Preseason Game #3- Warriors 89, Clippers 99- You Didn't Miss Much

by Atma Brother ONE on Oct 14, 2007 11:28 PM PDT in Recaps Comment 27 comments

First thing's first. It was wonderful being back at the Roaracle Arena after so many months. That place will always feel unBELIEVABLE to me. It started out as a fine, fine day indeed as my man Hash noted, but after a few minutes into the game it really felt like one of those lazy Sundays where you're just fighting that itch to take a nap.

Preview/ Open Thread (70+ comments)

Preseason Game #3 - Warriors 89, Clippers 99 - Welcome Home Boys!

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The best part of the game was Warrior fan player hater Mike Dunleavy Sr. getting T-ed up
within the first few minutes. It's the preseason!

Final Box Score

Tonight's game wasn't televised or broadcast on radio in the Bay Area. For those of you who couldn't hear or listen to the game tonight and couldn't make it out to Oakland, don't worry at all. You didn't miss much. I keep harping (at nauseam) how meaningless the preseason is, so I won't waste too much of your time delving into the many negatives from this game. It wasn't pretty.

Make the jump for a few notes on the game.

Thank god this game doesn't count.

Warrior Killas

As soon as Corey Maggette pulled off his warmup I told Hash that the Clips' swingman was going to get to the free throw line at least 10 times tonight. This guy just owns the Warriors. Maggette's like a one man wrecking crew against the Dubs, just pounding the ball and taking it strong to the rack at every opportunity. It's amazing how many fouls he can draw so quickly and how efficient he is at the charity stripe. It seems like every single time the Warriors face the Clippers they make Maggette look like a superstar. He's good, but not this good. Well the good news for everyone aside from Clip fans is that Coach Dunleavy will probably let his personal drama with Maggette cloud his vision and barely play him this season.
Ruben Patterson has always been a solid player in the NBA, but he should never be going for 19 and 11 on you. The Warriors made him look like a man among boys.
I thought Elton Brand was out with an injury till midseason. When did he change his name to Al Thornton? 18 points in the second quarter? Are you kidding me? Seriously though, good luck to Elton Brand in his recovery and props to this rook. He's got a bright future.

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Warrior Killa #12.

MISStakes

The Warriors simply couldn't handle the rock tonight. It's like they had 5 Erick Dampiers dribbling the ball and passing it around on the court at the same time. From the high dribbling to the poor decision making, it just wasn't very fun to watch. When you end up with more turnovers (23) than assists (19), something's not right.

There's a few things wrong with this picture.
How many can you name?

Shooting Blanks. For the most part I didn't have much of a problem with the Warriors' shot selection tonight. There were a lot of good looks- even many wide open looks- but they just didn't go in. The boxscore says the Warriors shot 32.9% from the field and 20.0% from the 3pt line, but if you were there it felt like they were shooting much, much worse than that. I'm surprised (and relieved) the final shooting percentages ended up being that high.

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Oh they were shooting it.
It just wasn't going in.

Good lord there was a ton of fouling going on tonight. Hopefully this doesn't continue when the games actually count. POB picked up 5 fouls in less than 8 minutes of play, which is really too bad because I like what I saw from him when he wasn't doing a one minute man impersonation. He really looks like he's hungry out there. Major props to The Notorious P.O.B. I'm really pulling for him to shock everyone (including me) this season.

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Less fouling and more of this please!

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This too!

Charmin' Soft. Aside from a few plays by POB the Warriors really had no chance in the paint. The rebounding disparity was pretty embarrassing (34 to the Clips' 45).
I really think the Warriors are going to regret not signing Brevin Knight as a backup point guard. I love his smarts, vet savvy, court vision, and thievery on defense. I've always thought this Stanford product in his prime could've had a shot at being an elite PG at the NBA level if he had a better jumper. I don't know if his veteran legs could handle the Warriors' run and gun, but I would've love to see him get a shot here.
Why did Pat Burke get so much playing time? I wish him all the best, but I'm pretty shocked he's still on the Warriors' roster. I'm not a big fan of him playing nearly 7 minutes more than Brandan Wright. I don't have a clue why he played nearly 20 minutes when he did so little to justify the court time. My money is on Burke being cut and Wright being sent down to the DLeague. Burke is not in the Warriors' long terms plans (god, I hope not), but Wright is. Let's see what the young man has before he gets sent down to the NBDL.

