Blog Archives

Here are some Youtube finds from last night’s game.

Peety’s block on Kevin Martin: From Odenized

Crowd angle of the block. “OHHHHH DAMN!”

Monta’s sick dish for the Boom dunk: “Play of the night!”

Bonus: Belinelli highlights from the Grizzlies game.

Your Warriors still got game.

Box Score

Highest scoring game of the season, nice.

The Warriors took a 6-0 lead early, and never got behind for the rest of the game. The Kings stuck within striking distance behind inspired offensive efforts by John Salmons (22 points, 6 rebounds), Francisco Garcia (31 points), and the ruthlessly efficient Kevin Martin (29 points, 7 rebounds). Ron Artest was in a suit, providing nothing but uncomfortable gesticulations from the bench.

Monta, Baron, and Beans led the Dubs in this fast paced win.

Boom had his best night in months, putting up 33 points and dishing 9 dimes. He played a team high 42 minutes and was focused on the win.

Monta played a brilliant 34 minutes, putting up 16 points and dishing 7 assists.

Andris was incredibly active, picking up a game high 17 rebounds and converting quick thinking plays down low.

Al continued to look strong, focusing on power plays in the paint and putting in good work on the boards.

Watching the development of Kevin Martin and Monta Ellis is a gift from the NBA gods. Martin is more refined, and is already a team leader, but Monta’s explosiveness and creativity is unparalleled.

The obvious down side of the game for the Warriors was the lack of defensive focus. With the exception of the first minute-and-a-half of the game, during which Al and Baron stole the ball 4 times, the Kings’ main challenge was deciding whether to drive, or shoot the jumper. Mikki Moore (who dropped 19 and 10 on us in March) was mercifully silenced early on, picking up quick fouls and a tech in the first. I think we’re all better off seeing less of those ridiculous predator dreads on the court.

CJ Watson got a good run in the second half when Nellie sat Monta. Watson wasn’t nearly as explosive as All Day, but he fought hard for a couple of offensive rebounds and was the only Dub able to slow Kevin Martin down all night.

Pietrus returned to the squad in a fairly triumphant fashion. He brought a much needed spark to the building during a second half lull with two emphatic blocks and a gorgeous put back slam. He also reminded us that he’s still the same Peety with one of his patented traveling calls from the corner.

The stage is set for the 8th seed showdown against the Nuggets on Thursday. I’m too nervous and scattered to make any predictions beyond some random Barkley hateration. Make sure to set your DVRs/TIVOs/Alarm Clocks up ahead of time because tip-off is at 5:00 on TNT.

GO WARRIORS!

exclusive postgame audio

Baron Davis

Stephen Jackson

Al Harrington

Check out our special edition of Warriorscast taped live during the Warriors/Kings game.

Adam and I analyze the action as it happens, get halftime and postgame insight from AP Radio correspondent Ryan Leong and otherwise have a grand ol’ time. Let us know what you think about the live pod at mailbag@warriorscast.com.

The biggest game of the year awaits us all on Thursday. Let’s hope the W’s show their true colors.

Chris Paul runs his city.

Box Score

Chris Paul, Peja Stojakovic, David West, and Jannero Pargo made their rekindled fan base proud - and demonstrated that they belong in the top spot in the West.

The Dubs played a solid game with several strong contributions, but demonstrated why they’re scratching and clawing their way between 8th and 9th.

Monta and Andris were the go-to guys for the Warriors for the second game in row. Monta completely dominated on offense, driving and shooting his way to a game high 35 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, and snatching 4 steals. Beans was incredibly active beneath the basket and on the glass, putting up 17 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.

It was a good, competitive match. The Warriors lead for most of the first two quarters thanks to Monta and Beans. The Dubs’ defensive plan of aggressively fronting Tyson Chandler in the post was very effective, until the Hornets’ back-up point guard Jannero Pargo decided to become an assassin. Pargo piled on 16 points in 6 minutes in the heart of the second quarter, bringing NO back from the brink and kick-starting their offense.

Paul vs. Davis was the featured match up, unfortunately for us it ended up being very one sided.

Baron was booed soundly every time he touched the ball due to the messy end to his Hornets’ career. He shut up the boo-birds with big plays occasionally, but not for good.

The real star of the show was Chris Paul. Paul ran his team like the MVP he deserves to be, going off for a triple double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists and 5 steals. The most telling shot of the night came from CP3 with 7:43 left in the game. The Warriors had just muscled their way back to a 90-90 tie, and looked hungry to go on a run when Paul took the game into his own hands and nailed a cold blooded three - triggering a 12-2 Hornets’ run, sealing the game.

