RECAP: Warriors 76, Magic 91 - UGLY!

by Fantasy Junkie on Jan 10, 2007 11:58 PM PST in Recaps Comment 23 comments

Yea. Exactly.

First off, I'm glad I don't have FSN+ and thus could not watch the game. Being exposed to an ugly loss like this is not safe. I hope you put the kids to bed before watching the game. They could be scarred for life or worse give up on the Warriors and become a Kings fan. UGLY!

Oh man, sucks to be Foyle right there.

A loss to the Magic certainly can't be unexpected since they had won 4 in a row and were 21-14 coming into the game. So, we lost to a good team. But it was the way that we lost the game that is really disheartening. From what I can tell, nobody played well. There were probably some decent lines at halftime, but nobody really finished the game with a strong boxscore. Biedrins had the 15 rebounds but managed only 4 points (on 3 shots). Baron had 8 assists, but 6 turnovers. Kabuki had 11 points and 6 boards, but shot just 4-11. The team shot just 37% from the field, 56% from the line, and got outrebounded...again. UGLY!

Being at home, up by 5 at halftime, and well rested should not result in a second half collapse. UGLY!

76 points? That sets a season low for total points. UGLY!

29 points in the 2nd half? That must be a season low for one half. There are games where we score 29 points in one quarter. I don't understand how it's possible to score 10 points in the 3rd quarter. UGLY!

That leaves me with some questions about how we played in the 2nd half. Hopefully those "lucky" enough to have FSN+ could help me answer these questions:

Since I didn't watch the game, did we have all 5 players on the court at the same time?
If we did have all 5 on the court at the same time, was it just 3 of them on offense and 2 stayed behind on defense? 10 points in the 3rd quarter is hard to fathom, unless of course we played 3 on 5 during our offensive sets.
Is Dwight Howard 2 people? A single man could not have scored 30 points and grabbed 25 rebounds. Even if he is one man, he still had 5 turnovers, 0 assists AND shot only 8-15 from the line. HA! Take that. Scrub.
Did Dwight Howard really just outrebound Pietrus (1 rebound), Barnes (4), Ellis (2), Davis (2), Dunleavy (3), Foyle (3), Murphy (6), and Diogu (3) combined? This must answer my previous question that Dwight Howard is in fact not 2 people, he's 8.
Did Monta break Grant Hill's ankles? At least one of my predictions might have come true.

Just leave the answers in the comments. It'll be much appreciated.

Gobbling up rebounds

Warrior Wonder: This would have been another Hash sandwich except I was missing all the ingredients except for bread. So I'll give my Warrior Wonders to the Warrior Girls. Atma hooked me up with the Warrior Girls 16 month calendar. 16 beautiful ladies for the next 16 months. What's more, the calendar has the birthdays of the Warrior players. JRich's birthday is coming up, it's on January 20. But I digress, Warrior Wonders = Warrior Girls. NOT UGLY!

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Dwght Howard

The number of people he is grows exponentially based on the weakness of the opposing teams frontline, so he was about 637 people last night

by FoyledAgain on Jan 11, 2007 12:12 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Frustrating

There are no words to describe how painful it is to lose another game we were leading at the half and to look like a total joke doing it. It is even more painful that outcome makes it look like a waste for Baron to have played and not rested his wrists. Ugh.

by SkipT on Jan 11, 2007 12:21 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Same ol' stuff

The free throws were pretty bad as usual and so were the turnovers, but thing that hurt the most was collapsing in the 2nd half at HOME. Man, we couldn't even get through Darko "The Bust" Milicic, it was that ugly. Penetrate to the rim was like mission impossible because of the towers, thus our confidence got shot down as you can see by the field goal percentage in the 2nd half. The Warrior Wonder is really the Warrior Girls because they pratically the only ones cheering in the 4th quarter or the two guys sitting in the court seats screaming at Dwight Howard and company through out the 4th. Well, at least Foyle had that nice play tonight!

by MVP on Jan 11, 2007 12:45 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Hmmm

Good think I fell asleep at Halftime. Stupid PST!

