Golden State Of Mind

Warriors Game Day Links: Golden State Warriors 116 @ San Antonio Spurs 147 - Four quarters of garbage time

2010-03-20T05:04:27Z

More photos » BAHRAM MARK SOBHANI - AP

Warriors: Golden State of Mind
Recap: Title to be added
Game thread: GameThread #68: Golden State Warriors @ San Antonio Spurs - Anthony Tolliver vs. DeJuan Blair (430+ comments)

Spurs: Pounding The Rock
Recap: Title to be added
Game thread: Warriors @ Spurs: Gameday Thread

Other Recaps

Associated Press recap: Spurs set Popovich-era record against Warriors
Sports Network recap: Spurs score 147 in rout of Warriors
Adam Lauridsen recap: Garbage (Warriors 116, Spurs 147)
nba.com recap: Spurs dig in against Warriors in high-scoring rout
Marcus Thompson II recap: Nelson misses most of ugly Warriors effor

Pregame News

- No pregame news found.

Pregame Videos

- No pregame videos found.

Postgame News

- Stephen Curry's ankle update. MT2 guesses that George is the one most likely to go for Reggie Williams.
Marcus Thompson II: Warriors notes: Injured ankle sidelines Stephen Curry

- MT2's in depth on whom the Warriors will waive to keep Reggie Williams.
Marcus Thompson II: If Reggie Stays, Who Goes?

Postgame Videos

Keith Smart in the hallway.

nba.com recap.

Highlights by orangino.

Postgame Quotes from warriors.com recap

Keith Smart
On tonight's game:
"We didn’t compete at a level we needed to even have a chance against this team. I’m not even saying to probably win it, but you need to have a very high competitive level from the very first quarter to have a chance to make them have to play with Duncan on the floor a little bit more. That wasn’t the case early on and then we had to play catch-up, and then it just snowballed from there. We don’t have enough people to play against this type of team. We’re very small, they’re very big."

On the Spurs:
"This team is very patient. They start inside with Duncan, who is going to make plays. Ginobili is playing at a very high level right now. Any mistakes you make defensively they’re going to capitalize on. We made a couple mistake on defense when we ran into each other and didn’t switch. Every time we did that they found the open guys. This team has been together and they’ve got some veteran guys that make plays off your mistakes."

Twitter Fun

MSteinmetzCSN
@HumbertoRuiz Fitz and I have a lot of basketball discussions. And he's never been right in any of them

Warriors Weekly Radio

- CJ on being more aggressive, CJ's late game foul against Blazers, coach Kerry Keating, shyness, non-basketball activities.
7:38 min: Warriors Guard C.J. Watson

- A medley of quotes and highlights about the D Leaguers.
4:36 min: Warriors D-Leaguers Feature

- Al Attles on Warriors former owner Franklin Mieuli. Turiaf, CJ, Morrow on NCAA.
4:17 min: Tim Roye's Journal With Alvin Attles

- Part 2. Chris Monter on Xavier Henry, Wesley Johnson, other players that aren't talked about, 2nd round sleepers in the draft, foreign players, Paul George, Larry Sanders, Hassan Whiteside, Greivis Vasquez, Scottie Reynolds, 2010 as a big man draft, Euro players in the draft.
19:21 min: Chris Monter of the Monter Draft News

My Notebook

- No interesting notes to add tonight.

What's next?

- The Warriors will quickly toss this game out as they fly to Memphis and face the Grizzlies on a back to back, 5:00pm.
- The @Grizzlies game is Reggie Williams' final game as a Warrior, barring a player being waived.

Therapy

Hornets highlights once again.

GameThread #68: Golden State Warriors @ San Antonio Spurs - Anthony Tolliver vs. DeJuan Blair

2010-03-19T23:49:07Z

Originally posted Mar 19, 2010 4:49 PM PDT

Warriors (W-L): 19-48

Spurs (W-L): 40-26

Tip Off: 5:30 Pacific Time

TV: CSN

Radio: KNBR

Blog Buddies: Pounding the Rock + Project Spurs

Man, we've got a ton of coverage for tonight's game. If you haven't peeped them yet, check out:

Big ups to Project Spurs for all their help with it.

Now on to tonight's game..

I look at this as a simple battle...a former Spurs player

vs. their latest greatest late-pick rookie

Sure, watch Tim Duncan get a double-double. Manu will drop 10 assists. But what about DeJuan Blair? He's the X-factor in this game and as so, we're going get destroyed.

Let's just hope Tolliver's bringing the heat against his former team tonight...

Unfortunately for us, Curry's out again with the ankle sprain. There goes any chances we had to win.

R Dizzle's Predictions

Warriors by 1
Monta Ellis with another 4:1 assist to turnover ratio (I can dream, can't I?)
DeJuan Blair with 15 boards
Anthony Tolliver with a triple-double

San Antonio Spurs Roster

	#	Pos.
DeJuan Blair	45	C
Keith Bogans	10	F
Matt Bonner	15	C
Tim Duncan	21	F
Manu Ginobili	20	G
Malik Hairston	1	G
George Hill	3	G
on">Cedric Jackson	11	G
Richard Jefferson	24	F
Ian Mahinmi	28	C
Roger Mason Jr.	8	G
Antonio McDyess	34	C
Tony Parker	9	G
Garrett Temple	2	G

Poll

Who's going to win the match-up tonight?

SB Nation Survey + Chance to donate $500 to a charity of this community's choice

2010-03-20T00:47:56Z

Let's show everyone how UNSTOPPABLE BABY we are and win this! - AB1

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By next Thursday (3/25) at 11:59pm PST the site that has the highest percentage of their community filling out the attached survey about their sports interests and consumption will win $500 to donate to a charity of their choice. We will leave it up to the discretion of the community manager(s) of the winning blog to decide how to choose the particular charity.

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Q&A w/ Project Spurs: 2009-2010 San Antonio Spurs positives, 1st round matchups, Richard Jefferson's struggles, and Spurs' closed window

2010-03-19T17:55:40Z

Make sure to check out Asking GSoM: Can the Golden State Warriors end their 23 game losing streak in San Antonio against the Spurs? + Anthony Tolliver + GSDL + Raja Bell + Monta Ellis/ Stephen Curry co-existing

Jump for even more pre-game thoughts!

AB1 (Golden State of Mind): At the national level we haven't heard that much positivity about the Spurs this season. From Richard Jefferson's struggles, to Tony Parker's season ending injury, to Michael Finley's exit the news hasn't been pretty. But you're much closer to this squad than we are. What are some positives about this San Antonio Spurs' season?

Michael A. De Leon (Project Spurs): Well, you really have to look, but I'd say that the bench has been great this year and the Spurs have some good young talent that will be the foundation of this Spurs team in the near future. George Hill and DeJuan Blair have been two bright spots this season.

AB1 (Golden State of Mind): The Spurs look like they'll secure a lower seed in the 2010 Western Conference Playoffs. Are they destined to be a 1st round exit? Are there any 1st round matchups where they'd have the edge?

Michael A. De Leon (Project Spurs): Just based on history, I'd say the Suns, but every team will challenge the Spurs in the playoffs. The thunder have given them fits and the Jazz swept them so nothing's guaranteed. I'm saying one and done.

AB1 (Golden State of Mind): Why is Richard Jefferson seeing almost an 8ppg drop from last season? Have his struggles this season only been limited to scoring?

Michael A. De Leon (Project Spurs): Richard just hasn't been aggressive until recently. I always felt like he expected the offense to come to him. The difference between being second fiddle to fourth fiddle also really got to him early on and he could not get comfortable or find his niche. To make it worse, his defense wasn't very good and he wasn't doing the other things like rebounding when he struggled scoring. He's been on a 3-game streak of decent performances and now insted of earning $2.5 millionper point, he's been coler to $1 million per point.\

AB1 (Golden State of Mind): This offseason what can the Spurs do (if anything at all) to get back to their usual Western Conference elite/ NBA Championship contender status? Is their window closed?

Michael A. De Leon (Project Spurs): Duncan isn't getting any younger, there's a chance Manu may walk and Parker has been a mess all year. In order for the window not to be slammed shut, they really need to continue working with their younger talent and develop players that could possibly take over for Manu and Timmy when their days are over. Malik Hairston is one player that shows a ton of promise and he makes the most of his opportunities, but they also need to make a concerted effort to improve their interior defense. If you watched the Orlando game, they penetrated ad got easy shots in the paint all too often. What was once the calling card of the Spurs is now likely their biggest weakness.

----------------------

Thanks to Michael and the whole Project Spurs team for sharing pre-game insights on the San Antonio Spurs with us.

Can the Warriors stop it from getting to 2 dozen straight in San Antonio?

Warriors. Spurs. TONIGHT!

Poll

Will the San Antonio Spurs get past the 1st round of the 2010 Western Conference Playoffs?

Asking GSoM: Can the Golden State Warriors end their 23 game losing streak in San Antonio against the Spurs? + Anthony Tolliver + GSDL + Raja Bell + Monta Ellis/ Stephen Curry co-existing

2010-03-19T03:14:21Z

In preparation for the Warriors upcoming trip to San Antonio aka the house of horrors where they've lost a remarkable 23 (TWENTY-THREE!) straight, our friends over at San Antonio Spurs blog Project Spurs wanted the 411 on the Dubs.

The kind of defense that causes 23 straight losses down by the river walk.

(pic via www1.pictures.zimbio.com)

JUMP for their Q's and make sure to post your answers for #1 through #6 in the comments section

Our friends at Project Spurs are asking GSoM...

1. The Spurs have not lost at home to Golden State since 1997. What will the Warriors have to do to make sure the streak doesn't get to 24 straight games?

2. What are your thoughts on former Spur and Project Spurs favorite Anthony Tolliver?

3. The Warriors seem to always find gems in the D-League. Is that because of good scouting or pure luck?

4. Are Raja Bell's days numbered being a defensive specialist in Golen St? Yes I said Golen.

5. Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry seem to be very similar players, except Ellis is more athletic. How have they co-existed?

6. What is your key matchup for this game and what's your prediction?

My 20 cents:

1. First things first and I hate to be harsh, but there's one thing in common between the Warriors and Spurs. Their window has closed.

Okay the Warriors "window" was never really open aside from a hot minute in the spring of 2007, but neither of these teams are even in the running for the O'Brien trophy.

But back to your question. What can the Warriors do to stop 24 straight L's in San Antonio?

Hmmmm.

Is Michael Jordan in the D-League? CALL HIM UP!

2. I don't believe there's a Dubs fan out there who isn't rooting for Tolliver. I love his hustle, energy, desire, and demeanor. Tolliver belongs in the NBA and hopefully there's a spot for him next season on the Dubs.

Monta and Ant bust out a little Rumpshaker a la Wreckxx-N-Effect.

3. I don't think it's luck. Larry Riley (a former scout) and the Dubs work hard at mining the D-League for hot prospects. It also helps to have a coach like Don Nelson that is very open to giving D-Leaguers a shot. I remember a year or two ago Nellie said something along the lines of a D-League call-up being more often a mid-1st round or 2nd round draft pick in terms of present-day production.

Also, I really want to give it up to the D-League. Don't sleep. The D-League is legit! Across the vast majority of the 30 teams in the association the difference between their 10th, 11th, and 12th men and the top D-League talents isn't all that substantial.

Think I'm being ridiculous? You ain't seen nothing yet. It doesn't get any more ridiculously wonderful than Ridiculous Upside. They should really change their slogan from just "NBA D-League Coverage" to "NBA D-League/ Coverage of Future Golden State Warriors"

4. I wasn't sure what "Golen" was, so I looked it up. Here's the Wikipedia entry for "Goleń":

Goleń [ˈgɔlɛɲ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Piecki, within Mrągowo County,Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland.^[1] It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) south-west of Piecki, 15 km (9 mi) south of Mrągowo, and 52 km (32 mi) east of the regional capitalOlsztyn.

Before 1945 the area was part of Germany (East Prussia).

So, I guess no?

