Last Night's Run - Warriors Give It Away Again

Warriors give it away
Give it away give it away give it away now
Give it away give it away give it away now
Give it away give it away give it away now



The Warriors might've been listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers before the first two games of the season. If that's the case, I have one request for them. Please stop.

Hornets and Raptors fan could argue that their teams won the games rather than that the Warriors lost them and that's a valid argument. However, it doesn't go with the theme of this post, so I'll stick with my argument.

Nellie went with a much different type of lineup Friday night. It was actually bizarro-Nellie, and on Halloween Night. Rather than go small against Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, and Jermaine O'Neal, he went large to take advantage of Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, and Jason Kapono. Nellie's best line-up consisted of Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Al Harrington, Ronny Turiaf, and Andris Biedrins. Defensively, they were tremendous, especially Turiaf. It made me think that he needs to start at the 4 spot, even if they don't go big.

Much like teams without great point guards do, the Warriors turned the ball over in the clutch. Late in the 4th quarter with the lead, they took terrible shots, threw the ball away, fell down with the ball in their hands, and things like that. It seemed that Corey Maggette was the designated go to guy in the 4th, but he didn't work out. Kapono was guarding him and rather than take Kapono to the hole and go to the free throw line, he was setting for jump shots and fade aways. And then when he finally decided to go to the hole, he wasn't getting the calls.

Al Harrington seems to believe that the heavy minutes that the starters are playing is causing them to be tired by the game's end, in what I think seems to be a shot at Nellie.

In the preseason, we weren't playing 40 minutes. Right now we are, so it's something we've got to get used to, get adjusted to, and quick.

The preseason is usually a time where you're resting. It seems like we should have been playing a little bit more so we'd be prepared for now. It's going to take us a couple of games to get adjusted to and then we'll start knocking our shots down in the fourth.

It's a logical statement, but anything he says might seem a little tainted because of this now public feud with Nellie.

New Jack City brings people together
Truehoop has a great story about Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and how there was a tiff between them and they were brought back together because of a trip to Oregon for Nike. During the trip, they watched New Jack City (Odom was also on the trip, but he's a sleeper) together and found out that they were each huge fans of the movie. And then, because they didn't have cell phone reception, they just started talking and worked things out.

With Rodney King's resurgence (he's on Dr. Drew's second season of Celebrity Rehab), I was reminded of this quote. "Can't we just all get along?"

Gay/Mayo Update
Rudy Gay hit a buzzer beater to help his Grizzlies beat the Magic last night. But more importantly, he opened up a huge lead over OJ Mayo in the shots category. He took 26 shots last night to Mayo's 11. He now leads 48-31.

NBA All-Star Game ‘08: Where’s B-Diddy?

In the year after the Golden State Warriors shocked the basketball world and beat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, one would think that they would finally get their due, especially after winning 32 games in the first half of this year. But no. Not only do they have the third best record in all of basketball since getting Stephen Jackson back in the lineup, but they also have possibly the most exciting team in the league. They definitely have the most exciting back court duo. So when it’s Baron Davis’ turn to be on the All-Star team, he’s passed by. Maybe Baron will use the frustration to help him when the Warriors beat someone in the first round of the playoffs again. You know it’s happening.

Also, no Young Randall, no Eddy Zucko, no HJ, and no Luchadors. They were with me last year, but this year, it’s just little old me.

Predictions:

I think the West will win, Carmelo Anthony will win MVP, and Antawn Jamison will win the Tyrone Hill award for least minutes played in the game. Kobe could possibly win it, but I think he’ll play at least 10 minutes.

I’m not sure that the Western team’s b-boy pose after the introductions can be topped. The smile on Yao’s face was priceless. The NBA, where “what do I do with my arms?” happens.

And before we actually get to the game, we might as well show the best part of last night’s All-Star Saturday Night. Superman was in the house.

• Every All-Star game I’ve blogged, the West has won. So you can pretty much bet the house tonight on the West.
  
• I wonder if Jason Kidd will accidentally pass it to Dirk Nowitski, thinking that he’s supposed to be on the Mavs?
  
• The East scores the first six points and all on dunks. Let’s just say defense isn’t on the mind of the Western squad.
  
• Kobe only played the first three minutes and I’m not sure if he touched the ball.
  
• So far, the story of this game is that the West likes to settle for jumpers and the East likes to dunk. Guess who’s winning?
  
• Thanks to Melo and AI, the West is back in this thing.
  
• Rip Hamilton is so old school, he caught an alley-oop and instead of dunking it, he laid it in.
  
• TO is in the house, but I don’t see any tears. I guess no one made fun of Tony Romo.
  
• David West is in this game? Oh yah, he took B-Diddy’s spot.
  
• The youngsters Brandon Roy and Chris Paul are working it together. By the way, Roy and West are the two guys in this game I couldn’t pick out in a police lineup.
  
• There’s been a Chest Hair Boozer sighting. He just grabbed a rebound.
  
• The East just threw three alley-oops on one play. I think it was Joe Johnson to Jason Kidd to Lebron James to Dwight Howard.
  
• David Aldridge mentioned earlier that it looks like the Jason Kidd trade is on. All they have to do is convince Keith Van Horn to play again after not playing for over a year as he’s a part of the deal. While they’re at it, why don’t they get Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn to come out of retirement and trade them as well?

 

Bring This Guy Back So You Can Trade Him

• Rasheed just nailed a three pointer from the top of the key. No biggie right? But he shot it left handed.
  
• At the half, Lebron has the Magic Johnson All-Star game stat line with triple double definitely in sight.
  
• Looks like Kobe and his pinkie finger are done for the rest of the game.
  
• AI is trying his hardest to keep the West in this, but Lebron and company have other ideas.
  
• If Chest Hair Boozer would make his layups, this game might be closer.
  
• Has Byron Scott always had the porn stashe going? Dude needs to buy some little scissors to trim that dirty thing.

 

The Dirty Stashe

• Paul is bringing these guys back. Amare Stoudamire looks like the East Dwight Howard and Dirk is finally playing well. The West just took their first lead.
  
• Big Play Ray Allen is killing it and wearing the new Jordan’s at the same time.
  
• Brandon Roy is getting some definite crunch time play over AI, Melo, and Stevie Nash.
  
• Thanks to a Lebron dunk in traffic and a D-Wade layup where he hit the floor and got the foul (what’s new?), the East is back up by four with 30 seconds to go.
  
• Big Play Ray and LBJ put the game away, though the West made it fun in the end. Lebron is the MVP and he just missed a triple double. And my predictions were terrible.