RECAP: Warriors 93, Twolves 121 - You know you're in trouble when...

by Fantasy Junkie on Feb 7, 2007 9:49 PM PST in Recaps

I just don't understand, why is it that when it's my turn to cover a game, we get beat so easily? Last time it was the blowout in Cleveland, the game before that was the Clipper game with only 7 players, and the game before that was Orlando. Now it's the Timberwolves tearing us up. Golly gee wiz, we're just a bad team on the road.

One good thing about tonight was that Monta's injury proved to not be as serious as we thought. He was able to play but due to both him being ineffective and the Warriors getting blown out, he was only able to play 16 minutes.

Monta was back!

Here's a top 5 of "You know you're in trouble when..."

"You know you're in trouble when..."
1) Sarunas Jasikevicius puts up big numbers
20 points with 8 assists and 4 rebounds is his best game of the season as a Warrior and as a Pacer. That should be a good thing right? No. If he's putting up big numbers that means Baron and Monta are not. Baron was out tonight and Monta had to play limited minutes meaning our 3rd string point guard has to play major minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he had a big game or else this loss would have been even worse. But I really don't ever see us beating a good team with him playing 30+ minutes at the point.

"You know you're in trouble when..."
2) You can't stop Mark Blount
You can't stop Mark Blount, you can only hope to contain him! 22 points? 8-14 shooting? Yes he's been scoring more this year as he's up to 13 per game, but c'mon this is still a career 8 point scorer. Was anybody playing defense tonight?

A common sight tonight
"You know you're in trouble when..."
3) Of the 103 rebounds available, we grab 42 one of them
In the last 3 games, the Warriors outrebounded their opponents. It looked like they were headed in the right direction with everyone on the team rebounding. Tonight was very, very different. The Warriors reverted back to their old ways as the Twolves had 61 rebounds, to our 42. Yikes, that's at least 19 more possessions for the Twolves and 19 possessions the Warriors could have had. It's tough to keep the game close when you lose that many possessions and even tougher to win.

Easy shots all night
"You know you're in trouble when..."
4) The opposing team shoots 50.5%
Ummm can we play a little defense? Ricky Davis shot 10-14 (5-6 from 3)
Trenton Hassell was 6-10
Mark Blount: 8-14
Mike James 4-8
Randy Foye 4-8
Marko Jaric 5-10

Charmin soft. We need some chants of "De-fence! De-fence!"

KG getting it done
"You know you're in trouble when..."
5) The other team has Kevin Garnett
The Big Ticket recorded a triple double tonight, 17 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists in just 31 minutes. This was his first game in double digit assists and first triple double of the season. He was dominant even though he shot just 4-12 because he still got to the line (9-11), controlled the glass, and was able to get others involved with his passing.

Warrior Wonder: My favorite monkey…again.

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possessions and defense

The Warriors reverted back to their old ways as the Twolves had 61 rebounds, to our 42. Yikes, that's at least 19 more possessions for the Twolves and 19 possessions the Warriors could have had. It's tough to keep the game close when you lose that many possessions and even tougher to win.

As a point of definition, a rebound doesn't give another team an extra possession. The Warriors and T-wolves had the same number of possessions. A possession ends on a basket, a turnover, or defensive rebound (an offensive rebound merely prolongs the same possession). By definition, possessions need to alternate back and forth, else the 'possession' of the other team hasn't actually ended. Getting a rebound doesn't get you an extra possession. It merely means that on your opponents previous possession, they did not score.

Charmin soft. We need some chants of "De-fence! De-fence!"

Man, they really need to dump Dunleavy and Murphy. Those guys can't stop anyone. We need a more athletic front line, some guys with some athleticism.

by jae on Feb 7, 2007 10:05 PM PST reply actions

possession smosessions

thanks for the clarification. the point is, the twolves had around 19 more chances to score than the warriors. so to me, it may not be by definition, but getting an offensive rebound is another possession because you're getting another chance to score.

by Fantasy Junkie on Feb 7, 2007 10:13 PM PST up reply actions

Good on JAE

Al and Jack may SHOW more emotion than their traded counterparts, but if anything, they're worse freelancers: giving up on defense by releasing early in hopes of getting the easy basket. How can you LEARN the defense if you don't stick around and play it? And, perhaps unsurprisingly, Barnes and Pietrus have reverted to form on this road trip -- where MP certainly clinched the least intelligent player award. Even Powell and Foyle were lousy last night. Why can't the W's get five guys out there who'll play tough D 48 minutes?