5. I used to say this back when the Warriors were wasting the talents and hyper-athletic years of Baron Davis and Jason Richardson by foolishly teaming them up with a hideously unathletic and weak frontcourt of Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, and Adonal Foyle (thank you Chris Mullin):

The Warriors backcourt has problems, but the Warriors frontcourt is the problem.

They have coexisted because there's simply enough shots and possessions to go around for both Curry and Monta in Nellieball. They'll be fine on that side of the rock. Defensively is different, but that's another issue for a different time.

The real concern is the Dubs front court. Centers Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf have both had terrible seasons. Anthony Randolph got off to a very weird and inconsistent start and Brandan Wright has been out the entire season. 4 and 5 are the problem areas for this team. The real question is not whether Curry and Ellis can play together, but whether one of them can be used to upgrade the 4 or 5 significantly in the near future. Until the front court is upgraded or makes big strides, this team is going nowhere.

6. Tim Duncan will get his. Manu Ginobili will get his. But the Spur I'm most worried about going off for a career night and being Friday's night's Warrior Killer is DeJaun Blair.

B-U-L-L-Y.

Interesting low post D technique though.

Prediction? Warriors by 1 and longtime GSoMers know what that means.

Make sure to check out Project Spurs and Pounding the Rock for everything you ever wanted to know about the Spurs and more.

Poll

The Warriors seem to always find gems in the D-League. Why?

Don't sleep on the 2010 NCAA Basketball Tourney SB Nation page! Also don't miss our very own PMC's...

2010-03-18T18:51:42Z

Don't sleep on the 2010 NCAA Basketball Tourney SB Nation page!

Also don't miss our very own PMC's Through NBA Eyes: The NCAA Tourney

Through NBA Eyes: The NCAA Tourney

2010-03-18T16:04:22Z

Damion James of Texas and Al-Farouq of Wake Forest head-to-head. Wow!

This year, thanks to tracking the Jeremy Lin Movement, I've experienced a renaissance with watching NCAA basketball. Last year, I couldn't name you more than half of the first round NBA Draft picks off the top of my head. Now, I can safely say that I've seen at least two-thirds of the players on most draft boards a few times this year (I've even seen some below-the-radar guys in person, very near courtside, as well, but that will have to wait for another blogpost).

Most of you will be watching the tournament because of the (random?) picks you made in your office's bracket pool. I'll bet most of you might even just be waiting for the final scores, or the CBS cut-ins to late nail-biters where one of your #12/#5 upset picks might make you look like a genius. Sitting down and actually watching the #8 Texas vs #9 Wake Forest or #7 Oklahoma State vs #10 Georgia Tech game from tipoff to buzzer is the furthest thing from your mind.

Not if you watch the NCAA Tournament through NBA eyes!

I never knew that the NCAA could be draw my interest like a kid collecting baseball cards, knowing every player's name in the 792-card set. This is because, for all intents and purposes, I'm an NBA guy. I don't really recall how this happened, because I once camped out to get season tickets to watch Jason Kidd play in Harmon Gym (yeah, I said "gym", not "arena").

For various reasons, I've become an avid follower of the NBA Summer League in Vegas and hence the Draft, and now I've gone even further to the source into NCAA non-conference and conference play. Having worked in Silicon Valley, it's akin to starting as a mutual fund manager (the NBA), then becoming a private equity specialist (Summer League), then becoming a venture capitalist (NCAA). If you've ever worked with or at a startup, you know how exciting the "pre-IPO" world can be, even though everything is sort of helter-skelter.

Then tying this all back to the Warriors, it's really speculative and fun, especially over the past several games where the frontline of the Dubs has been completely held up by D-League players, to try and imagine any number of potential draft picks entering the spotlight in a mere three months for the June Draft, in place of certain guys you see right now on the floor. Having knowledge about the Draft gives you a better idea of where NBA teams might be headed and certainly makes a 19-win season a lot more interesting. The NBA doesn't necessarily become only about the four or five teams who are seriously in contention for the O'Brien Trophy.

So let's get to it. What are the upcoming games you ought to be watching for some raw Assocation talent? Note, I'm skipping the "any Kansas game" or "any Kentucky game" cliches. You don't need any more than superficial knowledge to know that each of those teams has at least three future NBA draft picks. Besides, I don't wanna waste my time watching three draft picks rip apart Lehigh or East Tennessee State -- more on that in a future blogpost, I promise.

Thursday, March 18

4:20pm PDT: #6 Marquette vs #11 Washington

I'll be honest with you, I haven't seen Marquette's Lazar Hayward (senior, 6'6", 205) play yet, but he's listed on NBAdraft.net's 2010 Mock Draft as the #30 pick. Meanwhile, most people here on the West Coast have heard of Quincy Pondexter (senior, 6'6", 220) of Washington, who's listed at #33 on NBAdraft.net, but #23 on the 2010 Mock Draft on DraftExpress.

It's ironic that Hayward (18.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg) is not listed on DraftExpress, while Pondexter (19.8 ppg, 7.5 rpg) is listed ten spots lower on NBAdraft.net (#33) than on DraftExpress (#23). And now these two small forward NBA prospects are head-to-head.

I've seen Pondexter and haven't been blown away, because he tends to display some talent in flashes. For example, you can't sit back and watch the Pac-10 tournament championship in which Washington beat Cal and tell me that Pondexter dominated that game.

But, hey, NBA GMs clearly are drawn to athletes in the late first round. Oh well, what are you gonna do. I suppose they know what they need on their teams!

In my mind, this is a mini-battle between NBAdraft.net and DraftExpress. I cannot wait to see how this unravels.
6:35pm PDT: #8 Texas vs #9 Wake Forest

This is a can't-miss. It's a head-to-head matchup between two of the most impressive small forwards in the NCAA: Damion James (senior, 6'7", 225) of Texas straight up against Al-Farouq Aminu (sophomore, 6'9", 215) of Wake Forest.

James is averaging 18 ppg, 10.4 rpg, and 1.2 bpg, and is listed as a "G-F", but he'd be a small forward in the NBA. Aminu would also play a small forward position in the NBA, and has got some impressive numbers as well: 10.7 rpg and 1.5 bpg to go along with the requisite 15.7 ppg. Keep in mind, if you're scoring 16 ppg on an NCAA team, you are a bonafide star of your team. Double-digits in rebounding and at least 1.2 blocks? That's pretty crazy when you're shorter than 6'11" and a small forward.

With Aminu and James, we have a microcosm of the John Wall vs Evan Turner debate. Aminu is more of the out-of-this-world athlete and, like Wall, the younger prospect: long limbs, runs like a gazelle, a human pogo stick. James is the experienced, muscular guy who can make nice moves to the basket off the dribble, although I'd have to say, I personally don't think his basketball IQ is up there on par with most seniors.

NBAdraft.net has Aminu being drafted at the #10 spot, with James going at #13. DraftExpress has Aminu at #5 and James at #15.

It goes without saying that this game has direct implications on the 2010 NBA Draft.

I might also add that Texas has a freshman shooting guard in Avery Bradley (freshman, 6'2", 180), who is now infamously known as "that guy" who was ranked higher than John Wall coming out of high school. Bradley is a solid 2-guard.

Let me be the first to say, his jumper reminds me of Michael Jordan's. Now, before you get too excited and accuse me of blaspheme, let me point out, the jumpshot is the only resemblance. That is to say, he's a got a sweet jumper, it's very fundamental, his mechanics on it are fluid and he loves to take that shot, as well he should. He's also a solid one-on-one defender. There's a lot of talk that he'll come out this year, but I just don't see how he can, considering his very "freshman" numbers: only 11.7 ppg, an anemic 2.9 rpg and 2.1 apg, playing on an otherwise dysfunctional team.
6:45pm PDT: #6 Tennessee vs #11 San Diego State

Tennessee has power forward Wayne Chism (senior, 6'9", 246), who averages 12.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg, and 1.4 bpg. He's unlisted on DraftExpress and listed at #47 on NBAdraft.net.

There are increasing rumblings about San Diego State's freshman Kawhi Leonard (6'7", 225), who doesn't quite have the ppg numbers to make the jump to lightspeed, at just 12.8 ppg. But he's averaging 9.9 rpg and has an incredible 16 double-doubles this year. Still, he may come out for the Draft if he has another breakout game here against vaunted Tennessee, and the 2011 lockout looming.

From a logistical standpoint, you probably shouldn't be watching this game too much, as it overlaps with the Texas vs Wake Forest game.

Friday, March 19

4:10pm PDT: #8 Gonzaga vs #9 Florida State - POTENTIAL FUTURE WARRIOR ALERT!

First off, you actually shouldn't be watching this game. You should be watching the one listed in the next bullet point. However, during timeouts of that one, you may want to flip to this one real quick, out of curiosity.

Florida State's center Solomon Alabi (sophomore, 7'1", 251) is listed on NBAdraft.net at #26 and DraftExpress at #17. I have not seen him play, but because he's a center, he's definitely on the Warrior draft radar. Alabi's numbers are not as good as you would hope: just 11.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg, and 2.4 bpg -- which probably means that, somehow, the Warriors will end up with him.

I'm more intrigued by Gonzaga's big point guard Matt Bouldin (senior, 6'5", 224) and swingman Elias Harris (freshman, 6'7", 215). Yep, you saw that correctly: Bouldin weighs 224 lbs and is a point guard. He's crafty with the ball and can shoot the trey. He averages 15.8 ppg, 4.1 apg, and 4.6 rpg, but only 1.4 spg. So he's not the fastest or quickest, but he can sure absorb contact. That's why he has NBA draft stock. He's currently listed at #43 on NBAdraft.net and unlisted on DraftExpress. For you Jeremy Lin fans, at the big point guard spot, Bouldin will present direct competition during the Portsmouth Invitational, as well as the pre-draft combine.

Harris is only a freshman and does not appear on either draft board. However, he's recorded six double-doubles and averages 14.7 ppg and 7.2 rpg, rather eye-popping figures for a freshman. Lean and mobile, he's probably a 2011 or 2012 draft pick, although the impending lockout for 2011 may very well have him leave early, we'll see.

But you really should be watching...
4:15pm PDT: #7 Oklahoma State vs #10 Georgia Tech - POTENTIAL FUTURE WARRIOR ALERT!

Oklahoma State has one of the best 2-guards in the country, James Anderson (junior, 6'6", 195), while Georgia Tech has a sure-fire top-five pick in power forward Derrick Favors (freshman, 6'11", 246), as well as a late-first-round prospect in Gani Lawal (junior, 6'9", 234). All Warrior fans ought to be salivating right now! But we'll get to Favors (okay, and Lawal) in a minute...

Anderson, who is averaging 22.6 ppg and 5.8 rpg, will most likely be matched up one-on-one with Georgia Tech's big point man Iman Shumpert (sophomore, 6'5", 209), due to Georgia Tech's lack of size in the backcourt. I've seen Anderson play once or twice this season and he can really light it up. He's athletic, in the Jason Richardson mold. Bear in mind, 22.6 and 5.8 are pretty gaudy stats at the NCAA level. Compare that to OKC rookie James Harden, who played at Arizona State last year and averaged 20.1 ppg and 5.6 rpg (albeit with 4.2 apg, which is far better than Anderson's 2.4 apg -- but then again, we're talking shooting guards here). Remember, Harden was the 3rd overall pick in the 2009 Draft!

Anderson is listed at #14 on NBAdraft.net and #20 on DraftExpress. Just goes to show you what a deep draft 2010 is.

Shumpert is an athletic player and scored 30 against UNC early in the season before the Tarheels fell off a cliff. He isn't quite there as a draft prospect yet, averaging just 10.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.0 apg, and 1.9 spg. However, Shumpert occasionally has flashes, although I'm not quite sure of his future as a point guard due to what seems to be a lack of a plan out there on the court. As such, the media has criticized the Georgia Tech backcourt heavily for its inability to make Favors look better down low, say, compared to DeMarcus Cousins.

