Final Boxscore  |  Open Thread (850+ comments)  |  Mavs Moneyball

A loss is a loss, but at this point in the season I'll take any positives we can get. For nearly 42 minutes the Warriors led the game. They had the Mavs on the ropes facing consecutive losses to the Twolves and then the Warriors. But I think they just ran out of gas. Their top 3 scores, Monta, Curry, and Morrow each played at least 44 minutes and couldn't keep up the pace especially after Monta went down with a knee injury. Perhaps with a little more contribution from CJ, maybe those 3 get a breather and can finish the game strong. in the end, the Warriors dropped their 9th straight game. Unless they can beat the Clippers on Wednesday, they'll head into the All-Star break on an ugly losing streak.

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(Fully aware of Dirk Nowitzki's pending free agency status, Nellie tries to sweet talk him into becoming a Warrior)

In the 20+ years I've been a Warriors fan, I've learned the hard way to temper my expectations.  Rather than huffing and puffing over poor passing, mental lapses like stepping or dribbling out of bounds, and missing wide open layups, I've come to appreciate the minor things (mini-comebacks) as opposed to the finer things (actual wins).  In fact, I will go so far as to call this Warriors loss a "win" (by some Warrior fans' standards) by how valiantly they came back to the close the 3^rd quarter on a 16-6 run.  From being down 18 to 6, I consider this a relatively "tremendous" effort by a team that vaguely looks like the Warriors only by uniform homogeneity.   This counts as another moral victory.  With enough of these under our belt already, the Warriors are destined for the loser's playoffs: NBA DRAFT!

Onlxn's comment in his fan post "A Big Man That Could Help Us," perfectly sums up, in my opinion, last night's Warriors Woes (as opposed to Warrior Wonders):

More to the point, we suck.  And do you know the main three reasons we suck?  1) We're the worst-rebounding team in basketball, 2) we give up the second-most points in the paint of any team in basketball, and 3) we let our opponents shoot better from the field than any team except for the Nets.  

Okay, now that we've confronted the Warriors woes head on, let's look at this game (and possibly the rest of the season) as an extended "pre-season" in preparation for next season.  As mentioned earlier, being a Warriors fan's involves some strategies for survival.  So as opposed to considering this a loss, this game, in some ways, seemed more like tryouts for next seasons' Warriors squad with all the d-league "talent" running around.  So let's evaluate this d-league talent versus a decent team in the NBA!

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Well okay, I suppose missing LOST could have been avoided. But since I was getting out of work late yesterday, I had to drop a record on the game. And since I started watching the game much later than the actual tip-off time, this crapfest which I now have to write about overlapped with the start of LOST. Granted, I also popped a record on LOST, but I just wasn't up to starting it in the post-game state of depression I was in, so I'm saving it for tonight.

Who has two thumbs and is excited?!

This guy.

Warriors vs Rockets boxscore | Open Thread (900+ Comments)

At this point, you must be wondering why I'm continuing to talk about the thrilling final season of LOST rather than touching on points of the Warriors game. If this is the case, I can only assume you didn't watch the game. You lucky duck...

JUMP!

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Open Thread | Warriors vs Thunder boxscore | Welcome to Loud City | Warriors Web Links

Did anyone think we could ACTUALLY win this game? I mean really, our starting 5 vs. their starting 5?  Not only did they have YOUTH (something we claim to have, but it's all injured) but they have EXTREME talent (something we, sorta have?)

Instead of having my normal whine and moan sessions with an extra hint of emo, I decided to focus on the best part of last game.  

No, it wasn't Monta's 25 points since he went 9-24 shooting and added 5 turnovers (wonder why he's not an All Star?)

No, it wasn't Stephen Curry's 14 points with 4-10 shooting and 5 turnovers (that's not a good ratio for a backcourt)

No, it wasn't "efficient' Maggette's 26 points 8-14 shooting, and 4 personal fouls.

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More photos » Ben Margot - AP

Golden State Warriors' Monta Ellis receives advice from former Warrior Stephen Jackson on how to get out of town. "First, you get the contract. You've got that part taken care of, so that's good. Now you whine, and complain that you deserve to play for a winner, that you were promised something more and that it's unfair. Cause enough problems that they'll think that it just might make sense..."

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Who says that there have to be 4 quarters in an NBA game?  Hockey does just fine with 3 periods.  Sure, not having grown up in an arctic wilderness, hockey rightfully has no appeal to me at all.  Do not trust people from temperate and subtropical climates who profess to love hockey.  There's something deeply wrong with it.  If you cannot regularly expect water to freeze outside when provided with no stimulus other than the fact that it's too #@% cold out there, you should not have a hockey team in your city either. Hockey?  No thanks.

But there is that appeal of three periods.  At least this season, I vote that we eliminating the 3rd quarter.  We'd hardly miss it.  We'd be a more competitive team. "Per 36" stats would make a whole lot more sense. We wouldn't have to fume about Monta being sent out there for 45 minutes in order to run himself down in yet another futile effort. And we'd all get home a bit earlier. 

Last night, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.  Toss out any single quarter and the Warriors still get beat, but at least give the idea a bit of thought.

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Originally posted Jan 27, 2010 10:53 PM PST

It was all Paul tonight. Plus Cartier's lookin' sassy!

Final Boxscore  |  Game Thread (1000+ Comments)

I'm turning the tv off.

It's the third quarter and the Warriors are down by 24. Darius Songaila just hit a circus shot. I don't even think he looked at the rim. It was a drive to the middle of the lane, he stumbled, threw up a hook shot praying for anything, and it went in. When that happens, it's over. Songaila's circus shot = you're done.

It was a 7 point game at the half. What happened? I'll tell you what happened, the Warriors got badly outplayed in the 3rd quarter, couldn't grab a rebound and couldn't play defense. In the 4th they were at one point down 27. Sound familiar?

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There can be only one...

Final Boxscore  |  Game Thread (1290+ comments) )  |  Warriors Game Day Links

Blog Buddy: Sactown Royalty

It's difficult to describe just how ugly this basketball game was.  How about this: the Kings shot 38% for the game, and they were the hot team! The Warriors, up to this point one of the best shooting teams in the league, shot 32%. And if you take away Stephen Curry's 10-22, the Warriors shot 28%.  Is that ugly enough for you?

Well, how about this:  Corey Maggette shot 3-22, after opening the game 0-14.  He didn't make his first field goal until 8:20 of the fourth quarter. We're talking ugly.

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Pants on the ground!

Final Boxscore  |  Game Thread (650+ comments)   |  Warriors Game Day Links

Blog Buddy: Bright Side Of The Sun

The Warriors had every excuse to take this game off. If this season were a car race, the Warriors would have come into this game running on spare parts and bare rims. And if this game were the last lap, the Warriors would have crossed the finish line running on empty.

The Warriors were playing a road back-to-back. Left at home was captain Monta Ellis, the latest victim of the biblical plague of injuries that has visited the Warriors franchise.   CJ Watson took his place on the active roster, pressed into service early after suffering a bad gash to his shooting hand against the Heat.  The two brand-new D-leaguers, Cartier Martin and Anthony Tolliver, both played 37 minutes. And yet this Warriors team showed up to play, and gave the Suns everything they could handle for four quarters.

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