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Do The Wright Thing and give Brandan more PT in the preseason!

But my friends say it with me in unison- MEANINGLESS! Well at least I'm going to keep telling myself that and rest easy tonight. The Warriors are far from perfect, but I'd like to believe and I'm hoping they aren't this bad come October 30th. Cross your foam fingers and Thunder slippers...

Don't miss: Preseason Game #3 - Warriors 89, Clippers 99 - Welcome Home Boys!

Photos: Rocky Widner (NBAE via Getty Images), Ben Margot (AP)

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Comments

Pat Burke's PT...

From what I saw of Pat Burke in the Warriors preseason game against the lakers, all signs point to him being cut. I suppose Nellie's playing him so much so that he can audition for another job elsewhere.

by ThermoElectro on Oct 14, 2007 11:42 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Pat Burke's PT...

by ThermoElectro on Oct 14, 2007 11:43 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

burke = C

I'm guessing he played because he was the only backup C on the roster, and Nellie doesn't consider Wright a C.

Except we have Kosta Perovic, who has been invisible.

Mind boggling indeed

Questions? Complaints?

(AIM: JetForze; email: Jon.d.ma@gmail.com)

by OptionZero on Oct 14, 2007 11:47 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

DEFINITELY

"MIND-BOTTLING...you know like when you're head's like in a bottle!"

"S.C. gooooo hooooome!!!"

by scottiepimppen on Oct 15, 2007 10:47 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

they

obviously just brought him in to push O'Bryant and the other young guy, no. 19...

This is my team There are many like it But this one is mine. My team, without me is useless. Without my team, I am useless

by BlueNgoldBlood on Oct 15, 2007 10:56 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was at the Snoracle, Section 106

Atma may call it meaningless, but wasting a perfectly good Sunday night watching the Warriors take a crap on the floor of the Boracle was meaningfully painful to me. My thoughts . . .

What went right:

POB: He was active, he put his body on people and he was effective. He made the most of his time, which was cut short by fouls, with 4pts, 5reb and a block in 7 minutes. He is playing hard and it shows.
Austin Croshere: This guy has surprised me in a good way. He plays within his limitations well. He rebounds and hits open shots. When he went to his pump fake and drive move a couple of times he was stopped short of the rim. Instead of forcing it, he passed it out. He also hustles.
B. Wright: In the few minutes he played, he was very active. He does get pushed around, but he gets to balls and can finish around the rim (with the exception of that ally-oop he tried to dunk into the back side of the rim). His length helped cause a turnover on a double team. He hit both of his free throws too.
Baron Davis: He could get to the rim and finish almost any time he wanted. I was hoping they would take him out of the game because when Baron goes to the rim, he makes hard contact with at least on defender. He eventually went back to the 05' Baron and started pulling up for bad 3s.

What went wrong:

- Pat "Freaking" Burke: This guy puts the "B" in "WTF??". He was lazy on defense, takes too many bad shots and has the slowest developing lay-up attempts in the history of forever. I have no idea what he was doing taking minutes from anybody.

Oh, and don't worry about him finding a job either because he isn't. I heard Tim Roye interview him during the 2nd Laker game and he was saying that since he had an Irish passport, he could play in Europe for as long as he wanted so he wasn't concerned with making the Ws. He was also kind of a dick to Tim when he made a dumb joke.

