Hello Everyone!I cant believe no one posted this yet! Its the biggest news until now this season.!

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Hello everyone! Didn´t want to be repetitive or anything like that, but watching the Warriors play these last games just makes you think what we are missing this season.

It´s obvious, I think to everyone, that smallball isn´t working like the last two season. Along with that we are not rebounding the ball, we are not defending, we are letting any team in the league score at will against us, and those are just like the big problems. Along with that we still have numerous smaller, but not less important mistakes.

First of all, lets try to analyse the players´ stats this season:

Stephen Jackson: PER: 15.29 / PPG: 20.9 / APG: 6.6 / RPG: 4.2 / SPG: 1.3 / TOPG: 4.2 / FG%: 40.5 / 3PT%: 29.6

I love Stephen Jackson, I think he´s the heart and soul of the team, he´s the leader and a player Don Nelson trusts a lot. But I have to admit that he´s a true ballhog this season. Althought he leads the team with 6.6 APG and that in 2 or 3 games he passed the ball and made everyone around him better, I think he´s just trying to do too much. Maybe he just hates losing and he´s trying to win the game by himself. In consequence of that, he´s shooting the ball horribly this season and his ballhog is becoming contagious.

Jamal Crawford: PER: 16.52 / PPG: 20.8 / APG: 5.8 / RPG: 4.2 / SPG: 1.2 / TOPG: 2.3 / FG%: 39.4 / 3PT%: 31.7

JC is who we got for Al Harrington, a player that wasn´t happy here and wanted to go away but that was a good Yao Ming stopper, a big who could hit a three and a Don Nelson "type of player". Crawford was shooting 45.5 % from three point range as a Knick and now he´s just shooting 31.7 %, so what´s happening to him? Does Nelson give him too much freedom out there, so he´s just hoisting up ill advised shots? Maybe... but along with Jackson and Maggette he´s also trying to do too much and is taking a lot of bad shots and simply isn´t sharing the ball enough. But at least we got a 20 point scorer for a guy who wasn´t playing and was filling up a roster spot, so that´s a plus. His defense is also pretty shaky.

Corey Maggette:  PER: 16.62 / PPG: 19.9 / APG: 1.9 / RPG: 5.6 / SPG: 1.0 / TOPG: 2.3 / FG%: 42.8 / 3PT%: 18.4

I simply close my eyes when Maggette shoots a three... 18.4% are you kidding me? I really think that I would have a better percentage if I was playing. This is simply unacceptable for a professional player. Don Nelson is mostly using him as a PF and it´s just not working. He CAN´T guard a David West or a Tim Duncan. Most of the time he simply doesn´t play any defense... the best thing he does on this end of the floor is try to draw charges and flop. He´s the guy we got to "try" to fill the hole Baron Davis left when he signed with the Clippers, but he´s not the leader Baron was. I know he´s averaging 20 PPG and that he leads the league in free thow attempts he´s not the type of player we need right now.

Andris Biedrins: PER: 21.37 / PPG: 15.5 / APG: 2.1 / RPG: 12.1 / SPG: 1.2 / TOPG: 2.2 / FG%: 55.2 / FT%: 59.4

Biedrins started the season like he wanted to be the league MVP! He was averaging almost 15 RPG, had a double double in like almost every game but since this hot streak, he´s just another player. He´s soft on defense against big guys... I don´t know... I just don´t like what he´s been doing in these last few games.

Kelenna Azubuike: PER: 13.30 / PPG: 13.5 / APG: 1.5 / RPG: 4.0 / SPG: 0.9 / TOPG: 1.2 / FG%: 44.7 / 3PT%: 31.8

For me, Azubuike is lacking consistency. He´s just horrible shooting the three and he´s not defending like last season and not rebounding like last season. I think this no rebound and no defense is in fact becoming contagious...

DeMarcus Nelson: PER: 10.26 / PPG: 5.4 / APG: 1.3 / RPG: 1.7 / SPG: 0.9 / TOPG: 1.3 / FG%: 51.2 / FT%: 12.5/ 3PT%: 0.0

Simply not ready for the NBA. Made a lot of rookie mistakes when he was with us. The Warriors did a good thing to send him to the D League. How can an opening night starting PG average 12.5% on free throws and 0.0% from three? Geez, I miss Baron Davis.

Ronny Turiaf: PER: 10.56 / PPG: 3.0 / APG: 0.7 / RPG: 2.7 / BPG: 2.2 / TOPG: 0.5/ FG%: 41.5 / FT%: 68.4

I hated Turiaf when he was with the Lakers, but now that he´s with us, I think he´s exactly what we missed last season. Maybe if he was here, we would´ve made the playoffs, Baron would still be here and we would all be happy by now. So I blame him for what´s happening this season! LOL... just kidding. His interior defense and shot blocking ability is very good. I don´t think Nellie is playing him the right way. He should be playing more than 15.7 minutes per game, and MAYBE should be starting at PF instead of Maggette. So, I like what he brings to the team, I just don´t think he´s been used correctly. The only problem for me... is that he doesn´t rebound the ball enough to get more minutes, so he should work more on that.

Marcus Williams: PER: - 0.72 / PPG: 0.5 / APG: 1.8 / RPG: 0.0 / SPG: 0.3 / TOPG: 0.3/ FG%: 12.5 / FT%: 0.0 / 3PT%: 0.0

Man, how can someone have a MINUS 0.72 PER? Is he that bad? He was brought here to be the backup PG for Monta Ellis, and when Ellis got injuried everyone thought that he would start, but so far, he has just played in 4 games and he could´t even play tonight with a 40 point blowout, so YES he might be THAT bad...

Rob Kurz: PER: 7.38 / PPG: 3.3 / APG: 0.3 / RPG: 0.8 / BPG: 0.5 / TOPG: 0.5/ FG%: 30.0 / FT%: 87.5 / 3PT%: 0.0

I won´t waste my time writting about a guy that will be waived as soon as Monta gets back.

Marco Belinelli: PER: 12.27 / PPG: 3.0 / APG: 0.5 / RPG: 0.5 / SPG: 0.3 / TOPG: 0.3/ FG%: 48.3  / 3PT%: 41.7

He said recently that he´s not satisfied with his situation and the Warriors have been trying to trade him. Can´t get any Playing time (7.2 MPG) and when he´s in, he can´t rebound and can´t play defense. Nothing more to add here.

Anthony Morrow: PER: 16.88 / PPG: 10.5 / APG: 0.8 / RPG: 3.1 / SPG: 0.5 / TOPG: 0.8 / FG%: 47.2 / FT%: 88.9 / 3PT%: 51.6

I have to admit I was on the Morrow bandwagon after the Clippers game. He came out of nowhere and had 37 points and 11 rebounds and followed it with 25 points and 4 rebounds and we won both games. He got the nation´s attention after the Clippers game and teams started to pay more attention to him. Nelson benched him again and now he can´t get any Playing time. Skeptic con Urquell said on today´s open thread something really funny about Morrow: " defending Morrow harder? Yeah, they’ve been stationing a defender near the bench". LOL! I still think he´s important to the team with his good 3 PT %...

