Golden State: 111 Denver: 101 Change has come

Change has come. And what a time for it. The Warriors like Obama's stirring election victory defeated the Denver Nuggets and for the 4th quarter displayed the exciting fast brand of Basketball not displayed at all this season. Warrior fans finally got a chance to see the Brandon Wright that was extinct up until now. Stephen Jackson played a cool calm role with excellent defense and well rounded scoring. It really was a special night

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First off maybe the Warriors were motivated by Carmelo Anthony's comments that he wants to score 44 points to honour Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. Instead Carmelo finished with 28 enough to make Woodrow Wilson happy. Obama is the 44st not the 28th Melo. Just keep that in mind

So at the start of the game the Warriors fell way behind. There's no energy in the Oracle, brick after brick is tossed up and Nelson looks clueless as to how he could stop the rut. Honestly Dahntay Jones reminds me of Spudd Webb with his vertical leap such was his dunk left with 7 minutes left in the half. Then this happenned




Well okay it didn't happen until much later but Biedrins earned his paycheck with that play. youtube has no footage of the much more inspirational Wright dunk with 6 minutes left in the 1st half which ended the horrible transition Defense and dismal play. The Warriors awoke and went down seven at the half

At halftime ESPN's loudmouthed and generally useless pundits wondered whther the Warriors could sustain this momentum. The answer was absolutely. The second half we saw some dominant play by Beans and Wright both taking it strong to the Basket. Though Denver was helpful in not killing us off with the amount of turnovers and sloppy play it was still encoraging seeing the feisty never give up attitude of the team Right behind Jack was a Beans I have rarely seen. His low post game was outstanding tonight. And the scary part? Tonight's performance looked like the beginning of a trend, not a mere fluke. Beans is growing up right before our eyes. We've seen it before with another. All we have to do is lock up the mopeds with this dude and we'll be all rig

Other notes

Notes
1) Let's just all hope that Nellie realizes that power forwards don't need to be able to shoot three pointers in order to play 25 minutes per game.

2) CJ Watson is playing tough. I gotta give him props because I harshly criticized him in the past. Let's hope this continues.

3) I got a huge kick out of Andris Biedrins vs "Birdman" Chris Anderson...."The Battle of the White Guys with Hair Gel". Biedrins schooled him twice.

4) Unrelated to the Warriors, but Nene Hilario is going to put up huge numbers this year in a thin frontcourt, just like Chris Kaman did last season.

5) I don't understand how Don Nelson can't find ways to give Marco Belinelli more playing time. He is a shooter, for christ sakes, and Nellie loves shooters. Nellie was all over Belly-Nelly's balls a year ago, and now he's shunned him

I'm glad to see change

Golden State V Denver preview

Versus



Warriors (W-L): 1-3
Nuggets (W-L): 1-2

Time to end the messy Memphis display as the Warriors face the new look Nuggets team tonight Change seems to happening everywhere not just with the election of Obama but we face a new look Nuggets team who shipped Iverson off to Detroit in return for Billups and McDyess. Truth be told they still have Carmelo Anthony and K-Mart to cause problems in the frontcourt. Wait how exactly were the Nuggets an 8th seed again last year?

There's still hope though. ‘Melo traditionally bangs up our soft interior when we step onto the court with him. I'm pretty interested to how Turiaf can affect this. So far he's been pretty impressive at times on D in the paint. Hopefully Nellie gives him enough time to display some of that muscle tonight. Shutting down ‘Melo scoring at will is going to be a huge key to this game.


Check out Denver Stiffs for their reaction on this seasons Nuggets

Perdictions
Denver by 5
Kleiza is the Warriors killer
Turiaf becomes the swatting machine
When asked if they can make the Playoffs Nellie says YES We can

Memphis: 90 Golden State: 79 Graceland horror

Thank god I missed last night. Going by the boxscore this was the worst offensive performance I've ever seen the Golden State Warriors play. The John Starks, Donyell Marshall, Chris Mills Warrior teams never played this bad.

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Wait we lost to the Grizzlies. A team that was just in the lottery last year and are only starting to gel with their rookies. This type of loss is horrible when you consider how hard the West is and the fact Ellis isn't back supposedly until January. Here's what lost the game

Shooting The Warriors shot a dismal 34% from the field and a ridiculous 15% from the 3pt line. How do you go 3 for 20?.

Marc Gasol I watched him ball a bit in the Olympics and knew he was quite good but he tore it up on Biedrins 27 points, 16 rebounds, and 3 blocks just killed the Warriors. It was as if he was the only player in the paint. Standing 7'1 and 270 pounds, Gasol was hitting nice bank shots and open dunks as he had a field day playing around Biens and Harrington.

Maggette I rooted for Mike Dunleavy for three years. I rooted for Troy Murphy until I realized his double doubles were shallow. I even rooted occasionally for Erick Dampier and Derek Fisher. But I say with 100% certainty that I can honestly never see myself becoming a fan of Corey Maggette. He combined with Jackson to shoot 12 for 51 from 2pt and 3pt lines. since Harrington didn't even come close to picking up the slack this is the type of game I wish I could erase from my memory

Young guys Oh hey, look the young guys got to play. Marco got 3 minutes in the 2nd quarter, Randolph saw 1.5 minutes at the end of the game, and Brandan Wright nearly played a full quarter's worth of minutes. See Nellie loves the young guys. He's just saving them to unleash them on unsuspecting Grizzlies.

Finally with literally nothing Warrior related to comment on I'd like to take this opportunity to please ask you to to go out and vote tomorrow if you haven't done so. I'm not one to care which political side you fall on, I'm just asking you to please take advantage of one of the rights we have in this country that impacts the next generation of leaders. Thank you!

Golden State V Memphis preview

Versus



Versus
Warriors (W-L): 1-2
Grizzlies (W-L): 1-2

If you had told me three weeks ago that without baron and Monta we would be 1-2 I would have accepted it. The last three games we haven't all been bad and after ending the New Jersey hodoo a playoff shot isn't impossible. The firt two games were lost to pretty good teams with the Hornets and Raptors both 3-0 both games close and it seemed as though our young team couldn't put them away. But last Saturday we came back and beat the Nets on the road thanks to the dynamic trio of Jackson, Biedrins, and Maggette. All of them scored over 20 points and I'm hoping this could be a start of something big. On the other hand Memphis are a young team and thanks to Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo they have something to build on in the future. Golden State should win this but Marc gasol should cause problems in the middle. Could be an interesting game

Perdictions
Warriors by 8
Magette gets to the line 15 times
Rudy Gay gets 25 points
Al Harrington stinks it up

Golden State: 105 New Jersey:97

Well that was ugly, it was boring, there was no atmosphere whatsoever. When are the Nets moving to Brooklyn again?. But because of the lak of energy in the Izod Center and the Nets inability to put away a team that had just played back to back the Warriors emerged with a scrappy first win

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Back to back games It was one of the Warriors many strenghs last year they ususally somehow managed to win back to back games but after an OT tussle with the Raptors they came out flat and somehow scrambled their way to 52 points in the ugliest manner you will ever see. Still Magette and Jackson both clicked for 41 minutes and 20+ points so Nellie defintely said something.

Biedrins He earns every penny of his paycheck. Going 7-8 from the line and dsipaying a quality array of low post moves Biedrins was a force. Stephen Jackson is the only player who seems to realise that Biedrins is the only reliable offensive player on the team but either way he's the most potent offensively

Corey Maggette is the best free throw shooter the Warriors have had since Derek Fisher was traded away. The Warriors are shooting under 70% from the line every game, so I have to say that it's a relief when Maggette steps up to the line, coughs, and drains 13/15 free throws.

3) CJ Watson finally played like a third string point guard, matching his career high of four assists. He had a couple very nice passes early in the game. Then in the fourth quarter, he started reverting back to usual self, causing Don Nelson to scream profanities at him.

4) The Warriors should be 3-0 right now. If Don Nelson had found a way to use a deeper rotation against the Hornets and Raptors, then Stephen Jackson wouldn't have been tired at the end of the Hornets game, and Andris Biedrins wouldn't have been tired at the end of the Raptors game, and we would have won both games.

One more game to this road trip. The Grizzlies have another young and talented team and it'll be interesting to see how the Warriors match up to em. Hopefully the day off gives everyone some much needed energy

NFL Perdictions Week 9

The Wembley game and went. There is no question it was more succesful then last years but after Sean Paytons reaction it's totally understandable as to why the Saints Players and Coaches would be fustrated in losing a home game. And no regardless of how many Saints fans British and American attended last weeks game it still didn't come off as a New Orleans type atmosphere. Still a win is a win foor the aint's

Unfortunately I won't have time to get into more depth over why I picked respective teams so here's just a quick preview of this weeks games

NY Jets @ BUF 1:00 No shame in losing on the road, but the Bills were pretty much owned by the Fins. I'm not sold on them, but like them to win at home against a INT happy Jets team.

DET @ CHI 1:00 I don't like the double digit spread, but can't believe that this is the game the Lions will win to avoid 0-16


JAX @ CIN 1:00 A pretty horrible loss for the Jags last week. This is must win if they have any chance of making the playoffs, which I don't see happening at this stage. Cincy is still too poor to win this game.


BAL @ CLE 1:00 Slowly improving Browns-this is a big chance to get back in the race in the North. Baltimore's secondary is beat up and Cleveland is a much better passing than running, so I like them to win this one.


TB @ KC 1:00 KC showed some life last week, but I figure the Bucs will get it done after losing a game they should have won last week.

HOU @ MIN 1:00 The Texans won't be able to run the ball on Minny and I doubt Matt Schaub will get enough protection to win this game.
ARI @ STL 1:00 If they can play Carolina so tough on the road, I have to take the Cardinals to win (and cover the 3 points) against the Rams-Steven Jackson could play though, and so I'm not that confident in my pick.

GB @ TEN 1:00 All the makings of a trap for the Titans-coming off a big win, short week, playing a team coming off a bye...still, GB's line not good enough to protect Rogers and they can't run the ball against average defences so I don't expect them to do it here.

MIA @ DEN 4:05 I don't really know why I'm picking Denver....

DAL @ NYG 4:15 I don't know if the Giants will win as easily as a lot of pundits are predicting or if they will cover 8.5/9 points, but it's hard to see Brad Johnson staying on his feet enough for Dallas to win.

ATL @ OAK 4:15 Not really that confident in Atlanta on the road, but the Raiders are bad.

PHI @ SEA 4:15 Philly should get it done-Seattle's hammering of the 49ers last week was an aberration...

NE @ IND 8:15 The return of Addai and Sanders is huge for Indy, but unless Manning finds his rhythm, the Patriots could pull the 'upset'.

Monday
PIT @ WAS 8:30 Pitt very nearly took down the Giants last week. Return of Parker could be the key. The Redskins haven't played very well since beating the Cowboys.

Last week 8-6

Overall:67-49

Toronto: 112 Golden State: 108 OT

Rather then watch one of the Halloween scare movies that pop up a lot during this time of the year I subjected myself to watch the Warriors and Raptors in game 2 of the 82 game season. And after watching a fustrating OT loss that could have been avoided had Nelson played his bench more I can safely say I would have been better watching reruns of the Omen or The Blair Witch Project. Well ok it wasn't THAT fustrating there were plenty of positives along the way but this was a game that should have been pulled out

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Nelson goes tall There was a period during the game when Nelson actually detracted from the smallball that put the Warriors in a 12 point defecitand put in a lineup of Jack, Maggs, Harrington, Turiaf, and Beans that magically turned the game around and only made the Warriors trail by one at the half. I'm not sure whether Nelson would have made this sort of adjustment last season but at least it sort of makes up for his failure to use his bench

Biedrins and Turiaf There's a reason Turiaf came here. Our pathetic interior Defense that was a problem for years has been wiped away by Turiafs contribution. Holding Jermaine O Neal to 2-10 and his pressence and energy helping the game closer then it should have been he was doing a good job helping Golden State winning the Rebounding battle until he fouled out. Even though his statline doesn't show much (2-4, 4 points, 5 blocks, 5 boards he was a beast

Biedrins likewise was efficent going 8-13, pulling in 17 points, and taking down 13 boards. He made good cuts to the basket and has displayed more self confidence then last season. His minutes were the major problem during overtime he walked up the court not running at all but then again I guess Randolph would have done the same.... But if this combination keeps it up they should win a few more earlier games then expected.

Who killed the Warriors Was it Chris Bosh with 31 points Nope, Was it Barganani with 19?. Wrong again. Try the last two minutes of the game where two horrible poccessions gave the Raptors some momentum even though the Warriors had the lead all they had to do was kill some clock. Harrington was surprisingly the best player on the court with 26 points 50% on 3 pointers and made a big shot to give the Warriors the lead with 15 seconds left but his decision to take a quick 3 while not run out the clock cost us the game

Stephen Jackson I'm 90% sure he'll break the record for most 3's attempted in a season. Chucking them up when the Warriors have a small lead ugh talk about a low Basketball IQ



Maggette Didn't shoot well, turned the ball over, doesn't know how to pass, black hole on offense and really was a disaster to watch last night

Overtime The Raptors 6-0 run at the start of OT killed the game. Nuff said

Now that Game two is out of the way it it too much to ask whether the Warriors can learn something out of this game for tonight. Like not take 3 point shots when you're ahead in the game and can kill some shot clock especially when you get two Offensive rebounds off one play. Maybe the mental mistakes can be eliminated as well. Becausr tonight we're playing at a arena we haven't won at in 11 years the ideal place to see whether they have