Golden State Of Mind

Game Thread #24: JLFT#3 at JLFT#2

2012-02-12T20:13:45Z

Houston Rockets (16-11) at Golden State Warriors (9-14)

TV: CSN Bay Area / Radio: KNBR 680

In the ninth day following the birth of Linsanity (2/4/2012, for you numerologists), Jeremy Lin Former Team #2 faced off against Jeremy Lin Former Team #3. I'm defining JLFT #1 as the Mavericks, who let him walk despite his promising showing in the 2010 Las Vegas Summer League, including what seemed then to be a fluky outplaying of highly-hyped rookie John Wall. Misery loves company, so I take some small solace in the fact that Dallas and Houston are our partners in regret. Of course the Mavs have the saving grace of being, you know, NBA Champions; and the Rockets, being the Rockets, have somehow managed to parlay the solid play of Kyle Lowry (perhaps the most underrated PG in the league) and a motley assortment of role players to a 16-11 record. Meanwhile, in Warriorland, long-suffering fans get to watch their local hero shine from 3,000 miles away; the front office keeps trying like the dickens to make a consequential move; and the slightly sub-mediocre collection of players keeps plugging away gamely, making a seeming bee line to a #8-12 draft pick that the team will promptly have to convey to the Utah Jazz.

Sigh. On the bright side, there's a Warriors game tonight! Make the jump for some predictions about the game and a couple more Lin-ecdotes.

Lin-ecdotes

It's easy enough to throw around words like "phenomenal" and "historic," but sometimes the best way to measure the magnitude of a cultural phenomenon is through daily anecdotes. Yesterday, as I was walking down Pell Street in NYC's Chinatown (soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai, mmm) I walked by two bars with hastily posted sandwich boards in front hyping big TVs on which patrons could watch ~~Jeremy Lin~~ the Knicks. This morning, I was watching an MSNBC report on death of Whitney Houston (RIP, Whitney), and the subject turned to her role in the "crossover" appeal of black music in the 1980s. A panelist on the show, noting the degree to which any gap between black and white music is now almost completely a thing of the past, said something like, "these days if you mention the word 'crossover,' people think you're talking about Jeremy Lin..."

Lin-credible.

Predictions

• Curry puts up a Lin-like 28 points on 18 fga and 11 assists.

• Monta takes it to the rim like Jeremy Lin: 30 points.

• Rush, Klay, and Dorell continue to stroke it from three like Jeremy Lin: 11 3FG total

• Lee and Biedrins crash the glass like Jeremy Lin: 22 rebounds total

• Udoh continues to play D with Lin-ilke aggressiveness.

• Final score: Warriors 108-103

The fix is Lin.

2012-02-11T23:57:18Z

The fix is Lin.

That's mine. What you got?

Feel free to use this as a Lin game thread tonight. Lin-Rubio. Gonna be insane.

Lin was in danger of being waived again, by the Knicks, before he started his streak on Feb. 3. He...

2012-02-11T13:48:54Z

Lin was in danger of being waived again, by the Knicks, before he started his streak on Feb. 3. He had done little to establish himself by that point, although he showed a few glimmers in games against Houston and Boston.

But a crucial decision point was approaching: whether to keep Lin and guarantee his $788,000 contract for the season, or release him. Teams had until Feb. 7 to cut players with nonguaranteed deals, and the Knicks officials considered waiving Lin.

"His expiration date was coming up," Coach Mike D’Antoni said in an interview earlier this week. "We had to evaluate to see if there was something there or not."

The guarantee deadline "kind of prompted us" to give Lin more playing time, he said.

Lin was shaky in that Boston game, leaving D’Antoni feeling ambivalent. But he decided to give him another shot the next night against the Nets.

Lin responded with the best game of his career, with 25 points and seven assists off the bench in a victory over the Nets. Two nights later, he got his first start and set the bar even higher, with 28 points and 8 assists.

Suddenly, there was no decision to make. Lin will be a Knick for the rest of this season, and almost certainly beyond.

Knicks had a choice to make on Lin. Looks like they made the right decision.