Anthony Randolph: PER: 12.09 / PPG: 5.7 / APG: 0.8 / RPG: 4.5 / BPG: 1.2 / TOPG: 1.5 / FG%: 39.2 / FT%: 66.7

I like his mentality and his agressiveness, specially as a rookie. He really have star potential. Not KG type, but he could develop to become a very good player. He´s got a good rebounds per minute average and is a really good shot blocker and brings energy to the team when he´s playing but commits too many rookie mistakes. In my opinion he costed us the game against Houston when he got that technical foul after the dunk on Yao. Should get more minutes if we are to tank the season anyway. Is learning very quickly to ballhog with teammates Jackson and Maggette.

CJ Watson: PER: 15.42 / PPG: 9.2 / APG: 3.3 / RPG: 3.4 / SPG: 1.4 / TOPG: 1.2 / FG%: 47.2 / FT%: 75.0 / 3PT%: 30.8

CJ is probably one of the worst defenders in the NBA. Really. He´s very good at stealing passes in the lane, but on 1 on 1 defense he just sucks! He´s a terrible inbounder and commits a lot of silly mistakes, but the team has been playing soooo bad that he became an important piece of the rotation during the last road trip because of his consistency to knock down the mid range jumper. An average backup PG at best for the NBA level.

Brandan Wright: PER: 20.27 / PPG: 7.2 / APG: 0.2 / RPG: 3.7 / BPG: 1.3 / TOPG: 0.5 / FG%: 58.9 / FT%: 73.9

I hated him for a long time because of the Jason Richadson trade, but I really like him now. I think he should be getting more than 16.5 MPG by now. He has the team´s second best PER and is a very very good shot blocker with his long arms. Still very raw but brings a lot of energy to the team just like Anthony Randolph.

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No that we´re done with the stats, let´s talk about the team stats, what´s wrong with the team and what can we do to change this season around and stop the bleeding from this 9 game losing streak.

We are #1 in the league in Free Thows attempted per game with 31.1, but we´re just making 74.8% of them (#25 in the league). We are the 3rd worst 3 Point FG % team, just ahead of the Kings and the Clippers. We lead the league in blocks per game with 7.0 BPG. We are #21 in Defensive Rebounds per game, and that shows one of our biggest problems... We are #18 in FG % with 44.9%.

Tonight´s loss to the Spurs was really depressing. They fell down by 40 points in the third quarter. They had no energy, no motivation, no desire to get out of the losing streak and didn´t play defense just like the last 7 games (they are giving up 125.3 PPG in the last 7) and gave the Spurs a lot of easy dunks, layups and open jumpers. I really wanted them to lose this one by 50 or 60 points.

So to summarize what´s wrong with them... WE LACK... defense, desire to win, motivation, energy, rebounds, a player to close out games like Baron Davis, a motivated coach etc etc etc

Don Nelson should change his starting lineup , Mullin or Rowell needs to make a big roster move to try to shake the team, they should only train defense and defensive rebounds for weeks because they are very good at scoring points, but it´s pathetic to allow 112 PPG.

My ideal Rotation for now is:

PG: Jamal Crawford / CJ Watson / Marco Belinelli

SG: Stephen Jackson / Kelenna Azubuike / Anthony Morrow

SF: Corey Maggette / Anthony Randolph

PF: Ronny Turiaf / Brandan Wright

C: Andris Biedrins / Ronny Turiaf / Rob Kurz

And when Monta gets back:

PG: Monta Ellis / CJ Watson / Marco Belinelli

SG: Jamal Crawford / Kelenna Azubuike / Anthony Morrow

SF: Stephen Jackson / Corey Maggette / Anthony Randolph

PF: Ronny Turiaf / Brandan Wright / Anthony Randolph

C: Andris Biedrins / Ronny Turiaf

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What do you guys think we should do to get back to winning some games? I know this season is almost lost and that we are probably headed to the Lottery again but c´mon, we have good players (4 20 PPG players) and should get at least 35 - 40 games this season. Speak out!

PS: If you want to remember the We Believe run log on to: http://www.nba.com/warriors/news/2007_Playoffs.html

And if you want to remember what happened last season (part of it) log on to: http://www.yardbarker.com/users/Faetatigsw

Thanks for reading my post and hope we win the game against the Thunder on Monday. Good Weekend everyone!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry to create a fanpost just for this but I live in Brazil and this year the media coverage for the Warriors annual Open Practice was minimal. They just said that the Blue Team won by 91-73 and that Jackson had a monster jam on AR. Besides that, no more news, pictures, videos or anything. So I created this fan post to ask all GSOM members that went to the Open Practice to post their insights, pictures and videos. It would be great!! Thanks in advance!

Faetati

Hello everyone! My name is Fabricio Rossi and I´m an avid Warriors fan, so I decided to post a Season Review for our Dubs. It will be kind of an Offseason Media Guide and will be divided in parts to make it easier to read since it´ll be very extensive.

I´ll write about what happened in each game of the season, what went right and what went wrong. What should we expect for next seson, Report Cards for each player with individual grades and much more. Don´t miss it! Part 2 is next, but parts 3, 4 and 5 will come in the next days.

Hope everyone enjoy it! Thanks!

Hello everyone, my name is Fabrício. I'll try to write an in depth review for the 2007-2008 Season of the Warriors and what I expect for this coming off season and what the franchise needs to do to upgrade and have a better chance to succeed next Season.

I think that if there's a slogan fort this Season it HAS to be: A BIG TEASER! We had so many expectations at the beginning of the season after last year historical Playoff run and elimination of the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks... I guess everyone thought we would be playing this season to probably win like 48 to 55 games and try to even get home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, but of course that didn't pan out as planned (although we won those 48 games, but competition was too much to overcome).

The biggest mysteries for the year were: Is Baron going to be health enough to guide the Warriors to the playoffs again? Is Monta going to develop more and become the best player of the team? Is Stephen Jackson going to be in trouble with the law again or is he going to win the Community Award? Those were all big questions that in fact influenced the whole season, because Jackson stayed out of trouble but it was probably because of that 0 - 6 start that we are now watching the Playoffs at home. Baron indeed played the whole season but because of the lack of a quality backup PG it was clear as water that he was worn out for the last month and a half of the season. BD had a lot to play for this year because it was sort of a "Contract Season" for him, he had to prove everyone that he had durability and that he could guide the Warriors to the postseason and play on the same level that he played last playoffs where he averaged 25 PPG and 7 APG.

We all had great hopes that we would get Kevin Garnett during the off season, in fact the Warriors put up a great package including Wright, Biedrins and Ellis but the Wolves preferred to "give" KG to the Celtics. That certainly hurt our chances, because it's clear to me that the Jason Richardson trade (oh, I miss him!) happened for two reasons: to get financial flexibility and to get that missing piece to get KG (Brandan Wright). So maybe if we didn't try to steal KG from the Wolves we would still have JRich here... well, but that's another story and I really don't want to cause any more discussions about that.

The season started in Vegas with the Summer League where Marco Belinelli started with a 37 points performance! The hype about him rose to the roof at that point and that was probably the reason he was such a disappointment for the season. After that come the Free Agency signings, and maybe that's the time where the whole season fell apart. Mullin was clearly unable to bring to team the missing pieces. The signing of Troy Hudson (who had been injured for the most of his career) and Austin Croshere (he did play OK, but just played for 44 games but didn't address our needs) where not exactly what we needed and were not enough for a team that wanted to make a deep Playoff run.

But at least Mullin was great with our own Free Agents like Azubuike, Barnes and Pietrus, being able to bring them all back for the lowest possible and not giving up huge and long contracts to players who had a lot to prove to deserve those long contracts. Azubuike was brought back for 1 Season at $687,456; Barnes signed a 1 Year 3M extension and Pietrus signed for the minimum of $3,470,771.

