Your Opening Night starters
Patrick O'Bryant just scored!
Me and Tony with the signs
It was just 1 game, just 1 game. 81 more to go. It's a long season.
Thank you's
First, I have to give props to all the GSOMers who showed up. Thank you so much for supporting the site and making this night happen. I'd estimate close to 900 of you all made your way out to the game. We had the flyest t-shirt at the game. I got to meet a ton of you handing out the t-shirt in section 212. That was a lot of fun. We even had a ton of people just asking how they can get the shirt or where they can buy one. What was even cooler was seeing so many people walking around the arena with the shirt on. I think we had more people wearing the GSOM Night 2 shirts than the Warriors had wearing their free "Where amazing happens" shirts. Anyways, Tony's design is sick, everyone loved it. I'll be sporting that around town for sure.
I'll be honest and say that we seemed more spread out than last year so we didn't get quite the concentration of GSOMers in a single section, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. It also didn't help that Utah basically took the crowd out of the game towards the end of the 2nd quarter.
Earthquake?
What was that 5.6 earthquake in the middle of the game? It's just like the Jazz to make that happen, they're so dirty. Haha. Seriously, that was so crazy. My seat started shaking and I thought the guys behind me were getting a little overexcited during some free throws. But then I turned around and nobody was sitting behind me. The shaking went on for a good 6-7 seconds. But the show must go on. Well the Jazz seemed to continue, not the Warriors. It seems like after the earthquake everything fell apart.
Excuses
We were without our 2nd best player, Stephen Jackson. He makes a BIG difference, a 22 point difference. If we had him, things are different. And JRich is coming back too right? We didn't really trade him for a guy in a suit did we? Oh boy. Looks like Nellie has some major tinkering to do.
Mickael Pietrus
He gets a lot of criticism but he played well tonight. He made some bad plays but it's hard to criticize 6-8 shooting (3-5 from 3) recording 17 points and 5 boards. Sure 5 boards from your starting power forward isn't great, and he shouldn't be starting, but if he can come off the bench and contribute similar to what he did tonight, we'll be okay. He should receive the least of the criticisms for tonight's game.
Baron Davis
Baron was Baron. He played the best of any Warrior player. He was good on D getting his hand in the passing lanes and picking up steals, 5 of them actually. He set up his teammates for buckets (10 assists) and even did some scoring himself (25 points). He went to the bucket hard tonight and finished most of the drives with 2 points or got fouled. Boy did he get fouled a lot tonight. He was at the line a ridiculous 16 times. While he only made 11 (69% and still one of his biggest weaknesses), at least he was working hard to get there. He didn't look like the Baron of last year, but he looked good. He's definitely playing lighter than last year so hopefully that bodes well for an injury-free season.
Boozer going by Andris multiple times
Where did the rest of the team go?
Baron and Pietrus were the only ones who came to play tonight. Everyone else seemed out of sync and it really looked like the varsity team playing the JV team.
- Andris Biedrins was getting abused tonight by Boozer. On offense, Boozer was quicker and beat Andris in the post for some easy layups and he was also stronger than Biedrins, able to outmuscle him for rebounds. And Biedrins fouled out in just 26 minutes. Rough beginning of the season.
- Troy Hudson? Who do you think you are? Those were some ill-advised shots early in the shot clock and not getting anyone involved. 1-7 FG's. Some of the misses coming on step back jumpers with a hand in his face. That's not your role on the team.
- Surprise! We got pounded on the glass, 56 rebounds for Utah, 37 for Warriors. The Warriors had just 7 offensive rebounds. The Jazz just didn't let the Warriors get very many second chance opportunities. Contrast that with the 16 offensive rebounds the Jazz had and that's a pretty significant difference. I was hoping Nellie would try throwing in Austin Croshere and Patrick O'Bryant earlier than the midway point of the 4th quarter. Those guys have size and can control the boards better than Pietrus or Harrington. It wasn't like putting them in the 3rd quarter would have hurt. I still have faith that Nellie will mix and match eventually giving everyone a chance to contribute.
- The team just looked out of sync. There was no movement on offense and when guys did get aggressive with the ball, it seemed like they weren't sure if they should drive, shoot or pass. Perhaps a team like this that relies on rhythm will take a few games to find their groove. Tonight nobody was on the same page. There certainly were sparks from certain individuals, but nobody except Baron was able to put a full game together.
Deron Williams
It looks like he didn't miss a beat from the playoffs last year. The guy is sick. For the first 3 quarters he was setting up his teammates throwing some nice passes to cutters in the lane. He got everyone involved from Ronnie Brewer to Gordan Giricek. Then the 4th quarter came and he just took the game over. Bucket after bucket, 3 after 3 came raining down on any hope of a Warriors comeback. I hate that guy. Just killed us tonight. I wish he was on our team.
Everyone who bought tickets via Golden State of Mind: Can I put 900 people as the Warrior Wonder? Sure. I had a great time tonight except for that 21 point loss thing. I got to meet so many of you, putting some faces to screen names. Everyone I met was cool and a diehard Warrior fan. I hope you all had a great time and got to enjoy yourselves. I know I did. I know the guys behind me did.
Also, big ups to Franco Finn for coming to section 206 and hanging with us. The white suit was tight! I got to meet him for the first time and he's just a really cool guy.
It was a blast tonight and major props to Chris Murphy for running the show. Let's do it again. Right now we're aiming for GSOM Night 3 to be the night JRich returns, February 1st. Details will be coming.
And remember, it was just 1 game. Just 1 game.
Stay tuned for more GSoM Night 2 recaps and pictures. Here's a quick look.
Already in the Halloween costumes! Tony with the Ghostbusters and the Halloween sign