The Effort Again was there for the Warriors, but execution on the Defensive end was lacking
by Rocky63215 on Nov 25, 2009 9:02 PM PST
Email
Print
Coming into tonight's game the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas has been a house of horrors for the Golden State Warriors. In fact the Warriors have no won a game in San Antonio since 1997 a span of 22 games and tonight was no different.
Again the Warriors came out with an exceptional effort against the Spurs and stayed close until towards the end of the third quarter. The problem though for the Warriors was that Monta Ellis was the only Warriors who was able to score consistently against the Spurs.
In the first half alone Ellis had 28 points on 12-15 shooting. He finished the game with 42 points which tied his career high and on the night he went 16-25 from the field.
Other then Ellis there's really not much to say. Anthony Morrow was non existent throughout the game and committed a careless turnover that really cost the Warriors a chance to build the lead up from just one point, yet that was the key turning point in the game and really got the Spurs going.
Corey Maggette came off the bench for 14 points and Anthony Randolph chipped in 12. The only other Warriors in double figures was Stephen Curry.
Looking at the game though you can see why in the third quarter the Spurs were able to blow the game wide open. The Spurs increased the defensive pressure near the end of the third quarter as well and the Warriors were not able to break that pressure very well. Turnovers and questionable shot selection hurt as well during the Spurs run.
In the first half Ellis was the Warrior player who was able to create scoring opportunities, but in the second half Curry was used and he struggled tonight. In the third quarter he made some careless passes that lead to easy points for the Spurs.
In the fourth quarter the Spurs started pulling away from the Warriors, which was understandable considering the fact that the team played last night, but the Warriors team didn't give up and made a run to get the game back within 10, but the Spurs brought back in their starters to finish the 14 points victory tonight.
What really hurt the Warriors tonight throughout the game was the lack of defense. They did alright if the Spurs didn't pass the ball too much, but when the ball was moved by the Spurs it ended up in either free throws or an easy layup for the Spurs.
As I mentioned before Ellis was the only one who really scored for the Warriors. Well the Spurs had Tony Parker who was constantly getting by the defense of Curry, George Mason caught fire in the second quarter, and Tim Duncan had his way with Mikki Moore and Vladimir Radmanovich defending him.
While I didn't believe the Warriors were going to defeat the Spurs tonight, I thought the effort for the most part was outstanding. I've also seen some comments about the reason the Warriors lost tonight was that Maggette played.
Maggette was not the problem for the Warriors, the problems were turnovers specifically the ones that allowed for easy layups for the Spurs, taking questionable shots specifically Ramdanovich and Curry, and the lack of defense as a group.
What was most disappointing about the loss tonight though was the ineffectiveness of Anthony Morrow. He only took seven shots tonight, that's not acceptable. If Morrow wants to become a better scorer he really needs to work on his ball handling and being able to create a shot for himself.
I do agree with Morrow on the technical foul call he was definitely fouled on the play in question and why there was no whistle? Who knows!
This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!
25 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Monta's been proving his worth....
Now everyone needs to follow and back him up.
He can’t go out and score 30 every single game since teams are starting to double team him (you could tell from watching tonights game).
So, what's new about our defense?
One of the few to have appreciated Cap'n Jax. Do well in NC, get that 8th seed!
Conductor of the "We're Back!" Bandwagon!
what is this "defense" you speak off?
no, but turnovers killed us. Curry was so careless with the ball today. (well and in general). He makes great plays, but some passes make me rage and rip my buzzed hair out
From what I hear around the league some teams like to play defense
Actually I think the Defense has been much better especially with Monta!
Thank you Al Davis for Michael Crabtree!!!!!
Our defense does a good job at gambling
They lead the league in steals and forcing turnovers, but the problem with gambling is against a team like the Spurs that move the ball very well it really won’t work that well and will give teams easy shots.
Gambling Defense in General
Will not get us anywhere, till our players can man up and guard opposing players at least adequately. This “gamble” defense gives us more fast breaks and more points, but where has that top 5 offense gotten us in the past half decade? No where.