That was great for our future financial project because now we have to extend Biedrins and Ellis and will have the money to bring both back.

The Opening roster was this compared to the one that finished last season:

PG: Baron Davis / Troy Hudson  -  Baron Davis / Sarunas Jasikevicious

SG: Monta Ellis / Kelenna Azubuike / Marco Belinelli  -  Jason Richardson / Monta Ellis / Kelenna Azubuike

SF: Stephen Jackson / Mickael Pietrus / Matt Barnes / Stephane Lasme  -  Stephen Jackson / Mickael Pietrus / Matt Barnes

PF: Al Harrington / Austin Croshere / Brandan Wright  -  Al Harrington / Josh Powell / Zarko Cabarkapa

C: Andris Biedrins / Patrick O´Bryant / Kosta Perovic  -  Andris Biedrins / Patrick O´Bryant / Adonal Foyle

Well, now talking about our main opponents...

After the 2007 NBA Draft everyone thought that the biggest threat for the Warriors would be the young Blazers with Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. And of course, our enemies from last Season: New Orleans and the Los Angeles Clippers. No one could forecast that the Hornets would put together such a great season and would be the #2 seed in the West, that the Clippers would lose Elton Brand and Chris Kaman for the most part of the season and that Greg Oden would play the entire season!

So at the end our biggest enemies were Dallas and Denver who were supposed to be playing for home court and not for the 8th seed!

No let's try to see everything that happened during our long and suffering 82 Games Season:

After a good Preseason where the Warriors had a 5-2 record the season started the worst possible way: with 6 straight losses! Stephen Jackson missed the first 7 games because of the NBA Suspension and we went 1-6 during that span. Four of those first 6 losses came at home against Utah, Cleveland, Dallas and Detroit and the other two where losses at Utah and at the Clippers.

Don Nelson started the season giving a new meaning to Small Ball with a starting lineup of Baron/Ellis/Azubuike/Pietrus/Biedrins and it clearly didn't work because the Dubs lost the game by 21 points and were out rebounded 56-37, it was just like the last playoff series where the Jazz destroyed us with rebounds and interior defense. Baron was the only one that showed up as he had 25 pts, 10 asts, 4 rebs and 5 stls.

In the second game the same thing happened, we lost because of rebounds: this time it was 53-36. Azubuike had his best game of the season with 33 pts and 8 rebs and Baron came 2 rebounds shy of a triple double, but Kaman had 26 pts and 18 rebs and the Clips simply outplayed the Warriors and won by 6.

Then the Jazz again!! Not again!! Another 23 points blowout as the Jazz simply had our number. The Warriors did hit 13 Threes that game but gave up 12, were out rebounded again and played no defense. That was the best game of the season for Al Harrington who had 38 pts, 7 rebs and hit 6-8 3PT FGs.

After those 3 straight losses we headed back home to play 4 straight at the Oracle. First stop, Lebron James and the Cavs: Oh boy, that game hurt so bad! We all remember that Harrington spike over King James! But at the end the Cavs won the 4th quarter and hit clutch Three after clutch three and ended up winning by only 4 points. The Dubs had 3 players posting double doubles (Harrington, Biedrins and Baron) but that was not enough.

The 4th game of the young season was against Nowitzki and the Mavs who were thirsty for revenge after their playoff loss to the Warriors. Again the Warriors came up short in the 4th quarter. The problem in the game was Free Throw Shooting (we hit only 16-30 for 53%). Baron had 37 points and Azubuike had 27 pts and 11 rebs but the 5th straight loss was inevitable.

After that everyone was pretty sure that the first win would come against the Pistons. The fans and the team just needed this game so bad but once again we had our famous 4th quarter collapse! We were up by 23 at one point and seemed like the first win would come but just 9 bench points and 61% FTs just doomed us. The second half belonged to the Pistons as they outscored us 60-40.

Finally!!! The first win of the Season! We got a little revenge on the Clips for that earlier loss and won by 17 with great games from Baron (21pts, 12 asts), Harrington (27pts) and Biedrins (23 pts and 18 rebs), the difference this time is that we out rebounded them 52-43 and hit 78% FTs.

The turning point of the Season for me was this road trip. The team gained confidence in themselves and won 4 out of 5 games. What a difference Captain Jackson made on this team! They shut down the Raptors in the 4th quarter (26-12) to steal the first game in Toronto (small side note: prior to this game the Warriors waived Stephane Lasme and signed DJ Mbenga". Then our Dubs destroyed the Knicks in NYC and the first chants of "FIRE ISIAH!" happened at the Garden as the Warriors beat the Knicks by 26 points (with 23/6/7/3 from Jackson). We did suffer a little set back in Boston with a 23 point defeat at the hands of Garnett, Pierce and Allen. We scored a season low 82 points this game and lost the rebound battle 40-24 but at least Nelson was smart enough to rest the starters as none of them played more than 29 minutes. At this point we were 3-7 and at the bottom of the Western Conference.

After the Boston set back the Warriors probably played their best basketball of the Season and won 6 in a row to climb back to above .500 for the first time in the season and that was simply the quickest turnaround in NBA History as the Warriors took only 14 games to climb to .500 (the prior record was 16).  During this stretch run we beat the Wizards by 8 (behind a triple double by Baron Davis - 33/11/15), the 76ers in a great Overtime game where Azubuike hit the game winner 3 Pointer with 6 seconds to (Bob Fitzgerald said: "He's got Ice in his veins!") play and then Baron stole the ball on the Sixers last possession and we won by 2.

The third straight victory came in great fashion: a trashing of the Suns. The Dubs had great games by Stephen Jackson (32 pts and 8 rebs), Monta Ellis (31pts) and Baron Davis (28/6/9) and outplayed Steve Nash. The Warriors led almost from wire to wire and had 45 points in the 1st quarter! Don Nelson started the same 5 players as in last year's playoff run: Davis / Ellis / Jackson / Barnes / Harrington and the small ball was worth!

The 14th game of the season was historical as the Warriors reached .500 for the first time in the season with a come from behind win in Sacramento against the Kings. They were the fastest team to reach .500 after starting 0-6.  They simply couldn't hit the threes that night, but Jackson made 2 3s in 20 seconds and they held the King scoreless for the last 3:43 minutes and won by 7 after trailing in the 4th quarter. Just a side note: Barnes mother died prior to this game (RIP Ann) and this probably dealt a fatal blow to Barnes season because it was clear that he wasn't the same Barnes from last season.

The first meeting of the Season with Yao and Rockets was really strange as the Warriors jumped up to a quick lead, then by the Rockets took the lead but the Warriors responded and literally shut down Yao (11 pts and 7 rebs 4-12 FG) and McGrady (11 pts and 6 asts 5-14 FG) with great defensive efforts from Jackson and Harrington and in the end it was a blowout, as the Warriors took this one by 19. This was the final game of November and the Dubs closed the month with a surprising 8-6 record and were 1 game above .500.

After the 6th win in a row against the Sonics in Seattle, the Warriors had won 9 of 10 and were playing like the end of last season! They looked unbeatable! They were winning games playing great defense and playing as team (2 20 points efforts, 2 18 pts efforts, 24 asts and 11 threes). In this one Stephen Jackson schooled Kevin Durant as he had only 6 pts on 2-12 FG. They jumped to 35-18 1st quarter lead and never looked back as they won wire to wire.