Shumpert may be juiced for this game, though, especially knowing that NBA scouts are there to see Anderson.

And so we come to Favors and Lawal. Lawal's listed at #15 on NBAdraft.net and #29 on DraftExpress. He's averaging 13.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg, and 1.4 bpg. He's a solid power forward, but doesn't seem to have the nice long limbs that Favors has. There's not a lot of upside to Lawal's game. What you see is what you get.

Favors is listed at #4 on both DraftExpress and NBAdraft.net. He averages 12.5 ppg, 8.5 rpg, and 2.1 bpg. There's talk that he can definitely move up with another strong showing if he plays like he did in Georgia Tech's loss to Duke in the ACC final, and because people are starting to really notice Cousins's attitude problems.

Favors is a big body -- not too heavy, and certainly not considered skinny -- who can run the floor, rebound, make inside moves, all of that. He doesn't have a midrange game, but neither did Amare Stoudemire when he came into the NBA, although Favors will need to work on conditioning and chiseling out his frame. He's certainly far better than Andris Beidrins as-is, and look how much the Warriors are paying AB and how badly Warrior fans miss him. Finally, Favors is only a freshman and he has a great attitude, which means he is one hot commodity.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that if Cousins were a sophomore, Favors would be #3 and Cousins would be #4. That's how it is on the draft boards. That's what we mean by "upside". Heck, one more outburst by Cousins in the next few weeks, and we could very well see Cousins at #2. Then again, if Kentucky wins the national championship and Cousins is the hero, then Cousins could very well move up past Turner (gasp!). In any case, remember, the Warriors have the 3rd-worst record in the league. Getting the #3 pick in the 2010 Draft is very much mathematically in the Warriors' "favor"!
6:30pm, PDT, #15 Vermont vs #1 Syracuse

I haven't seen him play, but Marqus Blakely (senior, 6'5", 225) of Vermont is listed at #58 on NBAdraft.net. He is not listed on DraftExpress. He's averaging 17.4 ppg, 9.4 rpg, and a rather impressive 3.7 apg for a small forward. He has an eyebrow-raising 2.4 spg and 1.9 bpg.

He'll be matched up against the much-ballyhooed Wes Johnson (junior, 6'7", 205) of Syracuse. Johnson is averaging 16.0 ppg, 8.4 rpg, and 1.9 bpg. NBAdraft.net has him listed at #3, the Warriors position, which would be a disastrous pick since there are so many 6'9" and above high-quality power forwards available -- after all, there was that pursuit of Amar'e Stoudemire, no? -- while DraftExpress has Johnson listed at #8.

It's been awhile since I've seen Johnson play, so I'm curious to see why NBAdraft.net has him ranked so high.
6:35pm PDT, #15 UC Santa Barbara at #2 Ohio State

Okay, I'm asking you to flip over to this one during commercial breaks of Blakely vs Wes Johnson, because this matchup will likely end up a blowout. And I'm being a bit of a homer here, but (extended) Bay Area product and WAC Player of the Year Orlando Johnson (sophomore, 6'5", 205) might actually find himself guarding Evan Turner (junior, 6'7", 205). Please note, however, that Johnson is currently not a draft prospect, but could very well be in 2012 when he is a senior.

Ohio State has a pretty tall backcourt and UCSB's is pretty normal, so it's more likely that Johnson would be matched up on someone like David Lighty. Actually, any matchup on Turner is a hopeless cause for UCSB, so let's just leave it at that.

In any case, Johnson is a burly small forward who finds a lot of his time in the paint. He's got some nice numbers: 18.9 ppg with no plays being run for him and 5.4 rpg.

Basically I'm saying that you ought to watch Turner every chance you get (and you didn't need me to tell you that), but this one isn't a throw-away game as much as the Kentucky vs East Tennessee State one is, because of the possibility of Johnson and Turner being matched up.

Johnson's been given an opportunity to boost the radar on his draft potential. Let's see if he takes advantage of it.
6:40pm PDT: #4 Maryland vs #13 Houston

The fiery Greivis Vasquez (senior, 6'5", 200) of Venezuela is the star for Maryland. He's a tall ballhandler and can shoot. Oh, does he like to shoot: 16 shots per game, including 33 attempts when he scored 41 on Virginia Tech. But he's pretty crafty with the ball as well, averaging 6.3 apg to go along with 19.5 ppg and 4.6 rpg. He presents direct competition at the scarce "big point guard" position, for both Jeremy Lin and Matt Bouldin, among others.

Vasquez may very well find himself matched up with Houston's shooting guard, Aubrey Coleman (senior, 6'4", 200), who is averaging an off-the-charts 25.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg, and 2.7 spg. I have not seen Coleman play this year and I'm very much looking forward to this one.

Vasquez is not the best defender. He's not very mobile or fast, but does use his 6'5" frame to his advantage. It's really too bad the Tournament Committee didn't just pit Maryland vs Gonzaga to get a Vasquez vs Bouldin head-to-head. They are similar players.

Coleman is listed at #47 on DraftExpress and #41 on NBAdraft.net. Vasquez is at #48 on DraftExpress and #34 on NBAdraft.net.

Well, that does it for Thursday and Friday. A bit light on Thursday and too many overlaps on Friday. There are even more intriguing head-to-head matchups that are possible for Saturday and Sunday, but we'll cross that bridge if needed.

Hopefully this has given you more than an ample head start. Did I forget any first-round matchups pitting potential draft picks going head-to-head? Let people know in the comments.

Oh, and before you start dissing Jeremy Lin in the comments because he's nowhere to be found on the draft boards nor the NCAA Tournament, please realize that no sane person who runs an Internet draft board, nor an NBA scout or GM, would openly suggest that they would use one of their two draft picks on some guy from Harvard.

On the other hand, on scout's honor, I have actually heard from someone who knows a GM by their first name, that this GM thinks Jeremy will get drafted. But talk is cheap. That one will pretty much be decided at Portsmouth.

Warriors Game Day Links: Golden State Warriors 131 vs New Orleans Hornets 121 - Curry DNP on ankle, GSD Leaguers shoot away 21 pt deficit

2010-03-18T15:04:05Z

More photos » Ben Margot - AP

Browse more photos »

Box score | Gameflow

Warriors: Golden State of Mind
Recap: RECAP #67: Golden State Warriors 131, New Orleans Hornets 121 - "D-League Destruction"
Game thread: Gamethread #66: New Orleans Hornets @ Golden State Warriors - Hornets are the Queen Bees... (910+ comments)

Hornets: At The Hive
Recap: Title to be added
Game thread: Game 69: Hornets @ Warriors

Other Recaps

Associated Press recap: Warriors rally to beat Hornets
Sports Network recap: Warriors rally from 21 down to top Hornets
nba.com recap: Warriors rally from 21 down, knock off Hornets
Rusty Simmons recap: Warriors rally from 21 down to beat Hornets
Adam Lauridsen recap: Three Party (Warriors 131, Hornets 121)
Mike Massa recap: Tolliver, Hunter, Williams and old pro Ellis lead Warriors back from 21 down against Hornets
Marcus Thompson II recap: Golden State Warriors use 3-pointers to fuel comeback win over New Orleans Hornets

Pregame News

- Curry's ankle was OK at shootaround, but something didn't feel right before game time.
Rusty Simmons: Curry day-to-day with ankle sprain

- Some Monta quotes about playing with Stephen Curry from Tuesday.
Scott Ostler: Ellis tries to survive small world after all

Pregame Videos

- No pregame videos found.

Postgame News

- No postgame news found.

Postgame Videos

Jaymee Sire interviews Tolliver, Reggie, Hunter.

Don Nelson at the podium.

Highlights by orangino.

Postgame Quotes from warriors.com recap

Don Nelson
On tonight's game:
"I am so happy for the D-Leaguers. They had 69 points between them and 18 rebounds. It was pretty exciting. They got an opportunity. We kept saying as poorly as we played in the first half to keep playing and keep trying. Sometimes things just turn around and we got hot at the right time in the fourth quarter. It all ended up going our way. It was a lot of fun for those kids to play and do well. Reggie Williams is quite a player. (Anthony) Tolliver and (Chris) Hunter really did a good job for us. I thought (Devean) George turned the game around when I inserted him in the lineup when he made his first couple of shots that he had. He gave us life that we were lacking and everybody caught on and boomed it up 10 notches in the fourth quarter."

Reggie Williams
On tonight's game:
"It was just everybody was just going a lot of energy got created form the team and we feed off everybody and kept it going. Coach Nelson wants us to push it and if it’s open shot just to go ahead and take it , and if not just get out of it and then play, and maybe run a set or maybe have an advantage or a mismatch to take your man and everybody has the green light and everybody has the same opportunity to do the same thing."

"When you hit a shot and you see all the fans standing up and look at the bench and they are cheering, that’s a good feeling."

Anthony Tolliver
On tonight's game:
"Anytime you can get a win, it’s a great thing. I’m just glad I could help the team the way I did. I wouldn’t really care if it was me rebounding or on defense or whatever I’m just about trying to get wins and tonight was my night to get some shots and help the team on the offensive end. I’m glad my teammates kept looking for me, and I just try and capitalize on that."

On another comeback win:
"We’re just relentless. I try not to use that word as much, but that’s the only word I can think of that describes this team. When we’re down and out, it seems like we play our best basketball. We try and not get in that position. You don’t want to be down 18 or 20 and have to come back, but sometimes that is what it takes to wake us up. We came off of a really emotionally high against the Lakers and we came out with a rough start against New Orleans. We were kind of slow and sluggish as a team and everything, but once we got it going Devean George came in and brought some energy and some defense and some veteran presence and he hit a couple shots and got us going."

Stephen Curry
On injuring his ankle:
"I was going through pre-game warm-ups, like I normally do, and my ankle locked up on me so… we’re going to get an MRI and figure out exactly what happened to it tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be ready for Friday. Shootaround today I was fine, even got a dunk, and then I went home and got back to the gym and just didn’t feel right so hopefully my MRI is fine and move on from there."

"Hopefully by tomorrow, a nice rest, it should be that much more better and then the MRI hopefully turns out clean and we’ll be fine."

On missing his first game:
"It’s a little disappointing, especially the way it happened, coming in a regular game day situation and feeling like you are ready to play and then not being able to go. Team pulled it out, played great, nice to cheer them on and see them get a win and now I can worry about getting healthy."

Twitter Fun

JaymeeSireCSN
(After the game)
Curry: injury happened in warm ups. I asked if he thought he'd miss much time and he said type of pain scared him a bit b/c never felt it b4

reggiew55
Big Win tonight !!! Guys gave me the rookie treatment but its ok lol . Time to eat and watch Shutter Island
(The rookie treatment: When the Warriors ran out of the tunnel, they let Reggie Williams go first. The other Warriors stayed back and left Reggie to run out alone. The other Warriors ran out moments later, laughing.)

- I found these twitter conversations pretty interesting between MT2 and his followers about Monta. The conversation ends up forking between 3 people. Hope you can follow it.

(last night)
Chris_Cohan: @gswscribe What'd Monta tell ya? #gsw #warriors #nba
gswscribe: Monta didn't talk to the media after the game. No surprise there @Chris_Cohan What'd Monta tell ya?
Chris_Cohan: @gswscribe He's smart. New market might appreciate him more. Oslter got som good stuff out of him. Real good. #gsw #warriors

(earlier today)
gswscribe: Monta's smart and personable. I think it's trust issues not market issues. If he ever opens up, will be huge star @Chris_Cohan
Chris_Cohan: @gswscribe He doesn't trust the market bashing he takes. It's the market/team. If he ever gets free, he'll be a huge star. #gsw #warriors
gswscribe: Been 'round Monta since '05. He was same 2 yrs ago as MIP & beloved @Chris_Cohan He doesn't trust market bashing he takes. It's market/team

(last night)
nateoak5: @gswscribe why dont he talk to the media? tired?

(earlier today)
gswscribe: He doesn't like too. When he really doesn't want to, he doesn't @nateoak5 why dont he talk to the media? tired?