Added by EvanZ:

New blog post: Inside Guys (Or If I Had Done This Metric Last Summer, Jeremy Lin Might Still be A Warrior)

Warriors Recap #23: Golden State Warriors 109 @ Denver Nuggets 101 - Warriors Find a Rare Win in Rarefied Air

2012-02-10T22:05:06Z

Final Box Score | Preview/ GameThread (970+ comments) | Links

Blog Buddy: Denver Stiffs

Warriors fans know that going into Denver and walking away with a win hasn't been an easy task in recent memory, but thanks to some key Nugget injuries the Dubs had an opportunity to make it five losses in a row for Denver, and they took advantage. Thanks to some impressive performances from Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and others, this one was basically a blow out until Mark Jackson sent in all the young pups late in the fourth quarter and watched them let most of the big lead slip away. Hit the Jump for some Quarter Notes and tonight's Warrior Wonder.

Quarter Notes

1st Quarter: All Steph all the time. Last time against the Thunder it was Monta who came out with guns blazing, but last night in Denver it was Steph's turn to take over the game early. The basket looked huge for Steph as he dropped in 15 of his 36 points in the first. Also of note is that Andris Biedrins chipped in about seven and a half minutes that didn't totally suck, including two nice blocks. Sigh... I wish that wasn't something of note.
2nd Quarter: Cue Kenny and Chuck "What kind of party is it? It's a BLOCK PARTY!" If Andris was the one to send out invitations to this particular brand of neighborhood gathering with his two blocks in the first, then I think we can safely call Ekpe Udoh the host of the party. Udoh blocked four shots in the 2nd (he finished with five) and challenged many more. Soon everybody was getting in on the action. Dominic McGuire and Dorell Wright both had blocks in the second quarter, and Steph even blocked poor Al Harrington when he tried to go up for a lay in. This was exactly the reminder Al needed that he can't finish inside, so he quickly retreated to the three point line where he drilled one to keep the game close.
3rd Quarter: This is where the Warriors made their run and took over the game. The starters came out of halftime sharp and went on a 23-5 run. Steph Curry continued to fill it up, and Dorell nailed three long balls as well. When the dust settled the dubs had outscored the Nuggets 37-20 in the third and pushed the lead to 13.
4th Quarter: If there was any doubt about the outcome of the game early in the fourth quarter it was put to rest when the line-up of Curry, Thompson, Rush, Udoh, and Lee went on a 12-2 run about four minutes in. Klay "the Kloser" Thompson stole the show again in the fourth by almost single-handedly carrying the load on offense with his 14 fourth quarter points. This kid is making me a believer. His shooting is as good as advertised, but I've been surprised at how well he moves without the ball, and he's definitely impressed me with his ball handling. He's not just a floor spreading stand-still shooter like Rush or Dorell. He can find ways to get open, and take advantage when the defense closes hard on him.

Rotation Sensation Revisited

It could just be because of Nate Robinson's injury, but I like the way coach Jackson has been mixing up the line-ups more since the loss to the Kings. There were a number of effective line-ups that blended the strengths of the starters with the bench, including that Curry, Thompson, Rush, Udoh, Lee unit that made the critical run late in the game to close it out.

Finding an Identity

Being a "jump shooting team" might carry with it some negative connotations, but it seems like the Warriors are continuing to embrace a perimeter oriented identity on offense, and it seems to be working for them. The Dubs just don't have the talent on the roster to play a true inside-out game, so they have been doing the next best thing in using their three point shooters to space the floor and stretch the defense. This has been opening up the pick and roll game for David Lee, and creating lanes for penetrating guards.

They haven't totally embraced small-ball seeing as there are still two big men on the floor the vast majority of the time, but there have been some key, if somewhat subtle, changes. First of all, the floor spacing in general is much better than it was earlier in the year. We haven't been seeing shooters clump up on the perimeter as much, and the off the ball movement is much better. They've been playing more effectively in the sets with Lee at the high post with shooters coming off down-screens. Putting all that pressure on the defense to keep up with shooters moving without the ball has been paying dividends, and creating opportunities all over the floor. Another key has been getting into early offense. There is less dribbling down the shot clock, and more attacking when there is an early opportunity. It seems like things are starting to flow more naturally on that end of the floor.

Wardell Stephen Curry II (that's for you MB)

Steph had one of the best games of his career finishing with 36pts 7ast 7reb 2blk (yes, two blocks) and only one turnover. If he keeps this up he might just end up being as good as Jeremy Lin.

The Jeremy Lin photoshop fun continues... I had to join in on the creative parodies! Nothing but...

2012-02-10T16:09:29Z

The Jeremy Lin photoshop fun continues... I had to join in on the creative parodies! Nothing but love for Lin's success over here in the Bay Area... Y'all ready for "LINception!"