The Officiating: There were way too many fouls called. It ruined the game. There was no tempo. There were a lot of unnecessary fouls too. POB got shafted a couple of times. I saw two that were just not fouls. One, he was backing away from the shooter from behind and didn't affect the shot at all (which went in), the other was what is wrong with officiating. Maggette (I think) drives past POB and gets blocked by cleanly Harrington then a whistle. The ref realizes he blew it so what does he do? He calls it on POB who was nowhere near the shooter when the foul was called. I'm assuming that was because he figured POB wouldn't dare argue.
Shooting: And subsequently missing. I agree with Atma, the shot selection was pretty good but they were not going in. For the most part, they were not close to going in either. The best one, was the THUD 20 foot airball that missed low and wide left. It was "one of those nights".
Hands of Foyle: Buke and Jackson need to scrap the pre-game ritual of slathering their hands in Vaseline prior to tip-off. Buke was Foyle 2.0 and Jackson seemed to have the ball on a time-release mechanism. If he had the ball for more than 5 seconds, that thing was leaving. He would get by two guys and inexplicable drop the ball. On move, he broke some dudes ankles got about 5' separation and the ball just flew out of his hands with nobody near him.
The new Webpin I made for OZ: I came back from that atrocity hoping that OZ would help me help him build a kindler, gentler image. But, to my chagrin, he has yet to adopt the fruits of my hard (10 minutes) labor. I will present it to him again now. I cobbled together, symbols of love and trust (and that badge), in order to reinvent OZ as a beacon of warmth, gentleness and compassion:

by bloodsweatndonuts on Oct 15, 2007 12:48 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I love that webpin (OZ needs a new one)

Thanks for the recap. Between your recap and a few on warriorsworld, it seems that BWright Future actually has one, that Belinelli is missing too many shots, that POB is getting screwed by refs, and that Pat Burke needs to be cut.

P.S.

Cro's "efficient" performances makes me proud to be associated with KG 0.2

by sadleavy on Oct 15, 2007 4:47 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

sponsorship aint free

If you would like to use my webpin space, there will be a small advertising space fee.

Questions? Complaints?

(AIM: JetForze; email: Jon.d.ma@gmail.com)

by OptionZero on Oct 15, 2007 9:23 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Your payment is the subsequent outpouring

of warmth from GSoM. Love is the one currency that is not subject to the laws of inflation.

Try it for a week, it will change your life. I can make it smaller for you.

If you want paid sponsership, you'll have to sport a banner with my two websites on it. I must warn you, my websites make that webpin look sane.

by bloodsweatndonuts on Oct 15, 2007 12:45 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

love

I didn't come to GSoM for love.

Questions? Complaints?

(AIM: JetForze; email: Jon.d.ma@gmail.com)

by OptionZero on Oct 15, 2007 1:21 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Couldnt agree more

with everything you said.

The brightest light out there was O'Bryant, I'm over the shock of him turning himself around into a quality guy, now Im starting to put some faith in him, and trust his game.

This is my team There are many like it But this one is mine. My team, without me is useless. Without my team, I am useless

by BlueNgoldBlood on Oct 15, 2007 11:00 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I put this on a previous diary

But some more comments on the game and state of the Warriors:

The Clippers did a much better job with their FA acquisitions. Instead of signing Austin Croshere and Troy Hudson, they signed Rubben Patterson and Brevin Knight, for about the same money. Ruben Patterson is the FA steal of the season. $1.2 million a year for a guy coming off a 18.5 PER, with a career PER of 17.2. Brevin Knight looked 10,000 times better than Troy Hudson out there.

Hudson: I think he will be cut at some point this season. He doesn't really run the point, he's not good at running the break, he can't shoot and is not really a threat to stop anyone on defense. He brings that veteran savy, however.

Croshere: He'll will stick around, however. He's a skilled big man, kind of awkward looking for Nellie ball, but Nelson will play him during certain match-ups.

Wright: I like him. He is a really unusual player. I can't think of a comparison. Looks like George Gervin, runs and jumps like Monta, has a soft touch around the basket but defends like a rookie. Nelson has voiced his plan to send him to the D-league but it may work out that Wright gets some playing time in the mean time. I think Nelson may figure out how to effectively use him by mid-season, and the Warriors will be the better for it.

POB: Had trouble guarding Kaman down low, and picked up four fouls in about 8 minutes, but looked good in the process. A mobile big man with a good feel for the game, aside from his post defense, doesn't have an obvious weakness now that his motor is running. It would be great if Nelson keeps playing him so he can pick up experience, particuarly on D.