(earlier today)
espnaranas: @gswscribe Monta smart? The moped/pickup game fiasco? The Curry " we can't work", the SJax trade "Who else is gonna play D?" That's smart?
espnaranas: @gswscribe He's a talented player...Smart? Ehh http://myloc.me/4XNCN
gswscribe: Yes. Learned from brother's ills. Avoided usual 'hood pitfalls. Good with his loot. Etc. Bball IQ ain't everything @espnaranas Smart? Ehh

Other stuff

- Matt Steinmetz weekly chat transcript.
Matt Steinmetz: Matt Steinmetz March 17 Chat Transcript

My Notebook

- Stephen Curry did not play because of a left ankle sprain. He was in a walking boot after the game. MRI tests tomorrow. Jaymee Sire in pregame said he looked fine at shootaround earlier today. X-rays were negative.
- From the Matt Steinmetz chat, Anthony Randolph was at practice yesterday, was out of his boot, took a few standstill shots.

What's next?

- A quick road back-to-back @Spurs Fri 5:30pm, and @Grizzlies Sat 5:00pm.
- Reggie Williams last day is Sun Mar 21, so this Hornets game was his last home game in a Warriors uniform this season, unless the Warriors waive someone else and make room.

Poll

You didn't turn off the TV at 21 pts down, did you??? Pick it.

CJ Watson

3 votes

Monta Ellis

75 votes

Anthony Morrow

4 votes

Corey Maggette

2 votes

Anthony Tolliver

143 votes

Chris Hunter

7 votes

Reggie Williams

130 votes

Devean George

19 votes

Multiple guys (specify in comments)

33 votes

Yes I did turn off the TV. Arrrrgh!

59 votes

475 votes | Poll has closed

RECAP #67: Golden State Warriors 131, New Orleans Hornets 121 - "D-League Destruction"

2010-03-18T06:06:54Z

(Little-used Sean Marks wonders if he was on the Warriors if would be star just like Anthony Tolliver)

...as Bob Fitzgerald mentioned towards the end of this 4^th quarter.

Down 21 points at one point during the ~~fourth~~ third quarter, would you expect the final stats for the Warriors to look like this:

Anthony Tolliver: 30 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 4 steals

Reggie Williams: 20 points (8-11 shooting), 4 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 4 3-pointers

Chris Hunter: 17 points (7-9 shooting), 8 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals

Would you ever in your mind think that a squad of former d-leaguers and undrafted players, teamed with perennial role players like Devean George, could help lead a balanced and not to forget comeback attack against a semi-mediocre team with mostly 1^st round draft talent? Anthony Tolliver had his Lebron James-like moments swooping to the hoop powerfully, which my girlfriend said "wow, that looks fun!" Reggie Williams shot like a 3-point shootout contender. And Devean George came off the bench for some instant offense, Corey Maggette-style.

If this wasn't wacky enough, Monta Ellis had 13 assist. The dude who has at times been dubbed selfish by myself and many others, had a 4:1 assist to turnover ratio tonight. Now THAT is Steve Nash-like! And you know me, I would never put Monta Ellis and Steve Nash in the same sentence, unless I wanted to say what I wish Monta Ellis could be more like.

Was this truly the wackiest Warriors game you've ever witnessed?

LINKS

Yahoo! Boxscore

Blog Buddy: At the Hive

(Tolliver did not disappoint in the boxscore and with his 'look of shock(s)')

The Warriors began their typical mid-game self-destruction by letting the New Orleans Hornets get way too many second chance points. Little-to-no boxouts and the same amount of non-existent closeouts on three-point shooters hurt them badly. They were just getting outhustled and muscled down low and it looked as if the Warriors were just ready to celebrate St. Patrick's Day after the game with the way they were playing. On the offensive end in the beginning of the third quarter, Maggette, Ellis, and CJ Watson seemed to be competing to see who could shoot the ball with as much time left on the clock. Maggette wins every time.

Then Devean George checked into the game, igniting a comeback that Whitney Houston could only dream of...or only Michael Jackson could materialize (RIP).

Maybe it was Devean George's mere presence. Perhaps it was his "veteran-cool" that calmed down this inexperienced team. Or maybe the Warriors just started playing some good defense which led to some easy buckets? Yes, most likely the latter.

At any rate, the Warriors d-leaguers put on quite a show and seemed like real NBA players versus what I like to call "irregular clothes" which you would see at factory outlet stores. They look hot at first glance (great stats). But once you take them home, you realize that the pants you bought only have one pocket in the back. Plus the zipper is missing so technically can zip them up either (can't convert easy lay-ups).

(If Anthony Tolliver wore these pair of these fake Sponge Bob Nike Dub-zeros, would you still rock em? OF COURSE BECAUSE THEY HOT!)

All of a sudden Chris Hunter transformed into what Atma Brother #1 believes to be the Warriors version of Patrick Ewing. He owned the paint on both ends of the floor manufacturing points of tip-ins. He cleared space on defense AND offense, not just grabbing boards but scoring off a few nifty spins moves. In one sequence during the fourth quarter, Hunter got his own rebound after getting blocked and went straight back up for two points. Granted, Hunter was mostly matched up against Darius Songaila, who's hardly the shotblocker or defensive presence that is Emeka Okafor. We haven't seen a Warrior defend the paint like this since Marc Jackson, who we owe much for the GSoM philosophy.

Reggie Williams might have had the prettiest jump shot on a Warriors team since Chris Mullin. And unlike Anthony Morrow, Williams can hit jumpers with people in his face (no-disrespect to Morrow of course). I kind of wish the Warriors would continue to feed him the ball like the Hornets did Morris Peterson. He helped spark the second half comeback with several consecutive 3 point shots. Would you keep Reggie Williams after this amazing display of 3-point shooting? Especially on a team that, aside from Curry, cannot really make open jumpers with much consistency?

But besides their great scoring capabilities, the chemistry between the d-leaguers - Williams, Tolliver, and Hunter - was amazing. They were willing to make the open pass to find each other, often times cutting through the lanes for easy buckets. On several occasions, you could see Anthony Tolliver coming down the lane and dishing to Hunter at the block for an easy lay-in. Or once Hunter got hot in the second half, Ellis would make a post-entry pass to Hunter who would then see an open man cutting or a wide open for a three. The ball suddenly flowed much better in the second half and these d-leaguers led the way with their hustle, unselfishness, and clutch plays on both ends of the floor.

(Monta Ellis and Anthony Tolliver are about to take this celebration to an Irish pub!)

I won't say too much about Ellis not because I didn't find him to be great, but mostly because I thought it was exceptional how the d-leaguers really stepped it up. But Ellis' defense definitely needs to be accounted for as he played some great defense against Darren Collison at some points, coming up with some big time stops.

This wasn't an exceptional win by any means. The Hornets were without Chris Paul and Peja Stojakovic. Darren Collison had another Steve-Nash-like offensive game and David West had unstoppable fundamentals, fadeaways, putbacks, kissing shots off the glass... he really could do it all. But, it was still an impressive victory nonetheless for these d-leaguers fighting to find a spot in this league. Based off their performance tonight, there are plenty of reasons why they could be.

(The Warriors new 'big 3' laugh at how they were able to pull this off)

This is tough so I am just going to give it to the trio of d-leaguers: Anthony Tolliver, Chris Hunter, and Reggie Williams. Together, they accounted for 67 of the Warriors points, 18 rebounds, and 8 steals. Can we call them the Warriors new "Big 3"? Or at least they could be the "big 3" of the Warriors upcoming summer league?

Gamethread #66: New Orleans Hornets @ Golden State Warriors - Hornets are the Queen Bees...

2010-03-17T06:38:46Z

Originally posted Mar 16, 2010 11:38 PM PDT

(Warriors better beware..)

Warriors (W-L): 18-48

Hornets (W-L): 33-35

Tip Off: 7:30 Pacific Time

TV: CSN

Radio: KNBR

Blog Buddy: At the Hive

The Golden State Warriors take on the New Orleans Hornets less than two weeks since the last time they met. It was not so much Jolliebee as much as it was Queen B(ee), Lil Kim. Meaning? SCARY!

As you all remember, the game was relatively exciting. And the Warriors have been losing a whole lot of close ones, which means we get the best of both worlds: exciting games AND holding on if not improving (in theory) our draft position in the "NIT" tournament for the losers of the NBA.

There's no denying that we were thoroughly entertained by Monday night's loss to the Lakers. I don't think I've ever been so excited about a loss in my life. We continue to see Stephen Curry put on quite a show and was "Steve Nash"-like, as the ESPN announcers continued to compare him to. Monta Ellis joined the rank of "Kobe-stoppers" (non-self-proclaimed) like JR Smith. And, as Atma Brother #1 said to me, "When did Chris Hunter turn into Patrick Ewing?"

With that said, if we expect a loss tonight against the Hornets (which I ASSUME many of us would prefer), which Warrior(s) do you think will have a GREAT (or terrible) game and transform into another player, for just ONE night?

Darren Collison had a monster game last time... monster-like of Space Jam proportions. Emeka Okafor and David West were also part of the Mon-star committee that took advantage of our Warrior small-ball.

With Chris Hunter's career night last night against the Laker's twin towers, can we expect Chris Hunter to get more minutes? Will Chris Hunter finally convert the point-blank shots without getting blocked? Will Tolliver continue to provide his ‘look-of-shock' (hands thrown up in the air), every time he gets a blocking foul?

Predictions:

Tolliver: 4 looks-of-shock after committing several fouls

Chris Hunter: Gets 37 minutes of action and ONLY gets blocked twice!

Emeka Okafor gets 2 blocks, both against Hunter

Darren Collison puts on his own Steve Nash performance, 18 points (3 3-pointers) and 17 assists.

What are your predictions?

Poll

Which Warrior will play like another player?

CONTEST: 2 FREE Tickets 8 Rows Up- Golden State Warriors vs New Orleans Hornets TONIGHT!

2010-03-17T18:06:44Z

Golden State Warriors and their super fly San Francisco Warriors hardwood classics throwbacks.

New Orleans Hornets and their most fly NOLA jerseys.

Tonight's the night!

Okay I don't think the Hornets will be sporting their colorful neo-retros, but that doesn't mean YOU can't be there tonight 8 rows up to enjoy the fun.

HOW?

Come on now, you know the drill- JUMP!

The first person to list in full detail (all players) with some interesting jokes/ analysis in the comment section what happened on February 24, 2005 between these two squads will receive the pair.

Remember it's not just about speed. We're going to reward quality as well. If you write 2-3 interesting paragraphs you have a better chance of winning compared to someone who just writes "XYZ is what happened!!!"

We'll close the contest at 3pm PST and pick a winner.

The fine print:

150 word limit
You must be a registered member of Golden State of Mind at least since this past offseason (September 2009) to participate.
Tickets are non-tranferrable- meaning if you win them you yourself MUST go, not your friend/ cousin/ sister/ brother/ sister's brother (just seeing if you're reading), etc.
We'll email the tickets to the email address associated with your SB Nation account

More on tonight's game: New Orleans Hornets @ Golden State Warriors - Hornets are the Queen Bees...

Also check out New Orleans Hornets blog At the Hive

Poll

Which jerseys look more fly?

The Bay Area's very own Mistah Fab took notice of my sign outside of the Arena and took the time to...

2010-03-17T13:56:52Z

The Bay Area's very own Mistah Fab took notice of my sign outside of the Arena and took the time to pose up with me and my homie. He's a very nice guy! YAdaDAMEan?!

Warriors Practice Day Links: Interview segments with Don Nelson, Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry

2010-03-17T10:08:33Z

After the Lakers loss, the Warriors forge ahead as they return to practice for the Hornets game. No news on Turiaf or Radman injuries. Inside this post are practice interview segments from Nellie, Monta, and Curry. Also Stephen Curry on KNBR, and this week's Warriors Weekly TV.

Practice Interviews

Interview segments: Don Nelson on Monta's defense, the final play. Monta Ellis on defending Kobe. Stephen Curry on playing with Monta.

