Our Pregame and In Game Coverage
Warriors at Lakers: Time to Flip The Script
Dubs-Lakers Q&A: Mike Brown, Antawn Jamison & 1-4
Warriors at Lakers Game Thread
Game Flow (using flow loosely here)
The Lakers, fresh and loose without Mike Brown, played a little better than they have been. Pau Gasol was particularly active with 14 pts, 16 rebs, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. Los Angeles didn't shoot that well, but managed to dominate every aspect of the game. Kobe Bryant extended his run of efficient games with 27 points on 18 shots to go with 9 rebounds, 7 assists,and 2 steals. Adding to the insult was Jordan Hill off the bench with 14 points on 5-5 shooting.
The Warriors kept it close through the first quarter, and shot well at the beginning of the game, hitting 9 of 20 from the field to end the period down one. At the beginning of the second quarter, David Lee (3-10 for 10 pts, 12 rebs) hit a driving layup and the Dubs took the lead 24-23. The Warriors then proceeded to go 4-22 for the rest of the quarter, ending the first half down nine points at 47-38. Five for twenty-three in the second quarter. Of those, the Dubs took 10 three-pointers and made....one.
The third quarter started slowly, with neither team scoring until Stephen Curry hit a jumper a minute and a half into the period. The Lakers missed a couple of shots while Klay Thompson hit a 2 pointer, and then Curry hit a three with 9:10 remaining to bring the Warriors within two. That was as close as they got the rest of the way, and the end of Curry's scoring for the night. Steph finished with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and no turnovers. After hitting 3 of their first 6 shots, the Warriors went 3-15 for the rest of the quarter. Still - six of twenty-one was an improvement on the second quarter. Down 17 at this point, the game was essentially over.
Our bench was a non-factor tonight. Carl Landry, Jarrett Jack, and Richard Jefferson combined for 5 of 22 shooting and 12 points, although Landry had 11 boards. It was impossible to recover from the 11 for 44 shooting the entire team had in the second and third quarters. Only two Warriors shot better than .400 for the night - Festus Ezeli and Jeremy Tyler.
While coach Mark Jackson may not be worried about the offense, fans are certainly getting restless. A team built on shooting that can't shoot has a problem - one that may not be fixed by just letting them fire away.
Tonight's Warrior Wonder is Andris Biedrins. Beans played nine and a half minutes tonight, played defense, and picked up 4 boards. Despite getting 3 personals, missing two free throws, and committing three turnovers, he did not make the score worse. Among all players in the first three quarters, his zero +/- led the team until late garbage time.