At this point, any decent game the Warriors can put together, I can live with. Even our own commentators are talking about other teams going to the playoffs. The Warriors aren’t even in their conversations! None the less, we all knew this road trip would be a difficult road trip and emotionally draining, if the season wasn’t emotionally draining already. Re-add Andris Biedrins to the DL and now add team leader Monta Ellis, the Warriors were in for a bad trip. I was hoping we would be able to get a win or two, specifically the first night against the Miami Heat, at Charlotte or maybe even the New Orleans, with Chris Paul sidelined. However, too much Wade and the Warriors fell the first night, only to be dismantled by Orlando the next night. It was clear that the 6 available players were tired and had no more energy to give. The Warriors only carried 8 players on this East Coast trip with 2 injured, so only 1 bench player. I’m already tired just thinking about that! Tonight will be a test of character and see if we have the mental edge against the Atlanta Hawks. The Warriors came back last time when the Hawks visited Oracle to win, so let’s see if we can give the Hawks a run for their money while hoping maybe to steal a win!

I’m not sure where this franchise is headed. And with disappointing seasons after seasons, I’m really not sure where this franchise is headed. The Warriors drop to 16-41 after last night’s loss and now they are down with injuries again. C.J. Watson was held out of the game because of flu-like symptoms but could be out longer according tot he team. As much as I love basketball and I never want seasons to end, cause then I get really bored watching all those baseball games, I can’t wait for this season to be over for the Warriors. We are down, depleted and mentally it’s hard to stay upbeat and positive on a very grim situation.  The most positive thing so far this  season is watching the growth of Steph Curry. That boy can play! And it’s hard to imagine what the other teams are thinking who passed over him. Minnesota had two chances to grab him, but grabbed….actually they are so ineffective on a horrible team that I’m not sure who they grabbed. Curry continues his monstrous rookie season by scoring 30 points and dishing out 13 dimes. I’d say the best two points Curry had all night was when he drove middle, faked Chris Anderson to get him up and fly by and scored on a bank shot. It was ridiculous! It made Anderson looked like he got played. Unfortunately for the Warriors, at the end of the day, it’s not the individual plays but rather the team and the Warriors ended up getting crushed 127-112.

The Nuggets, with various weapons, shut down Monta Ellis. He scored 22 points but on 6-22 shooting. He looked like he wasn’t in sync with the game or the team and looked very tired. We need to trade some players to help Monta out and convince him on why we should keep him here. Right now,  it doesn’t seem like the Warriors are looking to build to win for the future. We have two great players in the backcourt. We just need to start filling in holes. I think a lot of the players that are playing right now would be great players as bench players. The second unit could definitely be strong, but we need some good solid starters.

As I said, I’m not sure where this franchise is headed. It seems like we take problem players, rejuvenate their careers, and then we don’t offer them money to stay or get players to convince them to stay. Or, we just trade our decent players for some nobodies while they still have trade value. Nothing, we have done in the past, have shown that we want to win and soon. This year, there was even some talk of trading Monta to the Celtics for some players. I’m glad that trade didn’t happen. A lot of grumblings have come out of the Warriors front office as they keep saying that Curry can’t grow while Ellis is still here and that Curry is the face of the franchise. As much as Steph has been a positive for this ball-club, the reality is the kid is just too small to help a franchise get out of it’s misery. I honestly think that Curry and Ellis make a great back court combo, with Steph being the one and Monta at the 2. Size then won’t be much of a factor. I think they need each other to compete with other teams, to help shoulder the offensive load and being able to depend on each other. Trading Monta for a couple of chips won’t help the franchise now or later. We made a commitment to building a team around Monta after giving him an extension contract. We made a commitment to building a team around Monta, when we first traded Jason Richardson to the Suns for(????), then let Baron Davis go to LA (though it’s kinda a blessing we didn’t commit that much money to him), then traded Stephen Jackson for two bench players, one who will never see a Warriors uniform and another who is just washed up. Sweet deals I’ll say. So with that said, we made a commitment, in 2008, to Monta by signing him for 6 years, $66 million when he was just 22. Now at 24 we’re ready to dump him? Come on! We gave him that much money because we believe he was the face of the franchise. Let’s continue to build around him and we’ll see where we can go. Monta can play with the best and we’ve seen he can play with the best. If they let Monta go or trade him for a bunch of nobodies, I’m

Finally, a win against a team that is not struggling (no offense to the Clippers and Kings!). It sucks that we had to come from an 18 point deficit, but at least a W is a W. This is a bad loss for the Hawks, that have lost three in the last four games and have fell to 2 1/2 games behind Orlando in the division. After it looked like a secure win in the third, the Warriors mounted a huge comeback and took the lead on a free throw thanks to Jamal Crawford, who couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Now I liked Crawford when he spent some time with the Warriors last season, but he had butted heads with Nellie. Though to be fair, I would say most players do butt heads with Nellie more often than not. Honestly, I don’t even remember that trade and who was brought to the Warriors. However, it was fair to say that the Warriors gave up ANOTHER good player for some random people. Crawford has been the difference maker for the Hawks and is on pace to be in the running for six man of the year.

