RECAP: Warriors 105, Spurs 110 - End to Start

it to turiaf. solid defensive effort tonight.

AARGH.

Tough one. I mean, you could argue that games like this are ideal for the team’s current situation — they demonstrate that they’re improving without hurting our lottery chances. But I really, really wanted that one. That SUCKED.

Monta (ESPN is saying he sprained the ankle, and let’s hope it’s a simple sprain) had his best game since returning. No, he’s not all the way back yet, and no, he’s not really looking like a point guard, but he had some nice moves, some nice dishes, and rebounded and defended well, which was nice to see. Jack was obviously excellent. Crawford had maybe the most unnoticeable 47-minute performance you can have… I had no idea he was in there that much. One of the weaker Maggette performances in a while.

Not to go all nelliehater here, but there was too much smallball tonight. Yes, it was very effective at times… tonight was one of those nights where it made sense to bust it out for stretches. But it stopped giving us any offensive advantage partway through the second half, and at that point, it should’ve been shelved. Biedrins, who was very effective whenever he was in, played 22 minutes out of 53. That’s ridiculous. Foul trouble alone can’t explain that… he never got his fifth foul, let alone his sixth.

A strong effort, no question, and if you remove the Dallas game from your mind, the Warriors have been playing some fairly respectable ball for awhile now. Here’s hoping Monta’s more or less all right.

I wonder of Crawford was thrown out of his game tonight because he’s been assigned point guard duties? I always thought he had potential to be good, at least on offense. I know everyone says his defense is bad, but I can’t strongly agree or disagree since I haven’t watched his defense much.

Anyway, the two moments that pissed me off the most was the flop call at the end of the 4th, obviously, and the moment when Jackson was arguing with the refs AND THE PLAY WAS STILL GOING. Had he turned around, he could have moved into position for a rebound and/or a put back. For god’s sake, you’re playing the Spurs. You can’t be undisciplined and give up on opportunities like that if you want to win.

Don’t the coaches tell Jack to shut up and keep playing? I know Jack does a lot of good things, but they end up getting negated by dumb things like that. I find it ironic that people say Randolph has an attitude of entitlement, which I agree, but Jack shows the same thing on the floor. He feels he’s entitled to every foul call, complains about it, and in the process, hurts his team. What kind of example does that set? I would LOVE to see Jack tell AR to quiet down, and then see AR tell Jack “Well you do it during the game”. That would be a HUGE wakeup call on Jack.

8 secs left was soooo predictable. I swear I was sitting there saying please don’t give it to Jax for a forced leaner. Can someone explain to me why Nellie isn’t smart enough to think that an ISO between Jax and Bowen (known for his great defense) will never never get you a call in the final seconds!!! Even Jax knew he isn’t good enough to get those calls!!!

I would have preferred Monta getting the ball and taking a mid-range jumper over Parker then what we got.

Nellie SUX.

i’m pretty sure bowen nailed jackson on the right elbow on the last play of the game.

I blame being tired, which caused the TOs and some bad decisions.

We miss having marco/bwright backup the starters, since nellie doesn’t trust the rest of the bench much. Why wasn’t morrow on the floor when we needed a 3 to keep us in the game at the end? JC was cold and didn’t play well.

Also, no ball movement, no kick and drive,hell, no driving at all.

But, we almost beat a much better team. We just need to improve a bit (less TOs damnit!) and get back our pg marco and we will be a better team.

There were two questionable turnover calls in the 4th, or at least they looked questionable to me, that went for the Spurs. At the time, I said “don’t let cause you to come unglued.” From that point on, the offense changed from something that seemed to get guys good looks to winding down the clock in order to get a terrible look. The lead evaporated.

Turiaf played a pretty good game. Biedrins should have played more though. The small lineup with Maggs and Jax as the ‘frontcourt’ when Duncan rested worked in the first half, but in the second, it didn’t do as well. Rotating in Biedrins instead of going back to that in the second half would have made some sense, if either to force San to bring Duncan back in -he might have fouled out when it mattered- or to see if Andris could work something against the Spurs second unit. For what it’s worth, the excuse that Biedrins sat for foul trouble is bogus. He had 1 foul in the first and had three total when he sat in the 3rd. Thee fouls at the mid point of the 3rd is not ‘foul trouble’, certainly not enough to pin him to the bench until overtime.

For the most part, a well played but horribly managed game. (Nelliehater, you’re up here.)

I was hoping for Maggs to make those free throws, but Monta or Jax made up for on the next possession. Out of all the calls, Ginobili’s so far has pissed me off the most. He did basically just fall down on his own accord. I like how he played cool after, heh. What a moron.

Ginobili has a bruised hip, so he sat out. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan were given the night off after playing us into OT, says the ESPN recap. Were those two really given the night off because of us? I’d like to think so. :)