Nets 107-Warriors 100

Box Score | Game Thread | TSN Recap

Please excuse the interlude. The regularly scheduled recap will resume shortly.

The Internet is a fascinating thing. It's a tool for communication, research and entertainment. Without it, one could not immediately see photographic evidence of the uncanny resemblance between Warriors rookie Charles Jenkins and Barksdale enforcer Wee-Bey Brice.

Separated at birth?

Bar bets about who the best rookie three-point shooter was (ok, you might have know that one anyhow) or which rookie had the highest punting average in NFL history might forever go unsettled. We might never know the answer to such questions as 'whatever became of Philip Michael Thomas?' It can bring us images both beautiful and repulsive. And while it holds fantastic utility at times, at others, it seems almost completely useless and inane. It can bring out fabulous dialog filled with intelligent debate and insight as well as the predictable base devolution of communication one might expect from such an inclusive tool. All of our lives would be significantly different without it.

Potential legislation has the potential to change aspects of the Internet. How much? In what ways? It is not entirely clear from the bills as written, but I for one would rather be sure than have poorly designed laws forced upon us. As a small part in preventing this, I urge all of you who reside in the USA to investigate SOPA and PIPA and to contact your legislative representatives, making sure that they understand the implications of their legislation.

At the very least, I urge you to learn a bit more about it yourselves. SBNation has summarized their position and opinion of the legislative movements in this statement (a statement I had zero part in crafting or publishing). It is not the only valid opinion but it is certainly worth reading.

OK, off my soap box and on to basketball after the jump.

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Warriors 107 - Jazz 100

Box Score

Blog Buddy: SLC Dunk

The Mississippi Bullet doesn't have the right ring.  I've spend enough time in Mississippi (not much) to know how unfortunate it is to be saddled with a moniker connecting one to the state that makes Arkansas look great. Sure, the general lack of any other "Monta" means he's unlikely to be confused with your garden variety average NBA player, but still for one as widely regarded as the Golden State Warriors' star, Monta Ellis has been sorely lacking an acceptable nickname.

It's time he got a good one.

If the majority of the last month of play has shown us anything, it's that Monta Ellis is driven.  Whether he'd admit to it or not, he's hurt by the lack of consideration for this weekend's festivities in LA.  But rather  than crawl away, he's taken the opportunity to shine against winning teams and certain All-Stars.  His play of late is speaking louder than any nod in the NBA's mid-season popularity contest.  He's letting his game tell it.

Monta Ellis. The Statement.

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February has been kind so far.  Wins against Chicago, Denver,  , all winning teams,

Utah's momentum seems headed in the opposite direction.  Losers of 3 straight and currently sitting at 2-5 for the month of February, all is not well.   The Jazz have dropped both games since Jerry Sloan's departure.  The Ty Corbin era has not started well,

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Box Score

Game Thread

Blog Buddy: Welcome To Loud City

It is a little hard to get a hold on just what this team is.  Solid games against the Bulls and Nuggets showed that at or near full strength that these Warriors don’t have to roll over.  Still, neither Chicago nor Denver play the part of road warriors this season. Denver has been especially bad when they leave the rarified air of Colorado.  And two, uh "sub-par" performances against the Suns were enough to place significant doubt in any fan’s mind that this team was ready to compete. 

This game was different.  Oklahoma City came to town in first place in the Northwest Division with a winning record on the road.  With a dynamic scoring duo of future MVP Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder have arrived as a serious threat to beat anyone on any given night.

But not tonight.  It was GSoM night.  This year, that means wins.  

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Golden State Warriors (23-27) host Oklahoma City Thunderw (34-18)
TV: ESPN and CSN Bay Area  Radio: KNBR 680
Tip-Off: 5:00 pm PST
Blog Buddy: Welcome to Loud City

I won't try to soften it.  Thursday's stinker still stings. And that was against the Suns, a team fighting for a bottom run playoff seed. Trying to get back on track versus the division leading squad from Oklahoma City won't be easy.