Back to game, the Hawks had a comfortable 18 point lead in the third. The Warriors responded by scoring 16 points straight in the first quarter to cut the deficit and go on for the win. Stephen Curry lead all Warriors by scoring 32 points and grabbing nine boards. Monta Ellis, who sat a chunk of time in the fourth quarter, scored 26 points. C.J. Watson carried the bench by scoring 15 points and dishing out 6 assists. Overall a good performance by the Warriors, who once again were short manned.

They only had 8 healthy players for tonight’s game while Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf sat out of the game. Again, injuries seem to be a big key on why the Warriors are struggling so much. They clearly can compete with the best, as the each team didn’t get more than a 5 point lead in the first half. But when you are only rotating 8 players and there are more injured guys on your bench rather than bench players, teams, who have a very deep bench like the Atlanta Hawks, can wear you down by the third as it was evident in the third quarter. A good gut check for the Warriors as they were able to come back and hold on for the W.

With trade rumors swirling the team, the Sacramento Kings lost one of their worst games this season. With no rumors of trade, the Warriors took full advantage of the Kings confusion and destroyed the Sacrament Kings with a 130-98 victory. C. J. Watson scored a career high, 40 points with team leading scorer Monta Ellis out for another game.  It has been a rough year for the Warriors who have loss not because a lack of skill or offense, but because their team is depleted with injuries. It seems like after one guy is back from injury, another goes to the DL, and the cycle continues throughout the season. The Warriors have not played with a full team in a very long time. I honestly can not remember when the last time the Warriors had all their guys suited up, ready to go and injury less.

With that said, it is nice to see to other capable Warriors take over and lead this team. This is very promising for when Ellis comes back, the Warriors will seem to have more offensive power. With Stephen Curry taking the lead against the Clippers, he settled into his usual role, dishing out a career high 15 assists. It is the second highest for a Warrior player with Tim Hardaway dishing out 16 in 1990. He finished the game with 26 points and grabbed six rebounds. Not bad for a night’s work.  C. J. took over the scoring reigns and scored 23 in the first half as he he hit 15 of his first 16 shots. Then he went ice cold and it looked like he wouldn’t top his previous career high of 38 until the final minutes when scored on a lay-up. Anthony Morrow had another solid night scoring 26 points and seldom used Devean George had a season high 15 points.  The Warriors scored a team high 46 fast break points.

3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. That’s when the final pieces of the puzzles are added to each team, vying for a playoff spot and the coveted title of World Champions. Already, there have been some shakeups to some teams. The first big trade after the All-Star game included seven players, two teams and a new lineup for everybody. The Dallas Mavericks acquired Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson from the crippling Washington Wizards who are desperately trying to right their ship after a miserable season and a  gun toting Gilbert Arenas. The Mavs sent the Wizards Josh Howard, who has had his off the court issues over shadow his talent, and journey man Drew Gooden as well as two other players to match salaries. This trade obviously puts the Mavs in a win-now mode who acquired another veteran scorer in Butler and another big man in Haywood to compete in the West as well as give the Lakers a run for their money. Right now, the Mavs are on top of their division but are 8.5 games behind the Lakers. If they were to meet in the play-offs, this team should give the Lakers some decent competition.

Right behind the, were the Clevland Cavaliers making a trade to win-now. Involving three teams, the Cavs acquired Antawn Jamison from the Wizards and Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. The Clippers get Drew Gooden, who was just traded to the Clips by the Mavs and the Wizards get Zydrunas Isgauskas and his expiring contract, a first round pick from Cleveland, Brian Skinner, and  former Clippers forward Al Thornton. After all the dust is settled, it would seem odd, that Cavs would acquire Jamison, when talks of acquiring Amar’e Stoudemire were still in the works. Though Jamison does bring another element to Cleveland and the potential match-up of guarding a bigger guard, his offense doesn’t seem to fit in well with the Cavs offense. Not only that but trading Big Z, was something I  was not expecting, especially since Shaq can’t hit outside shots or make free throws, which Z does very well. But business is business and expiring contracts are only too tempting. It would seem that the Wizards are shipping out old goods, to save some money and rebuild their torrid franchise. However, news has come along saying the Wizards will buy-out Z, and he’ll be back with  the Cavs in no time.

