Recap: Warriors 111, Nuggets 123- Attack of the Killer Monstars!!

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 12, 2007 9:46 PM PST in Recaps Comment 25 comments

When all of us GSoM fellas were splitting up the game recap and preview schedule and I took this game, I thought I was pulling off a heist. A nonstop scoring fest with fast breaks, active defense, and my man Allen Iverson? Grand theft robbery!

Um, no.

Final Box Score

The Nuggets may have won, but Rocky the Mountain Lion still has nothing on Thunder.
(Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

Remind me to thank my potnas DJ Fuzzy Logic, Fantasy Junkie, Hash, and YaoButtaMing for letting me pick this game to cover.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand why the Warriors got blown out tonight, so I'll make it quick:

Nuggets = Varsity, Warriors = Junior Varsity
Let's face it as soon as the starting lineups were announced you knew it was going to be next to impossible for the Warriors to even keep this game close. One NBDL player, one training camp invitee, a second round pick out of high school, and a big kid from Latvia- it was like some inspirational us against the world flick. Too bad it wasn't a Disney movie with a great ending. It was real life.

Remember the Windex
Good lord! The battle of the boards was a massacre tonight. At the halfway mark the Warriors had yet to grab a single offensive rebound. The grand totals on the glass weren't pretty either with the Nuggets collecting 46 rodmans to the Warriors' 34. With the Nuggets pulling down 22 offensive rebounds it really didn't matter what kind of defense the Warriors played or how many points they scored.

Marcus Camby, Nene, Carmelo Anthony, and Reggie Evans looked like the Monstars out there!

It's time for Mullin and Higgins to go to Costco and pick up a gigantic bottle of Windex either before the February 22nd trade deadline or in the offseason. It doesn't matter how sweet of a backcourt and collection of swingmen the Warriors assemble if they don't have more depth at the 4 and 5 spots. If you teamed up Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan in their primes in the Warriors backcourt, the Dubs probably still wouldn't make the playoffs with these gaping holes.

Maybe the Sparkling Orange formula will do the trick!

You know I kind of miss Danny Fortson and his rebounding prowess. I even miss his inflated offensive rebounds- you know the Fortson miss, Fortson offensive rebound, Fortson miss, Fortson offensive rebound, Fortson miss, Fortson offensive rebound, Fortson miss type. (I'm not kidding. I swear I saw that happen dozens of times.)

Actually, this limited edition old skool wallpaper knocked some sense into me- I don't miss Fortson at all.

The Positives

I don't think you can say that any of these guys weren't giving their all out there tonight. Sure they were grossly overmatched, but all these guys were hustling and trying hard.
The Warriors actually shot better than the Nuggets tonight in the mile high altitude. They outshot the Nuggets from the field, from long distance, and even the charity stripe.
Fast breaking! The Warriors had 24 fast break points to the Nuggets' 19.
56 to 56- Points in the paint were actually equal between the Dubs and Nuggs, which is surprising given Denver's plethora of bad boys down low.
Kabuki had an INSANE block on JR Smith to protect the house. Sure the Nuggets still scored on that possession, but Kelenna's rejection was almost as entertaining as Space Jam.
Barnes, Azubuike, Harrington, Powell, and even Sarunas did some nice things out there. Props to them for hanging in there.

Warrior Wonder
Matt Barnes had a great all around game with 13 points, 6 boards, 5 dimes, and 3 steals. He ran the point a little bit and made some pretty good decisions with the rock. You know- Barnes, Azubuike, and Powell would make an excellent bench for a playoff team. Too bad they guys have to play heavy minutes and major roles on the Warriors with the lack of talent on this roster and that nasty, never-ending injury bug.

Track of the Day: B Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes- "Hit 'em High" from the Space Jam soundtrack

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Comments

Give props to the boys

that showed up today, its gotta be hard to run without your best players. But get used to losing (as if warrior nation isn't) , unless something really nice goes down by the trade deadline we will be playing Celtics ball until we get some players back.

by FoyledAgain on Feb 12, 2007 9:52 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Foyle

With Biedrins in foul trouble and Melo, Camby, and Nene on the opposing side, I'm surprised Foyle got so little playing time. 11 minutes?!

by unblinded on Feb 12, 2007 10:28 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

its his fault

he only played limited minutes because he didn't play so well... we need some meat in the middle.

by wander7 on Feb 12, 2007 11:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

dude

we resemble the hawks a lot more han i thought. a collections of incredibly athletic wing man accumulated through the draft that can score, but play little defense and have no post presence or pg. i say this cuz BD is hurt and AB is not someone who u can feed the ball to in the low post and expect him to score. anyway, by the trade deadline i wood like to see harrington gon for a true PF who can crash the boards. harringtons great, but we need more rebounding and he cant play the 3 on a fastbreak team

the good/bad about being a warriors fan: bad: 13 years...nuff said good: there GSoM

by mydedgerbil555 on Feb 12, 2007 10:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Harrington

"harringtons great"? Great at what? At losing? At helping his team get outscored more or less every night he steps out on the court?

by jae on Feb 13, 2007 8:48 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

agree AL is far from great

by Zig on Feb 13, 2007 9:18 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Worse than not great

I'm actually changing my opinion that he's an average player to that he's a significant problem that needs to be shipped out ASAP. Last night, he was -25 for his time on the court. That makes 10 or 13 games here where he was a net negative for his court time and the team's scoring margin was better with him out of the game. Were it just his time here, I might be tempted to give him the new team/growing pains benefit of the doubt. But this isn't something new. It was the same story in Indy (both times) and with the Hawks. There's no reason to think that he's going to get better.