The Thunder are tough.  Already having relegated form #1 overall Greg Oden to the unfortunate asterisk status of 'that guy who someone took before Kevin Durant, the Thunder's forward is putting up another "possibly the most dangerous offensive player in the game" sort of season.  Containing him is key, though by his standards, 'containment' can still leave him as the game's high scorer.  If he isn't, Russell Westbrook is dangerous enough to beat you by himself.  Like Durant, Westbrook has excelled at getting to the line this year. He's also becoming one of the league's elite setup men.

It will take a great game from the Warriors to pull out a win.  On paper the key would appear to be to force the ball to Green (15ppg, but on a pedestrian sub-average 0.524 TS%) and the Thunder's bigs and hope to put enough pressure on Westbrook, Durant, and the quietly efficient James Harden to hold them in check.  On paper, this looks like a game full of challenges.  But "paper" isn't aware that it's GSoM night, and the extra electrons normally committed to powering our community's flat screens and laptops are, as such, to be commandeered and rerouted to the Oracle, providing crazed fans with the extra energy and volume to push our guys into an overdrive.  Make it electric, Warriors.

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Warriors vs Nuggets, Warriors 116-114. Short term memory makes for happier Warriors fans today.

As predicted, Monta Ellis came out gunning. Shooting early and often, and making most of his shots.  No, he's not an All-Star yet again.  For 14 years the Warriors have had to settle for occasional slots in the 3 point shoot out or dunk competition.  No Warrior had suited up in the main event since Latrell Sprewell last suited up for the Western Conference squad.   But in many ways, the explosive scoring by Monta sent a message that he can light it up with the best. (Couple that with what seemed like true indifference towards playing defense and this contest resemble the annual exhibition.)

The characteristic high-scoring affair, not at all unexpected when these two teams meet, led to a 100-92 advantage for the Warriors at the end of three quarters.  That sort of performance can signify lights out shooting and/or pathetic defense.  And for three quarters, that seemed to be the story.

But wait! Twelve minutes remained to grind it out, to reign in the pace, and come up with just enough stops to keep the Nuggets from stealing this one.   It reminded me of speeding along at 85, sure you're going to make your appointment on time, only to see 5 cops and three accidents in the last mile, watching the dashboard clock tick away while traffic.does.not.move. 

Luckily, there were surface streets to take, and while Denver gained ground at each red light, they never caught up.

Good win guys. When you had to be, you were a basketball team.

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Golden State Warriors (22-28) vs. Denver Nuggets (30-22)

at the Oracle in Oakland

Tip-Off 7:30 PST

TV: CSN Bay Area / Radio: KNBR 680

Blog Buddy: Denver Stiffs

Forget Monday. It never happened.  Look to the future. Just don't do it in the way that Denver and forward Carmelo Anthony have had to, wondering when he'll wind up where. The mammoth distraction that has been the Nuggets' star's career is not the sort of dreaming toward the future that Denver fans want.

Lost in the foregone conclusion that Anthony is headed to New Jersey, Chicago, New York, or LA is the fact that Denver is having another pretty good but not quite great year.  Once again, they're scoring points with the best of them but don't really have the defensive firepower to challenge the elite teams.  This bodes well for a high scoring affair where neither team does all that much to slow the competition.

More after the jump.

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...but overtime wins still feel good.

Warriors 119 - Kings 112

TSN Recap

Game Thread

Blog Buddy, SacTown Royalty

It was a sloppy 1^st quarter. Pulling to a point at the end of 1, a testament to being more talented, but certainly not to better execution. There's a school of thought that the Kings are better poised for a quantum leap forward. Their personnel has promise. Reigning rookie of the year Tyreke Evans had star written all over him, though his sophomore season has seen a remarkable ability to miss shots. Casspi appeared to be a find at SF, though his second season does not seem to be building beyond his first. And if Cousins ever figures out a way to shoot better than 42% from the field, he could be beastly. There's real talent on the Kings team. Add to that they no longer have Spencer Hawes* to weigh them down. All consider, records aside, one might expect this things to be a real contest, just as it was exactly a month ago when they faced off in Sacratomato.