I want to see real Defense, hand in the face, step with step, annoying, maybe even dirty defense. I wanna see grit on the other side of the ball, not a roll of the dice.
One of the few to have appreciated Cap'n Jax. Do well in NC, get that 8th seed!
Conductor of the "We're Back!" Bandwagon!
by ejdacanay on Nov 25, 2009 11:34 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Didnt get to see the game
But it looked like we were right there for awhile but a huge run at the end of the 3rd killed us? was it fatigue? or just a number of things?
the real problem
was that they had 8 players, 6 of which played on a back to back after playing one of the better Western teams Dallas and coming off multiple 45+ minute games. Pretty unfair to criticize anyone’s game the next day under those circumstances.
Second half of a road back-to-back, short handed, against a good team ...
… what do you expect?
That being said, Morrow’s game isn’t, and probably will never be, creating his own shot.
Dude!!
We are missing half out team. We played on the road the night before and played most of our team a full 48 minutes which is pretty much an NBA record. Then we push one of the leaugues best teams for most of the game and your complaining about our lack of defense? The team freakin ran out of gas. Nothing more, nothing less. Even the best on NBA teams struggle on back to back road games, let alone doing it with 1/2 a team.
by crab dribble cocktail on Nov 26, 2009 10:49 AM PST reply actions
Then vs Than
Hijack alert.
It’s other THAN Ellis, not other THEN Ellis. I don’t mean to pick on Rocky – it’s just i’m seeing this Then/Than problem all over the internet. Bloggers who write pretty well seem to commonly make this mistake.
just sayin’
happy thanksgiven
Bloggers who write pretty well seem to commonly make this mistake.
And that applies to this diary … how? ;-P
There will be no extra point!
by Sleepy Freud on Nov 26, 2009 8:10 PM PST up reply actions
I posted this on the post-game roundup thread, too
Why all the hoppla around Monta’s performance?
I listened to the game on the radio. As before, he was totally on it in the first half, but I knew they’d get killed late in the 3rd quarter when he either burnt out or hit a skid. Didn’t everyone else realize this? After all, wasn’t it just a few days ago on one of the post-game posts that folks were talking about how the great, "team-carrying" guys need to do their work in the fourth quarter? Monta took everyone else out of the game, the number of assists through the first half was much lower per basket than in their previous two wins. Move the ball, figure out who else is on fire. And don’t let this person be Curry, either, since his jumpers seem to reduce the flow, not intensify it. Until he learns to can the open J on a consistent basis, he’s hurting the team. Isn’t it obvious why he had a bunch of clean looks? It’s because he poses no real threat at all.
Just because Monta can score, doesn’t mean that he should score. Not if we’re going to keep winning.
I mostly agree with you but......
i did watch the game and if Monta wants to take over like he did in the first half that is perfectly fine. BUT, in the second half it is imperative that he get Morrow, Curry, and even Radman open looks off his penetration. Good teams will always make an adjustment at halftime which means that we also have to make an adjustment. In this case we needed to get more scorers involved and that is something that Monta still has to learn. Overall though this team is exciting to watch again and they are making me proud to be a fan. Here’s to hoping they keep it up!
Who else then?
on this team would you trust to put the ball in the hoop? With Jackson gone, Azuibuke and Bell out for the season and Turiaf and Beans still out with injuries, who on this team can we legitimately count on to put up points?
Right now, Ellis, Morrow, and Maggette are the only players I’ve seen who on a night in and night out basis can give the warriors good point contribution. Maggette is a ball-stopper, plus his points come mostly from the free throw line and on isolation plays. Morrow is a catch and shoot or transition scorer. Only Ellis can score consistency well in the full and half court. Until we get healthier, I have zero problems with him playing the way he has these last 4 games or so, he’s the main reason we’ve been playing so well at all.
No, look at the box scores the previous 4 games, and see how other players have shown up as well.
