OPEN THREAD: Game #29 - Warriors vs Nuggets

Their offense rests almost entirely on Iverson/Carmelo wrecking havoc in the midrange area. Last year we put Jackson on Iverson, and Jack's length had an effect. The problem this year...who guards Carmelo? Asking Baron to do it is alot, since Melo has the size advantage and is skilled in the low block. On the other hand, asking Baron to chase Iverson all night throughs screens would subject our best player to physical abuse AND fatigue, since Iverson has a limitless motor and uses picks ridiculously well.

Alternatively, you could ask Monta Ellis to chase Allen Iverson matching speed for speed. Iverson's not stupid though, he moves off the ball at a crazy pace, never stopping, and changes directions laterally better than anyone in the league still. Tall task for Ellis.

I suppose we open Ellis on Iverson, Jackson on 'Melo. Since neither guy is a 3P shooter, we have both sag off and force them to become volume jumpshooters.

Crash the glass and run JR Smith and Kleiza off the 3P line.

Offensively, Iverson can be abused physically if he tries to matchup to Baron. Last year the "Reigning defensive player of the year" was a nice doormat for Biedrins' monster game. While Camby is a dominating shotblocker and rebounder, he's a poor positional defender. Force him to move and chase Biedrins on high pick and rolls, and the baseline becomes open for more penetration.

A Golden state of mind Indeed.

AIM: Jetforze

Really though it came down to the Defense and the lack of any sort of inside scoring   

He is a steak shooter who is close to a 40% guy his whole career and he is being asked this year to do more than he ever has

He could easily be sub 40% this year from the field and around 30% on 3's

All in all you take the good with the bad and they are much much better with him and much thinner than they seemed at the start of the year

Personally I'd like to see a little more of AB and some minutes for Brandon Wright but all and all they  overachieve

Everytime the score is close and we're about to take the lead, we end up settling for a 3 point shot rather than working for a good 2 pointer.  It seems like these Warriors want to drop the bomb and get everyone excited by nailing a 3.

What happens next?  A missed 3 and it leads up to a Nugget basket.  Again we're down and have to crawl our way up again.  

It seems like the players know the score in the back of their mind and when they're tied or down 1 or 2, it's like they have to shoot a 3.  36 attempts!

Maybe they were going for the dagger because the Nuggets were in control 99% of the game. Warriors seemed timid settling for eight thousand (8000) jumpers. Either way my body was shaking after that game from all the adrenaline! The Laker game didn't even do that to me.

I gotta get over to yardbarker and talk Shot selection with The Baron.

Sunday will be tough. I was hoping that we could at least split this home and home. The next couple of weeks will tell a LOT about this team.