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Box Score - Recap

Game Thread

Blog Buddy

Monta Ellis's 1^st shot of the night connected for long 2 (more or less the the same shot that would have meant victory vs. Portland). It was not a fluke. In the season opener, he torched the Rockets for 46. His 44 this time was every bit as impressive. If the Warriors hosted Houston 82 times a year, there would be no doubt that Monta Ellis would find his way into the All-Star game. Before the game, Barnett claimed Monta had become a "legitimate 3 point shooter". And while the 35.5% (almost exactly the league average from a year ago) is still rather pedestrian, this time the comment served as more of a premonition of what would happen than an accurate representation of what had happened. It was one of those nights where he would not miss.

If only his teammates could duplicate their performance from a month and a half ago.

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Game thread / links

Final box score

Blog partners:  Canis Hoopus

The return of David Lee could not have come at a better time.

It was the second night of a back-to-back at the end of a road trip, a road trip that had not been going well.  A five-game losing streak turned a promising start of the season into reasonable calls for Keith Smart's job.  The team's weak bench was exposed.  A lineup that lives and dies with the success of an undersized guard duo will die often.

With left elbow wrapped away in the sort of wrap normally reserved for covering truly terrible tattoos, Lee was far from effective.  And it didn't matter.  A terrible game from Lee was exactly what this team needed  to break the streak.

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The Warriors played the Rockets.

It is time to confront our fears.

A year ago the Warriors opened at home against the Rockets, losing a close game where they faded down the stretch. All who have been more than a fair-weather fan had to be nervous that their psychotic visions of success fade once real games begin in late October. We fear the regular season because the regular season tends to bring about a reality of losing, of failure, of hopelessness.

Tonight the new look Warriors closed out a close game, an exciting high scoring affair where opportunities to fold presented themselves and were summarily rebuked.

Warriors 132-126.  It is time to conquer our fears.

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I won’t pretend that I’m all that different from the bulk of you who look at selecting Ekpe Udoh as something between a puzzle and a failure.  I won’t pretend that this isn’t yet another piece of evidence that Larry Riley should look for other employment.  I *can’t* pretend I’m excited by this year’s draft.  I’m not. 

In fairness, it’s not as though Ekpe is certainly destined to disappoint.  This isn’t the Fuller pick.

But it still sits wrong.  In fact, I’m probably more underwhelmed than I have been with any pick since Todd Failure heard his named called, a case where there was virtually no chance that the pick would pan out as anything worthwhile.  This is not that sort of pick, but I’m still underwhelmed. 

I won’t pretend that those feelings are all gone.  But on closer inspection, I’ve found a way to squeeze some sense into the pick.  I’ve found cause to couple this into the hope that keeps a Warriors fan a Warriors fan.  Follow the jump to find out why.

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NBA's tallest player ever, former Warrior Manute Bol died today at the age of 47.  Bol was nothing if not entertaining on the court, but off the court, he should be remembered as the humanitarian he was. 

Sports Economist and author of The Wages of Wins and Stumbling on Wins Dave Berri takes a look at last year's rookies.  Was Sacramento Kings combo guard Tyreke Evans really the best?  Was Stephen Curry a more valuable asset?  It depends on how you look at it.  In his analysis, it was very, very close.

One thing looks much more certain: we lucked out when Minnesota took Jonny Flynn off the board.

Also see

• Tyreke Evans to Be Named 2009-2010 NBA Rookie of the Year- Congrats to Tyreke + Stephen Curry
• 2009-2010 NBA Rookie of the Year: The case for Stephen Curry vs Brandon Jennings + Tyreke Evans
• FanPost: This is Why Tyreke Evans Wins Rookie of the Year But Who Will Be the Better Player (UKwarrior)

Let’s just get this out of the way early: Dr. JAE does not give away grades. There is no generous "curve".  He will not succumb to this era of diminished expectations that is reflected in feel-good touchy-feely gift grades where every excuse somehow bumps up marks a letter grade for fear of someone’s ego being bruised.