Then, the Warriors saw themselves in front of Dwight Howard and the Magic and that was too much for their 6 game winning streak. It was an emotional night (especially for Zorgon) because it was the homecoming of Adonal Foyle after 10 seasons with us. They trailed for most of the game, but in the end they put up a fight and almost won the game in regulation but Ellis missed a crucial free throw that would have put the Warriors up by 3 with under 20 seconds to play. Then Rashard Lewis was fouled and made both free throws and Ellis missed a potential game winner. In overtime, without Baron Davis who had fouled out in the 4th quarter, Dwight Howard was too much for the Warriors as he finished the game with 18 pts and 23 rebs. At least we were not out rebounded by the Magic because Harrington had 11 rebs, Ellis had 12 and Biedrins had a team-high 15!

Next, the Milwaukee Bucks at home. This one, wasn't even close. It was a 30 point blow out and the Warriors knocked down 15 threes, forced 23 turnovers, had 16 steals and starters got a good rest for next game against Shaq, Wade and the Heat. Now, this was a GAME! It was the first big come from behind win of the season because the Warriors were trailing by 18 in the 3rd quarter and entered the 4th quarter down by 9 but outscored the Heat 38-22 in the quarter and despite great efforts from Wade (33 pts, 10 asts but 7 TOs), random Warrior Killer Wright (19 pts and 18 rebs) and Ricky Davis (20 pts and 10 rebs) the Dubs won a great game by 7! That one was memorable!

After concluding their small 2 game home stint (with a 2-0 record) the Warriors played 5 very difficult games where the ended up losing 3 of those but the 2 wins were 2 of the best games of the whole season! The first stop was against the Lakers in LA where the Warriors had lost their last 8 games and it wasn't different this time, as they lost for the 9th straight time to the Lakers. Warrior killer of the night was Andrew Bynum who had 20 pts, 11 rebs and 5 blks.

But this was really a strange season... the Dubs followed a tough loss with a great win against the Duncan less Spurs at home. This game was played at the Spurs tempo and seemed to have no rhythm. It was only 1 of 11 games where the Warriors failed to score 100+ points. But in the end the Spurs couldn't stop us and we won by 12 despite a huge night by new Warrior killer Matt Bonner who had 25 pts and 17 rebs (both career highs).

This was the time when the 1W , 1L thing started to happen as the Warriors weren't able to put 2 strong efforts in a row and lost by 10 to the young Blazers. The next game was at home against Kobe and the Lakers. Well, what can I say about this one? Maybe it was the most entertaining game of the season. Do you remember the Baron kiss after the dagger 3 pointer? Dude, that was unforgettable! What a great game it was. The Dubs trailed for the most part and were down 6 with under 2 minutes to play but Baron used his magic on the Lakers and hit clutch shot after clutch shot culminating on that long and crazy three pointer that finished our opponent. He had 5 3PTs for the game, we had 3 players with 20 points and ended up winning by only 2 points! Check the post game quote by Mr. Bryant: "This is nothing. This is like slap-boxing,'' Bryant said. "For a real rivalry, you have to match up in the playoffs. The regular season is nothing.''. Shame we didn't have the opportunity to square off in the playoffs like Bryant said

Then off to another 5 games road trip where the Warriors played some great ball, but like the other trip had a dismal performance against Detroit on a Sunday morning and were destroyed by 22 points, one of the worst games of the season, especially for Baron Davis who had only 2 points and 1 assist. After this game we had a 13-11 record.

Finally a break: a game against the Memphis Grizzlies! This one was easier than the final score showed. We won only by 8, but the Warriors had complete control after the first quarter and had a huge second quarter run to blow the game open. Stephen Jackson had one of his best games of the Season with 32 pts and a career high 12 rebounds. If only he could do that night in and night out...

The third stop of the trip was in Minneapolis against the Wolves. This game really made me furious, it was going to be the first game of the season that I was going to watch live using an internet link and 10 minutes prior to tip off we had a power blackout and I couldn't watch the game! ARRGGGHH!!

Hopefully our Warriors had a good second half and after going to half time down 8 to the lowly Wolves (who had only 3 wins at that point of the season), they won by 13. 15th win of the season in the books!

This one is a game I wouldn't even write about if I could, but... Maybe one of the biggest teasers of the season! The Dubs were down big in the 4th quarter and then made a furious comeback to take the lead but then the ill advised threes started to rain and VC knocked down his own 3 to win the game with 24 seconds remaining. Result? A 5 point defeat to the Nets.

Our final stop was against King James and the Cavs and boy, did I enjoy this game! Blowout the East Champs at their own floor was great! They entered the 4th quarter up by 24 points!! Baron had a great night with 27 and 10 and Jackson also had 29 points in the winning effort.

As the long road trip ended, the Dubs got back home to face Timberwolves for the second time in a week. I was really scared about this one, but in the end we won by 4. The Wolves made furious comeback in the 4th but a career night (at that point) by Monta Ellis who had 35 points helped the Warriors to close out the game.

The first meeting of the season with the Nuggets was a devastating loss (as we could see in late April...). The Warriors hang in there for the whole game but Jackson missed a potential game winner with 10 seconds to go and despite 29 pts and 13 asts for Baron and 32 pts for Jackson, the Warriors couldn't overcome 39 pts for Iverson and 30 for Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets won by 4 (Ws hit 14 3PT FG this game).

But after a 1 day break, both teams meet again, this time in Denver for the second leg of the home-to-home series. This time, the Warriors played defense and held Denver to 95 points on their own home floor after allowing 124 two nights before. Again the Ws hit double digit threes and held Iverson to 13 points as we escaped the Mile High City with a 5 point victory.

On New Years Eve, the Dubs played the Rockets in Houston and again it was a wild game against them. After a great start, Houston took the lead at halftime and Don Nelson was ejected for complaining the famous non calls against us. The team came back from the locker room inspired under Coach Keith Smart and simply shut down the Rockets in the fourth quarter to win this one by 17 for a 2-0 series lead against Houston. They hit 14 3PT FG and Al Harrington again stopped Yao Ming who was held to 16 pts and 9 rebs and Al had 16 pts and 11 rebs. The Dubs closed the year with a 19-13 record and it was their 6th win in 8 tries.

The New Year started with the rumors about Gary Payton and Chris Webber joining the Warriors to finish their careers, but the first transaction of the Year was the signing of CJ Watson from the D League on 01/08 with a 10 day contract.

For the first time since the 5th and 6th game of the season, the Warriors lost consecutive games, and this would only happen again on April 1st and 2nd (games number 74 and 75). This time was against our arch-rival Dallas and the surprising Hornets. The game against Dallas made clear that the Mavericks had figured us out. It was a 23 points blowout and the Warriors never threatened Mark Cuban's team. Just a small side note, Don Nelson started MICKAEL PITRUS at Center, that's right. If that's not small ball, then I don't know what it is!

Our first meeting with MVP Candidate Chris Paul, was really disappointing. The Warriors had another slow start at Oracle and lost the first quarter by 12 and allowed the Hornets to score 39 points! It was the first start for Brandan Wright but he ended up playing just 6 minutes for 5 pts and 4 rebs. The Dubs came back in the 2nd quarter and went to halftime only down by 2, but again a slow start  in 3rd prevented the Warriors from taking control of the game, and worst Baron had to play the whole game while Paul rested and that was difference down the stretch as clearly Baron ran out of gas in the 4th and New Orleans ran away from Oracle with a 12 point victory.