Belinelli: Not a fan. He has mostly an exeterior game, doesn't really create much, will go to the hoop if overplayed, but not a finisher, per say. Lost on defense. Admittedly, he had a poor game. His quick shot looks better than it is effective.

Azubuike: Didn't have a great game. Looks to be an avergish NBA player, which under the circumstances, is pretty good for the Warriors.

Burke: Played too much.

Of the returning players: Harrington looked very active, hustling for rebounds, although otherwise had a poor game. B-Davis was the class of the field and only seemed to be going at 75%. Jackson looked awful on offense. Barnes looks healthy.

Looking at the stats afterwards, I was surprised to see Hudson with 15 points, but much of that was from bail-out calls. He would just drive into traffic and get the call, mostly because he was playing against the Clippers scrubs. But he's not running the offense at all and isn't anymore of a pure point than Monta. Since Hudson is nothing like a pure shooter, I just don't see what purpose he serves and I think Nelson will quickly run out of uses for him.

The big question for the Warriors at this point, seems to be if Nelson can figure out a constructive way to use POB and Wright. Because I agree with the general GSoM consensus that they are players.

by San Francisco Slim on Oct 15, 2007 11:35 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree...

I aint feeling Hudson. His game reminds me of one of those good basketball players at a 24 hour fitness pickup game...run's around alot...and shoots the ball with nice follow through like he thinks he's a hella good shooter...but rarely makes it...

aka WhorRIORS. hallelujaha hollaback.

by WingStop Warrior on Oct 15, 2007 1:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

can you try resending those tickets?

let me know if you can get 'em to me. grinding111@sbcglobal.net

by grinding415 on Oct 15, 2007 3:59 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sorry

it didn't work. I orginally sent it to the wrong e-mail (I was too sleepy - I left out a 1 on your address) and it took to long to correct it with Ticketmaster. Next time.

by San Francisco Slim on Oct 16, 2007 8:42 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Buike or Burke?

You left out an important letter in your comments quoted below. I thought Buike had pretty good handles so I am hoping that you mistakingly left out an "r" and not an "i"...

"Hands of Foyle: Buke and Jackson need to scrap the pre-game ritual of slathering their hands in Vaseline prior to tip-off. Buke was Foyle 2.0 and Jackson seemed to have the ball on a time-release mechanism."

by Joe Frank on Oct 15, 2007 12:17 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ahh vowels . . .

I ment Kalenna. He had a few good looks around the basket and could not hold on to the ball. Pat Burke had no trouble catching the ball, that's the best thing I can say about his performance.

by bloodsweatndonuts on Oct 15, 2007 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Did anyone see...

when a guard (not sure if it was brevin knight) was guarding Brandan Wright down low...and Brandan was just standing there not asking for the ball...

anyways it was nice meeting Hash and Atma...sup guys!

aka WhorRIORS. hallelujaha hollaback.

by WingStop Warrior on Oct 15, 2007 7:51 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It looked like he was asking for it

but, and now I can't remember who had the ball, refused to throw it into him. A bunch of people in the crowd were yelling "give it to him!". Whoever had the ball was like 8 feet from him to and had an unobstructed passing lane.

by bloodsweatndonuts on Oct 15, 2007 7:54 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

oh ok....

i guess i can blame the bad scouting report on being in the nose bleeds....hahah...I just remember everyone around me screaming "miss match ... get the ball Brandan!!"

aka WhorRIORS. hallelujaha hollaback.

by WingStop Warrior on Oct 15, 2007 7:57 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

man, pat burke sounds

like complete absolute dog dookie. in fact, i may use the words interchangeably if this keeps up as in, "damn that was a great dinner. i'm stuffed; i gotta go take a burke now."

it will really SUCK if they send Wright, aka our JR trade prize, to the D-League; but i am glad to hear that "Notorious" is playin' his a$$ off and leaving everything on the floor

by Anomaly on Oct 15, 2007 10:00 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Dunleavey got a technical

but so did one of our captains Matt Barnes...thats just sad and stupid at the same time. He's already making his presence known to the officials, and they aren't taking his crap.

by david240z on Oct 15, 2007 10:20 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Pat Burke...

Reminds me of that dude from The Shield and Fantastic Four!