On a team as bad as the Warriors, you should not see a whole bunch of "A" and "B" grades. "C’s" should be more plentiful with more than the token "D" and "F" handed out to a less than popular player who hasn’t won fan favor for some reason.  The 4^th worst record in the league is failing grade as a team, bumped up perhaps to a D-/D if you are particularly forgiving about the injury situation.  It does not warrant a good grade as a team, and it is rather ridiculous to give good marks to the players *who make up the team* as a consequence.

So before the griping that so-and-so deserves a better grade because of excuses a through z, think real carefully:  If someone gets an A, how many Fs do you need to hand out to balance it out?

Find out after the jump.

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(aka open thread #82, for those of you hung up on this "NBA" thing.)

Warriors at Blazers, 7:30pm.

TV: CSN, with the  low-def feed.

Radio: KNBR 680

Blog Buddy:  Blazersedge

(it's a truly first rate site! worth the read even if you are indifferent to all things Portland.)

Monta Ellis ponders the question "will I be back next season?"

It’s been a long season, but it ends today.

Was it really just three years ago when our Warriors played a meaningful game in Portland where the outcome would determine whether or not they’d make the playoffs?  Yes, there’s a season’s worth of excuses.  Injuries, injuries, injuries, injuries, a less than optimal mix of players, and some more injuries.  But excuses or not, it’s just been a terrible, terrible season. 

Bring on the Summer League!

In the mean time, the game is not without significance.  Portland is knotted with San Antonio for the 6^th seed.  With the tiebreaker secured versus OKC, Portland does not need a win to avoid the Lakers in round one.  It is a matter of preference whether they’d like to face the Jazz or Dallas in the first round, so don’t expect the Blazers to come out gunning.  There’s not enough on the line for them. 

But for the Warriors, victory would mean at "best" the 5^th worst record in the association, have "caught" the Kings with our meaningless victory over the Thunder.  A loss would ensure a tie with the Kings and Wizards for 3^rd worst record with equal chances in the lottery and coin tosses to determine the picking order should either or all fail to pull a top-three slot. 

Is there another story line? (follow the jump to find out).

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Warriors at Jazz

Wed March 31, '10 @ 7:00pm PDT

TV: ESPN; Radio KNBR 680

Blog Buddy: SLC Dunk

It's just nice to look back at better days sometimes. 

Sometimes the past looks better than it was the first time around.  About 20 years ago I fell in love with De La Soul's 3-feet High and Rising.  At the time, I thought it was a brilliantly fun album that found its way into the cassette deck (yeah, cassette deck) more or less any time I drove anywhere.  20 years later and it's not just a good album.  It's one of the very best hip hop recordings of all time.  (This is not an opinion.  This is empirical fact.)  It wasn't the first to sample, but the depth and variety of  It didn't have the fastest delivery, but for those raised on a simple drum machine pumping 85 to 100 bpm with aid (perhaps) of a casio-keyed melody, this was something else indeed.

Why is this relevant?  Oh, yeah. Sampling.  Improvisation. Jazz.

Producer Prince Paul was at the top of his game (not that the last 2 decades have seen him drop off much) but De La was not the beginning, but rather the further development of the art.  A year before Plugs One, Two and Three put it down on wax, the Professor Prince Paul was already clearly on the path with his own group, Stetsasonic.  Watch and listen.

Talking All that Jazz is fine, but when it comes to basketball, there isn't much to say. I leave it to you to marvel at what all there is that keeps you glued to the screens tonight. If it's not "Lost" on the DVR, this will have to do.

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Who says that there have to be 4 quarters in an NBA game?  Hockey does just fine with 3 periods.  Sure, not having grown up in an arctic wilderness, hockey rightfully has no appeal to me at all.  Do not trust people from temperate and subtropical climates who profess to love hockey.  There's something deeply wrong with it.  If you cannot regularly expect water to freeze outside when provided with no stimulus other than the fact that it's too #@% cold out there, you should not have a hockey team in your city either. Hockey?  No thanks.

