Recap: Warriors 107, Rockets 111 - We Don't Have Lift Off

by Atma Brother ONE on Jan 29, 2008 11:56 PM PST in Recaps

The Warriors won every quarter of this game except for the 1st. They still lost by 4 points.

Yao maxin' and relaxin'.

So much for the dominance over the Houston Rockets. The Warriors snapped their impressive 4 game winning streak (mostly consisting of blowouts) against the Rockets tonight. Throw in the fact that the Rockets played this one without Tracy McGrady and the Warriors still surrendered 111 points to the league's 10th worst scoring team and you can't help but be frustrated. Even though the Warriors managed to lead the game by 1 point in the 4th, this was a bad loss.

What happened to Warrior tempo?
A major reason the Warriors have had so much success against the Rockets is because they've been running them out of the gym before the first official TV timeout in the 1st quarter is called. Offensively they push the ball at Warrior pace, which the less mobile and athletic Rockets just aren't built for. This is of course fueled by the Warriors' suffocating defense on Yao Ming and the Rockets' backcourt.

Normally Yao is way too slow physically to handle Al Harrington's fronting and quicker hands. Normally Yao reacts way too slowly to the Warrior double teams and is completely shut down. (Yao's S-L-O-W) Normally Baron Davis dominates whatever vastly inferior guards the Rockets attempt to match up to him with. Normally the Dubs can blow out the Rockets by going uber-small. Normally Nellie can make the Rockets pay on the offensive end with Al dropping a barrage of treys that Yao can't defend.

Well NORMALLY didn't happen tonight consistently and it sure didn't happen in that ugly first quarter when the Warriors came out flat and disinterested, digging themselves into an insurmountable 18-33 hole.

Shooting blanks.

Why did so many Warriors struggle?
The blame for tonight's loss should be spread all around:

Baron Davis and Monta Ellis got outplayed by Rafer Alston and Luther Head tonight. That shouldn't be happening... ever. To Davis' credit he had the flu and got I.V for the game. It was honorable that he played hard tonight, but he shouldn't have even been playing. He could've used the rest for tomorrow's big matchup. On the other hand, Monta should've been dominant tonight, but he fell well short of that.
Al Harrington was ice cold for 3 quarters and didn't bring his usual stellar shutdown D on Yao. He's the key to getting this W easily.
Matt Barnes turned out a pretty mediocre performance. He's much better than this.
Andris Biedrins didn't stand a chance against Yao.
Mickael Pietrus walked away with the oddest +16 statline that I've ever seen in my life. Aside from a few nice defensive stops and rebounds he didn't look all that great out there.
Let's hope the Warriors get much more from CJ Watson on most nights than they got tonight because they didn't get much return on their latest D-League investment.
Kelenna Azubuike didn't play much, but he was a complete non-factor. Has CJ Watson leap-frogged Kaz in Nellie's rotation?

It's games like these that really make you wonder how Patrick O'Bryant, Kosta Perovic, Brandan Wright, and Marco Belinelli are doing in practice. Are they that bad that Nellie shouldn't be playing them when the Warriors struggle like they did in the 1st? Makes you wonder. In Nellie we trust.

Yao-za!
International superstar Yao Ming walked away with a dominant statline of 36 points and 19 rebounds. He looked infinitely better than usual against the Warriors, but his game was still ugly. He wasn't all that far from netting a triple double with 7 turnovers. Yao was also the beneficiary of a whopping 15 trips to the line.

You have give the man his due though for coming out more aggressive, especially in the mid and high post. In the 3 previous games the Warriors completely shut down Yao with their speed and quickness, while making him look soft and slow both physically and mentally. Tonight Yao's power game prevailed. You could tell he was sick of the Warriors abusing him.

Yao was the one dishing out the abuse tonight.

Also I won't let this one go. At one point in the second half Al Harrington drove to the bucket and Yao Ming towering at 7-6 and 310 pounds tried to draw a charge, which was thankfully whistled for a blocking call. Sorry, but that's absolutely ridiculous. If I were the commish I'd ban Yao for at least 2 games for that silly stunt.

Tonight's honors goes to Stephen Jackson. Take away his contributions in terms of draining treys, distributing the rock, and grabbing some boards and this game isn't even close. Jack did his part tonight. The other guys didn't.

25 points (7-14 FG, 5-7 3pt), 6 rebounds, 7 assists : 1 turnover, 1 steal, and 1 block

Stephen shows off his Bhangra moves during the intros.

So how about that Chris Webber fella?

Hey those flipping through those links is whole lot more fun than talking about this game!

Good thing the Warriors play the coldest team in the league tomorrow! I'm sure you remember what happened last time. Since this Warriors team makes absolutely no sense, I'm boldly predicting that the Warriors regroup and pull off a shocking win tomorrow in New Orleans. You heard it here. (Yes I think it's time for bedtime now).

Photos: Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images + AP Photo/Pat Sullivan

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Comments

there is an error

in the title of this. it says the score is 107-107

My pictures never show up here, so this is my new Signature

by sloth11 on Jan 30, 2008 12:19 AM PST reply actions

and

is there anyway we can get an 8x10 photo of that Stephen jackson picture above? Cause that would be a great photo to get autographed

My pictures never show up here, so this is my new Signature

by sloth11 on Jan 30, 2008 12:21 AM PST reply actions

Is there a bottle of pee next to Yao?

Huh? Anyway....

