Recap: Warriors 102, 76ers 101- Saved By "The Drive"

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 3, 2007 12:58 AM PST in Recaps

The Warriors in Philly to take on the tanking 76ers minus traded for pennies on the dollar Allen Iverson and now #84 Chris Webber... boring right? HECK NO.

Final Box Score

11 years later Joe Smith's defensive presence finally pays off for the Warriors.

The Drive
GSoMers' new favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was having an awful night. Absolutely awful.

Oooooh, Al's gonna hear it from Master Splinter tonight!

Al Harrington had a Mike Dunleavy-esque performance in Philly tonight, but I won't get into the gory details. I trust Master Splinter will have a sit down with this TMNT and he'll blow up tomorrow against the Charlotte BETcats.

Plus how can I knock a man when there was The Drive...

With under ten seconds left on the clock the Dubs were down by 1 point. It looked like another painful loss on the road. The Warriors inbounded the ball and things looked like they went wrong from the start with some miscommunication and a broken play. Baron Davis, the Dubs' best ball handler and clutch performer, didn't have the ball. Instead Al had the rock and was matched up against former Warrior #1 overall pick Joe Smith. With the seconds ticking away, Al penetrated, spun right, and rolled in a layup with his left hand which dropped in a la Allan Houston against the Miami Heat back in 1999. Andre Iguodala missed a 22 foot jumper on the other end of the court and the Warriors stopped an ugly 6 game losing streak away from the Bay.

Here's what Al had to say about The Drive:

"I needed it. I was struggling all night," Harrington said.

Yup, dogg- WE needed it. Thank you for stepping up in the clutch.

After the game Iggy enthusiastically reads about The Drive by Al Harrington.

Props

First of all big ups to Nellie. He obviously knows way more about hoops than any of us and he's a Hall of Fame Coach, but since the trade I've disagreed with his insistence on playing so much zone defense. You can go for long stretches playing zone defense in college and high school, but in the NBA it's just a gimmick that will have short-lived success. Every NBA team has shooters than can embarrass you in the zone. It might have been a necessity with poor one on one defenders like Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy, but Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson are solid defenders. It was nice to see see Nellie go with more man defense tonight. Let's hope Nellie calls for more man defense in the future. In the long run this should help with reducing both the embarrassing rebounding differentials and the gaudy field goal percentages the Warriors have been surrendering to other teams this season.
For some reason the Warriors always come out flat and get dominated after halftime in the 3rd quarter on the road. Tonight the Warriors came out red hot and outscored the Sixers on their home floor in this key quarter 33-20. Whatever Nellie said to them at halftime worked.
The Warriors went 4 for 12 from 3-point land tonight. Nothing spectacular of course, but it's refreshing after they shot 1 for 15 against the Hawks and 2 for 20 against the Cavs from downtown.

But let's be real, it's sad this game was so close and the Warriors are still an awful road team. In my eyes they're still playoff pretenders until they can prove they aren't road weaklings.

The Negatives
Here's just a few of the many...

This is the 76ers! Everyone knows these guys are trying to tank it. It's not exactly the league's biggest secret. And the only reason our "playoff push" Warriors were able to collect this W tonight was because of The Drive? That's pathetic.
Memo to the Warriors: Andre Iguodala is NOT Scottie Pippen. He's not even Shawn Marion, but they made him look like a superstar tonight. Iggy got jiggy with it tonight dropping 25 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 steals, and a block. Props to him for the dominating performance, but shame on the Warriors for surrendering another career night. On many plays it looked like Andre was just outhustling and outthinking the Warriors. This should never happen.
The Warriors wasted more than their fair share of opportunities putting the ball in the bucket in the first half. There were way too many missed layups/ put backs and blown fast breaks. It was ugly basketball by the Warriors for most of the 1st quarter. Yes, it was that bad. Thankfully the Sixers were even worse in that opening quarter.

Warrior Wonder
When I first sat down to watch this game, I told myself that no matter what happens Baron Davis was going to get my vote for the prestigious GSoM Warrior Wonder tonight. I didn't care if Al Harrington collected 20 boards tonight. Heck, I didn't care if Andris Biedrins dished out 10 assists. Man, I didn't care if Adonal Foyle dropped 50 points. BD was getting the award tonight no matter what.

Why?

Because the man was ROBBED like the Warriors robbed the Pacers in their recent 8 player blockbuster deal.