As Jim Barnett said the whole season, the Warriors showed again that mental toughness and bounced back from those 2 straight losses and won a memorable game against the World Champs Spurs. This was the first time since the 96-97 season that the Dubs won the season series against the Spurs. This one was an instant classic! Duncan had 32 and 13, Parker had 31 points and Ginobili had 20 points, but the Spurs allowed a season high 130 to the Warriors and Warriors won by 9 in Overtime, after Parker hit an improbable 3 pointer from the corner to send the game to OT. Baron was game MVP with 34 points, 14 assists but who really won the game down the stretch was Stephen Jackson hitting shot after shot after shot,

The 36th game of the season was against the young and streaking Blazers who won their 17th game in their last 18 at that moment. Just like the first game against Portland, the Warriors had no chance and this time random Warrior Killer was Steve Blake hitting 5-6 threes. Just Ellis played 25 minutes, but the rest of the starters played less than 20 minutes.

Now I have to admit. This is my favorite game of the season because Baron had 20 points and 19 ASSISTS (career high). I really admire him and wanted him to be more of a playmaker here, so, nothing better than 19 assists! Our Dubs were clicking on all cylinders hitting 14 threes and shooting 52% for the game, but Baron's game was really impressive as he had 9 assists at halftime and then dished another 10 helpers in the second half and the Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies by 12 despite 43 pts and 11 rebs from Pau Gasol.

On January 16th we had our most funny game of the season, against the Dunmurphy sisters!! I remember all those posters with them (props to Tony PSD)! The Pacers jumped out to a 15 point 1st quarter lead because again Baron and company had a slow start at home, but then they won all the other 3 quarters and ended up winning by 5.

Another long road trip was on the horizon for the Dubs as they were going to play Minnesota, Indiana, Chicago and Milwaukee in 5 days.

The first stop was in Minnesota for the third meeting between the two teams and once again the Warriors showed that they were playing at the level of their opponent this season and won only by 7 allowing Antoine Walker to score 26 points and lost the 4th quarter by 10 points but were able to hang on to win it. This marked the first time they were 7 games above .500 since the 93-94 campaign and Nelson said: "I don't know if we have anything more. I don't know if we can be better. We're playing pretty well.''.

The second stop was in Indiana against the Sisters again. But this time they had the last laugh... it was a heartbreaker just like the last game against the Nets. They started great, Baron had 6 steals in the 1st quarter alone and their defense was superb. They build a huge lead and entered the 4th quarter up by 14, and then the biggest collapse of the season happened: they allowed the Pacers to score 46 POINTS in the last period and random Warrior Killer Kareem Rush hit 5 threes to close the deal as the Warriors suffered a huge blow to their playoff aspirations and lost by 8.

But Baron wouldn't let the Warriors lose 2 in a row and on National Television, he had a career high 40 points against the Bulls and the Dubs recovered from a huge hole and won by 8. Davis had 6 threes and was simply unstoppable baby! Side note: Barnes had a fine game with 11 and 11 off the bench.

This huge win against Chicago motivated the team and they again destroyed the Bucks in the last leg of their road trip. Best thing to comment about this game is that Kosta Perovic saw his first action of the season and was "dominant" against Bogut, with 4pts, 4 rebs and 1 blk on 2-2 FG! 20 points victory for the City guys.

Who could bare another heartbreaker in 5 days? This game made me stay paralyzed for 15 minutes after that missed layup in the last second by Baron that would have won the game for us. Not much to say about this one. It was probably the worst loss of the season and we can say that this is one that we missed down the stretch against Denver. Ryan Gomes was the random Warrior killer as he had 35 pts and 11 rebs on 11-15 FG. For the home team, Ellis had 28 and Barnes 20. After this game I really started to wonder if we would be able to make the playoffs, because we were starting games so bad at home, the bench was inexistent, Pietrus, Barnes and Azubuike were struggling so much and the starters were beginning to show fatigue.

If probably every Warrior fan was sick after the loss against the Timberwolves, imagine what happened after the Nets were in command in the 4th quarter at the Oracle? This might be the most nervous game of the season. The Warriors both scored 22 consecutive points and blew a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter of their nutty victory. Everything happened in this game, even the Hack a Boone tactic that backfired against us in the third quarter. Monta hit 13-18 FG for 39 points (career high) and Baron had a big triple double with 25/12/10/5. Totally insane game that we could have won easily.

Really, at this point of the season, I started wondering if I still had a healthy heart to watch Warriors games. The game against the Knick again was a nail-biter. Biedrins had the Warriors' best rebounding game in more than a quarter-century, grabbing an NBA-season high 26 boards to help Golden State to a 2 point victory over the New York Knicks, closing the home stint with a 2-1 record, but none of them convincing wins against mediocre teams.

Again, back on the road for games 48 and 49. The first one was against Houston. This time Yao had enough with the Warriors and erupted for 36 pts and 19 rebs, he had the help of Rafer Alston who had 17 pts, 12 asts and 8 rebs. The Dubs dig a 15 point deficit after one and were only able to make a run in the final quarter when they took the lead but lost it immediately and ended up losing by 4: another teaser! Huge side note here: Prior to this game the Warriors signed CJ Watson for the reminder of the season as Baron's backup, waived Troy Hudson who had a career ending injury and SIGNED CHIRS WEBBER to a contract! This was the start of the Webber Curse all over again! As the season will walk we will see that the experiment really didn't work.

Game number 49 was against the Hornets, and this was arguably their most well played game of the season. Check these numbers: 52% FG, 13 3 PT FG, 13-14 FTs, only 6 TOs and a great team effort with 6 players in double figures, led by Jackson's 26 and Baron's 23. But my game MVP goes to Matt Barnes because he played great defense and had 17 pts, 6 rebs and 2 blks. Proving that Nelson's teams can also play controlled ball and not only a frenetic and crazy style. This capped another winning month for the Warriors. They finished with a 9-6 record.

Our next game was probably the most emotional game of the year. It was GSOM Night #3, Jason Richardson was in the house for his comeback and it was the first time that CWEBB was with the team. I loved the video tribute to JRich but it was a shame that they split the screen with Chris Webber, I think he deserved more. My man Richardson was nervous as hell after the warm welcome by the fans and had an off night as most of the Bobcats players (10 pts 2-9 FG) and the Warriors were able to rest their starters and defeated Charlotte by 31 points with 54 bench points. This was the first of a 5 game home stand and 1 of 9 home games in February.

What a better way to start the Webber curse with a home loss to the Bulls who were without Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich? The Warriors had another slow start at home and allowed the Bulls to jump to a 9 point 1st quarter lead and had to play catch up the rest of the game. Webber disrupted the team chemistry and was too slow to keep pace with us (Even after a 5 day mini camp that Nelson forced his players to go through even in a Super Bowl weekend.). Another devastating loss that ranks at the top of the worst defeats of the season.  As always, the night random Warrior killer was Chris Duhon who hit 11-16 FG, 4-6 3PT and had a career high 34 points, killing every Warriors run with a huge three. Side note: Webber had only 4 pts and 1 reb as a starter.

 PART 2 will be posted in the next few days! Don´t miss it!

Hello Everyone! I just posted Parts 1 and 2 of my Season Review for our Dubs on Yard Barker.

It will be kind of an Offseason Media Guide and will be divided in parts to make it easier to read since it´ll be very extensive. I´ll write about what happened in each game of the season, what went right and what went wrong. What should we expect for next seson, Report Cards for each player with individual grades and much more. Don´t miss it! Parts 3, 4 and 5 will come in the next days.