In a perfect reflection of the game, Baron attempted his own three to answer Paul’s that fell short - triggering a small collapse by the Dubs and sealing the loss.

Al Harrington finally got a decent game under his belt, he and Monta carried the Dubs in the second half. The two provided 30 of the Warriors’ 45 third and fourth quarter points. Monta was unstoppable and was the toast of the ABC commentators.

The Hornets’ ultimately victorious answer was a deadly trio of Paul, West, and Stojakovic - those three calmly picked apart the Warriors’ defense and nailed all the open shots they needed to.  

Baron and Jack couldn’t come up with any magic. They each individually tried to make big plays but fell short. Baron went 8-22 from the field while Jack put in another weak performance, going 3-11 in 43 minutes. For a couple of guys who supposedly thrive under pressure and live for competition they sure look like they’re wilting after a gruelling season and have come up empty for the final run.

Jackson and Baron are struggling, and there is no one to fill that big of a gap. They’re the heart of the team, no young up-and-comers or bench player combo can cover for a disintegrating heart.

The Warriors aren’t the only ones scuffling; Denver dropped a double overtime loss against the rookie phenom Kevin Durant and his Sonics. We’re still tied for 8th with a head to head against them Thursday.  

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.

Your Warriors embarrassed themselves.

Box Score

Even I, the most silver-lining Warriors apologist to be found, have no spin for tonight’s collapse. The Dubs lost their identity. It was the Mavs making the hustle plays, the Mavs creating the turnovers and running the break, the Mavs hitting the back breaking shots, and the Mavs raising their fists in victory.

Outscored and outplayed each quarter, the Warriors never held the lead. Monta and Baron were the only discern-able offense, combining for 47 of the anemic 86 point total. Monta resurrected his jumper, and added a couple of rare threes on his way to a team high 27 points. No such dedication to defense could be found from either of our guards. Monta was conspicuously absent in transition, and Baron was thoroughly picked apart by Josh Howard or whomever he found himself guarding on a switch.

The Dubs’ combined assist total from the last two games is 18, 17 less than the Mavs put up tonight. The dribble, pass, dribble, chuck offensive set was occasionally supplemented by the dribble….dribble……chuck tactic.    

Jason Kidd has his way with the absent defense, dishing 17 dimes. Josh Howard was once again unstoppable against a team that didn’t bother to try and stop him. Jason Terry was feeling himself like he was checking for frostbite, he bombed away for 31 points. 

It was gut check time and the Warriors had nothing. Where was our ice cold killer, Stephen Jackson? Jack and Al combined for an epically hideous 2-20 shooting night. Al was sloppy and off, but Stephen Jackson was bizarrely absent. The Dubs couldn’t win games without Jack at the beginning of the season, and they can’t seem to win games with this checked out version during the final push. The ESPN play-by-play team had this observation after watching him get the ball cleanly picked by Eddie Jones, “Stephen Jackson is looking around the court like he doesn’t know where he is”, I had no idea where he was either.

It may be all the huge minutes on Baron and Stephen adding up. Their bodies may be collapsing due to the style of play and grind they’ve been through so far this season and simply too out of gas for the home stretch.

Seeing a team that is all heart show such a lack of resolve was a bit heartbreaking. I’m thinking about blowing the lid off of the Santa conspiracy to my 3 year old nephew, just to have someone to share my disillusionment with.

“It’s just like last year — it’s just that we have a better record this year, but we’re still fighting to get in the playoffs like last year,” said Stephen Jackson.

Jack knows it, as do Nellie, Baron and the whole crew. The Warriors are in for a fight to the end and losses like this one will not help their cause. The Spurs played as they typically do against the Dubs, and thus for 20th straight time in San Antonio, the Warriors walked out with a loss.

Baron had 19 to pace the Warriors, but Jack and Monta were off and that spelled doom for GSW’s hope for a sweep of the Texas two-step. With eight games to play in what has been a terrific season, the Warriors are still on the outside looking in - ninth place in the Western Conference.

While the Warriors’ big three were held in check, the same could not be said of the Spurs’ big dogs. Tony Parker dropped home 26 points, Timmmmy added 17 & 12 rebounds, while Manu the Flopper scored 16.

Adding insult to injury, the Spurs stifled GSW’s streak of having scored 100 or more points in 37 straight games. A stinging loss at a crucial time. We’ll see if the boys can fight back against Dallas in what could be labeled as the biggest game of the year.

Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News and I break down the recent stretch of games, including this one, and look to the final eight regular season contests in our latest podcast.

Also, we have some breaking news regarding Marco Belinelli, as you’ll read here.

Or maybe not.

Your Warriors stayed one step ahead of the gimpy Mavs.

Box Score

The Dubs were shut out for the first 3 minutes, getting down 12-0 before Al Harrington threw down a frustrated dunk and put his teammates on notice that Dallas wasn’t going to kick its own butt.

The Warriors got with the program and rallied to take a 1 point lead by the end of the first quarter. The Mavs made small incursions throughout the rest of the game, but never got it closer than 3 points down.

Josh Howard stepped up to fill the Dirk gap for Dallas. He went off for 36 pts, 9 boards, and 2 blocks in his normal understated style. The other Mavs standout was their young forward, Brandon Bass. The 6-8 delicious Bass punished Andris in the paint late in the game. He repeatedly muscled his way down low, created space, and made his shots, often getting fouled in the process. Jason Kidd nailed some nerve racking threes when he felt like it but as usual focused on his passing and rebounding, picking up 14 dimes and snatching 9 boards.

The Dubs’ big three was the unlikely trio of Monta, Kaz, and Al. Monta has lately become the first option on offense. He was stellar in this victory. His jumper was falling and he was driving and finishing with grace and style. 30 points for All Day the most improved Mississippi Bullet.

Al kicked the Warriors in the arse in the first quarter, sailed through some questionable foul calls, and kept his aggression up all game. He’s taken it on himself to put in extra effort on the boards and it’s paying off. 9 boards for Harrington.

The final golden child was Kaz. The stain from his hideous night against the Nuggets was wiped clean by his gutsy play in this game. Azubuike willed in 15 points and snatched 9 boards. He made two separate momentum saving shots in the fourth, a three with 4 minutes left and an open jumper with just under 2 to go in the game.

There’s some serious congestion going on at the bottom of Western pack. We now share our 45-28 record with Dallas and Denver. It’s like 7am on the freaking Bay Bridge down there.    

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!

Your Warriors took care of the baby Blazers.

Box Score

You know you’re a Warriors fan when you get nervous if a fourth quarter lead dips below twenty points.

Baron looked like he was ready to hurl from the flu, but Nellie still put him in for 27 minutes. Boom and the team had a horrendous 22 point first quarter. They got down by as much as 14 and were dominated by Portland’s active young big man LaMarcus Aldridge. The Dubs woke up in the second with Al hitting his threes, Monta and Kaz scoring inside, and Jack running the show. Warriors down by 1 at the half.

The warm Warriors fuzzies started kicking in in the third quarter. The defensive intensity picked up, Monta, Baron, and Jack started getting hot, and our old friend Matt Barnes finally came home to the fans that love him.

I was at the horrible loss against the Hawks in February and something stuck in my mind from that game. Matt Barnes had a miserable outing, one of many from this season. The guys sitting behind me were moaning about him the entire game, busting out “brain-dead Barnes”, and just plain hating. I’m not adverse to calling out struggling players (ahem…pre-trade deadline Peety), but to submarine Matt after his from out of nowhere contribution last year, and his devastating personal loss this year was low. Matt Barnes pulled himself up from NBA obscurity last season and has come to really embody the general Warriors identity. He’s grimy, not a little bit dirty now and again, unpredictable, and straight up hungry.

Welcome back Matt.

Barnsey had what I hope was his comeback game. He put up 8 points and grabbed 8 boards to the delight of the proud Oracle crowd. It was awesome to hear the fans scream in unison for him when he hit his first three. The standing ovation he got as he went to the bench more than made up for the hateration I suffered through at that Hawks game.

The steamroller was gassed up and ready to roll for the fourth. The Warriors were up 19 and Nellie felt confident enough to completely empty the bench. Barnes led CJ, Kaz, Brandan, Uncle Austin, Marco, and Kosta to the easy win.

Denver came back to beat Dallas earlier, cutting our cushion to a 1/2 game ahead of them. The back to back against both of them on Saturday and Sunday is going to be massive. Go Warriors!

PS: Fascinating, fairly cathartic insight on the Delaney call from Monday’s Laker game from Marcus Thompson’s blog. Not that we’re bitter or anything:

The league does, however, share its findings on controversial calls when a member of the media asks. So I asked. And Stu Jackson answered.
“We did review,” he said Tuesday. “The call was incorrect.”

exclusive postgame audio

Baron Davis

Stephen Jackson

Nate McMillan

LaMarcus Aldridge