It's become a favorite pastime of NBA fans to criticize the fan results in the All Star starters vote (ironic, huh?), but more attention needs to be directed towards the foolish All Star reserves vote results. How in the name of Zarko Cabarkapa (anymore remember that guy?) did BD not make the squad, but Tony Parker did? Also, how in the name of Sarunas Jasikevicius did Tony Parker make the squad, but not Josh Howard who plays for a team that's won more games than the Spurs? I would go into more detail, but honestly it drives me nuts and I'd rather not waste time detailing the foolishness of the coaches snubbing BD, so I'll pass the mic to GSoM friend Marcus Thompson who I fully agree with on this issue.

Memo to NBA Coaches: This is what an NBA All Star looks like. Check the flyer if you're still lost.

Regardless of the joke that is the coaches' vote in the NBA All Star game, Boom Dizzle still dazzled us with a nice outing tonight: 25 points, 12 dimes, 6 rodmans, 3 steals, and some solid D. Fantasy Junkie and I were actually talking about BD's overall great effort and results on the defensive end this season. If any of you have ever seen Tony Parker play, let's just say Eva Longoria is like Bruce Bowen on D compared to him.

Tony has dreams of being like BD.
Eva thinks: "If Tony can make the All Star squad in the mighty West with his poor defense, maybe I have a shot too!"

Photos by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

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Tony Parker

there's a great article by John Hollinger that details how 3 guards (Nash, Iverson, and Parker) could make the team even if not a single Western Conference coach wanted 3 guards to make the team:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/allstar2007/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&id=275 1487

Quick summary for those without ESPN insider:
2 reserve guards are required to be taken. Nash is obvious, so assume everyone takes him. Coaches can't vote for their own players, so say D'Antoni takes Iverson and Parker. The other 14 coaches split between taking Iverson and Parker, so they both end up with 8 votes. There are more all-star worthy forwards than there are all-star worthy guards, so the forwards could actually split each other's votes , so that multiple forwards end up with 7 for the last spot, and Parker, Iverson, and Nash end up going, even though EVERY coach only voted for 2 guards.

Of course it also sucks that Parker is seen by just about every coach as more all-star worthy than Boom Dizzle (and Ray Allen) despite indisputably inferior stats and value to his team, but he is still a very good player on a team that is an elite, title-contending team every year. He will have the coach's favor until Warriors can gain some respectablity, regardless of what Baron's individual stats are.

by gsw4life on Feb 3, 2007 1:48 AM PST 0 recs

jeez...

Eva is so foine!

by wander7 on Feb 3, 2007 3:04 AM PST 0 recs

actually...

i think she's overrated

by ssmokinjoe on Feb 3, 2007 3:44 AM PST up 0 recs

she is overrated

have you seen her without make up? sheesh

anyway bdiddy is a better point guard than parker in every single way (scoring, rebounding, passing)

Its not even about being bias here, yeah we are all warrior fans but honestly he should of made the reserve. Isn't he having career highs but yet he made it 3 seasons ago having lower numbers. Fans are stupid, wouldnt expect the same ignorance from the coaches come onnnnnnnn.

by djchuckdeez on Feb 3, 2007 4:10 AM PST up 0 recs

have you seen her without make up?

Have you? I'd like to scrub it off sometime and see what's under it.
Seriously, if I had her at home I don't think I'd wanna go play basketball even in an allstar game.

by Skeptic con Urquell on Feb 3, 2007 9:40 AM PST up 0 recs

yes

I have. If I was an nba player, or a celebrity for that matter, im sure i could get all the girls in the world no matter how ugly i am, so having her isn't a big deal. Even that piece of crap Jack Osburne gets hella girls.

by djchuckdeez on Feb 3, 2007 2:26 PM PST up 0 recs

i have no idea

what john hollinger is talking about. its quite possible that im retarded, but he doesnt make sense. If this vote is split that way and the coaches vote for these two guys then there is no way that those forwards can make the team. huh?

I like hollinger because he rips the heat. Its Wade .5 Shaq, and complete and utter trash. apparently thats good enough tho.

by jrizzle on Feb 3, 2007 11:38 AM PST 0 recs

Iverson an all star? Warriors robbed Pacers?

One of the things that bugs me about the NBA is that it encourages people to disregard the wisdom of Chuck and Flav. Namely, the NBA hype machine is among the most powerful in the world. There have been two big trades so far this season. Iverson to Den and Harrington and Jackson to the Warriors. In both cases, conventional hype is that Denver got more out of the trade than the 6ers and the Warriors "robbed" the Pacers. Results on the court suggest otherwise in both cases.

by jae on Feb 3, 2007 12:00 PM PST 0 recs

Give it some time

Come playoff time when Iverson and Melo are teamed up, they could wreak havoc on the West.

