times and they got eaten up inside.

It was an avoidable, disappointing loss at home.

Next up, the nasty Nets on Thursday.