Other stuff

Leftover postgame wrap of the Lakers game.

- Stephen Curry on the last shot, passing skills, trick plays, playing with Monta, the pressures of being the son of an athlete.
12:18 min: Stephen Curry with Fitz and Brooks on KNBR

- The Warriors youngsters aren't afraid to take the big shot. They just haven't been hitting them.
Rusty Simmons: Young Warriors' shots not falling in clutch

- The Warriors will reduce season ticket prices between 8% and 28%.
Marcus Thompson II: Golden State Warriors offer season ticket-holders price reductions for next season

Warriors Weekly TV

Jim Barnett interviews Chris Hunter and Anthony Tolliver.

Tim Roye's journal: Tim interviews Raja Bell.
(This is the same as the one on Warriors Weekly Radio 2 weeks ago, but they added some Raja Bell footage, including the team photo.)

Warrior Girl Thera.

Ultimate highlight video.

Boom-Shaka-Laka! New NBA Jam Trailer Is Here, And It's Gloriously Old School [SBNation.com] I will...

2010-03-17T00:53:31Z

Boom-Shaka-Laka! New NBA Jam Trailer Is Here, And It's Gloriously Old School [SBNation.com]
I will add I used to school my GSoM brothers Fantasy Junkie and Hash in this game back in the day- all day, every day. R Dizzle was too young to play, so he just watched and learned from the master.

It feels good being on national TV!

2010-03-16T17:47:14Z

It feels good being on national TV!

RECAP: Los Angeles Lakers 124, Golden State Warriors 121 - To Larry Ellison: value justified?

2010-03-16T09:06:14Z

This rook has more skills than half the Assocation.

Lakers vs Warriors boxscore | Lakers blog- SIlver Screen and Roll

Warriors Game Day Links | Preview/ GameThread- Kobe or MJ? Depends on your age (1450+ comments)

Oh, what a night!

Tonight -- and thanks in large part to Twitter -- I made the following revelations...

Hey, Larry Ellison, you know what? Maybe the Warriors are worth whatever Chris Cohan's price tag is ($315M on $110M in revenues and profitability of $12M?).
Based on the past few games, maybe the Warriors just need to go balls out in the Draft with bigs? There should be a plethora of quality bigs available this summer.
Are there really that many Laker fans in the Bay Area?
Rickey Henderson looks old.
Tony.psd needs to do a Chewbacca-like cartoon rendition of Pau Gasol.
Monta Ellis blowing by Kobe proves that he has one of the most, if not the most, explosive right-handed attacks in the league. That being said, I don't know how you can trade him.

For this recap I'm gonna go bleeding edge on ya. See, ever since the opening night experiment I've been feeling my way through Twitter. And over the past few months, it dawned on me. It's hard to explain, so I'll let Nate Jones of AOL Fanhouse sum it up (I found this article after-the-fact)...

Twitter has quickly become the NBA's version of Cheers. You know, the place where everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came. No, Twitter isn't some fictional sports bar in Boston, but it is a virtual sports bar where NBA fans, players, team personnel, player agents and NBA writers all congregate to talk about the sport. The NBA recently released a tool called a "game companion" which you keep open while you're watching the game. However, everyone in the know understands that the real game companion is located at twitter.com.
Because I write about the NBA and work with NBA players on social media I try to follow every single person with some sort of connection to the NBA. Following all of these people has made the experience of watching an NBA game that much more fun. I get the communal sports bar experience without having to go around a bunch of drunks that don't really know what they are talking about...It's created a virtual sports bar where people that actually watch and understand the game come to talk about that night's happenings. When I'm watching a game I always have Twitter open. The stream of information that pours out on game nights from these NBA junkies makes the game experience that much better.

Using my @nbalivetweet account, which I use to follow a very pared-down subset of GSoM's twitter account, @unstoppablebaby, for tonight's game, I've taken the tweets of the better Twitterers out there, two that follow the Warriors and two that follow the Lakers...

@gswscribe, Marcus Thompson, beat-writer for the Contra Costa Times,
@GeoffLepper, Geoff Lepper, who covers the Warriors on NBA.com,
@KevinDing, Kevin Ding, beat-writer for the Orange County Register, and
@LakersReporter, Mike Trudell of Lakers.com

Incidentally, most of these beat-writers get courtside seats and are within earshot of the team benches. They generally do a good job of sharing their access via Twitter.

Before I begin, has there ever been a recap written like this? If not, remember where you saw this first!

Here are the quarter-by-quarter tweets, which is essentially the recap...

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS: There's that many Laker fans at Oracle? Anthony Tolliver for three!

LakersReporter Hello from Oracle Arena in Oakland, folks ... Warriors still come out to 50 Cent's "Get Up," which we like.
KevinDing Game nearing tip-off and Brian Shaw (Oakland native) is still waving to tons of people in crowd. Friend of everyone in Oak and entire NBA.
geofflepper #GSW start Chris Hunter and Anthony Tolliver in an attempt to deal with Lakers' imposing frontline.
LakersReporter An impressive amount of Lakers fans yet again in Oakland, though the Warrior fans remain easily among the league's best.
geofflepper Hunter gets completely free on S/R with Ellis, dunks. Bynum and Kobe look around at Pau and Fish, wondering where was weakside help. #GSW
LakersReporter Lots of offense early, Golden State holding a 11-8 lead on 4-of-6 shooting despite 2 straight Gasol - sans braces - buckets.
gswscribe I wonder if being defended by someone undersized and really quick makes Kobe a tad uncomfortable
gswscribe No exaggeration. Lakers fans cheering louder than Warriors fans at Oracle Arena tonight
gswscribe Curry and Ellis 0-for-5 combined, but all good looks and good strokes
geofflepper Anthony Tolliver's 3-point shooting, which started so slowly (missed 26 of his first 31 as a #GSW) is coming around. He's 2-2 so far tonight
KevinDing Maggette just lost the handle trying to make a move. Kobe knows how that feels. We've underreported how index finger affects Kobe's handle.
gswscribe Chris Hunter is good against really big centers. He's just big enough that he is physically an obstacle
LakersReporter L.A. started the game 6-of-6 from the field and 3-of-3 from the line, but 3 TO's & 2 G.S. 3's have the game tied at 16.
LakersReporter Since the 6-of-6 start, L.A. has missed 6 straight. In unrelated news, Bynum has completely shaved his head, if you didn't notice.
gswscribe 16 all, 5:23 left in first. Both teams 6-for-12 FGs. Kobe 5 pts and 2 ast. Ellis 0-for-3 but has 4 of 6 Warriors asts.
KevinDing While Phil goes over clipboard in timeout for starters, DJ is advising Sasha on how much he should mess up his hair. Seriously.
LakersReporter We know that G.S. has a slew of D-Leagers playing due to a plethora of injuries ... 1 of 'em, A. Tolliver, is 3-of-3 from 3 so far.
gswscribe Anthony Tolliver is 3-for-3 from 3. He entered tonight at 33.3 percent
geofflepper #GSW shooting 60 percent, have committed only 1 TO and still can do no better than a tie game at 23-all with LAL. Lakers are just scary good
KevinDing Pau earlier looked at coaches and gave shrug/palms up after Tolliver 3. RT @The_GodfatherX: @KevinDing Who the F is Anthony Tolliver?
LakersReporter It's been a fun game for those that enjoy offense, L.A. going up 30-23 thanks to back-to-back 3's from Artest that Kobe loved.
gswscribe Kobe just took over at Ellis' expense. Went right at Ellis 3 straight, twice kicking it out for an easy J. Plus he stripped Ellis once
geofflepper Kobe drives from R wing, blows past Hunter, leaves Ellis sprawled on floor, fires across to Artest for the open 3. LAL 30, #GSW 23.
KevinDing Early in this timeout, Sasha is acting like DJ's chest and now his face is a speed bag to punch.
KevinDing Anthony Morrow in for Warriors. He has made 13 of his past 19 3-pointers. Let's see if Lakers identify him.
LakersReporter Just nailed one. RT @KevinDing: A. Morrow in for Warriors. He has made 13 of his past 19 3-pointers. Let's see if Lakers identify him.
KevinDing Sure enough ... Lakers D fails to rotate second time. Morrow moves to 14 of 20.
gswscribe Lakers made first six shots, missed next six shots, then made next six shots ... make that next seven
gswscribe Warriors frontcourt: 11-for-11. Warriors backcourt 1-for-9
KevinDing Really concerted effort at running triangle so far (and GSt D makes it easy). LAL will finish Q1 with 13 assists on 14 FGs.
nbalivetweet Pau Gasol has definitely mastered the yell-as-if-i-got-fouled technique.
LakersReporter A solid 1st quarter for Gasol ... other than at the free throw line. He has 9 pts on 4-of-5 FG's w/3 reb, but 1-of-4 FTs.
LakersReporter Both Bryant & Artest had 4 assists in the 1st Q that L.A. finished up 39-32, 4 guys w/at least 8 pts & Odom w/5 off bench.
geofflepper END 1Q: LAL 39, #GSW 32. Strange days: W's frontcourt (Maggette, Tolliver, Hunter) 10-10 FG. Ellis/Curry 1-10. Gasol/Bynum 17 combined PTS.
LakersReporter Gasol actually went 1-of-5 in Phoenix last game from the stripe, making him 2-of-9 in last 2 ... but he's still near 80% on season.
gswscribe End of 1st: Lakers 38, Warriors 32. Kobe 9 points, 4 ast. Artest 8 points, 4 ast. Hunter/Maggette 8 each

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS: CJ Watson looks like an all-star, makes Derek Fisher fall like a domino

nbalivetweet Phil Jackson at ESPN betw qtr interview: "We have to move the ball around perimeter and get to our big guys, Warriors have good help."
KevinDing Sasha at least got a pat on butt from Phil after being benched 32 seconds in.
gswscribe Monta (0-7 FGs) is getting good looks, but my HS coach would tell him to get a lay-up or FTs to get going. Don't just keep shooting Js
LakersReporter Offense continues to come easily for L.A., already to 42 points w/8:42 left in the 2nd, but they've conceded 39 to G.S.
KevinDing Remember how Artest's conditioning was sub-par after his Xmas concussion? He just played the 1st 15 minutes without a breather.
nbalivetweet Wow, Monta Ellis just took Kobe from top L, RH one-handed show ball, scoop.
LakersReporter A very active Lamar Odom it's been tonight. He has 9 points with 5 boards and an assist in 10 minutes.
geofflepper Assuming it's a sellout (almost a certainty), it will be just the fourth out of 34 #GSW home games: HOU (opening night), LAL (twice), CLE
nbalivetweet Mark Jackson on ESPN: "Great crowd, they've been appreciative of the franchise." Um no, Mark. Appreciate the TEAM, despise the FRANCHISE.
LakersReporter With knowledge of the smallish Warriors front line, Odom's camping out on the baseline for easy off. rebounds. It's working.
nbalivetweet So Monta just took it down the lane RH again. Explosive. Most explosive RH in the NBA?
gswscribe He took one rushed FG. Rest open pull-ups & drives @espnaranas good looks? you kidding me? I guess we know who u want this team built around
nbalivetweet Don Nelson doing some good instructional coaching to Steph Curry and Anthony Morrow.
LakersReporter Lakers are getting good balance on offense: 8 shots from Kobe, 6 from Pau, 5 from Artest, 4 from 'Drew, 4 from Odom.
nbalivetweet CJ Watson nice shake n bake, foul on floor, he makes layup hi off backboard, waved off. Not waved off if it were Kobe?
KevinDing Fish just wiped out trying to hang with CJ Watson on drive. Maybe he'll switch back to Kobe's shoes again.
nbalivetweet CJ Watson breaking ankles! Down goes Derek Fisher like a domino.
gswscribe Every time C.J. Watson comes into games, you know he's in the game.
nbalivetweet CJ Watson jumper R elbow, playing like an allstar, 3:00 to, Lakers 57, Warriors 56. Then attacks once more and goes to line for 2 FTs.
gswscribe Lakers 57, Warriors 56, 2:56 left in second. Monta Ellis 8 assists in 21 minutes despite 2-for-11 FGs.
nbalivetweet I dunno, things are going too well. I feel like a 3rd- or 4th-qtr collapse is imminent. Can the Warriors keep this up?
KevinDing Kobe goes over to Warriors bench to chit-chat with Ronny, who is sitting next to Radmanovic and Raja Bell.
LakersReporter L.A.'s coaches weren't interested in playing Golden State's up-and-down style, but we've seen it so far. Better D in 3rd Q?
LakersReporter Lakers doing exactly what Jackson warned against: turning the ball over leading to G.S. run outs. 10 TO's already, G.S. up 59-57.
geofflepper C.J. Watson steals an ill-advised X-court pass from Bynum, goes C2C to give #GSW the lead back at 59-57. Then LAL gets hit w/3 sec call.
nbalivetweet I'm gonna go out om a limb and say it. The Warriors ARE worth the price Cohan is asking. Bec of these fans. He still sucks at winning tho.
nbalivetweet CJ Watson greatly adding to his eventual free agent stock. Full court steal. Warriors 59, Lakers 57, under 2:00.
geofflepper Monta passed up a 3-point corner shot w/Kobe playing him very loose, in favor of driving baseline to try and get on track. Didn't work. #GSW
KevinDing Halftime: Lakers have 15 turnovers (-> to 17 Warriors points). Warriors have 3 turnovers (-> 3 Lakers points). Yes, this is giving it away.
geofflepper END 2Q: #GSW 65, LAL 59. W's end half on 11-2 run, w/5 from Watson. Hunter 16 PTS, 6 REB. 4 Lakers in 2x figures, but 15 TOs for 17 W's PTS.
LakersReporter G.S. closed the 2nd with a 13-3 run to take a 65-59 lead into the half, keyed by 15 L.A. turnovers. 33-20 in 2nd Q scoring.
nbalivetweet Kobe stripped, time winding down before half buzzer, of course he argues w ref. Despite his talent/skills/rings, still a primadonna. :-(
LakersReporter The 6-point halftime deficit isn't exactly daunting for L.A., who shot 58.3% & took 20 FTs. Just need to hold onto the ball.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS: Kobe turnovers, Steph gets hot, Monta bricks, Sasha please sit down