I tried to post this earlier today but I don´t know why, someone from the GSOM crew simply deleted my post and told me to repost it as a Fan Shot. First of all, I had never used Fan Shot before because I didn´t even know what was that and because I think it´s too obscure. Second. I didn´t agree with this decision because I know that Pree (Hey man, if you read this, I love your articles, nothing against you!) can do the same thing that I did and nothing happens, so please... Equal Rights! But anyway... I´ll try to write something here, so my Post can stay here.

I had the idea to write this kind of "Offseason Media Guide" because I tried to follow every game this season, had my ideas of what could be made to make the team better and wanted to share it with everyone else.

I wrote about main topics like why I don´t agree completly with the Jason Richardson trade at the beggining of the season, why I think Baron, Monta and Biedrins should all stay for next season and loger... I would really like to see a couple of roster changes because I feel we are close to being an elite team in the West. I feel that we are like, 1 or 2 good moves away from competing with the Hornets, Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio and even the mighty Fakers (we beat them twice this season with our current roster...).

I like all these energy guys that we are talking about after the season ended like Paul Millsap, Carl Landry, Rony Turiaf and players like that, but I think that we need an elite Forward to compete with the big guys. No need to be Duncan or Yao Ming, but a big name PF like Jermaine O´Neal, Elton Brand, Shawn Marion, Mehmet Okur ( I know he´s not a big name PF, but he would fit here). Hopefully Mullin can work his magic during the offseason or steal someone from a desperate GM like the Lakers did to the Grizzlies. Maybe we can get Amare Stoudamire for Kosta and a second rounder (Just kidding! LOL).

Well, if you want to know more, please read my Articles in the next days ok?

Hope everyone enjoy it! Thanks and don´t forget to leave your comments there!

http://www.yardbarker.com/users/Faetatigsw

Hello everyone!

This will be a small post just to give you guys the link to download everything I collected from the 07-08 Season like piuctures from every game, texts, analysis and box score from each game, all the audios and videos! I have all the media roundtable radio shows, all the Warriors cast interviews, everything. To download, you will need to have to download the U Torrent client (http://www.utorrent.com/download.php). I´ll ask to everyone that downloads my stuff to please seed I´ll need all possible help!  And please, please dont´forget to check my new diary with the Season Review. I´ll cover everything that happened this season, all transactions, the best games from each player, report cards and what me and Zorgon think the Warriors should do this offseason to get better. Dont miss it. It will be coming out by the end of the week! Thanks everyone and again, dont forget to seed after you download the files!

Go Dubs!!

Here are the links:

Pictures: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4142584

Sounds (Audio): http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4142631

Texts: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4142637

Videos: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4142642

All the links together: http://thepiratebay.org/search/GS%20Warriors/0/99/0

FILES DESCRIPTION:

1) The pictures are all pictures available on the internet for Warriors games. All games, including season and pre season. There are also all the Official Warriors Wallpapers and Fan Art Wallpapers. I also have the GSOM Night Pictures, Pictures from Media Day, Training Camp, from players in the Community, all that kind of stuff.
2) The Sounds are interviews with players during the whole season and preseason (including training camp in Hawaii), all the Warriors Cast (at warriorscast.com) and all the Roundtable Radio Show with Tim Roye.
3) The videos are a few game highlights, all the Official Warriors videos on Youtube, a couple of great plays by Warriors players and video interviews. I also have here about 70 Warriors games from this season, but they are too big to upload, so if anyone wants any game, please contact me at fabricio_tatiana@yahoo.com.br and ask for the game you want and I´ll burn a DVD with the game and ship it to (you will only need to pay for the DVD and for the Shipping cost)
4) The texts are what I´m most proud of. I spend like 3 hours of my day EVERY SINGLE DAY WITHOUT MISSING 1 DAY! surfing the web and savig EVERY Warriors and NBA (the most important only) news. I have all the game previews and recaps, all box scores, analysis and everything you can imagine, since the end of the 06-07 Season until this week. I´m a huge huge huge Baron Davis fan so… a couple of thing are more focused in him, like all his game logs and splits stats and there are also like 1 or 2 (at the most!!) paragraphs in portuguese because I´m from Brazil… but the whole texts file have like more than 100 texts each one with at least 50 pages and some have more than 100!

the files sizes are the following:
1) Pictures – 970 MB
2) Sounds – 1.4 GB
3) Videos – 450 MB
4) Texts – 95 MB

I´m giving you guys a small piece of my life (Because I literally live the Warriors!), so I hope you enjoy it and have fun! If anyone have other questions about the files, please use the Comments space to ask ok?
Best Regards everyone!

Hello Everyone!
I know it´s a total OFF Topic because we are in We Believe Mode as of now, still trying to get the 8th spot and go to the playoffs, but I was watching ESPN International (I live in Brazil) today and they were showing an Euro League matchup between Maccabi Elite and Barcelona. And the starting Point Guard for Maccabi Elite was VONTEEGO CUMMINGS!! The guy that played here around the year 2000 and was a backup for Mookie Blaylock. That made me think what happened to a lot of ex Warriors players, like him, Blaylock, Jason Caffey, Latrell Spreewell, and many other from the early 90s, 80s... I think that it would be nice to know what they are doing, or what they did after they left the Warriors.
Sorry for the off topic, it´s just to take the mind out from all this stressing position that we are right now.
I´ll be writting a Season Review this next week, so don´t miss it, I´ll try to write as much as possible and try to see what happened this year and what could happen next year.
Thanks for the time guys, please let´s still Believe!! Let´s go Warriors!! Let´s go Jazz and Let´s go Rockets!!
If anyone know more about ex Warriors, please share with us here ok?

Hello everyone, my name is Fabricio. Zorgon and I have decided to create a daily diary here on GSOM to bring you all the latest Warriors news, stats, rumors, gossip, game previews and reviews plus our own analysis and view of the game. The diary will be called "The Zorgon - Fab Daily Warriors Blog". I will write one day and Zorgon will write the following day and so on and on.

We will try to always post a mind provocative article so that everyone gets involved and share their thoughts here. WE WILL NOT BE POLEMIC AT ALL! We just want everyone to have a good read, have fun, get info on the Warriors and say what they think about the subject that we will bring to the table each and every day.

We hope you enjoy our blog and please always remember to give us a feedback and vote on our poll.
Good read everyone... now off to the article:

_________________

Enjoying the Southeast (Road Trip Review) 03/10/08

18 Road wins and counting! Forth consecutive winning road trip! 10 - 5 on the road against the East instead of a dreadful 5 - 10 record last year... Yeah... Our Warriors are growing and getting better right in front of our eyes! For a team that had a playoff draught that lasted 13 miserable seasons, be at 39 - 23 (16 games above .500), with the 8th best road record in the NBA and battling Phoenix, Dallas and Denver to try to get a Top 6 playoff spot in the most difficult season ever in the West, is pretty remarkable!

I know we could very well be talking today about a huge playoff push, with a 7 game winning streak, all the national media talking about it, but we are the Warriors. We like to be under the radar, to be the under dogs, that is why we lost that game at Charlotte, to go home with a mere 3 -1 road trip record and a 2 game winning streak. I still don't know why Don Nelson is not giving interviews saying that we have no chance to go to the playoffs, that we are done and stuff like that!!

