Ouch. A 24 point loss? So much for the confidence boost that was the Blazers. This was one of those games that you knew was over by halftime so you could save your Saturday night for something non-depressing.
Maybe you don't want to look at this but here's the boxscore anyways.
Tonight, Utah was clearly the better, more disciplined, and more polished team. They can execute a half court set, make free throws, and play solid defense.
There was too much of this:
Too many uncontested dunks and putbacks galore.
1 on 4? No problem!
And not enough of this:
Easy buckets
Nice defensive effort
The problems with the Warriors tonight are nothing new. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but
1) The free throws are absolutely atrocious
At one point they were 1-7 They finished the game 20-35, good for 57%. Who's this Hal Wissel guy? Aren't we supposed to shoot better with him around?
2) The Warriors can't run a half court set
The offense completely stalls when the opposition is able to get back on defense. It's not only Baron's incessant pounding and pounding of the rock that's giving me a headache. It's the entire team. Dunleavy walks the ball up in a run and gun offense. Ike takes 10 seconds to make a move in the post. JRich still hobbled by his knee insists on taking bad shots. What's worse is that when one guy has the ball, the majority of the time, the other 4 on the court decide that it's a good idea to stand outside the 3 point line and watch. I could understand watching if say Michael Jordan had the ball, but c'mon none of our players are that interesting. So MOVE on offense. Run a simple motion or a box set on offense.
3) Plain and simple, the defense sucks
How many times are we going to gamble and go for a steal? How many times are we going to pick up a silly foul by swiping at the ball to get a steal, but wind up fouling the guy instead? How many open shots is one of their best shooters, CJ Miles, going to get a wide open 3 pointer? Somebody needs to tell these guys that they need to move their feet and oh yea, BOX OUT. The Warriors were out-rebounded 51-34. That's 17 extra possessions. I knew the Jazz's frontline was going to give the Warriors trouble, but I didn't think they were going to demolish our team. At one point it looked like Okur and Boozer were the equivalent of two high school stars playing against the local middle school team.
4) Poor shooting
- Warriors, 28-73 from the field, 38%
- Jazz, 43-84 from the field, 51%.
- Baron: 1-9
- JRich: 4-14
Misery loves company right? So just be glad it wasn't as bad as being on the losing end of this one. Also, you know what? As poor as we've played, we're still not in last place! That honor goes to Phoenix who's at 1-3. In all seriousness, let's not get too down on our boys. It's only the beginning folks. Perhaps we didn't think there would be an adjustment period, but Nellie is clearly still trying to figure out how to get the most out of everybody. Nellie is not going to let the poor play continue so you can be sure there will be changes and the Warriors will play better.
Dallas is up next on Monday. Nellie returns to face his former team.
Warrior Wonder
Andris Biedrins. 11 points, 12 boards. 5-5 from the field. Played some good D too.