KevinDing Gasol comes right out of locker room at halftime and goes straight to foul line to work on that stroke. He is 4/8 on FTs.
nbalivetweet Pau Gasol has definitely mastered the yell-as-if-i-got-fouled technique. Oh wait, I said that last half.
geofflepper Kobe commits TO No. 6, Curry scores on ensuing 3-on-1 break to open the second half. #GSW
geofflepper Curry just pulled up in transition, held the ball top-key until Gasol left him to cover Tolliver, and drilled the 3. #GSW
geofflepper "M-V-P" chant starts with Kobe at the line, but then is drowned out by boos. #GSW
nbalivetweet Soooo many Laker fans live in the Bay RT @geofflepper: "M-V-P" chant starts with Kobe at the line, but then is drowned out by boos. #GSW
KevinDing After calling Gasol over to confer about strategy in timeout, Artest goes down bench to slap hands for camaraderie w/all other starters.
nbalivetweet Andrew Bynum just too long. Missed finger roll, tap putback. Anthony Tolliver can't play better D than that. Timeout Don Nelson.
geofflepper Four guys were listening to Nellie/Keith Smart during that last timeout. And then there was Monta Ellis. #GSW
nbalivetweet On ESPN broadcast, Mark Jackson going with Tyreke Evans as ROY, over Steph Curry and Brandon Jennings.
LakersReporter Lakers D has garnered 3 straight stops out of a timeout, with 3 straight hoops at the other end to turn a 3-pt. deficit upside down.
nbalivetweet Corey Maggette misses another worst-shot-in-bball. Take 2 steps back, son, and you're Rashard Lewis. Simple.
LakersReporter Make that 4 straight stops and 4 straight FG's for a 79-74 lead (8-0 run). Gasol's up to 18, Kobe 16, Bynum a 14-10 double-double.
KevinDing All those turnovers didn't hurt Lakers FG%. They've topped 60% (60.4) midway through 3rd; on pace for 126 points.
nbalivetweet Heather Cox on ESPN: "Don Nelson said Steph Curry does the 4 things right...The only thing wrong with him is he's a rookie, still a pup."
gswscribe Warriors frontline getting worn down by Gasol/Bynum/Odom - combined 47 pts, 17-23 FGs, 24 rebounds
LakersReporter It's odd that Corey Maggette has 16 pts without a single trip to the foul line. He's always among league leaders in FTA's.
LakersReporter For those of you unable to watch, L.A.'s up 83-78 w/4:09 in the 3rd Q. RT @deancortez: @LakersReporter wats now the score?
nbalivetweet CJ Watson still on bench and not much happening from Monta Ellis. Lakers 83, Warriors 78, 4:09 3rd qtr.
LakersReporter The Lakers have gone on a 20-5 run since Steph Curry's 3-pointer put G.S. up 9.
nbalivetweet Amazingly, Derek Fisher waltzes to the cup unmolested out of the timeout. Not watchu wanna see.
geofflepper Ellis, leading 3-on-2 break, kicks it over to Curry for Lwing 3-pointer. And he didn't even hold his nose while doing it. #GSW
gswscribe Ellis up tp 10 assists. Curry up to 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting with 6 assists.
nbalivetweet Beautiful swish trey L elbow Stteph Curry, assist Monta Ellis. I could watch him shoot for hours.
gswscribe Ellis 2-for-16, still taking jumpers. They should post him up.
nbalivetweet Derek Fisher 3-ball corner pocket off rim but foul called on Steph Cury. Questionable. Bottom line: momentum killer. Learn from this, rook.
LakersReporter A not-so-good stat: Kobe's up to 7 turnovers for the 2nd straight game. His high for the season was 8, @ CHI in Dec.
geofflepper #GSW offense has cooled (or, LAL D has gotten warmer): W's 8-19 FG this quarter, down 92-85.
KevinDing Standing next to ref, Gasol was looking up at scoreboard for replay to see if he hit CJ Watson in face (Pau's new thing!) but missed it.
nbalivetweet Pau Gasol slaps CJ Watson in face, down in pain. Foul. Luv how Gasol never thinks he fouls anyone. That and Chewbacca grunts. So likable!
KevinDing And thought he was fouled on each one tonight. RT @LakersReporter: Kobe's up to 7 turnovers for 2nd straight game. High for season was 8.
LakersReporter Bryant is the exact opposite of happy after not getting a foul called on his 8th turnover. He also has 20 pts & 4 dimes, L.A. up 7.
geofflepper Strange game for Monta Ellis, who is 2-17 FG but has 10 AST and has hounded Kobe Bryant into 8 TOs. On pace for another 48-minute game. #GSW
LakersReporter The Lakers handled Golden State rather easily in the 3rd Q, outscoring Golden State 35-22 to take a 94-87 lead into the 4th.
nbalivetweet Sasha Vujajic getting some filler minutes near end of 3rd. Just looks awkward out there with the purple short-sleeve tighties under jersey.
KevinDing Boxing on the brain after Pacquiao fight, apparently. Now Farmar and Powell fake-jabbing each other in timeout.
geofflepper END 3Q: LAL 94, #GSW 87. Lakers limit TOs to *only* 5, continue blistering FG pace (61.8%). Tolliver/Hunter combined 0-4 in quarter.

4TH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS: Ah crap! Oh wow! Yeah! Yeah! No! Hurry! Oh!

Where Ah Crap = Kobe's late and-one as a nail in the coffin, Oh wow = Kobe's turnover, Yeah(1) = Kobe's missed FT, Yeah(2) = Steph getting open with a few ticks left, No = Steph missing a wide-open trey, Hurry = Monta's offensive rebound and race back to trey land before buzzer sounding, Oh = Monta's triple-rim-bouncing miss at the buzzer. For less chaos, just watch the NBA.com clip below.