This road trip was won with defense! The Warriors held Miami, Orlando under 100 (the Dubs are now 18 - 0 this season when not allowing opponents to score 100 points) and won by an AVERAGE of 12 PPG (120.5 - 108.5). They also won that game in ATL because of defense because they held the Hawks to 48 second half points (after allowing them to score 70 in the first) and took control of the game. The only game they didn't play any defense (and allowed old pal JRich to score 42 points) they lost! In second halves they allowed an average of just 48.5 PPG and scored 61.5 PPG (+13)! That's what good teams do, close games with runs and defensive stops!

A lot of good things happened on this road trip. For Exemple:

1)    We got Andris Biedrins back (he kept us in the game against Orlando!)
2)    Don Nelson learned to trust more MP2. He played solid defense, had beautiful dunks, and averaged 10.8 PPG and 8 RPG...pretty good for a guy that is averaging 6 and 3 for the season! Welcome back MP!
3)    Stephen Jackson shot the ball extremely well (including in crunch time). He´s now 23 - 46 3PTs in the last 5 games and has scored 20 or more points in 6 consecutive games!
4)    The scramble defense was back! We averaged 10.3 SPG, with only 10.5 TOPG and forced 15.8 TOPG, plus a lot of hustle  (not in the Charlotte game though), a lot of deflections... Warriors basketball at its best!

I said in my last article that, in my opinion, Baron should try to become a pass first point guard at this point of the season, because he would have to take less threes, get all the team involved and specially give the ball to the hot hand like Ellis (who shot over 60% in February!! Or Jackson that is shooting over 50% from 3 point range lately) and Jackson! He proved what I said in the game against Miami where he had 9 assists at halftime, had 0 turnovers and we took control. He also shot the ball only 9 times that game instead of his usual 18 shots per game (season average) and for that he got a lot of rest.
But then... in Orlando he proved me wrong! He had a mere 3 assists which downed his season average below 8 for the second time in the season, but had 33 points and we won because of his clutch shots. The Warriors are really a team with no predictions. We go against the odds every night!

Now a quick recap of all the 4 games for those who missed the games:

Game #1 (at ATL: 135 - 118 W): The Warriors started the road trip slow and allowed the Hawks to score 70 points at halftime. It seemed like we were in for a game like the one we had in Oakland last week. But in the second half, the Dubs won by 19 and forced a lot of turnovers, shot the ball extremely well and won easily game number 1 of the road trip. Impressive!

Games #2 (at CHA: 118 - 109 L): Game number also started with the same feeling of the Oakland game against the Cats: a huge blowout as we stormed out of gates and grabbed a 16 point 1st quarter lead. Then Jason Richarson played almost like Kobe Bryant! He just wanted it more than we did (maybe because we got a little cocky after the big win in Atlanta...) and torched us for 42 points! No matter who was guarding him, he was able to do whatever he wanted, from off balance 3 pointers to tough reverse layups... everything was going their way! They opened a 10 point 4th quarter lead but Baron and Ellis lead a furious comeback to take the lead, but then again JRich was clutch and gave them the W. At least we lost  to a surging team that has now won a FRANCHISE RECORD 5 STRAIGHT! Like VonteegoCummings said in his diary, we should start a WE BELIEVE movement here on GSOM for the Bobcats! Our man Richadson deserves it after we sent him to Charlotte!

Game #3 (at MIA: 134 - 99 W): Not much to talk about this one... Miami was without Wade, had just 7 healthy bodies and they are tanking the season... result... worst defeat of the season for them. Game MVP was Stephen Jackson with huge threes and 22 points (Baron had 15p and 10a double double). But the best thing that happened in this game: starters got huge rest, which gave them fresh legs for the Orlando game on the back end of a back to back on the road, after a 4 games - 5 nights East Coast road trip.

Game #4 (at ORL 104 - 95 W): This game was all about staying within striking distance and playing second half defense, which the Warriors did with perfection. They went down double digits in the first half but closed the 2nd quarter with a mini run and went to the locker room down only by 8. Dwight Howard was a monster with 19-9 and 3 blocks. But in the second half the Warriors gave only 40 points to the Magic and Biedrins played great defense on Howard which limited him to 7-3 in the half. After the 3rd quarter, where the Ws outscored Orlando by 17, all they had to do was protect the lead and go home with another W, and that's exactly what they did!

We left Oakland with a 36 - 22 record (14 above .500) and returned with a 39 - 23 record (16 above .500). With 3 more wins (which can come this next Saturday) the Warriors equal their number wins from last season (in mid March!!!!! This is March Madness time in the Bay Area!! Most importantly they are 2 games ahead of the Nuggets for the 8th and final playoff spot, but are just ½ game away from Dallas (who is struggling with Jason Kidd) and 1 ½ game behind Phoenix for the 6th seed (who is 4 - 6  with Shaq). A Playoff repeat is getting closer and closer for the Dubs (knock on wood 3 times, PLEASE!! No jinx here!!) this season, and maybe this time we can get a 7th or 6th seed which would be great, specially on the toughest season ever in the West! And with some luck we can face a good matchup team in the first round and let the others kill each other and advance to the West Finals (now that would be NICE!). Well, no time to talk about playoffs YET, it's only time to say congratulations to the team that ended the season with a winning record on every road trip and returns home triumphant once again!! Go Warriors!!  

Well guys that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the read and please don't forget to check Zorgon´s diary tomorrow. It will be a lot of fun!! Don't miss it.

For Zorgon, I´m Fabricio, so long everyone! Hope you liked!!

_________________

Here are some links for more Warriors stuff:

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse_news.aspx?sport=NBA&majteam=GS  (Warriors Fantasy News)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/gsw/stats;_ylt=AokP_5WiWxIng2xNLb2.FvJ90bYF  (Warriors complete team stats)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/gsw/photos;_ylt=AviCpGiOLUfEQQt07YxCrg190bYF  (Warriors Pics)

Hello everyone, my name is Fabrício. Zorgon and I have decided to create a daily diary here on GSOM to bring you all the latest Warriors news, stats, rumors, gossip, game previews and reviews plus our own analysis and view of the game. The diary will be called "The Zorgon - Fab Daily Warriors Blog". I will write one day and Zorgon will write the following day and so on and on.

We will try to always post a mind provocative article so that everyone gets involved and share their thoughts here. WE WILL NOT BE POLEMIC AT ALL! We just want everyone to have a good read, have fun, get info on the Warriors and say what they think about the subject that we will bring to the table each and every day.

We hope you enjoy our blog and please always remember to give us a feedback and vote on our poll.
Good read everyone... now off to the first article:

_________________

What happened in Charlotte??  03/07/08

Well, that was a costly lost for the Dubs as they fell 118-109 to the Charlotte Bobcats.  They didn't play any defense allowing JRich to explode for 42 points (tying the Bobcats franchise record) on 15-32 FG plus 7 rebounds, 7-7 FTs and 5 made 3s. Raymond Felton (22p, 6a) and Earl Boykins (12p, 1 shy off his season high) tortured Baron and Monta all night long. Even rookie forward Jared Dudley    (he kept almost every ball alive after a Bobcats missed shot) had a double double with 10 points and a career high 18 rebounds. The Warriors really missed Andris Biedrins inside presence and rebounds tonight and didn't have any bench production.