But there is that appeal of three periods.  At least this season, I vote that we eliminating the 3rd quarter.  We'd hardly miss it.  We'd be a more competitive team. "Per 36" stats would make a whole lot more sense. We wouldn't have to fume about Monta being sent out there for 45 minutes in order to run himself down in yet another futile effort. And we'd all get home a bit earlier. 

Last night, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.  Toss out any single quarter and the Warriors still get beat, but at least give the idea a bit of thought.

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Charlotte Bobcats vs. Golden State Warriors

7:30pm - Oracle Arena in Oakland

TV: CSN

Radio: KNBR 680

Blog Buddy: Rufus on Fire

Bobcats vs Warriors preview at TSN

Generating drama when you're on pace to lose 55 to 60 games is tough. 

And it's not that drama in itself is good.  Often when people talk about "drama" in the context of competitive sports, it's the sort of off the court variety of back stabbing and grousing drama that proves to be a distraction.  You know the kind where overrated guys who were gifted contracts that pay them too much for too long, who hadn't ever shown an ability to stay in one place for more than 2 years without wearing out their welcome, who sabotage their own attempts to try to be the good guy by doing something like shooting a gun at a night club or charging into the stands to go after fans -- when guys like that spit on their unmerited contract and demand trades.  That sort of drama?  Well it can lead to 20something win seasons.

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(No, really, it did.)

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Originally posted Dec 17, 2009 12:21 AM PST

Spurs vs Warriors coverage | Spurs vs Warriors boxscore | Spurs vs Warriors recap

Preview/ Game Thread: I Love GSoM + Dysfunction Junction (1050+ comments)

Warriors Web Links: Nellie's back, Moore's out

I had not heard that Mikki Moore was injured until well after the game, so it came as something of a surprise that he was not in the starting lineup.  He wasn't at the shoot-around either.  Was this it?  Had a big deal gone down where he and the rest of the expiring contracts had been packaged for something resembling the foundation of a basketball team?  Sadly, no.

Moore's absence simply meant that someone else would have to pick up the slack of being on the court for a quarter and a half without accomplishing a thing.  And try as they might, the rest of the team found out that such was no easy task. That level of inconspicuous nothing takes more than most of this rag-tag crew had in them.

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With the season now passed the psychologically all-important 28.012455% completed mark, it's time to assess where the Warriors are and what can be done about it.

For starters, let's get this out of the way. If anyone still held out playoff hopes, let them go. You're wasting valuable wishing on more likely things, like hitting the jackpot in the state lottery.  The Thunder, currently 8^th in the west, are on pace for 47 wins. To best that, we'd have to win 41 of the remaining 58 games. Even an outside shot means winning more than 60% of the remaining contests. While we are losing to Chicago and Detroit and looking lost against Philly, that sort of performance is tooth-fairy level fantasy. Getting close to 0.500 is going to take some awesome basketball from here on out as well, and unless everyone gets healthy and starts playing some good ball, and soon, I wouldn't hold out for anything there either.

Going out and not being an embarrassment every night and doing something that remotely resembles building on the future, doing *something* that makes us think that there's reason to pay attention in the future. That has to be the goal.

So what can be done there?

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[editor's note: our own illustrious Dubs Fan in Boston does his own fine job of breaking down the numbers here.  If you've read it, you may have heard it there first.  If you haven't, you should.]

You heard it hear first. SBNation is reporting that Stephen Jackson is bound for the Charlotte, NC along with Acie Law for guard Raja Bell and forward Vladimir Radmanovic. Having once lived in the Queen City for all of four weeks before I came to my senses and returned to the Bay, I can't say I envy him.  In sending last season's team-leading scorer on his merry way, the Warriors reshape both the on-court product for 09-10 and open up new possibilities going forward, both in this season and beyond.