The job of a leader is not to be the best player (though he probably is), but to make the other players play better than they otherwise would. Ellis did this for a few games, I’m not dissing him. He couldn’t keep it up and just went on overdrive this last game. That’s fine, it happens. But what surprises me is that there are people (and this included the radio announcers who talked about what a great game he was having, but never about the obvious cost of that game) who didn’t understand that that “great game” was assuredly a losing game – and that it takes less concentration and skill to drop 42 than it does to get Morrow 25.
Morrows game is good, but limited
The reason the announcers never said anything against the way Ellis was playing is because he was playing the game the right way lol. When you have the hot hand…you feed it, plain and simple. Ellis was 16-25 that game, that is ridiculous. Against most any other team that’s a guaranteed win, with a full healthy roster that may of been a blowout. In fact looking at the boxscore, had some of the other warriors shot the ball better, you could argue that game could of been entirely different. Fact is, when you put up 42 points on 64% shooting….its never your fault you lost.
Monta was 12-15 in first half, 4-10 in 2nd half
San Antonio made the adjustments and Monta got tired. Had Monta looked to be a distributor in the 2nd half we could have had Morrow and Curry get some open looks. Instead 90% of their shots were off the dribble or contested. Great shooters such as Ammo and Steph will shoot 20-30% higher when they get stand still open shots. Monta has the penetration skills to create those opportunities, but he failed to do so and when he could no longer keep us in the game by himself we fell apart. I’m not hating on Monta, i love his game, but like paris was trying to say we don’t need Monta to put up 30+ if he only gonna have 4 or less assists. He will learn and tonight may be a big step if he can outplay Kobe.
career assists
As of now are 3.6 a game. I guess my contention is that monta is never gonna be a Chris Paul, J Kidd, Steve Nash passer. Monta is a scorer, like Carmelo Anthony (3.1 apg) Kobe Bryant (4.6 apg) or even D-Wade/Lebron James (6.7 apg). These guys arent known for their abilities at setting up teammates as much as they are at being dynamic scoring threats and clutch players.
While I agree it may be too early to tell what he will be, I don’t see the potential in him to be a 8+ apg player. This guy is one of the most talented scorers in the league and is one of the best players at getting to the rim. What we may be seeing in him right now is the proof that he can’t be this teams starring point guard, that someone else (Curry?) might be our future pg and Ellis are future sg. Time will tell
The Warriors did try to make adjustments
It was to have Curry emulate what Ellis was doing, but in the end that mostly turned into turnovers and the game went from being close to pretty much a blowout.
Morrow didn’t do a very good job of getting open or to a spot. There were a couple of times that you could say that Ellis probably could have found Morrow for an open three, when he was driving in the first half, but usually the result of the drive was a layup for Ellis and a layup is a higher percentage shot than a three.
The problem is that Ellis could have had more assists
See that’s the thing you can’t just look at the box score and look at Ellis 42 points and determine from that he wasn’t moving the basketball. He was, the problem was that the shots that were falling lately just didn’t go in.
Pretty much this. Curry and Morrow didn’t have their legs because of the back to back.
by Reverend_Randy on Nov 28, 2009 11:15 PM PST up reply actions
Here's the thing with that
Ellis didn’t have a high assist night not because he wasn’t moving the ball it was the fact that he was on fire he only missed nine shots and he could get to the rim almost at will against the Spurs defense.
It wasn’t until the ball was taken out of Ellis’s hand that the Warriors started struggling.
They need their bigs healthy
Give it time people, and no more trades!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
"UNSTOPPABLE BABY!"
Golden State Warriors rookie Marc Jackson to the Mavericks' bench, after hitting a lay-up during a 29-point loss (2000)
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
Featured Stories
Most Commented
In Association With
Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sport
- Days of NBA Lives: Wherein Roy Hibbert tap-dances to Maine
- Grizzlies Valentine’s Day cards are the key to love
- Kevin Love would like the NBA to take the MLB’s approach on All-Star games
- Kobe Bryant fires a few hilarious salvos at Jeremy Lin
- Brandon Jennings states the obvious regarding his 2014 free agency, everyone goes nuts
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
