Looking Better In A Way

Sorry for the few updates that past couple of days. I have to admit, I was swimming furiously through the whole Super Bowl articles and predictions. I won’t say who I rooted for, but I will say that it is great to have basketball back as the focus in my life again.

The Warriors played three games since the last post and went 2-1. Pretty good, except that the one loss came at the hands of the Sacramento Kings, which they had previously beat, in the same week. The Warriors finished the homestand with back to back wins. First night, the young and upcoming Kings were barely beaten at Oracle, 93-90 as the Warriors squeaked by. The next win came against the under-performing Utah Jazz. They beat them 119-101, a good solid effort by the Warriors, while the Jazz were coming up from LA, just being defeated by “lob-city” Clippers. Monta Ellis chipped in with 33 points, while David Lee had a great double double, 23 points and 14 rebounds.

Looks like Keith Smart, was smart enough to change some game plan against his former team. The trip up to the state capital proved that the Warriors need to learn how to play well at home and away. Coming off of two great wins, you were hoping that the momentum that they had built in Oakland went with them. Instead, they went cold in overtime, giving the Kings a chance to pouce in which they did not falter. The Warriors played well in regular time. They made a season high 16 3-pointers with Dorell Wright leading the charge.

This guy is so up and down, I’m not even sure if it is worth me writing any posts about him. Sometimes he shows up on offense (which basically means he will play defense) but if his offense goes on hiatus, so does everything about him. He doesn’t rebound well, doesn’t like to block out, doesn’t pass the ball well, isn’t a shot blocking threat and isn’t a guy you turn to play shut down defense on the other’s teams best offensive player. He did make four three pointers, but besides that, the guy is 6’9″ and can only pull down four rebounds, have one assist and one steal. If his shooting is off, he is not very useful.
And along with Wright, Andris Beidrins is just as useless. He played 22 minutes, managed no points and pulling down only five rebounds. Granted he did block three shots, but the guy is 7’0″ tall. He should be getting double digits in rebounds if anything else. This is his third game with a big fat donut for points. He is useless besides having a big body. If I were Mark Jackson this guy would drive me crazy.

As for the rest of the starters, they put up decent numbers, but when you’re used to seeing Monta put up thirty-some odd points or even fourty some odd points, scoring only 18 points is not gonna do it. He had a modest game with only four rebounds, two assists and five turnovers. Stephen Curry had an even more awful game as he only had 11 points and five turnovers as well. He did dish out nine assists. David Lee is the second leading scorer on this team and he needs to bring his “A” game every night. He only had 10 points, which was 13 points less than last time they played the Kings and only five rebounds.

And for the bench, you can’t say enough about them. Nate Robinson always brings energy and comes ready to play, as he scored 20, grabbed FOUR rebounds and had FOUR assists in 24 minutes, which is FIVE less minutes than Wright, and he is a good foot shorter than Wright. Seriously, if Wright wasn’t so tall, he wouldn’t be playing. And as the up and down season continues for rookie Klay Thompson, he had a phenomenal night, scoring 16 points and grabbing three boards in 22 minutes which is SEVEN minutes less than Wright played. Get my point?

Mark Jackson said it best.

“They outworked us in overtime and we are going to have to individually and collectively look in the mirror and own up to a lack of effort,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “Their starters outscored our starters 104-63. You can sugar-coat it all you want, but that was just bad basketball.”*

The Kings scored the first nine point in overtime and never looked back. The Warriors just scored four in the extra session while the Kings ended up with 12. All these factors lead to a loss.

Next game is Tuesday night at home against the high flying Oklahoma City Thunder. Maybe the Warriors can get revenge from the last game in which they were just out played.

*Source: ESPN.com