Golden State: 111 Minnesota:98

It wasn't pretty. Down 14 to the worst team in the League at one stage and down 8 at the half it's an extremely good thing the Warriors turned on their A game to avoid an embarrassing defeat. The tean never pannicked in the second half and used all of Nelsons coaching skill to gain a big win

Boxscore

To use a Soccer anology it was a tale of two halves. The Warriors were listless and inefficent in the 1st half before in the 2nd half they focussed more on Defense as the 37-17 advantage will tell you. Seriously the inability to stay man to man was a major worry and even when they went to a 2-3 zone Minnesota were still making their shots. Gerald Green has star potential written on him but even I didn't expect him to constantly knock down jumpers. Just to show how steady their offense was functioning they only had two turnovers. Telfair and Mccants really took care of the rock plus craig Smith and Al Jefferson were really doing their thing in the post.

Then in the 3rd quarter things changed. Not only did the Warriors tally up 37 points but their Defense won them the game. I thought Monta did a super job on Telfair fronting him on every poccession and taking two charges. He also made most of his shots with his vertical leap high enough that the Defender can't do much about it. Against a opponenet as quick as Telfair there was the concern he's struggle but Monta's concentration on D is better. His elbow from Jefferson was a sacry moment but at that point his scoring proved to even the sceptical that he's ready to join the next T-Mac's or Kobe's.

Biedrins: Yeah 8 points and 15 boards are pretty impressive considering they were up against Jefferson and Smith. He's becoming a valuable decoy of this team. Think about it in the last game against Memphis which have far lighter post players he was given minimal minutes but last night against Jefferson. Al wasn't dhut down 24 and 14 is all star calliber and he is strong and leusive all the goof qualities of a Forward. However Craig Smith who I anticpated having a big game finished with 8. Smith was the bruiser beans had to watch out for but tonight he underachieved so that threat was gone.

Kelenna: Never mind his boxscore stats often the mistake made by people who didn't see the game is to analyse his contribution is to just do that look at the boxscore. Tonight he had 7 points but his instant role in providing scoring off the bench is one of the many crucial roles we lacked in last seasons Western Conferennce semi Finals. His ability to hit the clutch shot is understated by many teams. Minnesota tried to make a game of it in the 4th but Kelenna provided the clutchness to ensure a 2-1 road trip so far. He's now 7th in the depth chart




Baron: He played 42 minutes too long and eventually it;s starting to show how tired he's becoming. He finished up with a tidy 18 points but as the coaches will point out it was neccessary for him to play so long in order to win the game. There's gonna be a lot of pressure from Mullin to find a backup PG over the next few days becuase Davis won't practice before the Nets game. Because at the moment with Hudson out Marco certainly didn't have any production in him so with no Guards running the point Mullin better hurry to find a backup one.

Al Harrington: Have to give him most of the credit. He did most of the scoring in the 3rd and it's safe to say carried the team offensively. He had 14 points in the 3rd looking every inch the low post threat Warrior fans desired of him.knocked down a couple three's, took the ball to the hole, and got his post up game on. Without him I very much doubt this game would have been won

The last point I want to make is the one problem with the 2007-2008 Golden State Warriors is their inability to close out games perfectly. The 4th quarter after the stunning 3rd was bad to watch because like the Grizzlies game Minnesota were let back in it difference being Memphis knocked down more then half the shots that the Timberwolves had. Unlike San Antonio or Boston (both lost last night) their ability to have a good quarter followed by bad is unnacceptable. It's hapenning too often so hopefully the heart and energy which led us back from a 0-6 start will solve this