Warriors Game Day Links #23: Golden State Warriors 109 @ Denver Nuggets 101 - Warriors hosting a block party. What's on the menu? Stuffed nuggets.

2012-02-10T05:09:31Z

Box score | Gameflow

SBNation Network

Warriors: Golden State of Mind
Recap: Warriors Recap #23: Golden State Warriors 109 @ Denver Nuggets 101 - Warriors Find a Rare Win in Rarefied Air
Game thread: Game Thread #23: Golden State Warriors @ Denver Nuggets - The Big Payback? (970+ comments)

Nuggets: Denver Stiffs
Recap: Warriors vs. Nuggets recap: Red hot Warriors hand ice cold Nuggets fifth straight loss ...
Game thread 2: Warriors vs. Nuggets: Second half thread
Game thread 1: Warriors vs. Nuggets: Will the Nuggets win a basketball game this week? (7pm MST)

Recaps

Associated Press: Warriors hand Nuggets 5th straight loss, 109-101 | Photo Gallery
Sports Network: Curry leads Golden State past Denver
Matt Steinmetz: Warriors cruise past Denver behind Curry's 36
Rusty Simmons: Guards Curry, Ellis lead Warriors to win in Denver
Marcus Thompson II: Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry have winning recipe against short-handed Denver Nuggets
Adam Lauridsen: Owning It (Warriors 109, Nuggets 101)

Pregame News

- Previews of the game.
Matt Steinmetz: Warriors-Nuggets: What to watch for

Pregame Videos

Wed: Warriors practice interviews.

Wed: Before leaving for Denver, some Warriors put in some extra practice in a 3 on 3.

Wed: Warriors talk about what they'll do when they get to Denver.

- KNBR and 95.7 FM mp3s.
13:04 min: Rusty Simmons with Gary and Larry, KNBR, Wed Feb 8
15:48 min: Tim Roye with Fitz Brooks, KNBR, Thu, Feb 9
9:49 min: Stephen Curry with Fitz Brooks, KNBR, Thu, Feb 9
12:19 min: Larry Riley with Ralph and Tom, KNBR, Thu, Feb 9
11:58 min: David Lee show, 95.7 FM, Thu, Feb 9

Mark Jackson before the game.

Postgame News

- Mark Jackson thought Klay Thompson should have made the Rising Stars Challenge (previously named the Rookie-Sophomore Challenge).
Rusty Simmons: Warriors' coach unhappy Klay Thompson was left out

- All about Stephen Curry's shimmy move.
Rusty Simmons: Stephen Curry dances an ‘ugly’ ode to Coach Mark Jackson

Postgame Videos

Jim Barnett interviews Stephen Curry right after the game.

David Lee in the locker room.

Monta Ellis in the locker room.

CSN highlights, recap.

Highlights by gumbywithpokey.

Recap and highlights from nba.com's game page:
Warriors vs. Nuggets: First half
Andris Rejects Faried
Warriors vs. Nuggets
Nightly Notable: Stephen Curry

Postgame Quotes and Stuff from warriors.com recap

Photo Gallery

Audio
1:59 min: Jim Barnett interviews Stephen Curry right after the game
1:52 min: Tim Roye interviews Klay Thompson right after the game
5:29 min: Mark Jackson Postgame - 2/9
1:25 min: Monta Ellis Postgame - 2/9

Mark Jackson
On tonight's game:
"We responded at half time. We came in at the half disappointed so give our guys credit. We came out on a mission on both sides of the ball. It was a great team win. Our players took the challenge and responded."

On Klay Thompson & Stephen Curry:
"I'm astounded that Klay Thompson is not in the Rookie/Sophomore All-Star game. He's a heck of a player and he's only going to get better. Stephen Curry shot the ball well. He had a good rhythm and he ran the offense. He only had one turnover. He played the game tonight in total control. His stat line is a thing of beauty. It was a great performance by him. It's important for us to win games no matter where we are. We did that tonight and I feel good about that."

Stephen Curry
On the 2nd Half:
"Coach ripped us at halftime about our effort, [we were] a little fatigued, they beat us in transitions and beat us in all hustle plays. He got into us, just to make sure our effort was there. He said if we lose the game and our effort is there, we are playing 100 percent on every possession, he's fine with that. But our effort was just awful so we had to come out and get defensive stops and when we got stops we were able to run and get out into transition and we were able to execute our offense really well and knock down open shots. Our dribble penetration, kick-out game was flowing tonight."

On his matchup with Ty Lawson:
"It felt good that I got a lot of open shots early got my rhythm going and got to the free throw line even though I didn't make my free throws tonight I got to the line by being aggressive so I was just trying to control the game and just push in transition. When we got stops we were able to flow and everyone was able to move the ball around and guys were getting wide open shots. Not saying it was easy out there but we got easy shots because we were moving so well."

David Lee
On defending the Nuggets:
"We did get them in the half court and we did a good job of guarding them but they were leaking out in transition and they were beating us down the court and playing well. We just knew we had to get back and play our game defensively."

On what the Warriors did well and blocking shots:
"Ekpe [Udoh] did an unbelievable job. He had about five in the first half and he set the tone but the biggest thing was when they drove tonight, with the exception of the first quarter they did a very good job, when they drove in the second half we had bodies there and we had guys helping the helper. We kept them off of the boards and when we do that we're going to score enough points to win but it was good that we got stops tonight."

On the motivation in the third quarter:
"Our motivation was that we needed a road win and we felt that we didn't play very good ball in the first half but we were still in the game. We thought we could have easily been up eight or ten at the half. We had an eight point lead and then they made a nice run to end the second quarter so we knew that we kind of got used to the altitude a little bit. That hurt us a little bit in the first half, just being honest, but we came out in the second half and played good team basketball, moved the ball and got stops and ran."

Interesting Tweets

(during the plane ride)
nate_robinson: Got em coach @jenkinskid22 http://t.co/XuhWrPVI
nate_robinson: Got em coach the baby face http://t.co/WL1OaDek

(before the game)
gswscribe: So @JLin7 is now living like a star. Instead of his brother's couch or bunking with Landry Fields, Lin has keys to @Dlee042 NYC digs

(after the game)
KCsFinest4 (B.Rush): Good win tonight. I can't wait for my massage tomorrow
KlayThompson: Warriors & cougs got dubs 2night. Makes this flight back to the bay alot easier. #GoCougs #GoDubs

Notes

- No interesting notes to add tonight.

What's next?

- Two days off before a back to back against the Rockets and the Suns. We're running out of home games for the rest of the month, so we gotta keep this 1 game win streak alive.

Day	Date	Time	Opponent	TV	Radio
Sun	Feb 12	6:00pm	Rockets	CSNBayHD	KNBR 680
Mon	Feb 13	7:30pm	Suns	CSNBayHD	KNBR 680
Wed	Feb 15	7:00pm	Trail Blazers	CSNBayHD / ESPN	KNBR 680
Fri	Feb 17	5:00pm	@Thunder	CSNBayHD	KTCT 1050
Sat	Feb 18	5:00pm	@Grizzlies	CSNBayHD	KNBR 680

Game Thread #23: Golden State Warriors @ Denver Nuggets - The Big Payback?

2012-02-09T18:00:19Z

[Photoshopped by Tony.psd]

Warriors (9-14) vs. Nuggets (15-10)

TV: CSN Bay Area / Radio: KNBR 680

Rewind to Tuesday nights game against the Thunder... Legendary! Monta Ellis with a career high 48 points and David Lee with a triple double: say what?! Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a "W" but it was one hell of a game! Can the Warriors go on the road with the same mentality and redeem themselves? While many of us can assume it's gonna be another loss, I'm gonna keep my predictions open with a win. They had the chance to beat the best team in the NBA last Tuesday. I'm crossing my fingers they'll learn from that game and push for a win tonight against a Nuggets team losing steam.

Click on over to the open thread!

What we're up against:

We're facing a Nuggets team on a 4 game losing streak after last nights loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Danilo Gallinari is out for a month with a broken foot against Houston. From the looks of it, Denver is pretty banged up. Nene, Afflalo and Mozgov are all on the injured list.
Golden State has the privilege to guard former Warrior Al Harrington who is averaging 15 ppg. With Gallinari out, the Dubs need to worry about their second leading scorer Ty Lawson who's averaging 15.5 ppg. Watch out now - if we play sloppy it could be a career night for any of these guys!

