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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

It’s a special Western conference playoff race edition on TNT tonight. Dallas at Denver is the early game, followed by your Warriors vs. Portland.

Who to root for in the Mavs/Nugs clash? Do you want to see Dallas win and keep Denver at bay, or do you want to revel in yet another Dallas collapse, watching them struggle to get into the playoffs that they seem to consider their birthright? AI & Melo failing to live up to their potential, or Avery Johnson sweating teeny, uptight bullets? No matter who you’re rooting for, it’s some must see TV.

The Dubs caught a break on Tuesday when one of the Blazers’ conerstones went down. Jason Quick details the injury:

Brandon Roy says he wants to play again this season, but in all likelihood, the Trail Blazers guard said he will miss at least the next two weeks, and possibly the final 10 games of the season because of injuries suffered Tuesday night to his hip and groin.

There’s been a plague of groin injuries, Cro, Peety, and now the bug has moved North. You gotta stretch suckas! 

Forget about the West you may say, what’s up with Milwaukee?

Andrew “No Mates” Bogut is living a lonely public life as a Buck. Check out this impressive lack of chemistry.

Just nine underwhelming games into his magical, heal-all-wounds comeback tour, Webber is calling it quits. Citing his chronic knee problems, C-Webb officially announced his retirement today. While refusing to rule out another go at playing in the future, he did make it clear that he will not be attempting to rehab and finish out this season.

The reunion of Webber and Nelson as Warriors was a headline grabber, but ultimately a relatively low cost gamble. Once he was out of the rotation he was out of most of our minds.

There are too many exciting things going on right now to really pine after creaky Chris bricking baby hooks.

As Adam puts it so well on his blog, So Long Chris (and Thanks for the Distraction):

DJ Mbenga didn’t get a goodbye post when the Warriors cut him.  Arguably, Chris Webber doesn’t deserve one either.

From ESPN:

The 35-year-old will exit as one of the sport’s most polarizing personalities but also as one of just six players in history — along with Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird and Billy Cunningham and the still active Kevin Garnett — to average at least 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Janny Hu:

“I think it was a good gamble that didn’t work out,” Nelson said. “It didn’t cost us very much and we needed another big guy. We were looking for something like him.”

The Warriors will end up paying Webber just less than $600,000 for his time, and may leave his roster spot open with only 12 games left in the regular season.

Fox Sports:

That Nellie was the guy who wanted him back for this season – only to watch him struggle miserably with that bum left knee limiting him to just 3.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 9 games – was a fittingly ironic end to Webber’s career. 

A personal reflection from the SimonOnSports blog:

I’m 25 so I’m not exactly a child anymore anyway, but today marks the end of my sports adolescence. If you ask me the question of whom was your favorite baseball player or football player as a kid chances are you would get a different answer depending on the day. But if you asked me who was your favorite basketball player or favorite athlete in general, the answer is simple and immediate. The answer is Chris Webber.

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.