And like most deals in the NBA, it's all about money.

The short answer is "no, we cannot go out and use the money we've saved on Jax to get another big man"; It's best to not even ask the question.

And in terms of the immediate impact to the team, we could leave it at that. But the deal is not without implications for years to come and for the long term, may have some real impact on how the Warriors can proceed in the future, both this season and in the not-too far future.

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In reality, in the young season, it's probably too early to cut anyone out of the playoff picture, and after netting our first win on Wednesday, things seem much more upbeat than they just two days ago.  Still, history suggests that this isn't a clash of titans, and the Clippers' rapid accumulation of 4 losses against a lone close win over the visiting T-wolves on Monday won't shave away too many doubts about where they'll wind up come season's end.  But they play 'em for a reason, and expect plenty of drama to be had. 

Warriors: 1-2

Clippers: 1-4

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The Bay Bridge is still closed and that's made it a pain to get to and from work.  BART is jammed packed in the commute hours and it just seemed like a good idea to wait a bit longer for the crowds to thin out.  But that left me with a dilemma:  find a place in SOMA to catch the game, or try to rush back and run the risk of missing the first bit.  I chose option number two, and while crowded trains meant I missed the first quarter, I did not have to face the double indignity of a large bar tab -- in the futile attempt to suffocate the horrors of that horrendous performance -- and getting home about 4 hours after I'd originally intended to be home. As such, I didn't find myself properly seated in front of the TV until sometime in the 2nd quarter.  This meant that I caught about 4 minutes of an actual competitive basketball game, followed by the interpretive dance routine summarizing the history of futility that has been the Golden State Warriors for most of my conscious lifetime.

Preview/Game Thread, 1096 comments indicating that others suffered through this as well

Final box score

Blog Buddy: Bright Side of the Sun (at least someone should be happy)

Ugh!

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Disaster is not upon us. Losing the first game of the season does not end all chances for a successful season. It is a long season and one game against the Rockets did not answer all the questions surrounding the team. But we do know a bit more about our squad than we did Wednesday at 7:29pm. We know that Monta can still score and looks to have the mid-range shot and the quick move to the rim. We have seen Curry against real NBA competition when a game mattered, and the kid looked pretty good. The offense ran well with him driving the show and final seconds aside, there's more promise than doom while he's playing. Beyond that, Jackson is still Jackson, Maggette is still Maggette and neither seem overly concerned about those often unfortunate facts.

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Early on, there were fewer more critical of Anthony Randolph than myself. Ready to give up on him?  Not exactly, but certainly not one to let him get in the way of just about any respectable trade offer that came along.  There just did not seem to be enough to warrant so much hype surrounding a rail-thin bigman who was more likely to miss a shot or turn the ball over than to do anything positive.

While indeed his play at the time was terrible, this is the most simple statement I can make about that early evaluation of his potential.

I.was.wrong.

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via acielaw.yardbarker.com

Law. Claxton. George.

There is always a chance that one of these players will step up and contribute.

But I wouldn't count on it.

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A quick confession: Though Sactown Royalty blogheads probably would not believe it, after my beloved Warriors, I am a Kings fan. More than a half-decade living in the Central Valley, a period that coincided with the exciting Webber/Divac/Bibby/Peja Kings a period that coincided with the Kings being the greatest threat to knock off the Lakers, instilled in me a fondness for our NorCal neighbors. And though I do not own a cowbell, I have stepped foot inside Arco to cheer for the home team. There was no joy in watching them lose to anyone other than our Warriors. And I really do wish them and their fans success.

But this fandom (if only fandom-lite) is not at the expense of objectivity. Objectively, the Kings were not any good. Good teams do not lose 65 games a season. Good teams do not find themselves 29^th in the league in rebounding percentage and 30^th in the league in in defensive efficiency and 25^th in offensive efficiency. Such are the sort of numbers associated with a team struggling to even remain competitive. There's not much silver lining there. Last season, the Kings just plain stunk.

That's yesterday's news though, isn't it?

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