On another tack, although D has always been and remains the W's perpetual black hole (the East may have much less talented players, but ours are the softest imaginable), here's a little trick the team could use to help turn things around: GET BIEDRINS INTO THE GAME EARLY. When AB gets an early bucket or two (or three) it ALWAYS gives the team a big lift: when he scores inside, the jump shots are more open (and a soft team LIVES on jumpers); and early scoring jacks AB up so that he's a terror on the boards (and on a team without rebounders, that's critical).

Finally, don't be surprised if Nellie pushes Mullin to make another trade: we've likely seen enough to know that Al and Jack aren't difference makers -- at least on a consistent basis -- and don't appear willing to do the work necessary to become sufficient defenders. Barnes and MP are no better. Ideally, we can swap one or more of our swings for a true four and get away with playing Al at the three, where his defensive weaknesses can be more easily masked. There may be some pretty pieces on this team, but until we get some power down low it's going nowhere.

by johnl on Feb 8, 2007 8:59 AM PST up reply actions

Too much negativity

It was the last game of a 6 game road trip minus our top 2.5 players. We're still 1.5 games behind the 7th playoff spot. Please see my comment below, we need to stay positive, not pounce on people at every opportunity we get... especially guys that have scored over 30 points in recent games and have significant contribution, potential, positive chemistry, and playoff experience.

P.S. So looks like Indiana is still a troublesome team without Mr. Jax huh? I guess Mr. Jackson wasn't the only criminal? Perhaps... others were also troublemakers? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It ain't EASY, stoppin' TOO EASY

by gsdubz on Feb 8, 2007 10:09 AM PST up reply actions

As if what we say here has

any influence

by Zig on Feb 8, 2007 1:25 PM PST up reply actions

The rest of the

league highly values 4's. I am wondering who they could get. The only way is someone old or who has a monster contract

Plus Matt Barens hardly seems tradeable

by Zig on Feb 8, 2007 1:24 PM PST up reply actions

hehehe whenever its your turn to cover a game huh

have you considered the possibility that maybe its not the fact that its a road game but a "fantasy junkie covered game" ? ;) just messing with ya

This loss was a big surprise. With no Baron to run the offense the game just didnt flow. It didnt help with Monta not being back to full strength yet either.

Lets destroy the Bulls on NATIONAL TELEVISION on friday!!!!

by ZombieWarrior on Feb 7, 2007 10:20 PM PST reply actions

whoops

I meant "this loss wasnt a BIG surprise"

by ZombieWarrior on Feb 7, 2007 10:20 PM PST up reply actions

Cabbages

I thought Sarunas had a great game. When he became a Warrior his numbers from Indy went down dramatically. He's a better player than what his numbers has shown, so it wasn't surprising that he got his line. He's more a screen and roll kind of point guard instead of run and gun.

Do you remember any screen and roll or pick n' pop plays? It doesn't seem like Nellie likes to post his big men to do it and probably another reason why he doesn't play two big men often if at all.

by callahan on Feb 8, 2007 4:08 AM PST reply actions

he can score

but can't play defense because he is slow

by Zig on Feb 8, 2007 8:25 AM PST up reply actions

the orange jerseys...

not only are they an eye sore (in my opinion), I really think those special orange jerseys are bad luck.

by dj fuzzylogic on Feb 8, 2007 6:27 AM PST reply actions

Rebounding

We are so lacking in that department, but the only thing keeping my hopes up is that we have the best rebounding off guard in the league in JRich coming back soon. Tough loss but we need to weather the storm and stay as close to .500 and that 7th/8th spot as possible. It's tough to keep the faith after a dissapointing/confusing road trip like this past 6 gamer. Only one thing keeping me sane these days? Trying to figure out who to play infront of the net, Toskala or Nabby. Shark Attack!!

by GreyMurphy on Feb 8, 2007 7:50 AM PST reply actions

Sharks

Can't make a bad choice between those two goalies. Nice win over the Ducks yesterday.

by racsan on Feb 8, 2007 11:16 AM PST up reply actions

heck ya!