Predictions:
Repeat performances by Monta Ellis, David Lee and Stephen Curry. Definitely not the numbers from Tuesdays game but big enough to lock in a "W."
Beast Mode stats from David Lee with help from the rest of the Bigs. Boards and blocks all night long!
Dang good shooting night from Curry, Ellis, Thompson and Rush. Denver fans and the players have gotta be in a funk with their string of losses. This is our opportunity.
Learn from Tuesdays (if not much of the season) mistakes and come together, I'm dying to see a 4-5 game win streak!
Warriors win by 6 - The big payback from the loss against the Thunder!

Poll

While we're on the topic of Nuggets…

Probably the most comprehensive scouting report ever published on Jeremy Lin (12/15/09)

2012-02-09T16:14:24Z

Even to me, it's amazing that "The Jeremy Lin Show" has reached the NBA level (more on the origins of that phrase in a future blogpost). But not all of this is coming out of thin air. Yes, Jeremy has actually done this before, on a fairly consistent basis. Why didn't anyone think it was translatable to the NBA? That's a question that has a complex answer and is also probably worth a separate post.

Following up on Atma's fanshot, here's the link to the original "most comprehensive" scouting report, and if you want my brief take on it now looking back, hit the jump...

http://sbn.to/x0B3zD

Could I possibly go out on a limb again? Haha, sure. You only live once! Here you go:

Next stop for The Jeremy Lin Show: the Olympics. Why not? You never thought it was possible to reach the NBA despite what he did at Paly or Harvard. Why not for Team USA? You heard it here first.

Follow @poormanscommish

Re-reading the B-o-w to the Jeremy Lin Movement article as referenced before the jump, it's just crazy all the little nuances I have forgotten about Jeremy Lin. So it's not like he's pulling these last three games with the Knicks out of thin air. The only things I would've changed about this article I wrote in 2009 are...

So that it wouldn't be mistaken as a metric for drafting a player, explain that the dunk stats were more a rebuttal to all the people including Draft pundits who were telling me that Jeremy wasn't "athletic", and
Emphasize that I went over the top on the hype because NO ONE EXCEPT ME was taking Jeremy seriously as an NBA draft pick. No one. Not Jonathan Givony, not Tommy Amaker, not Peter Diepenbrock, not ex-AAU coach Jim Sutter, not his mom, not his dad, not his brothers, not even himself.

And yet, I had the evidence right there before me telling me otherwise. The reason the other people never had that aha moment that this could be translated to the NBA was that they didn't have the context or the precedent to do so.

I did. It was called Vegas Summer League. No, I don't mean that particular game in which Jeremy went off on John Wall. I mean Summer League, in general. I'd seen enough of the caliber of play at that level -- and, not to mention, the many, many, many rec league games and national tournaments for amateurs that I've done being the founder of Dream League (way way more than 10,000 hours, in case you're a reader of Malcolm Gladwell) -- to put what Jeremy was doing into some context. I suppose that's worth yet another blogpost, too.

While the road was rocky, Jeremy had his own way and was determined to make it to where he is now, based on meritocracy. I was never convinced that meritocracy was enough in American society. Now, even I've been proven wrong by him. But that's another blogpost (stay tuned)...

Follow @poormanscommish

Golden State Of Mind

Game Thread #24: JLFT#3 at JLFT#2

Lin-ecdotes

Predictions

Best NBA Player of All-Time, not including Jordan or Lin:

The fix is Lin.

Lin was in danger of being waived again, by the Knicks, before he started his streak on Feb. 3. He...

Warriors Recap #23: Golden State Warriors 109 @ Denver Nuggets 101 - Warriors Find a Rare Win in Rarefied Air

Quarter Notes

Rotation Sensation Revisited

Finding an Identity

Wardell Stephen Curry II (that's for you MB)

The Jeremy Lin photoshop fun continues... I had to join in on the creative parodies! Nothing but...

Warriors Game Day Links #23: Golden State Warriors 109 @ Denver Nuggets 101 - Warriors hosting a block party. What's on the menu? Stuffed nuggets.

SBNation Network

Recaps

Pregame News

Pregame Videos

Postgame News

Postgame Videos

Postgame Quotes and Stuff from warriors.com recap

Interesting Tweets

Notes

What's next?

Stuffed nuggets never tasted so good.

Game Thread #23: Golden State Warriors @ Denver Nuggets - The Big Payback?

While we're on the topic of Nuggets…

Probably the most comprehensive scouting report ever published on Jeremy Lin (12/15/09)