Originally posted Jan 12, 2:50pm
Golden State Warriors (3-6) vs Orlando Magic (7-3)
TV: TNT / Radio: KNBR 680
Blog Buddy: Orlando Pinstriped Post
With Kwame Brown out for 3 months with a dislocated shoulder, Andris Biedrins (gulp) gets the assignment on Dwight Howard, according to Rusty Simmons.
On Monday, I had the chance to attend Warriors practice and ask Coach Mark Jackson point-blank about Biedrins. See here's the thing. Let's say you're the 5th option, to the point where teammates are screaming your name whenever you grab an offensive rebound (read: they don't trust your offensive abilities so they -- without considering the pyschological ramifications -- try to avoid having you proceed further with the ball in your hands). I've been both the 5th and 1st options on my rec league teams throughout the years, depending. When you're the 5th option like this, it can be like there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
So I asked Coach Mark how to get out of that situation. He protected his player and claimed that Beans isn't the 5th option, although Coach did say Monta was #1 and D.Lee #2. So I think tonight will be a great opportunity for Biedrins to have green lights left and right. Even if he bricks, let's hope he takes those opportunities. He needs to find that light at the end of the tunnel.
There are other interesting matchups for tonight...
If Charles Jenkins gets the start again at pg, we'll have an interesting matchup of Monta Ellis vs Jason Richardson at the 2-guard. I'm sure the Oracle will give him a round of applause during intros.
There's also Hedo Turkoglu vs Dorell Wright, who bounced back against his former team the Miami Heat on Tuesday night (players getting back at their former teams has been known to happen), and former Cal player Ryan Anderson, who can shoot from outside, against David Lee at the power forward spot. Ekpe Udoh would be your backup center.
I'm also looking forward to, at some point, Jameer Nelson vs Nate Robinson. Let's also see if Nate can put two awesome games together. That seemed to be the consensus on Twitter that, every now and then, he can be incredible. If I were on the Warriors staff, I would ask him this: What's preventing him from doing that every night?