Boxscore
Denvers Defense George Karl simply outcached Nelson in this factor. Dnver played Defense therefore they won. He let J.R Smith take over Anthony Carters minutes and when Denver were scorched man to man he sitched to a 1-2-2 zone. In the 1st quarter the Warriors had 17 fastbreak points with Denvers transition Defense being abysmal. When Karl adjusted even though the Warriors still had 21 fastbreak points Denver got back on D more quickly.
The Warriors offense was also extended. Rather then settling for high Screen and Rolls the Warriors decided to settle for swinging the ball around the perimeter and drive and kick an non factor when Iverson, Najera and J.R smith play the passing lanes very well. The Warriors couldn't simply solve the riddle Everytime they drove baseline, there was Melo, Camby or Kmart cutting off the baseline and trapping. Everytime they drove the middle of the lane, there were two defenders there and the perimeter D could cheat and get in the passing lanes for steals. Usually the only option left was the swing pass across the court or kicking it back out. It left the Warriors offense forcing up shots (not that there's anything new with that) but doing it completely out of the flow of the offense.
George karl outcoached Nelson This is one question I've been pondering since the game ended. Karl made his adjustment - switching from man D to zone and pulling Anthony Carter. Nellie's team didn't really seem to make any adjustments. They struggled against the zone D for 3 full quarters and didn't change up their offense. Usually against a zone D, you overload one side or you get the ball to a good passer in the middle of the zone. Neither of those happened tonight. The screens stopped coming while the turnovers mounted. Leads me to believe Karl outcoached Nellie. What do you think.
Bench Hello? Did anyone else dress for the game except Baron, Monta, Al, Andris, and Jack? Did anyone else hear Nellie's pregame speech? Did anyone else realize this was the biggest game of the year? Hello? Anyone?
Ugh. Let's count up the bench points. On my left hand: thumb, pointer finger, middle finger, ring finger, pinky. On my right hand: thumb, pointer finger. Okay done. 7 points off the bench! Seven! And Kelenna's 5 came with under 5 minutes in the 4th quarter. So the bench had all of Matt Barnes' 2 points in 43 minutes.
Where was Pietrus tonight? He had such an explosive 4th quarter against the Kings that I was expecting him to show up. To be fair, he played a few good possessions on D against Carmelo. After Melo was lighting up Jax at the start of the 3rd, Pietrus' D was what got him off his rhythm. But other than that, he was MIA. 3 fouls, 0 points, 0 rebounds. Nellie pulled him quickly too.
Here's one question, did Nellie not trust his bench tonight or did he just not use them because they didn't produce? I think it was the latter. Monta played the entire game. Baron played 46 minutes, Andris 40, Jax 43 and Al 33. I guess Nellie decided to live and die by his starters.
But really, it wasn't all bad for the Warriors. Baron ended with a triple double as he played one of his best games of the past few months. Monta had another excellent scoring night, though his 6 turnovers and missed free throws were costly. Al came to play but needed to hit the boards harder. Biedrins was big tonight with 19 boards. And Jax? Well we learned that after he takes his headband off he plays better. Fact is, Melo, AI, and JR Smith played lights out while our starters got sloppy (missed free throws and uncharacteristic turnovers), possibly because they were playing tons of minutes with no help from the bench.
Andris Biedrins
I gotta say he had the best game of the bunch. I could have given this to Baron but the 9-25 and 1-9 from 3 was a killer. Biedrins was all over the place tonight hauling in 19 rebounds along with scoring 11 points. He kept the Warriors in this game tonight not so much with his scoring but his heart and hustle. When the team needed a defensive rebound, he seemed to be the guy getting it. Sometimes it seems like he's the only one fighting for rebounds - 4 blue jerseys and Biedrins in the paint. He even played tough in the paint. He challenged shots, changed shots and got a couple blocks. That's usually something you don't see from him. He had one of the best games of the year at the right time but alas it wasn't enough
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