LakersReporter Lamar Odom looked over at Vladi Radmanovic after nailing a turnaround on Devean George to beat the shot clock. Vladi laughed.
LakersReporter Monta Ellis is having the opposite of a good shooting game. He's 2-for-18 from the field. Yikes. Does have 10 dimes.
KevinDing Monta Ellis 2 for 18 from field with 10:22 to play. Not easy to score and defend Kobe at same time.
nbalivetweet Devean George still got the sweet stroke, deep R elbow trey. I'm sure he got his laser on for his former team. Warriors def up for this gm.
geofflepper #GSW go small, LAL go right to Lamar Odom, being "covered" by Monta. Ellis can't stop him from scoring easily.
LakersReporter At the other end of the efficiency spectrum from Ellis is Odom, who is 6-of-6 for 15 pts w/9 reb. Pau 9-of-12, 22 pts.
KevinDing Twitter's character limit is not suited for number of fundamental things Shannon Brown just did wrong in a three-minute span.
nbalivetweet Steph Curry step-around layup. He's so good, being a rook. Dickie V got it right. Raved about him at/before Draft.
nbalivetweet Devean George 3-ball corner pocket! Last attempt went in n out. He came to play. Also took a charge on Andrew Bynum.
nbalivetweet So anyways, looks like Steph Curry broken out of slump vs Lakers. Monta Ellis, no.
KevinDing Kobe is now (with smile) kidding Shannon about him just standing there in paint earlier instead of challenging drive late in P&R play.
geofflepper LOL. RT @KevinDing Twitter's character limit is not suited for number of fundamental things Shannon Brown just did wrong in a 3-minute span.
gswscribe Lakers 100, Warriors 95. Curry leads Ws with 19. Maggette 18. Kobe 20 on 7-for-13. Gasol 22 and 8
nbalivetweet Timeout. Lakers 100, Warriors 95, under 9:00, 4th qtr.
KevinDing I'll say the same thing I said in Phoenix: Sasha is funny.
geofflepper Curry banks home a 10-footer, then drills quick transition 3 to get #GSW within a point, 101-100 LAL.
nbalivetweet On one end of the spectrum you have Kobe, most athletic. Other end, Sasha Vujajic. Just looked silly on that rimmer and attempted save OOB.
gswscribe I know someone is going nuts now that Curry is taking over. He's got seven in the quarter.
nbalivetweet Steph Curry with a crafty banker and a stepback trey. But Lakers size ends the momentum. Andrew Bynum power and-one.
KevinDing Shannon has made so many mistakes, he ran over to bench thinking for sure he was yanked. Phil had to send him back in.
LakersReporter Moments ago, it was 100-90 Lakers. G.S. then went on a 10-1 run capped by Curry's 3 before a tough and-1 from Bynum (19 & 13).
LakersReporter Continues to be a great showing from my personal favorite NBA road crowd here in Oakland, their team down 3, 6:41 to go.
nbalivetweet Lamar Odom indefensible running floater. Lakers 106, Warriors 100, under 7:00.
nbalivetweet Steph Curry opposite court assist and-one to Anthony Tolliver after driving L baseline. Wow! FT good. Lakers 106, Warriors 103.
LakersReporter Holy .... Shannon Brown just jumped 15 feet into the air for a rebound.
gswscribe Back-to-back terrible shots by Curry. Those two possessions are why jumpers in transition are a bad practice. Meanwhile, Lakers going inside
geofflepper Oracle crowd was waiting to erupt, but Curry missed the open 3. Then Kobe, working on Maggette, gets easy layup and one. LAL 110, #GSW 103.
nbalivetweet Andrew Bynum's length gives more opps off Kobe's miss layup via post. But misses! Steph Curry can't bring house down tho. Kobe back w and-1.
gswscribe Great question. Warriors down 53-21 on boards @jamesvenes Has an NBA team ever finished the game with more assists than rebounds?
KevinDing Pretty funny to watch all the Lakers' fans sprout up and start pointing and at Warriors fans after Kobe hits his and-1.
gswscribe They just announced Rickey Henderson's presence and put him on the big screen, only everyone in front of him stood up
KevinDing Celeb moment here in Oakland on the scoreboard ... Rickey Henderson! You do what you can when you're not Staples.
KevinDing The best part of it was fans here in Oakland are so manic that they all went crazy jumping up in front of Rickey and we could barely see him
LakersReporter Dark spot in otherwise terrific game from Bynum (19 pts, 14 rebs & 3 blks): 8 TO's, like Kobe. G.S. has 5 total. L.A. still up 8.
nbalivetweet Don Nelson mic'd up (to Anthony Tolliver?): "You should never run from under basket to be a shooter."
nbalivetweet Do the Warriors have one last push? Lakers 111, Warriors 103 after Kobe makes the and-one FT.
nbalivetweet Steph Curry trey R elbow early offense (are any Warrior buckets not early?), Lakers 114, Warriors 108. But Kobe trey other way.
LakersReporter Curry's 5th 3 was answered immediately by Kobe, who now has 28 pts. Then a Fish to Pau alley-oop put L.A. up 11, 3 min left.
geofflepper Kobe nails a 3 in Ellis' mug, then Fisher oops to Pau on 4-on-2 break. LAL 119, #GSW 108, 3:18 left. Somebody cue Dandy Don.
gswscribe Kobe 3 and Gasol dunk puts Warriors down 119-108, 3:18 left. Bryant 28 and 4 ast. Curry 27 and 7 ast. Turned out to be nce game for Curry
KevinDing 11 on 1/31/08 at DET. He has 8 with 3:18 to play. RT @LakersHighlight: @KevinDing what's kobe's career high for turnovers?
geofflepper But only 2&1 in second half, when LAL got serious. RT @DonNelsonRiley Hunter has 18&7 against NBA's best frontcourt. Earned more minutes?
nbalivetweet Oops, delete my tweet. Missed it. Thx to Twitter, it was a Pau Gasol oop fr Derek Fisher. Lakers 119, Warriors 108, 3:14, 4th qtr collapse?
KevinDing I'll give Andrew's previous career high in TOs after I finish watching dance-off between heavyset white woman and heavyset black woman here.
KevinDing Hilarious.
KevinDing Bynum has 8 turnovers tonight. His previous career high was 6 on 1/23/08 vs. SAC.
nbalivetweet Corey Maggette blocked down low via Monta Ellis feed, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom too tall, Derek Fisher to scrappy/slappy. Blocked again.
nbalivetweet Monta Ellis breakaway layup. Pau Gasol barely misses an and-one on diminutive Corey Maggette. Lakers 121, Warriors 110, 2:00 after FTs.
LakersReporter Gasol chewed upon matchup advantages inside all night, getting to 26 pts w/9 reb, 4 ast & 1 blk on 10-of-13 FGs.
nbalivetweet Steph Curry splits Laker double up top goes up, thinks about it, scoop finger roll. He's so good. Way more skilled than half the league.
nbalivetweet Chris Hunter running layup good, Steph Curry assist via double team. Warriors down 5, 0:50. Miracle?
gswscribe Ellis was 3-for-20 before knocking down a pull-up 3 in transition after picking Kobe's pocket. 121-119, 13.9 secs left
nbalivetweet Kobe loses ball to Monta Ellis, who breaks and pulls up trey, good! Down 2 with under :24. They don't foul! Then foul Shannon Brown.
LakersReporter Wait a second ... a quick 9-0 run to an almost indifferent Lakers team had G.S. within 2, 13.9 to play, b4 2 Brown FT's. 123-119.
nbalivetweet Shannon Brown FTs good. 2nd one touches almost every part of rim. Timeout. 13.9 ticks left. Warriors down 4 to Lakers.
geofflepper Ellis strips a fallen Kobe (9th TO), pulls up for transition 3 to make it 121-119, LAL. Shannon Brown 2 FTs put Lakers up 4 w/13.9 secs left
LakersReporter Kobe has had to play 40 minutes tonight on the front end of a back-to-back. Artest 37, Gasol 35, Fisher 33.
nbalivetweet ESPN replay: Kobe slams bench seat next to Phil Jackson in frustration after the turnover.
geofflepper Ellis layup, Kobe fouled. 2 FTs coming up.
geofflepper Kobe misses 1st...
gswscribe Amidst chants of MVP, Kobe misses FT. 123-121 Lakers, 8.6 seconnds left. One more FT
nbalivetweet Monta Ellis quick layup. As I said before, fastest RH in the Association. Kobe fouled with 8.6. Misses! Subs coming in/out.
LakersReporter After L.A. conceded an Ellis layup, Kobe improbably missed the front end of 2 FTs w/8.6 to play. G.S. within 3.
geofflepper Kobe makes second. LAL 124, #GSW 121. 8.6 seconds left. W's timeout.
nbalivetweet Kobe 2nd FT good. Timeout. Lakers 124, Warriors 121, 0:08.6 remaining. Who shoots it? I'm sure the Lakers are thinking Steph Curry.
gswscribe Warriors ball, down 3, 8.6 seconds left. Tolliver (3-5 from 3), not Curry (5-8 from 3), is getting this shot
LakersReporter We'll see if the Lakers choose to foul or not, up 124-121, to avoid a game-tying 3.
nbalivetweet You might wanna decoy it to Steph Curry, then go with Anthony Morrow. Mark Jackson recommending Lakers foul. 8.6 left.
gswscribe Wow. What an ending. Curry misses the 3. Ellis rebounds it, runs out the the 3 line, it bounced three times before falling off. Lakers win
nbalivetweet The epitome of the Warriors! Steph Curry takes it out, Derek Fisher bites! Steph misses wide open trey R elbow on pass back...
geofflepper Curry 3 off back rim, Monta OREB, races to top-key, but his 3 at buzzer bounces 3 times on rim before rolling off. LAL 124, #GSW 121.
LakersReporter Lakers win. By a sliver. Both Curry & Ellis had great looks at a tying 3, both missed. Monta's bounced around rim for 3 seconds.
gswscribe Can you fault Ellis for not giving it Curry on his left or Morrow on his right, instead taking a rushed turnaround 3?
LakersReporter Your final: Lakers 124, Warriors 121, L.A. heading to Sacramento for the back end of a back-to-back tomorrow.
nbalivetweet ...but after Steph Curry's miss trey, Monta Ellis somehow gets rebound, dribbles way to top for trey, bounces on rim 2-3 times, no good!

POST-BUZZER THOUGHTS: Lakers' outrebounding and turnovers, Warriors lack of turnovers, I believe...in the value of this franchise

nbalivetweet I said it earlier and i'll say it again: Larry Ellison, believe it or not, the Warriors ARE worth that much. Please just buy the team.
LakersReporter Ridiculous stat: Lakers grabbed 56 rebounds to just 29 for the Warriors. In a related stat, L.A. had 24 TO's, G.S. just 5.
KevinDing Kobe's wife Vanessa here outside locker room, getting a hug from Ronny Turiaf.
KevinDing Turiaf now visiting with Phil Jax, who mocked Ronny's engineer cap: "The choo-choo train is leaving."
KevinDing Ronny's weak reply to Phil showed he's out of practice in dealing with Phil's barbs: "I can't hear you."
KevinDing It's not just Vanessa who is here. Lots of family/friends around postgame. Phil spending time w/ ex-wife June (who lives in SF) and son Ben.

So imagine all that happening real-time. Fun and informative, eh?

One last thought: as I mentioned, the NBA Draft this year has a lot of good big men. The Warriors have the third-worst record in the league, so you figure based on recent lottery history, they can't be any worse than Draft Pick #5 or #6, right?

In the top two, you have the highly talented ballhandlers John Wall and Evan Turner. I think Monta and Steph can co-exist and all they need are bigs who can run the floor, finish layups, and block shots. That being said, I think not drafting Wall or Turner would work out best and least complicated for the Warriors. However, if you get the #1 or #2 pick, you can't pass up either Wall or Turner. From there, you're looking at trades.

So whether or not Monta stays or gets dealt may come down to which ping pong ball the Warriors get. Let's look at the big men available:

DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky: I'm gonna say it. He's better offensively than Chris Webber was. This guy is special. He's just a little crazy in the head, meaning immature, but that's kind of just the tip of the iceberg.
Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech: Also a freshman like Cousins, this kid is mobile, can finish, can rebound, can run the floor. Like I said, this is a deep draft.
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky: This guy is NBA-ready. The only reason he is lower on the draft boards than some others is because, similar to the comparison of Turner and Wall, he's already polished. There's not much of a ceiling left, which is good and bad. I actually think it's more good than bad and that NBA GM's are too enamored by "potential" and not enough by "NBA-ready". After all, we want guys to come in and produce, right? That's worth a whole blogpost in and of itself.
Greg Monroe, Georgetown: Not the most nimble, but still quite athletic, relatively speaking. He had a great Big East tournament, has nice face-up moves, but draft experts tend to knock him on the quickness. However, I think some of that has to do with the fact that this is a deep draft and their judging based on context.

There's others who are quality bigs who can run the floor, are athletic, and can rebound and block shots. In other drafts, they'd be higher, but the names mentioned above...wow. The Warrior front office would have to screw up royally to draft the wrong guy. Here's hoping they've been watching their boys play the last few games.

Without knowing off the cuff what the Warriors' prospects are for additional draft picks, I would also recommend some wheeling and dealing for more 2nd-rounders. Again, deep draft. Stockpile the bigs.

I watch a lot of prospects in NCAA ball and I try to picture -- and this is actually realistic! -- a DeMarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors, or Patrick Patterson D'ing up Bynum and/or Gasol tonight. Folks, it's do-able, especially if you tack on another young'un off the bench...say, shot-blocker Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State?

Poll

We're pretty sure whatever price Cohan has right now for Ellison is too high for Ellison. Do you think that price is...

Warriors Game Day Links: Golden State Warriors 121 vs LA Lakers 124 - Soooooo close to the upset

2010-03-16T07:26:57Z

More photos » Ben Margot - AP

Browse more photos »

Box score | Gameflow

Warriors: Golden State of Mind
Recap: RECAP: Los Angeles Lakers 124, Golden State Warriors 121 - To Larry Ellison: value justified?
Game thread: Game Thread #66: Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors - Kobe or MJ? Depends on your age (1400+ comments)

Lakers: Silver Screen and Roll
Recap: Lakers Survive Firefight in Oakland, Barely
Game thread: Lakers-Warriors Open Thread

Other Recaps

Associated Press recap: Lakers beat Warriors 9th straight time, 124-121
Sports Network recap: Bryant and Lakers hang on against Warriors
Marcus Thompson II recap: Three times the bounce leaves Golden State Warriors with tantalizing loss to Los Angeles Lakers
Rusty Simmons recap: Game-tying shots just won't fall late
Geoff Lepper recap: Lakers survive late Warriors surge, hold on for road win
Adam Lauridsen recap: That Time of the Year (Warriors 121, Lakers 124)

Pregame News

- No pregame news found.

Pregame Videos

- No pregame videos found.

Postgame News

- No postgame news found.

Postgame Videos

Don Nelson at the podium.

Highlights by orangino.

NBA.com recap.

NBA.com highlight: Tolliver to Hunter.

Postgame Quotes from warriors.com recap

Don Nelson
On tonight's game:
"We did everything a small team needs to do to win a game tonight except get to the foul line. We didn’t do a good job there; it wasn’t because we didn’t have a desire to do it. The free throw discrepancy was an immense. We didn’t expect to win the rebound game but when you get out rebounded by that many it’s very difficult to win no matter how well you play. Monta (Ellis) had a nightmare night offensively but was he good defensively on Kobe (Bryant) all night. Too bad he couldn’t get some shots to go."

Monta Ellis
On tonight's game:
"It just wasn’t my night tonight. Nothing was going down, nothing at all. I liked the game, I like how we played, shared the ball, gave ourselves a chance to win the game, tie the game. We left it all out on the court tonight. I thought we played well."