The game started very well for the Ws as they shot 14-24 from the field with 4 made 3s and scored 38 points in the 1st. Baron with 8 points, Monta with 8 points and Captain Jack with 12 points led the way as usual for the Warriors combining of 28 of the 38 points. At one point the Warriors held a commanding 36-20 lead and ended the period up by 13 with the score of 38-25. They played their up tempo game, forced the Bobcats to a lot of mistakes and controlled the action from start to end.

In the second quarter things started to go very wrong as Baron was resting for the first minutes of the period. Without him, they didn't have any floor leader and played very sloppy. They had 6 TOs in the 2nd. Don Nelson tried to stop the game a couple of times and make some substitutions but nothing quite worked and Jason Richardson led a furious Charlotte comeback to take the lead almost for good mid way through the second. The Bobcats scored 34 points (which is a lot for a team that averages just over 95 PPG) and won the quarter 34-19 going to halftime with a 59-57 lead over the Dubs.

The second half started just like the first ended, with Charlotte in command, the Warriors playing sloppy and allowing Charlotte to open a 9 point lead mid way through the period. Richardson was on fire and had 12 points in the 3rd almost matching Monta´s 14. Things were getting a little better but Jason just wasn't going to let Charlotte go away and again the Warriors were outscored 34-29 and entered the 4th trailing by 7: 93-86.

The 4th quarter was the wildest one, each team making huge runs and attacking each other. The Cats got their biggest lead of the game at the 8:06 mark with a Okafor putback at 103-93. Baron Davis got a rest until the 7:21 mark and right after he re entered the game the Warriors, led by Baron himself and Monta Ellis made a 13-2 run and got the lead 106-105 after a Baron driving layup. Then it was all Bobcats as they made a 13-3 closing game run and ended up winning the game by the score of 118-109 and again winning the period by 25-23.

The Warriors are now 8-5 on the back end of BTBs, still a very good mark for any playoff-level team, especially considering last year's dreadful 5-17 mark in that category. The biggest problem tonight wasn't defense or Biedrins absence (although that made a huge influence), it was the bench production: 12 points on 4-15 FGs, 4 TOs, 12 combined rebounds and no defense, no hustle, no clutch shots from Pietrus and Azubuike...it just ain´t gonna do it, specially when the opposing team has an unstoppable player who scores 42 points and lights up all of his other teammates. The Big Three did their thing scoring 83 combined points although Monta didn't play defense at all and missed crucial free throws, Baron had just three assists (which made his season average go below 8 for the first time this season) and 6 TOs (all on unforced errors that led to easy buckets at the other end) and Jackson didn't play his usual defense on Richardson, allowing him to hit all kinds of shots ( I also tip my hat to him for hitting tough shots like off-balance 3-pointers and pretty reverse layups in traffic.) and score 42 points (he is averaging 31.8 PPG in his last 4 games).

I don't know what you guys think but in my opinion the Warriors are much more deadly when Baron becomes a pass first Point Guard and gets everyone involved. Take the game against Atlanta for example... in the first half he had 0 assists... that's right... ZERO assists and the Warriors weren't playing good basketball and were down by 2 at halftime even though Baron had more than 20 points. In the second half he had 9 ASSISTS... and they outscored Atlanta by 19 and won the game and he had like 10 points or something. Tonight he wanted to do it all by himself and was selfish and look what happened... we lost! If you check his Splits Stats, you can see that when we win, he averages 8.6 APG and when we lose he averages just 7.0 APG (he has a lot of 1, 2, 3 and 4 assists games in the 23 games we lost), so what happens, he forces more threes, commits more turnovers and gets everyone out of sync. I think that from now on he needs to become more of a passer rather than try to beat the opponent by himself. Specially now that Monta Ellis has emerged and is hitting like 60 or 70% of shots... why don't they give him the ball more... I bet we are going to win more games if Ellis gets a little bit of Baron's shots!

Check this quote by our good ol´ pal JRich after the game:
 "I think the first time we faced them, being back in Oakland and seeing all the fans, the No. 23 jerseys, I think I was just overhyped. This time I was more relaxed and in a much more settled environment. I just wanted to go out there and try to get the win. This wasn't a revenge game. It wasn't anything personal, it was just a game that we wanted to win."

I think that the draft day trade will end up being very good for our future because it gave us a good financial flexibility and gave us a good big man in Brandan Wright to build our future along with Andris and Monta, but man.... I miss Richardson... I don't know if we would be any better with him, but tonight I really missed him because he is such a fearless player and has a big heart and desire to win ball games. I was watching the game with my old #23 jersey and at least enjoyed watching a player putting on a show... I think we all knew what would happen when he faced us this season... even Baron knew that: "We knew that he wasn't going to have two bad games against us, we knew he would come out doing what we knew he could do."

Biedrins would have been a savior because he would be able to box out Jared Dudley, defend Emeka Okafor (who had 11 rebound, 16 points and shot 18 free throws because the Warriors didn't have anyone to defend him and opted for the Heck-a-Okafor tactic every time he was wide open for a layup or a dunk) and grab some offensive rebounds, block some shots, and be an inside threat for the Bobcats who scored a lot of points on layups. We also really missed Al Harrington's contribution tonight, he had just 6 points on 2-6 FGs, all threes, that shows that he wasn't trying to do anything else like penetrate, try to get some contact, go to the line... he just settled for the 3 and committed 5 fouls in 24 minutes of action... well, at least he didn't have a turnover tonight.

This one was a total Must-Win game because Charlotte was also playing the back end of a back to back, was missing one of their biggest weapons in Gerald Wallace and in fact they are a very weak team. This loss will probably hurt our chances to go higher in the West Conference standings and also our desired 50 wins plateau. To make it even worse, Denver destroyed the tired Phoenix Suns (they are now 3-5 after the Shaq trade) and got back to within 1 game of the Warriors for the 8th and final playoff spot. Now the next 2 road games are crucial (against Miami and Orlando, again on back to back on Friday and Saturday) for the Warriors if they want to keep the last playoff spot and gain some separation from Denver before "their tough schedule gets even tougher", using Bob Fitzgerald words.

Well guys that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the read and please don't forget to check tomorrows debut diary for Zorgon. It will be a lot of fun!! Don't miss it. Unfortunately the Dubs lost tonight on Zorgon's birthday but hopefully they will get the their 38th win of the season on Friday against the Miami Heat (knock on wood because we NEED this game at all costs!).

For Zorgon, I´m Fabricio, so long everyone! Hope you liked!!

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Here are some links for more Warriors stuff:

http://www.charlotte.com/140/index.html  (Charlotte´s side of the story)

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/clubhouse_news.aspx?sport=NBA&majteam=GS  (Warriors Fantasy News)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/gsw/stats;_ylt=AokP_5WiWxIng2xNLb2.FvJ90bYF  (Warriors complete team stats)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/teams/gsw/photos;_ylt=AviCpGiOLUfEQQt07YxCrg190bYF  (Warriors Pics)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=280305030  (Game Boxscore)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/splits?playerId=194  (Baron Davis Splits Stats)

Hey guys,
I was reading Inside the Warriors on Inside Bay Area and they are reporting that CWebb has a sore knee, the same one that he had microfracture surgery on 2003!
There´s a possibility he will be out for the road trip which means more PT for Brandan Wright... I think that if he has in fact a knee problem the Warriors should waive him and try to go after the waiver wire!
He´s the link: http://www.ibabuzz.com/warriors/

Hey Muritqua, if you get to read this, please send me an email to fabricio_tatiana@yahoo.com.br so that we can plan a daily dairy here on GSOM about something new ok?

Go Dubs!