I think we played just as good as we always do, but the Rockets just figured us out....whenever we'd double Yao, they'd just dish it to Scola. and then when we didn't double Yao....he scored. Not to mention, Battier/Random Rockets guards were on fire.

Oh, and Andris had a good game, considering who he went up against.

Jackson had a flawless night, much props to him.

I miss Kelenna and Austin. My 2 favs, both relegated to Adonal-type minutes :'(.

In any case, we overcame the strategy later on, but by then we haddug too big of a hole, and someone decided that it was time to play Hack-A-Yao....which is bad news. In any case, the game was very entertaining, and here's to hoping that we'll get revenge against the traitors from New Orleans....

Tony.psd = Da Man

http://adonalobsessed.blogspot.com/

by Zorgon on Jan 30, 2008 12:28 AM PST reply actions

hmmm

anyone know why kelenna only played 3 minutes?

by starry night on Jan 30, 2008 12:36 AM PST up reply actions

Yao's night

For his amazing box score line, Yao was negative 2 in the plus minus. Whatever they did when Yao was in the game was sufficient. Biedrins was plus 6 on the night, though fouls prevented him from playing more than he did.

by jae on Jan 30, 2008 6:16 AM PST up reply actions

Atma Said it

it is official!!! Dubs will beat the Hornets tomorrow...WE BELIEVE!!!

by RubberDubDubs on Jan 30, 2008 1:09 AM PST reply actions

so

has anyone noticed how many players are missing games with "flu-like symptoms" D Wade, T-Mac, Yao, Mo Williams, Ray Allen, Fred Jones, Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman, Joe Smith, Gordon Giricek, Damien Wilkins, Daequan Cook, and our own Mikael Pietrus have recently missed time with the flu. They must be hanging out at the same strip clubs or something...

(if you're wondering I knew about the stars and from 2 second google work found out about guys like Giricek)

It's almost like the Warriors have 6 guys out there... they always have a guy open! - Jon Barry commentating game 3 last year

by gsw4life on Jan 30, 2008 7:13 AM PST reply actions

no reason

why kelenna cant get real minutes, nelson is an idiot. he makes silly substitutions at crucial times. does he always feel he has the need to show his "ingenuity" over winning?

by ktweezee on Jan 30, 2008 8:33 AM PST reply actions

it all comes back to this....

In a game where the Warriors are shooting blanks, Baron, Sjax, and Al managed to hoist half of their shots from beyond the arc. Maybe someone needs to fix their logic. Yes, shooting it from that area amounts for 3 points. But going 1-3 beyond the arc is 3 pts. While going 2-3 inside amounts for 4. There's really no advantage of hoisting that many 3s if you're not making the same amount of shots you would be inside the arc.

I did see them make the effort to drive inside but Yao just really bothered them, but on those kick and drive plays maybe the receiving player can step a little closer.

As for Monta, he was just really bothered by the Rockets' length. Yao on half court and Battier on the break. What was normally easy two points for us resulted in missed layups because Battier did a good job altering Monta's shot without, according to the refs, fouling him.

We could have easily won this game if not for the terrible first half.

by lightz0ut on Jan 30, 2008 10:32 AM PST reply actions

how can you blame the loss on the 3pt shooting

when we shot well from behind the arc? Even if we hadn't shot well, the point of all the 3pt shots is to space the floor...

It's almost like the Warriors have 6 guys out there... they always have a guy open! - Jon Barry commentating game 3 last year

by gsw4life on Jan 30, 2008 10:47 AM PST up reply actions

my mistake

I dragged Sjax by mistake, being used to him going trigger happy beyond the arc while making only the last couple of ones.

3-11 for Baron. 2-7 for Al. We can only successfully space the floor if we are making the shots. But on case like this where they are obviously struggling, how bout take the Monta approach and step inside the arc.

by lightz0ut on Jan 30, 2008 11:01 AM PST up reply actions

As a team

they were making the 3 at a pretty good rate. 40% is pretty decent. I don't think shooting the 3 was the problem. As much as I hate on Jax for those games where he's shooting those crazy 3's out of nowhere, he made 5 out of 7 and had a pretty good all around game. Even though I would like to see Al shoot less from behind the arc, Harrington had to shoot those 3's because thats the advantage when Yao is guarding him. But BD jacking up 11 3's. He just didn't have it last night. Either he's tired or that flu really was affecting him. BD and Al was part of the problem last night. But I think Jax should get a pass because he was actually playing well.

by nautica on Jan 30, 2008 11:05 AM PST reply actions

Steve Novak/Al on Yao

First and foremost--props to Jackson for a spectacular game last night. He played great and I second the Warrior wonder.

As for reasons why we lost, the first two things that come to me are the 2-minute stretch where Steve Novak went unconscious, and also the time at the end of the 3rd quarter when the W's had pulled to within 4. Then, Al came into the game and just failed to check Yao in any capactiy. Yao ran off 5 straight points and put us back down big to start the 4th. Essentially, we had to have multiple comeback runs and that took just a little too much out of us.

by Bucky on Jan 30, 2008 5:45 PM PST reply actions

Why the bad first quarter

it is because Nellie started Biedrins. I know how important he is to this team, but when Yao is in the game, Nellie in the past has kept Biedrins benched. If he is in the game, Yao can stay close to the basket and as a consequence Al had a poor matchup against someone who could actually stay with him. This didn't let Al get going early like he usually does against Yao and the rest of the offense was stymied inside by Yao. I think Nellie was compelled to start Andris because of his amazing performance against the Knicks.

by racsan on Jan 30, 2008 10:51 PM PST reply actions