Recap: Warriors 115, Sonics 117: COLLAPSE

I miss JRich

Where are you? This team is going nowhere if we dont have the most electrifying backcourt in the nba.  Get those knees healthy, please?

The Warriors are playing sorry. You can't come out hot like that, and just blow the lead to a even worse bruised and battered Sonics. There's one person who's the catalyst in their suckage. We gotta find that person and trade him for Iverson. lol.

The difference between this year and last year is that they can't blame the coach. Atma, I'm gonna have to disagree with the "drama" comment. I think that we may have high expectations, but Baron's may have been even higher. I think that with a healthy J-Rich (He should have sat out a couple extra weeks to begin with. It's never smart to come out at 75%, unless you're in a playoff chase) They don't squander games away. The only real person I consider a vet out there is Baron. So when the pressure gets to him, I think it gets to them all. J-Rich will provide a helping hand in just calming everyone down.

They just need to focus. They lose focus. Tonight they blew a 16 point lead in 4 minutes. That's just plain not paying attention. They pissed away the lead, and in turn it pissed them all off.

Now I'm just repeating myself. There's my two cents though.

I think the biggest problem with the team right now is MP. He just seems to make everything go haywire when he steps on the court. If you think back, all of the GSW excellent team play vanished when he returned. He just doesn't seem to be able to play a fast-paced team game.

I think some coach is so sold on him "developing" that he is campaigning for MP to play major minutes. Here are the problems:

He doesn't move at all without the ball. Watch him in a half-court set. He just camps out in one corner or another and waits for a pass. So on offense, we're virtually 4 against 5. (Even BD has to wave him out of the corner at times.) Because of this mindset, MP has shot more threes than anyone else on the team! The coaches act like he's some kind of a 3PT ace or something. Earth to Coaching Staff: MP is only shooting 37%!

(To give you some perspective, Luke Walton's at 56%, and there's six more players over 50%. And a whole bunch in the 40% range. Those are 3PT aces. Nash shoots 50%. Hey, even Matt Barnes shoots 47% and Troy Murphey shoots 46%!)

Next, when he does attempt to penetrate, he's like a bull in a China shop. No agility or ability to alter his path. That's why he looks so awkward.

Penetrate and dish? He never dishes off. Last night he played 32 minutes and didn't have one single assist! And this is from a guard?

As a matter of fact, MP has less assists than every player on the team except Roberson (big surprise), Ike (injured), POB and Adonyl, none of whom get anywhere near MP's minutes. For all the minutes he plays, that's a big problem. Even Matt Barnes, for the few minutes he usually plays, has almost twice as many assists as MP. Even Keith McCleod has significantly more with a lot less minutes. As much as people talk about Dun, MP is playing more minutes than Dun, and yet Dun has over three times as many assists as MP!

Even not counting assists, he is not a proficient passer. He has trouble simply executing a fast break and even Adonyl gives him a run for the money with handling passes. As a matter of fact, with Adonyl's improvement this season, I'd say MP has the most trouble hanging onto passes of anybody on the team.

MP has more fouls/game than every Warrior except one...Guess who? Andris. We all know Andris fouls a lot, but MP? Nobody seems to mention that stat.

Finally, his FT. MP shoots 62% from the line.

So why is he getting major minutes? This is a shooting guard. Don't the coaches even watch the film or look at the stats? I almost cringe when I see him on the court.

I know the talk about him being a defensive stopper, but I just don't get it. Who has he stopped this season? Everybody's having career nights against us, just like last year. I think the hype that MP is a solid defensive player is one of the biggest myths about the Warriors right now.

Sure, he does some things OK. He seems like a really nice fellow and he is, of course, a twenty-something multimillionaire, so I don't think he will worry too much about my post.

I think he can help the team as a deep bench player with a strictly defined role. But all those minutes?

I feel that as long as the coaches continue to play MP major minutes, we're going to lose a lot more games than we win.

this proved to me that these warriors will not be making the playoffs this year. Good teams make adjustments and edge out inferior teams. They took Waaaaaaaay too many jump shots in that third quarter instead of taking it to the rim. You can see that with the freethrow disparity between Seattle and GS. Also there was very little perimeter D, there is no way a guy like earl watson and damien wilkins should be killing you with the long ball. And finally, the season long bugaboo: defensive rebounding was the killer. Murphy, as much as his numbers back him up, never blocks out. the guards just look at the ball instead of looking for a man to bump. Its basketball 101 people. Maybe Nellie should have another mini-camp for fundamentals. A disappointing game from a jekyl and hyde team. I hope for better results with a healthy Richardson and Diogu if/when they return to the hardwood. In the meantime, Go spurs!