Last night on the brink of midnight (west coast), the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings struck a deal that found Tracy McGrady, Carl Landry, and Joey Dorsey headed to the sunshine state, while the Rockets acquired Kevin Martin, Sergio Rodriguez, Hilton Armstrong and Kenny Thomas. No surprise there, except for the fact that T-Mac has gone from franchise star to another player in this business. Relationships in Houston had come to a point of no return that the only way to defuse the situation was to get rid of T-Mac. This is a decent trade for each side, but I feel like the Rockets gave up too much in Carl Landry. I think he was a piece of the puzzle that needed to stay in Houston for them to contend. As for the Kings, they get an old, worn down, injury prone player. Word is, he and his agent want to head to NY anyways. I honestly don’t think T-Mac can play with rookie sensation Tyreke Evans. Even Martin had a hard time deferring time and ball with this rook, and Martin is in no way the same superstar status as T-Mac. The Kings are looking to rebuild and upgraded by getting Carl Landry. Are they there to compete with the best of the west? By far no, but it is the step in the right direction.**

The final “blockbuster trade” came at the expense of the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks as they swapped three players. John Salmons and his offense goes to the Bucks while Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander and their expiring contracts head to the Bulls.  While the Bucks gain an offensive power they needed with the loss of Michael Redd, the Bulls gain some cap space, hoping to lure one of the big franchise names to their city and relive the Jordan-esq era.

Smaller deals included the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New York Knicks. The Knicks sent disappointing Darko Milicic to the Wolves for Brian Cardinal. A former first round, second pick, Darko never fulfilled scouts and the Detroit Pistons expectations. I’m sure he didn’t even fulfill his own expectation of himself. Nevertheless, he sank into no man’s land, where players almost never recover and landed with the god-awful Knicks. Now he gets to go to another god-awful place of Minnesota where they traded him for a dude I honestly never even heard of. Either way, I think this was more swapping of money and expiring contracts rather than talent.

Several trades appear to be lurking, but so far no other deal has been struck. The Boston Celtics and New York Knicks trade seems to be inevitable, with the Celtics getting Nate Robinson and the Knicks receiving Eddie House and J. R. Giddens.***

No dark horse has offered anything good for Amar’e Stoudemire. While some rumblings were made that the San Antonio Spurs were giving a quiet but decent trade, nothing has become substantial.  As Amar’e puts it, it’s a 50-50 chance he’ll get traded before the deadline. Now after the season, that’s another story.

On the same page, no deal has been struck for Celtics guard Ray Allen. His name has been floating around for some time, especially since the C’s were struggling, but according to Danny Ainge, he is not going to get traded.

Again, expiring contracts are extremely attractive, especially for this off-season, when this will be one of the most interesting off-seasons in recent memory. This is an all-star free agents and the deadline was a preview of what teams are trying to do to land a franchise player.

The deadline is looming, with only an hour and half till each team has to settle for what they have. I will be surprised if any big trades come about, but do expect small packages to be made before the deadline is over.

**According to several sources a new deal has been struck, only this time it includes the New York Knicks. The Knicks would receive Tracy McGrady and Sergio Rodriguez formely of the Kings. The Kings would get Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey and Knicks guard, Larry Hughes. The Rockets would receive Kevin Martin,  Jordan Hill, Jarred Jeffries and draft picks.

*** According to several sources, the deal has been finalized but details are still being hashed out.

Wow! That’s all I can say about our rook. Skinny Steph Curry put up some “grown man” numbers, as Marc Jackson likes to say. Put together some good offense from Anthony Tolliver and Anthony Morrow, the Warriors got a much-needed win, snapping a 9 game losing streak. Tolliver finished with 29 points while Morrow finished with 26 points and 10 boards. Curry finished with 36 points, 13 assists and 10 boards. He almost didn’t complete his triple-double, grabbing his tenth rebound on the very last miss of the game. Curry is the first Warrior since Chris Webber to notch a triple double in 1993 while being the first NBA rookie since Kevin Johnson to have at “least 30 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists since Kevin Johnson did it for Phoenix on April 16, 1988.”- Yahoo Sports The Warriors were even up by 38 points at one point. This is without (all) star, Monta Ellis, who was sidelined after spraining his left knee against Dallas on Monday. Though MRI results showed the sprain was mild, both the player and Warriors thought it would be best for Monta to sit out, having him go on an early vacation break, as the All-Star festivities begin this weekend. Monta joins a long list of Warriors that have been injured this season, while Corey Maggette, sat out his second game with a dislocated ring finger.

I’m happy that the Warriors got a W, to help build some positive momentum going into All-Star Weekend. I am also happy that Curry showed just how good he is, even if Monta is out. However, he has to prove that he is just as good, by coming out to play the next game, otherwise many people will say that he is just a fluke and/or it was against the Clippers, both valid points. Especially, when there is wind that the Warriors may swap players with the Celtics that include Monta. I have began hearing some rumors say that the Warriors feel like Steph Curry is going to be the face of the franchise, a  new step in a new direction. And by playing with Monta, it will stunt his growth as a player and a leader.