Also, since the trade the Pacers have had a cushy schedule, while the Warriors are in the middle of a 6 game road trip. The East is just so bad right now that the Pacers with an inferior roster than the Warriors could still end up with a better record and make the playoffs.

Harrington and Jax are nice players. I don't think anyone thinks they're super stars or even legit stars at this point. They're upgrades over Murph and Dun, but they still probably aren't big enough of an upgrade to the Warriors' roster to vault them into the playoffs with this poor start. The West is just that good.

We should just be happy that some front office in the NBA was foolish enough to take on Dunleavy and Murphy's contracts.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 3, 2007 12:14 PM PST up 0 recs

We'll see

I don't think much of Harrington or Jax as players and regard them as merely average, but somehow Harrington became hyped as something more. We'll see in time but in both trades, I think that people overvalued scoring average and as a consequence, didn't realize that the trades weren't really all that one-sided. Scoring average alone probably doesn't indicate as much in terms of value towards producing wins as many of the other factors that got swapped in both trades.

Time will tell, but the initial reaction that both the Nuggets and Warriors would be better haven't yet shown that they're headed in that direction.

by jae on Feb 3, 2007 1:02 PM PST up 0 recs

Average

I don't think much of Harrington or Jax as players and regard them as merely average, but somehow Harrington became hyped as something more.

Oh, I'm with you on that one. They're both average starters in the NBA, but I still think the Warriors came out big on the trade for a few reasons:

They got rid of Dun and Murph's awful contracts which were longer than Harrington and Jax's
They moved two bench players in Nellie's system for 2 starters
Harrington and Jax have decent contracts
The Warriors were an awful defensive team and both Jax and Harrington are good defenders on many nights and decent on their worst ones- that's a huge upgrade from Dun and Murph
There has been too much stability on this roster under Mullin. It's nice to see he's capable of breaking up his old boy network if they aren't performing.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 3, 2007 1:18 PM PST up 0 recs

WOW

How in the world was that such a close game? I listened to the first half on KNBR and Roye was sounding like it was a loss from the start of the game. Got home for the 2nd half, and caught a nail bitter.

by gswrico on Feb 3, 2007 1:22 PM PST 0 recs

defenders?

Well, Harrington and Jax haven't indicated to me that they're decent defenders yet and I think that they both have contracts that are decent only in comparison to the really terrible contracts Murphy and Dun had.

The notion that Harrington and Jax are good defenders is the one that puzzles me. There's no evidence of this in terms of the record on the court. If you look at +/- stats, both were significantly negative indicating that their teams have been better when they weren't playing. There's no evidence that either of them helped improve their team's defensive FG%. Both are lousy rebounders for their position. If your team cannot secure rebounds, unless you force zillions of turnovers, you cannot make defensive stops. Both may be more athletic, but both make enough mistakes to counter their 'ability.'

The real key to the deal was that the contracts were marginally better, but that's because they're a year shorter. It's tough to point to that now and get excited. On the court, I think the real difference is minimal if any.

by jae on Feb 3, 2007 1:31 PM PST 0 recs

6ers tanking?

I wholeheartedly disagree.

by Zorgon on Feb 3, 2007 1:50 PM PST 0 recs

it doesnt matter

how average defenders jax and harrington are. or how regular players they are. or how well indiana is doing. If we made this trade JUST for Al harrington, I would still do it. Financially we killed, as well as on the court.
dont see how u dont see it JAE

by jrizzle on Feb 3, 2007 2:42 PM PST 0 recs

Killing on the court?

Financially, it was a good deal, but the deal doesn't really help for several years.

How do I not see that we killed on the court? I don't see it because I don't see that Harrington or Jackson are really particularly good players. Average at best which is pretty much what we sent out. They have higher scoring averages than the guys we sent out, but they come with signficant warts and scoring average alone is a poor evaluation of a trade. We sent out marginally useful pieces with many holes in their game and got back exactly the same thing. We got guys back who can score by taking many shots--in essence score by taking points away from teammates. They rarely do much else. They have historically turned the ball over more, achieved fewer assists, and pulled down fewer rebounds per time on the floor.

Could we be marginally better? Perhaps, but it's marginal. A killing? Not in the slightest.

by jae on Feb 3, 2007 3:05 PM PST up 0 recs