MVN - Most Valuable Network

Dubs win sloppy game in Vegas

The third Warrior’s summer league against Charlotte was… well… unimpressive is the word that comes to mind.

The game went back and forth but since it didn’t matter the whole feel of the game was thrown off. The Warriors had a big lead, then trailed and ultimately won by hitting their late free throws.

Marco Belinelli was once more the most productive warrior (a summer league theme) but didn’t really have much impact beyond scoring. He made a few nice passes, but had just one assist to four turnovers.

His value was in scoring which he did from near and far. Unlike previous games, Belinelli played with a little more restraint, letting shots come to him. Overall he had 30 points, only missed six shots and was perfect on nine free throw attempts.

He also stared down Bobcats forward Marcus Slaughter after Slaughter shoved him while in the air. Belinelli then shook off apparent elbow pain to nail tow of his free throws. The attitude can’t hurt.

If this game is any predictor, it would point to Belinelli being an off the bench scorer who scurries around the court like Ray Allen and Rip Hamilton, minus the ability to wear out opponents. His defense is still downright awful at times and could hurt his chances for seeing the court (though that hasn’t stopped a number of Warriors in the past).

The biggest disappointment of the night was easily Brandan Wright who just seemed passive the whole game. In the first two contests, Wright’s contributions were quiet but still had an effect.

Beyond a nice late game dunk and a really smooth mid-range shot, Wright did near nothing. He had no blocks and only five rebounds despite playing 34 minutes. This setting does not exactly suit Wright’s skills but it’s still worth noting that he struggled.

The man who was supposed to be feeding him the ball, C.J. Watson, spend most of the game pounding the ball into the ground on the dribble or shooting free throws after being bumped. It seemed like most contact in the lane was called and almost every hedge attempt on a screen resulted in a whistle.

All this resulted in 16 trips to the free throw line for Watson. He had seven assists but still didn’t look like he was initiating much offense.

This might be related to the fact that the Warriors seemed to not be running much of an offense at all. There were practically no off-ball screens and very few of the on-ball ones were set with much authority. 

On the injury front, Anthony Randolph did not suit up due to the ankle injury he suffered in the last game and Richard Hendrix again failed to make it onto the court because of a quadriceps injury.

Gurad Anthony Morrow looked good in hitting all his shots and scoring 11 but did little else. DeMarcus Nelson may have ended his shot at a training camp invite by shooting 1-for-5 from the free throw stripe. Guards under 6’3” need to hit their free throws and Nelson just didn’t.

The biggest take away point from this game was that not much can be taken from it. No one looked good. There were lazy passes and sloppy ball-handling all over the court.

No one could even hold on to a rebound with the ball often getting tipped up multiple times to no advantage. Throw in a few traveling violations and players stepping out of bounds and the game was a complete mess.

In other news, some Warrior fans are getting far too excited about summer league. Randolph is not a sure All-Star and Wright won’t head to the D-League. Calm down people and enjoy the games.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:17 pm and is filed under 2008 summer league. 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.