Recap from the Grizzlies Game

So... yeah, I just got back from my first Warriors game ever in what I hope to be the first of many.

During the pre-game warmups and festivities I was watching Pau Gasol warmup, and his jumper looked pretty. I saw that as a bad omen, and he came out to play tonight, 23 points, 9 boards on 7-11 shooting. Gasol was also a force on defense many-a-time, I can distinctly recall 3 Monta layups and at least the same amount of Biedrins post shots changed by Pau alone.

And also, following the ongoing theme of Warrior woes this season, the refs had absolutely NO LOVE for the Dubs. After a alley-oop to J-Rich, I guess Baron was talking to the refs a little too much and got T'd up. I have no idea what he was complaining about, but the refs were waaay too liberal when it came to blowing the whistle on the Warriors today. After the technical was assessed, there was a timeout. I think Baron knocked something off of the scorer's table because he was pissed, and that earned him the second Technical to get him ejected, which, in turn, made everybody but the Grizzlies pissed. Alot of confusion and booing.

That was about halfway through the first quarter.

Another thing about the refs, a Grizzly player bounced the ball pretty high when he was angry after losing the ball out of bounds, and he got no T. Coincidence? I think not. And Gasol was complaining pretty bad once, longer than Baron even, and he got no T. And looking at the box score, the G's had 45 free throw attempts to our 21. MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY FREE THROWS AS WE DID! COME ON REFS! You know they're being whistle happy when the disparity is that big. Looking at the giant TV jumbotron thingy in the Arena, I watched the Personal Foul stats. Warrior players all had at least 2-3 in the second quarter while only 2 players had 2 fouls, a couple had 1 foul, and whoever wore number 7 for the G's had 0 fouls the whole game. The entire time I wanted number 7 to give somebody a foul. It didn't happen. (Turns out #7 is Tarence Kinsey, never heard of you, but you had a pretty good game for someone undrafted. Props.)

Hmm... off the top of my head, offensively, all I can remember is the number 3. The Warriors took alot of threes (16-36) and made alot (44%) when I was begging them in the third quarter to take less threes because they were only down by like 7 with a lot of time left. Also, it took me a while to figure out who wore number 3 for the Grizzlies. Then in the third quarter, I asked myself, is that Chucky Atkins!? As he buried another wide open three against our zone D. Everytime Atkins shot a 3, I yelled out "Brick!" or "MISS!" but he'd make it in. He's my Grizzly Wonder of the day. At least it wasn't Mike Miller.

Defensively, there was some good hustle play by the Dubs, you know, their "rampaging bee" style of defense where they swarm ballhandlers. But overall, there were too many defensive mistakes. Other than in the fourth quarter, whenever the crowd would chant "DEFENSE!" the Warriors would swarm and double team or play zone, which eventually led to open backdoor passes and alley-oops which led to easy paint points for the Grizz.
Oh yeah, and the work on the boards were pretty good today, nothing spectacular though.

Fourth quarter was amazing. The Warriors started the quarter down by 2 with the momentum in their favor after coming back from at least a 7 point deficit and a buzzer beating three by Pietrus.

Without J-Rich's heroics, this game could've been a tough loss. He stepped up BIG time in the clutch. Everytime we needed to catch up, take the lead, or lengthen the lead in the fourth, our favorite Warrior was there to make a clutch jumper. When the Warriors were trigger happy with the 3's (see 3rd quarter) I asked for someone to get a damn layup, and J-Rich was happy to oblige. 26 points, 6 Rodmans, and 8 assists for J-Rich in Baron's absense.

Speaking of Baron, without him, who'd be our point guard? Money Monta stepped it up at the point tonight, with a 9-0 TO-Assist ratio. Usually, I feel the same sick feeling in my stomach that everyone else feels when Monta is point guard, but he quickly served me up some Pepto Bizmol and I felt totally comfortably with the ball in his hands today. He did pretty much everything right.

I think that's all I can remember for now, still a little hungover from an exciting game (even if it was against one of the worst teams in the league) , my first game at that, so here goes my Warrior Wonder award. Cur Jessica Alba!

The Warrior Wonder award goes to ADONAL FOYLE! During halftime warmups, I was watching everybody's strokes to see who'd be ready to play the 2nd half. Everyone had clanks galore, but our main man Foyle went 7-7 at halftime with 3 runners and a jumper. He probably could've helped out against Gasol in the 2nd half.

My "I Hate You" award goes to Chucky Atkins and the 2 Azn dudes behind me. I'm Asian myself, but these guys were totally not Warrior fans. Granted, they're kids like myself, but damn, it was only midway through the third quarter and the Warriors were down by 7. I hear "Ohp, it's over, time to go to the Giants game." I seriously wanted to give those dudes a huge F U for being idiots. To further my point, when Pietrus missed a 3, I heard, "They should trade him for Elton Brand." While I love Elton Brand, you really gotta be an idiot to think that trade is even possible. And I don't really hate Chucky Atkins, he just made me look stupid a couple times when he'd bury jumpers in my face.

I apologize for the disjointed diction of this post, I just wrote this off the top of my head. Much like a diary entry, lol. So never mind I take back that apology. Great game.