It’s hard to say what the Warrior’s management is thinking these days. They’ve made mistake after mistake, trading franchise players for nobodies, while not acquiring decent players to make their star happy and stay and build a franchise here. If they traded Monta, where do we go? I honestly don’t think that Steph Curry is ready to carry a franchise, like a LeBron or D-Wade or Kobe, nor will he be the guy that can grow into one. I think he needs a running mate, to form a dynamic backcourt. I don’t think that playing with Monta has stunted his growth, but actually help him grow.  Look how well he plays when Monta is playing and last night was a good example of how well he can play without Monta. How great would it be to have 3 scorers on a team, all dangerous, guys you can’t just double off of, etc? Imagine playing with a great player like Monta. Think of how many attractions he gets and how many defenses are schemed to slow him down. If I were one of the other 4 guys on the court, I’m licking my chops, cause of all the attention Monta gets, I’m going to have a wide open 3, a lane to drive down or pad my stats! Now if I were one of the other decent player, suddenly, Monta doesn’t have to do so much. He wouldn’t have to shoulder the load and would be easier for him to score and put up even bigger numbers. So the front office wants to break up a partnership that has been going well. Can’t fault the backcourt for the losses. We are missing some key figures in the line-up but the backcourt is solid. Even after defiant stance he couldn’t play with Curry by Ellis, he has since backed off and stated that he is playing his best basketball this season, some in part because of Curry.

I wish I could write something exciting in these posts. Really. But honestly, the Warriors haven’t done anything exciting that I could write about. In the beginning, it was the fact that the distraction of Stephen Jackson was gone, so the team could gel and become a better basketball team. Then, it was the fact that the Warriors were looking good, playing well and that they just needed a few more pieces to fit the puzzle, since the many of the guys were injured. Rookie Stephen Curry was developing nicely and seemed to fit well playing along side Ellis. And the fact that Monta was playing like the All-star that was selected.  The season was just underway and things were looking bright for the future. I’m not really sure what happened. Of course the injuries are the first to blame. The Warriors have not played a full game with a full team, as injuries keep piling up at the worse times. Last night, in an apparent strain to his left knee, Monta joined Corey on the bench for the rest of the game. Whether or not it is serious for him to miss a few games has yet to be determined. A MRI is scheduled for today. With that said, Maggette, missed his second straight game, while Devean George sat out because of a stomach flu. Can you even imagine a team without Ellis at this point?

Last night seemed the Warriors regain a bit of swagger back. The Warriors built up a 14 point lead in the first quarter, scored 70 in one half and never trailed until Dirk Nowitzki completed a three point play with about 6 minutes left. From the onset of the fourth, the Warriors looked like they were out of gas, out of steam and out of answers. At that point, three Warriors were on their way to play the entire game, this not being the first time. Some of the Warriors have logged a lot of minutes already and that trend will only continue that way until the team is fully healthy or David Stern feels bad for us and lets the Warriors add a player or two to compensate those that are on the injured list.

Anthony Morrow had a career game, scoring 33 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Monta finished the game with 27 points, five rebounds and five assists. Curry finished with 25 points and dished out nine assists. Those are fantastic numbers until you look at how many turnovers the Warriors committed in the fourth quarter to let the game slip away. As Don Nelson put it, they had 5 turnovers at the half and ended the game with 15.  That in itself should be enough to explain the game.

Where do we go from here? The season is almost halfway over, usually marked by the All-Star game. This year it’s scheduled for February 13th and the Warriors can’t wait for that weekend to come any faster. After losing last night to the Rockets, the Warriors are now on a six game losing streak and a dismal record of 13-34. Hey at least we are better than the Nets! And we play in a much more difficult conference! Out of the next three games before the All-Star break, the Warriors could go .500 by beating the Clippers and Thunder while most likely, losing to Dallas both nights. A little momentum and a two wins will probably help the locker room atmosphere while everyone takes a break for the All-Star game. Lots of press coming out of the NBA, saying that Chris Paul will most likely miss the All-Star game meaning Monta is back in the race to be the one to replace him. As much as I would like to see Monta out there, representing the Bay Area and the first Warrior All-Star in years, it would be better for the team if he didn’t get selected. He needs a rest. He is banged up, playing last night with a sore wrist and he needs to take this mini-vacation to help push through the end for the Warriors. It would be an honor for the Warriors and him if he did get selected. Though there are other great players that were snubbed, I think Monta was most deserving since he plays for a team that is well below .500 and putting tremendous numbers up. He scored 34 points last night, even though he sat the last 9:18 of the game and being the only option for the team. This is the NBA, not some kiddie league, so his numbers show how great of an athlete he is and how much talent he has. He just needs some help.

I’m hoping these next four games will be an improvement for the Warriors. Any wins would be really be nice, but the Warriors just have to battle through the next four games and rest up as much as they can during the All-Star break.