GameThread #46: Charlotte Bobcats at Golden State Warriors- Return of Stephen Jackson aka Captain Fraud and Coach Stephen Silas

Originally Posted Jan 27, 2011 9:52 PM PST

Those Bobcats jerseys sure do look funny.

Charlotte Bobcats (19-25) at Golden State Warriors (19-26)

TV: CSN Bay Area | Radio: KNBR 680

Blog Buddy: Rufus on Fire

SB Nation Bay Area

Tipoff: 7:30pm

The matchups after the jump!

The Matchups

Coaching

Let's put aside the fact that Coach Keith Smart (who I will openly admit I like and root for) is one of the worst coaches in the league. (Don't agree? Well rank them in the comments and point out at least 3-5 worse coaches.) Bobcats' Assistant Coach Stephen Silas knows the Warriors playbook like the back of his hand.

Edge: Bobcats

Backcourt

This is going to be interesting. At the point Stephen Curry is going to have a rare size advantage over DJ Augustin. Expect a big night from Stef-fun. At the 2-spot Monta Ellis is going to have a ridiculous speed advantage over Stephen Jackson. Jack's crafty and a superior defender to Curry or Ellis (that is when he isn't whining on the other side of the court), but I'll take the Curry-Ellis combo of speed and scoring here.

Edge: Warriors

Front Court

Dorell Wright is a poor man's Gerald Wallace. That isn't an insult. Crash is a fantastic 2-way player. Boris Diaw seems to always give the Warriors problems with his versatility, but wait till he gets a load of David Lee. Lee is rounding back to his All-Star shape and has been good for 18 ppg, 9 rpg, and a shade over 3.5 apg in 2011. Look for that to continue. Kwame Brown (the starting center for Michael Jordan in 2011?!) is a rare matchup that Andris Biedrins should be able to win. If he doesn't, that's pretty much the last straw. Biedrins should be benched if he doesn't come up big here.

Edge: Warriors

The Bench

An Eddie Najera sighting! Man I love this guy's energy. Nellie seemed to really enjoy trotting him out during the end of his Mavs days. There will likely even be a Shaun Livingston sighting at the Roaracle too. Man, what could have been. When people made those Penny Hardaway (one of my all-time favs) comparisons to Livingston when the Clips originally drafted him, the poor guy was cursed.

Needless to say I'll take Vladimir Radmanovic (one of the bright spots of the Keith Smart tenure), Reggie Williams (scoring machine), and the big man combo of Louis Amundson and rookie Ekpe Udoh over the Charlotte Bench.

Edge: Warriors

Predictions

• The Roaracle Faithful doesn't boo Captain Fraud loud enough. I still have no idea what his beef was with this organization to this day. They paid him handsomely and he signed the dotted line to play for a known loser. Please stop with that "I'm a winner" nonsense. Right, the kind of "winner" who gets swept in the first round of the playoffs. Riiiight. To this day I believe Stephen Jackson got soft treatment from the local Bay Area media because they were literally scared of him.
• Stephen Jackson has more turnovers than Monta Ellis.
• Stephen Curry drops 30+ points on some red hot shooting.
• Gerald Wallace goes for 20-12.
• David Lee gets 20-12-5.
• Warriors by 7.