Monday, December 24, 2007

Golden State:105 Cleveland:96 Nice early Gift


Wins don't often come as pleasing as this but after the early christmas gift in New Jersey it could easily be treated as a sign that the team would drop heads and probably get blown out in their next road game. This would frequently happen during the Brian Winters, Dave Cowens era. However this team is of an entirely different porportion and last night proved just how stellar some victories need to be. The first quarter was some beauty to watch

Boxscore

Shooting The FSN Ohio feed I received was adamant enough to keep saying we live or die by the 3's and tonight was more proof. Except not only did the Warriors make their shots 13 from 17 and 5 3 pointers in the 1st quarter but it consistently happenned throughout the game. Jackson coming off a bad shooting effort in New Jersey to put it frankly was hot. Even after the supossed hyperextended knee he had an extremely hot touch and rather then just shooting the ball he also obviously has attempted to introduce a drive to the basket move. Unlike the Cavs the offense tonight wasn't as one dimensional the Warriors tried to improvise and have an inside game which worked at times.

Coaching Once again this never flat out ceases to amaze me. With a 28 point lead at one stage this surely would have been a more sensible time to introduce the likes of Brandon Wright, Marco etc. Yet once again even with a lead this safe he displayed his contempt for rookies. It makes you wonder just at what stage are these players going to develop their game and eventually will they provide any use to their team?, My guess for the latter is no but it's getting to the stage where eventually no matter how much sugarcoating you can try Davis and Jackson will get burned out.

Last nights win felt as good as having one of these

Al Harrington It's a sign of a good solid role player that after being dominated by Josh Boone they bounce back with hustle and determination. On a night when Jackson concentrated on the offensive end Harrington constantly fought for loose balls and Clevelands frontcourt looked confused as to how do they deal with this. Unlike the limitations on offense so evident in the garbage capital of America Harrington switched his game and proved a havoc for Varrejao or Gooden. His 16 points were inavaluable.

Hughes and the Cavs Unlike Jeff Garcia in a Niners victory I could easily see why so many Cleveland fans prefer Boobie. Hughes was booed throughout the game for his poor shooting 1-8. Then again it wasn't just Hughes who was the problem the Defensive intensity Cleveland poccesses wasn't evident tonight. Also amusing to see the fans booing yes 12-16 is bad but the reality is you won't have many nights where your opponent shoots like that. I still think towards the end more isolation plays should have been called for Lebron because with his size and speed it creates havoc for whoever can guard him.



After a satisfactorily road trip the sechedule doesn't get any easily for the Warriors. Minnesota should be an automatic W baring the tiredness factor from Jackson and Davis. Hopefully a split against the Nuggets would be welcome even though Camby could give them nightmares on the boards. Dallas and Hoston are next up where I can see us losing both even though the Rockets are underachieving dramatically. Then they come on the Oracle and the Hornets and Spurs await where a split would be acceptable before taking on the red hot Portland Traiblazers. Based on a guess I'd say 4-4 would be respectable but they have to take each opponent seriously otherwhise it could be the Nets all over again. Now that I've gone off a mini tangent highlights from last night

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