Pat Burke Look-alikes

by Tony.psd on Oct 15, 2007 10:25 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Does anyone play NBA 2K8?

I think they make some of our players look funny. Jack's face is weird. The Boss only sort of looks like Baron. What they did to Monta is just wrong...dude looks like the white Dave Chappelle newscaster.

by onetwocross on Oct 15, 2007 12:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yo,

I've got seats right behind you guys in section 109 row 28. And man did the warriors look ugly last night or what.

by mcwalter44 on Oct 15, 2007 11:05 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Yessir

Croshere was the only one with any kind of a shot. BWright looked lost on offense, wondering what Hudson was trying to tell him. When he did get the ball he didn't look too bad. Where has Barnes been on Offense? In the first Lakers game and yesterday he couldn't buy a shot. Harrington looked good too though.

Everyone was missing their shots though. How about Belinelli's 2 airballs? Even though there was noone defending him, he would automatically throw up a fade-away jumper. Jackson made what, one 3pt after numerous turnovers and bricks?
POB looked pretty good. I liked that every warm-up shot was a slam, (including a sick reverse one-handed).
All in all, the whole team was off. It was like they didn't care. With Monta and Biedrins in the picture it would have been a different story, but whatever. Even Pietrus could have intitiated some offense. The highlight was when they were coming back from their 26pt defecit, (yes, you heard me). They cut it down to 9 with like 5min left in the 4th. Then,of course, bad shot selections, bricks, fouls, free throws for the Clips....end of game.
I don't know why Nelli chose the lineups that he did. After POB left, there was always someone open down low for the Clippers to pass to. Baron @ the 2 with Hudson at point? Why Burke when you have Harrington, and Barnes and Wright? Because he wants to see if the dude's worth keeping? Still, Croshere surprised me, and it was good to be back at the Oracle.

Beli or Bust

by danielholl on Oct 15, 2007 1:22 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Harrington did NOT look very good...

I unfortunately had to miss the first half but I got to the game in time to see the second half, from what I saw Al looked kinda lost out there. I don't know if they were playing very vanilla to keep their divison rivals from seeing their plays but nearly every time down the court they would isolate at the top and there would be very little movement around the wings or post. We won't survive running iso every possession given the high profile exposure we got in the playoffs last year. Utah put a pretty good play on in doubling Baron and forcing him to give it up, who else on our team can penetrate and create off the dribble?

I don't like Hudson all that much as a point guard but I think Nellie brought him in to send a message to Monta, we don't need another undersized slasher at #2 we need a guy that can utilize that elite quickness and also create for others. This is a bit of a stretch but Monta has the quickness to be near Tony Parker level if he can work on his game. My first post last year was to defend the JRich trade (MUCH respect still for JRich but he was expendable with our roster) but now I feel a little dumb since Monta hasn't seemed to do much to improve as a point.

I think POB is gonna be huge for us this year if he can stay out of foul trouble and the guy I'm most excited about hasn't even played yet, Lasme had some ridiculous stats and played in a gritty, physical conference. I think he brings something we got a lot of this offseason... toughness. I'm not too worried about us in the pre-season but I am worried about not having our new Captain for the first 7 games. I think it's going to be critical that we go at least 4-3 out of the box and survive that stretch without him.

Belinelli did look a little bit lost out there didn't he? It seemed like he wasn't used to the quickness of NBA defenders.

Kind of rambled here but my main point was that I don't know about TMNT Harrington, last year he wasn't physically ready for our team but this year I question if he's mentally ready for it. I'm very uncomfortable when we have him or Stephen Jackson isolated for offense both of them are too careless with the ball and have mediocre at best NBA handles.

This post came off a bit negative but I'm actually quite optimistic about this year's team. I think we have a much deeper bench and the addition of some more physicality means we should be nastier on the defensive end and able to get some big stops like we did in the playoffs! Now if we can just remember to box out after the stops!!!

LET'S GO WARRIORS...

UTAH .... SUCKS!!!

UTAH .... SUCKS!!

Yup I'm ready! Let's shock the world again as we CONTEND for the division!!!

by ScorpioSnake on Oct 15, 2007 10:36 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs