MVN - Most Valuable Network

No getting out of the Hornets’ nest

The Warriors just plain could not get it done in New Orleans Sunday. They had leads, they staged rallies, but they could never quite make it over the hump and win a crucial game.

A first quarter lead that at one point stretched to 12, was gone at the half, replaced by an eight point deficit. The Dubs tied the game several times in the second and got close in a few instances by a hail of open jumpers led to New Orleans’ scoring bursts.

The Dubs need to find a way to stop giving up wide open shots. The slightest hint of ball movement or ball fakes send players flying or scurrying form their defensive assignments. The choice to switch on screen-and-rolls produced good results but after that things kept breaking down.

Basically every Hornet got exactly what they wanted. Tyson Chnadler could wrestle with guards trying to front him until a foul was called. David West destroyed smaller players in the post and was left unmolested at mid-range. Peja Stojakovic even got defended by Monta at times, allowing him to fire turnaround jumpers and be free of interference when spotting up.

The only Hornet who did not look superb was Chris Paul and he managed a triple-double.

The Warriors played a relatively solid game save the defensive breakdowns and a horrible performance from long distance. They forced turnovers and shot well from inside the arc but that is not enough against a very good team.

As the commentators said, the Dubs take around 26 3-pointers per game. Sunday that number was 29. The number of makes however, three. That’s right, 10.3 percent shooting. This game was so very winnable had the Warriors biggest weapon not been firing blanks.

Four players took more then six threes, only one missed fewer then six of them.

Baron can’t be missing 14 shots in these late games, but he did.

The only positives were Andris and Monta. Biedrins was all over the place, cleaning up misses, getting big boards and holding down the middle as best he could with the players around him. Monta was a scoring machine but started attempting some ridiculous shots in the second half. His 35 points and 10 boards are also sterling.

I’d like to say the Capitan Jack had a good game since he was solid on pick-and-rolls with Biedrins, but 0-for-6 on threes speaks for itself.

One of the more galling facets of this game was the performance of Jannero Pargo. The man had nine points in under a minute and hit a pair of threes a few moments later. He in essence ignited a 24-10 run which gave New Orleans control of the contest.

After this performance, GSW must win out and even then would need a little help from some other team. They are essentially 1.5 games back since Denver holds the tiebreaker.

It’s also infuriating to see that two Warriors registered trillions (playing in the game but not registering any significant stats) tonight. Belinelli and Barnes combined for three minutes of play where they had little effect on the goings on of the game.

It’s nice to remember that Barnes once did contribute in a meaningful way. And Pietrus (sigh), he’s still “hurt,” most likely saving himself for that big free agent bonanza he is in for. NEWSFLASH: teams like players who actually see the floor and contribute in meaningful ways, hope your agent knows that MP.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Golden State Warriors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.