by Zorgon on Jan 11, 2007 4:58 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

that was ooogs

To be fair, Magic are 3rd best defensive team in the league, right behind Houston and SA. The biggest problem was the game was a half-court game played at their pace, and they just completely owned us on defense with their big guys rebounding and stopping our drives. When the Warriors aren't getting easy baskets on the fast-break, they can look really, really bad. Azuboooookay was the best Warrrior, or maybe Baron since he was playing with the bad wrists, but I'm not gonna complain about your pick for Warrior wonder either!

by gsw4life on Jan 11, 2007 6:11 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

The one thing I came away with is

Azubuke is a great find. Would love to see this kid's confidence grow. Looks to me like he's holding back some on offense. He has nice fundamentals. Don, please play him more and Funleavy and Helen of Troy less...

by flaaron on Jan 11, 2007 8:00 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

We got exposed

By double teaming Baron, our offense had no answers. Since he is apparently the only one who can drive on our team, he would often turn it over. If he didn't drive, the Magic would simply play everyone tight outside the key and make the Warriors take contested shots. Simple strategy, but it worked.

Our D was serviceable, but the Magic make a concerted effort to grab offensive boards, and they are big boys. The uptempo Warriors are often long gone after a desperate three clanks off the rim.

I dare to say Baron is losing steam. He hasn't looked quite right since the beginning of the month. Yes, the numbers are there, but I don't see the same level of inspired play and he takes a lot more contested shots. I think he is emotionally and physically tired, and rightfully so. I hope the team doesn't crumble with him being out, like last year. I see it coming...

by RonG on Jan 11, 2007 8:32 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Sigh...

I dare to say the whole team, including Nellie (given his comments about this being an ordinary team), may be losing steam.

Baron tiring and getting another minor injury, combined with O'Bryant's slow progress, really makes we would have taken someone else in the last draft. With JRich out and Monta playing more and more like a shooting guard, we could really use a Marcus Williams or Rajon Rondo.

by TastesLikeBurning on Jan 11, 2007 8:47 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I have lost hope

this team is not making the playoffs...again

THe players they have are not good

by Zig on Jan 11, 2007 9:11 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

bad night

man, that game was so disheartening that my wife almost stopped making fun of the warriors as she could see i was getting seriously bummed, almost. at least i won five bucks off of her not believing that ike is 6'8.
dwight howard was a monster, we were little bunny rabbits.

by redape on Jan 11, 2007 8:59 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

don't lose hope

are u serious? don't lose hope after losing to a 21-14 team. It's not like we were favored to win. Nellie said he's not too disappointed with the performance, and we know he always tells it like it is.

by gsw4life on Jan 11, 2007 9:34 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Ugliness was on display last night

We're simply stuck with Troy and Dun...honestly, Foyle is more serviceable than those two...Troy is simply useless, does not know how to position himslef for a rebound. Whatever happened to the Troy from a few years ago when he was a solid rebounder? That's all we need for him to do and periodically take the 3 from the top of the key...other than that, useless.

We are seriously feeling the effects of not having JRich at full strength.

by MANUTEs BOLs on Jan 11, 2007 9:49 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

At least the D was good

SGate caption: "The Magic's Carlos Arroyo muscles his way past the Warriors' Mike Dunleavy for a basket in the fourth quarter. "

by Atma Brother ONE on Jan 11, 2007 10:27 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Agree

That Dunleavy -- along with EVERYONE else -- stunk it up last night (tho Dun was NOT playing when the roof caved in in the third quarter), but however you want to caption that photo, that's Monta's guy, not Dun's. The real problem was on offense, where BD had no steam, and no one else (including Dun) stepped up. Result: Hello 2005-6, and welcome back to the contested long-shot. Once again, when this team doesn't move on offense, you can turn out the lights cuz it's all over.

by johnl on Jan 11, 2007 10:44 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

LOL! That shows it all.

