Recap: Warriors 92, Magic 103
That little high after beating the Heat is gone now. Welcome back to reality folks. This is what happens when you play your 4th game in 5 days and a day game following a strenuous night game. You lose to one of the worst teams in the league and it really wasn't that close. I want to say this is a game the Warriors should have won, but considering the circumstances, I'm not surprised about the outcome.
Please don't hurt me.
The whole game, except for parts of the first quarter, the Warriors looked sluggish and flat. There was no life in the legs of anybody and the players seemed to be moving at half speed. Orlando knew the Warriors were finishing a hectic road trip and had just finished a late game in Miami the night before. So, they took advantage of this by making the Warriors shoot jumpers on tired legs. They packed the middle and welcomed the outside shooting. Combine that with the Warriors players who would rather shoot a jumper than drive the lane and you have a recipe for disaster. So with all the jump shots, this resulted in all of 1 free throw in the first half and a whopping 9 for the game. Contrast that with the 18-26 free throws for the Magic and you have the difference in the game right there. They had 3 times more free throws than the Warriors. If you're getting that few free chances for points compared to the other team, you're going to have a hard time winning. If you want positives though, the Warriors made 8 of 9 free throws. Possibly the best free throw shooting percentage all season, 89%.
The Warriors got outrebounded in this game, 37 to 26 with 7 of those being offensive rebounds. Now I think they would not have been outrebounded so badly if they actually put a hand up on defense. The Magic shot a ridiculous 58.6% from the field. Only one player shot less than 50% and that was Jameer Nelson's 4-9. If you look at the individual field goals for the Magic players it reads, 7-13, 4-5, 4-5, 4-7, 4-9, 3-3, and so on. Everyone shot well. The Warriors were tired, but you gotta play some defense. This game turned out to be just typical Warriors basketball. Jumpers, jumpers, jumpers and no defense.
But my favorite part of the night was listening to it on the radio and Tim Roy saying, "I've waited all season for this...Zarko guarding Darko." He had me laughing because he seemed more excited about that than a Jason Richardson highlight reel dunk. It's just too bad we have the wrong -arko on our team. Darko actually looks like he can play, he may not be a bust after all. Granted, this was the Warriors and many people have career nights against the Warriors, but you can see the kid has talent. If he pans out, that Dwight Howard and Darko frontline could be awesome for years and years. Anyways, Warrior fans will have to wait until next year for another Zarko Darko matchup, that is, if Zarko is still on the team.
It was a rough game for Superman.
Nobody played particularly well. Baron and Fisher had the best stat lines combining for 37 points and 13 assists. Jason's back finally got tired from carrying this team the last few weeks and he wound up with only 11 points. Murphy went for 14 and 7. And the rest of the team might as well be on a milk carton because they were MIA.
Here's a random thought. Mike and Ike: how cool would that be if they were a top tandem. Think of the public relations you could do at the game. Free Mike and Ike's if they combine for 40. But instead, we have reality. Yesterday both played poorly.
Adonal was his usual 2 points and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes. That 40 million dollar contract is still looking like a bargain to me. AB picked up 4 fouls and had a few dunks. Monta got his usual 16 minutes.
Overall, just an ugly game. The Warriors were down by 19 at one point in the 2nd half. But they did cut the lead to 6 in the final few minutes but were never able to get closer than that. They're coming back home this week to face Minnesota and Philly then back on the road to face the softies in San Antonio, Dallas, and Sacramento. You think it's ugly now? It's going to get Bubba Sparxx ugly soon.
Did anyone see this? Baron tried to block the shot, fouled Dwight, and he still threw it down like Baron wasn't even there. Then they showed Baron with this embarrassed look on his face like "damn I just got posterized." Then they showed Baron and JRich laughing with embarrassed looks like "damn that boy is skrong."
Captain Ugly had a very very nice game for the Magic, scoring 21 points to go with 14 rebounds and 8 dimes.
From the Bill Laimbeer school of defense, just knee them in the nuts.
Warrior Wonder: Calbert Cheaney. Just like I said last time, if nobody else can shoot bring this guy in. 4-5 for 8 points. More time, more time! Plus he gave some wise advice to Ike during the game. Did anyone see that play? Stacey Augmon goes up for a 15 foot jumper and Ike fouls him. There's no reason to foul Augmon there, you want him taking that shot. Just challenge it, but you don't need to block it. So Calbert comes down to Ike while the refs are doing what they do after a foul and he talks to Ike to teach the young guy about that kind of situation. No other Warrior does that for the young guys if they make a mistake. He's like a teacher on the floor for these guys and there's no better way to learn than to know right away rather than in the film room.