24 points on 23 shots isn't acceptable. No trips to the line isn't acceptable. Since the Warriors scored 111 on 83 shots, it means that other players were doing a much better job than Al. His scoring efficiency doesn't help the team, but since this only explains some of it, I think it's time to conclude that any notion that he's an improvement over the Murphleavy on defense is also unfounded.

Trading Murphy and Dunleavy was a necessary move. Unforntunately, it has created another problem and trading Harrington is a necessity if this team wants to consistently compete.

by jae on Feb 13, 2007 9:43 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Garbage in / garbage out

I was and still am thrilled that we were able to shed the Murphleavy contracts, but I always suspected it was fundamentally a "garbage in/garbage out deal." Thanks for confirming those suspicions.

So who can we get to take Al off our hands? Part of the problem, of course, is the league restriction on packaging newly-acquired players with other players -- so trading him "ASAP" might well mean "this offseason."

I'd love it if something could be worked out around Orlando and Darko. This one works: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2171~3024~308&teams=9~9~19. Yeah, it's basically a steal for us (Darko went 16 and 12 with 4 blocks in his last game, and Redick's already got his 3 pt. % up at 40%) but I suppose an old-school GM might be impressed by Harrington's raw PPG numbers...

Anyway, if we are interested in dealing him, it behooves us to let him play a lot, hoist up a ton of shots, and rack up big counting numbers, which to our credit we're doing. If GMs think we're basically happy with him, we're much more likely to get something of value for him.

by Sleepy Freud on Feb 13, 2007 12:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

MJ and Magic

I enjoyed the recap as much as I could after a loss, but saying that MJ and Magic wouldn't make the playoffs with this front court is among the tallest of all tall tales. Sure, they might not win it all but the playoffs would be no sweat.

Just giving you a hard time here, anytime you can make a Space Jam reference the recaps going to be hot.

by SkipT on Feb 12, 2007 11:29 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

MJ + Magic

Haha, yeah I was just exaggerating. Man MJ + Magic on the same team? That would be NUTS. But I guess MJ + Pippen on the same squad was NUTS too.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 12, 2007 11:38 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Skip, you read my mind

After reading the recap, I was going to accuse Atma of losing his mind from reading too many GSoM "community diaries" -- or maybe just from watching too many '06/07 Ws games...

Atma, I know you were "exaggerating" for effect, but just out of curiosity, how old were you during Magic's and MJ's primes? I was in my teens for the former and my 20s for the latter, and I'm fairly certain that a starting five of

Magic (in his prime)
Jordan (in his prime)

+++

Stephen Jackson
Andris Biedrins
Adonal Foyle

would win 70+ games and absolutely annihilate all comers -- including Phoenix and Dallas, easily -- in the playoffs. Seriously, change that 3-4-5 to Azubuike, Powell, and POB and they'd still probably win 60. I mean, how much worse is POB than Luc Longley?...

by Sleepy Freud on Feb 13, 2007 5:46 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Watching too many warriors games

I'm sure a major research firm will soon be publishing a study linking watching too many warrior game to Alzheimer's, aneurysms and brain tumors any day now. After all, we're all crazy for still following them when they've been miserable for this long.

by SkipT on Feb 13, 2007 8:10 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Magic's and MJ's primes

I was in my pre-teen's during Magic's prime (he retired way too early because of HIV but I guess that's just the way things go) and in high school through Jordan's 6 rings.

I was exaggerating for effect. If MJ and Magic were teamed up that's probably a trip to at least the conference finals right now, maybe the NBA finals. Back in the late 90's you just never bet against MJ.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 13, 2007 9:53 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Azubuike!!! AWESOME!!!

The Block!!! (click here)
We better keep this guy!

Daily Top 10 (click here)
It made #2 on nba.com Top 10 Daily Countdown

by callahan on Feb 13, 2007 10:05 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Danny Fortson

And what do you know- guess who's on the trading block?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/basketball/303335_srevu12.html

Forward/center Danny Fortson is not expected back until after the All-Star Break. The trade deadline is Feb. 22 and Fortson's expiring contract could be moved by then.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 13, 2007 10:20 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Salary reduction here we come!

Harrington for Fortson's expiring contract? The numbers work. Essentially it will mean erasing half of the Murphleavy contract in one year's time. Since Harrington hasn't been any sort of help on the court, and history suggests that this is more or less what we should expect, it could actually be addition by subtraction here as well.

by jae on Feb 13, 2007 2:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Is it just me?

Im a big time Carmelo Anthony hater here. Something about this guy really gets to me...his smug attitude, his whole demeanor....I just can't stand him! Sure, it's easy to hate the guy the day after he lights us up, but i've felt this way since he was playing in Syracuse. Then he gets caught with pot in his backpack and gets his buddy to take the fall (for a decent price i'm sure), oh and that other bust when more herb was found in his car and he got another cronie to take the blame (sweet..I want some cronies!!). Throws his olympic bronze medal in a lake, and the icing on the cake was his recent hit and run on the court that got him 15 games. Whine, whine, whine...i would recomend a nice gruyere with that vintage Mr. Anthony. Great athlete and rising super star but in my humble opinion, LOSER.