Funleavy looks stoned...

by flaaron on Jan 11, 2007 12:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Armbands

DunDun is diggin the armband on Arroyo, maybe if he gets one, all of his defenders will be charmin soft

by FoyledAgain on Jan 11, 2007 5:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Tim Kawakami's Talking Points Recap

Magic 91, Warriors 76: Is this the beginning of the lottery plummet?
http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/kawakami/2007/01/10/magic-91-warriors-76-is-this-the-beginning-of-the -lottery-plummet/

Plus an interview with Nellie after the game.

by Atma Brother ONE on Jan 11, 2007 10:55 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Up-tempo small-ball -- Exposed!

Up-tempo small-ball is a failed strategy for long-term success. Last night Orlando showed exactly how you stop sub-par teams that try to play up-tempo. You get back on D, shut down the fast break, and go half court. Case closed.

Ditch the high-calorie, low-nutrition up-tempo small-ball and start working on a trade for a legitimate big man, a dead-on outside shooter, and/or a shut-down defender before the February trade deadline.

The TruthMaker www.sfist.com

by TruthMaker on Jan 11, 2007 1:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Disagree

I think up-tempo small ball works. You just need the players for it. Look at Phoenix, it works great because they have the players. They have a supremely athletic frontcourt, combined with a bunch of shooters, and a distributer. The Warriors have a bunch of scraps throw together. So I don't think it's a case of the style of play that doesn't work, it's the pieces. This team would fail at a slow down game, an up tempo game, a medium tempo game. If you have the talent and discipline, you'll win.

But I agree with you on the needs, get a big man, a defender, and a shooter. They don't have to be stars, we just need some role players to fill the necessary roles on the team.

by Fantasy Junkie on Jan 11, 2007 4:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Why small ball every game?

Even when it was so obvious that small-ball was not working. Why would Nellie only sub different players and never try anything else besides small-ball? just wondering...

BD was so frustrated last night because of they double and in some instance triple team him, he pushed and almost wanted to pick a fight with some Orlando players.

A few years ago, we scored 2 points in a 4 quarter and lost the game by less than 5 points, I think. This was not a new low, but low enough for me and other fans to be very depressed about the team.

WFanSince1979

by WFanSince1979 on Jan 11, 2007 3:19 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Lets juts face it

they have very little talent

by Zig on Jan 11, 2007 3:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Sadly, i was there

Yeah, witnessed this debacle in person. Everyone was off. I feel bad for Baron. His great season and surprising health thus far are being wasted with few people stepping up in the absence of JR. And as great as Monta has been, he is as frustrating (with his poor decision-making, costly turnovers and bad ball-handling...so NOT a true point) as he is exciting.

I didn't quite understand Nellie's substitutions last night, they seemed very random. At one point, the lineup was Foyle, Dun, Murph, Monta and Kelenna. WTF?!

As far as Orlando, man, is Dwight a BIG boy. Their D looks great. That 3rd in the L in opponent scoring is no joke.

by dirrty on Jan 11, 2007 4:55 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Fundamentals and Defense

I think the problems boil down to a serious lack of fundamentals on the Warriors. I think Nellie-Ball is exciting to watch, and the Warriors are in the top of the NBA for offense. However, they often seem to shoot themselves in the foot over basic fundamentals.

You can't beat top teams when you make silly mistakes. Even good high school teams preach correct fundamentals, protecting the ball, making smart decisions, playing intelligent defense, executing fast breaks correctly, making FT's, etc.

Every time they start to make a run, MP steps out of bounds or somebody throws a crazy pass right into an opponent's hands, or somebody shoots a 3 with nobody even under the basket, or somebody tries a lob that hits the backboard or we go 5-15 from the FT line, etc.

The Warriors just have to slow down a little and play good fundamental basketball. Watch the Suns or the Spurs or the Mavs or the Pistons or the Lakers. You just don't see so many silly mistakes that take all the energy out of a run.

And then there's the Charmin-Soft Defense. Or as I like to call it, the Gee, I Really Hope You Miss Defense. Despite Nellie's comments and some other comments, I didn't notice much of an improvement on defense. Orlando looked slow and awkward, but they could almost score at will against the Warriors.

Fundamentals and defense will definately help the Warriors start winning some games.

by pineriver on Jan 11, 2007 7:21 PM PST reply actions 0 recs