Especially after the bad loss to them the night before.

by GreyMurphy on Feb 8, 2007 11:46 AM PST up reply actions

JRich

Yeah, we definitely need JRich's rebounding back. I just wish he had some handles. He would be a lethal weapon then. In fact, I rather he work on his handles than his free throws but that's tougher to improve upon.

by callahan on Feb 8, 2007 4:49 PM PST up reply actions

Not that bad

Hey without BD, JR and 50% of Monta, I don't mind the night we had. We are 4 games under, and the next 2 are at home against Chicago and Atlanta. I think we could take both of those, fully rested and with BD back, to get us at 2 games under. Then we only got 2 more before the break... so that gives us a good chance of being somewhere around 2 games under .500 by the all star break, and about 1-2 games behind the last playoff spot. With JR coming back after the break, and us having someone to watch on all star weekend (Monta in rookie challenge), I think we got a lot to look forward to.

It ain't EASY, stoppin' TOO EASY

by gsdubz on Feb 8, 2007 8:51 AM PST reply actions

Its not losing the game

its how we lose. Apparently the only way we win is if our very unreliable shooters go off shooting the 3

Otherwise we can't play defense or rebound. Bad news

by Zig on Feb 8, 2007 1:27 PM PST up reply actions

Also we have

to catch the other team on a cold night

by Zig on Feb 8, 2007 1:28 PM PST up reply actions

OK

Any other coaching advice we should give the Warriors? Let me know, I'm getting the fax ready.

It ain't EASY, stoppin' TOO EASY

by gsdubz on Feb 8, 2007 1:48 PM PST up reply actions

Nope

I think you've got it all, Dubz. And I'm sorry I must have missed all the "significant contributions, potential, and positive chemistry" the new guys have brought to the team on this road trip. My bad (to crib from the illustious Manute). Still, going 2-4 on this trip (mostly against softies we would need to beat if we're really a playoff team) just doesn't get me that excited. And last night's disorganized sleepwalk was just icing on the cake.

Every team has injury problems. But blowouts like last night are rare for good teams -- and we just looked like we didn't want to be there, as Nellie made clear in his post-game comments.

No, I think TruthMaker has the better take on things. We all love the W's -- but let's be a bit more realistic about this team. These guys have a shot at the playoffs because almost all their competition is playing poorly, too. But they need to play hard, play with energy, and bring it every game. Don't ya think?

by johnl on Feb 8, 2007 2:28 PM PST up reply actions

Wow

For the first time I sorta agree with you. Yes, I wasn't very excited by their recent performance either. I'm just excited about a future of possibilities based on a few exciting glimpses. Yes blowouts are rare for good teams, but we're not a good team at all without our top 2.5 players. Had we had them all, then the loss would not have been acceptable. And finally, yes I do agree they need to come hard and play hard and with energy every game. But when you're on game 6 of a road trip minus your top guys, as Nellie said it best, sometimes you want the road trip to end a little early.

As far as truth maker, I really like what he says a lot of the team, I just think he has to be careful to refer to this squad on a separate playing field than the last 12 Warrior rosters if he's going to criticize the PLAYERS. If he's going after Mullin/Cohan/and other rich guys who actually managed our way to 13 losing seasons, then be my guest when bashing.

It ain't EASY, stoppin' TOO EASY

by gsdubz on Feb 9, 2007 2:44 PM PST up reply actions

nice

positive way of looking at things

ill take it

by jrizzle on Feb 8, 2007 9:29 AM PST reply actions

We Need J-Rich

We need J-Rich nuff said. If the whole team is the same next year and 100% healthy. We will make a run. As for this season, we just gotta stay positive and support our Warriors.

by j richmark on Feb 8, 2007 9:41 AM PST reply actions

defense questions

i've never played organized basketball and am fairly new to (semi-seriously) following the nba so i was hoping some of the more knowledgeble members could help me out with some questions.

zone defense:

were we playing primarily zone last night?
if the answer to 1 is yes were the completely (utterly) open jump shots the twolves repeatedly got a result of a) zone defense in general or b) our weak-ass zone?

it cracks me up to hear the announcers constantly marveling at how great our opponents are playing during these blow outs. i wish just once they would get as sarcastic and frustrated as i do and say something like "well look at that, a professional nba player can hit a wide open jump shot. someone should note that down and brief the warriors".

i'm glad we're still in the hunt and will be able to shake this one off if we come back strong at home on monday.

by redape on Feb 8, 2007 10:18 AM PST reply actions

errrm

strong back at home on FRIDAY

by redape on Feb 8, 2007 11:03 AM PST reply actions

Realism v. Pessimism

I've been busted many times for being too negative on the Dubs, but in my opinion, such negativity is warranted. They just haven't shown anything in the last 12 years, and every year we hear the same talk about how things are getting better and they're just about to turn the corner.

It is exactly like what we've been hearing for four years about how great things are going in Iraq and how much progress is being made. Everybody knows it isn't true, yet the powers that be continue to blow unsubstantiated optimism up our asses. Obvious lies and continued disappointment = pessimism and cynicism.

And just because a jaded Warriors lifer expresses negative thoughts about the org, the coach, or even an individual's performance, that does not mean the person doesn't live and die by this team -- just as those who express their opposition to the war are not against the troops.

Blind optimism is not helpful in any way; neither is turning a blind eye to obvious, glaring problems. Just ask Dumbya.

That said, there is a difference between realism and pessimism. Realism is saying that this team's defense flat-out sucks and they won't be able to do anything substantial until they solve that problem. Same with rebounding and shooting percentages. Realism is saying that jacking up threes as your only strategy to get back into a game is totally weak. Realism is saying that Don Nelson is never going to win an NBA title. That is not pessimism, that's realism.

Pessimism is saying that this team is done for the year. They are definitely not. Denver and Minnesota apparently want to give away those #7 and #8 playoff spots. We're 1.5 games out of eighth place and everybody else except for NOK is flailing around like they don't want it. The playoffs are there for the taking, winning record or not.

Have faith in this season Warrior nation, but be realistic about this team's deficiencies and their long-term future, and don't be afraid to call this organization on their bullshit at every available opportunity -- just as long as you do it out of love.

The TruthMaker www.sfist.com

by TruthMaker on Feb 8, 2007 12:27 PM PST reply actions

HAHA

I like some of your posts, but it seems you're just angry and upset about the things that happened before this year's team. This is it though. This is the squad that will take us to the playoffs, primarily anyways, meaning BD, JR, Monta, Andris, and Don Nelson. So cheer up. Otherwise, you might wanna do like that GM robot in the superbowl commercial and take a trip one of the Bay Area bridges...

It ain't EASY, stoppin' TOO EASY

by gsdubz on Feb 8, 2007 12:52 PM PST up reply actions

Need counseling

You're right GS', I have a lot of deep-seated rage, frustration, and despair built up inside of me as a result of the last 12 years. I know that this team is somewhat different, but baggage is baggage. GSOM is my saving grace. Keep it coming.

The TruthMaker www.sfist.com

by TruthMaker on Feb 8, 2007 1:05 PM PST up reply actions

I gotta stay

That monkey clip gets me rolling on the floor everytime I see it. Props to Fantasy Junkie for the nice recap and showing our favorite monkey some love with his 2nd Warrior Wonder award this season.

Think the monkey can man the 4 spot for the Dubs?

Or maybe he just stinks...

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 8, 2007 1:29 PM PST reply actions

American Legends

I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:

http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.

Thanks,
Mark

www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

by JMEnglish on Feb 8, 2007 3:24 PM PST reply actions