On the final play:
"There were three seconds left and I didn’t see anyone else so I just launched the ball. At first I thought it was short, but when it hit the rim and then hit the backboard I was like ‘okay it’s going to go’ but then it went to the left and I was like ‘son of a gun’. But hey it was a great game to me. I liked everything about it, and we played excellent."

Chris Hunter
On his career-high 22 points:
"I just wanted to come and give a good effort and I got a couple of pick and rolls and got a couple of dunks early that got me in the flow."

On Monta Ellis’ shot:
"I knew it was going in, when it took that second bounce and bounced up it looked like the invisible man tipped it out of the way at the last second. It was a good effort and we had two good looks down the stretch to tie it up, but it didn’t fall."

Twitter Fun

KAzubuike7
(earlier this afternoon)
Just left physical therapy. Recovery is still goin very well. Getting better every day. Can't wait till next season

My Notebook

- No interesting notes to add tonight.

What's next?

- The finale of the 4 game homestand with the Warriors face the Hornets again on Wed at 7:30pm.
- Matt Steinmetz with a weekly Wed chat on his chat page. Usually it's at noon, but it could go earlier or later depending on Warriors practice/shootaround schedule.
- I'm going to start including videos from nba.com.

Poll

Lots of guys to pick tonight, so click it!

Stephen Curry

393 votes

Monta Ellis

49 votes

Corey Maggette

2 votes

Anthony Tolliver

7 votes

Chris Hunter

80 votes

Anthony Morrow

0 votes

CJ Watson

10 votes

Devean George

4 votes

Reggie Williams

2 votes

Great team effort

53 votes

Nobody

5 votes

605 votes | Poll has closed

Game Thread #66: Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors - Kobe or MJ? Depends on your age

2010-03-15T21:43:51Z

Warriors (W-L): 18-47

Lakers (W-L): 41-13

Tip Off: 7:30 Pacific Time

TV: ESPN

Radio: KNBR

Blog Buddy: Silver Screen and Roll

It's mid-March, the Warriors (18 wins) are the 3rd-worst team in the Association and the Lakers (18 losses) are on their romp to the Finals. The Lakers, on the road, are 8-point favorites and the over/under is 223.5. So, let me get the two biggies as it would pertain to a normal game preview out of the way: Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry? They struggle against the Lakers...

Curry has averaged 13.0 points on 34.8 percent shooting - including 2 of 16 from 3-point range - in the three games, while Ellis averaged 20.0 points in two games - 5.6 less than his team-leading average.

And secondly, Kobe Bryant is in town, on three days' rest. But do we really care about this game? Does it matter to us if Kobe scores 30, 40, fifty, against this Warriors defense? Against D-Leaguers (btw, kudos to Reggie Williams for getting his 2nd 10-day contract)? Nah, let's talk about something else. Something bigger. Something we might really care about.

So anyways, back on Friday, Kobe had his 7th game-winning shot this season, victimizing the Toronto Raptors. Of course, once I heard he had as many game-winners as the Nets have wins this year, I had to google around to see if he had as many career game-winning shots as Michael Jordan. The results seemed to conclude that Kobe has more game-winners than MJ, although I have not found the definitive blogpost anywhere, that would look like an indisputable, credible study. There are many forums out there that talk about this, and the discussion -- not that I'm bringing up anything that's revolutionary -- is quite divisive. With that, I present this poll which is the part of the thesis of this post (disguised as a game preview, as it were!)...

Why 34 years of age or older for this poll, you ask?

Well, here's my theory. MJ was born in 1963. By the time there was general consensus that he might be "out of this world", it was about the 1986-87 season, when he averaged 37.1 ppg and became the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 total points in one season. This was the year before he ended up on the path towards getting beat up by the Bad Boys for three consecutive post-seasons. By the time he was unanimously accepted as a champion and not poo-poo'ed as a "ball hog", it was hugging his first trophy, after beating the Lakers in the 1991 Finals.

But being a mere champion versus being the Greatest Of All Time are different things. Unless you were a devout follower of MJ or the NBA, the realization that he could possibly be the G.O.A.T. could not have set in earlier than after MJ recorded his third straight title. After all, the Pistons had won two in a row prior to the Bulls' run of two in a row. People knew Isiah Thomas was great, but he certainly was not being considered the greatest point guard of all time, even after title number two.

At the same time, I would guesstimate that avid NBA followers start watching games intently and intelligently no earlier than age 16, if not, then 18 and maybe even more-so at age 20 assuming you went to college and spent your freshman and sophomore years adjusting to the rigors of higher academics, dorm life, and the like.

It should come as no surprise that such claims are heavily influenced by my own experiences. When I was sixteen, I was busy trying to make the varsity high school team. I liked how Magic Johnson played when I was a middle schooler, and I tried to emulate his dribbling and bullet passes, but really, how do you emulate that when no one's even taught you the fundamentals of how to play the game? Back in the day, the fundamentals were taught in high school.

So while MJ was tearing up the league at 37.1 per every other weeknight, we were busy in practice. He was certainly not on TV all that much -- hard to believe now, isn't it? So while I was 17, I knew what MJ could do having watched him drop 63 on the Celtics in the 1986 playoffs, but I wasn't necessarily watching him all the time. And even if there were such a thing as TNT back then, how could I possibly have the basketball knowledge to translate what he did on the court to what I did on the court? I couldn't intelligently process MJ. It wasn't until college when I had near-unlimited time at the university rec center, when the defending champion Bulls were on WGN, and when I could study the man's footwork and see how fundamentally sound he was. So, that's why I say, at age 20 you're probably ready to intelligently follow the NBA.

Therefore, doing the math, there is no way you could possibly comprehend MJ being the best ever, then relate that back to the years that you saw him play leading up to that, unless you were at least 16 years old by the end of the first three-peat, the 1992-93 season. That puts your birth year no later than 1976.

As I was researching this post, I started with that now-pivotal day: December 2nd, 1987. Not that I knew the exact date as I do now, but I knew what had happened that day. This is because other NBA stars would talk about it years later (someone, please YouTube that!), in VHS montages such as Come Fly With Me. I wish I could've seen this game live.

Incidentally, Phil Jackson was not his coach at the time -- it was Doug Collins. So whatever Phil has to say about MJ, remember, he didn't witness all of his amazing feats, particularly those that involved attacking the rim with almost reckless abandon.

Early in the game, MJ receives a post entry pass while John Stockton is guarding him. MJ spins around and immediately jams it before the help arrives. Someone in the stands says something to the effect of, "Pick on someone your own size!"

Later that half, MJ is on a fast break and posterizes 6'11" Mel Turpin, in similar style to what Vince Carter did to that 7-foot French guy. As he goes back on defense, MJ turns to the fan and says, "Is that big enough for you?"

So all of these things that Kobe does, I can't help but translate it back to MJ. Could Kobe have done that? Perhaps. I'm just not sure he has the showmanship. The ability to turn a detractor into a believer. I look at Kobe and everything he does, I know MJ could have done those things too. I watch highlights of MJ and I'm not so sure Kobe can do what MJ did.

As it turns out, YouTube led me to this longer nine-minute video of MJ highlights from that game against the Jazz. Made me miss him so much. And I really never saw any of his regular season games until the 1992-93 season, when WGN was thankfully part of the cable package...

But the thing that tips the scale is this studious rendition of the same game. By total happenstance, YouTube led me to this analysis of MJ, put in today's context of NBA rules, using the same footage from that game!. Excellent work, in my opinion...

To be fair, Kobe probably agrees with me. In fact, he's friends with MJ. GQ recently did a great interview with Kobe...

He doesn't give away much. Even when it comes to fairly innocuous info, he clams up. He won't say what he and his friend Michael Jordan talk about. ("That's sacred sh_t.") He won't let his personal trainer be interviewed. He won't divulge his special recipe for Cream of Wheat.

I do have reservations that the poll voting will obviously be skewed against Kobe, this being a Warriors blog and all. But for those of you who are making a rare visit to this site, please know that the Bay Area in general has plenty of Kobe fans. I run a weekend basketball league with over 100 teams and at least 50% of our people love him and have glowing things to say at the gym.

Well, I hope I've at least lit enough of a fire for you that we'll turn this here game thread into more than what it would've been otherwise?!...

Poll

Who would you rather have, Kobe or MJ? (Note: the choices below are listed by your age first, then Kobe, then Jordan)

Why Don Nelson is the Best Coach for the Golden State Warriors

2010-03-15T03:56:01Z

"How come sportswriters never suffer season-ending injuries?"

Tim Kawakami has just published a piece in the Merc + Talking Points calling for the firing of Don Nelson. I disagree essentially with every line of what he has written, and in particular with his conclusion. I think it would be a huge mistake for the Warriors to fire Nellie. Here is my rebuttal.

This team was built by Don Nelson, for Don Nelson: From the frontline to the backcourt, this team was built to do one thing, and one thing only: Run, Run, Run. Biedrins, Randolph and Wright are all at their best when beating their man down court, and at their worst when playing in the half court. Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry can excel in any system, but may be the best fast break backcourt in the NBA. Ellis because of his blazing speed, Curry because of his extraordinary downcourt vision and ability to lead the break.

Putting what promises to be the fastest team end-to-end in NBA history -- when healthy -- in the hands of a conventional coach is a recipe for disaster. This is a Nellie roster, and Nellie should coach it.

Don Nelson has the ear of this team: Has any team in the NBA played harder than the Warriors this year? Seriously, in a season completely without hope, has this ridiculously short-handed and undersized team ever dogged it? Ever shown signs of quitting?

This team believes in itself, and takes the court every night looking for a way to win, against all odds. I don't pretend to have my finger on the pulse of the locker-room, but that is simply not the behaviour of a team that has quit on its coach.

Don Nelson does not have a preference for small ball: For those of you who have scratched your heads, or raged in your hearts, when you've seen Don Nelson play Corey Maggette at power forward ahead of Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph, this might seem like a curious statement. It's not. I stand by it 100%, based on close observation of Nellie's career since RunTMC.

Don Nelson has had four major coaching gigs: coaching the Bucks, the Warriors, the Mavericks, and again with the Warriors. The only time Nellie has played small ball is with the Warriors. While at Milwaukee Nellie traded for Bob Lanier, and drafted Marques Johnson. In Dallas, once he got his hands on Dirk Nowitzki, Nellie played one of the biggest lineups in the NBA. Every game, all game.

Even with the Warriors, it should be obvious to an objective observer that Don Nelson has always worked determinedly at making his team bigger. He blew up RunTMC -- risking the chemistry of a 50-win ball club -- by trading Mitch Richmond for Billy Owens. Is that the act of a man with a preference for small ball?

Why has Don Nelson so often resorted to small ball with the Warriors? Two reasons: Talent and Money. Don Nelson believes in putting his most talented players on the floor. When those players happen to be big, as in Milwaukee and Dallas, Don Nelson plays big. When they happen to be small, as in both gigs here at Golden State, Don Nelson plays small. Why has Don Nelson played Maggette ahead of Randolph and Wright in the past two years? Quite simply, because Randolph and Wright weren't ready to shoulder the load. They were inconsistent, ill-prepared and ineffective. And then they were injured.

And then there's the money. There is little doubt in my mind that if Nellie had the resources of a Mark Cuban or a Paul Allen to work with that he would have long ago gone after and signed a major free-agent big man, or multiple free-agent big men. He's already proved that, in Dallas. Every single year he was there.

Nellie doesn't have those resources to work with. He has the resources of Chris Cohan to work with, and an inherited roster that lacked an established power forward. What he does have right now is this: three assets. Brandan Wright, Anthony Randolph and a lottery pick. On the basis of those assets, and my knowledge of Don Nelson, I am very comfortable saying this:

If the Warriors come out of the gate next year playing small, I will eat my shorts.

Don Nelson is a great defensive coach. Gotcha! I don't really believe that. But then again I don't believe that coaching defense wins championships. What wins championships is coaching point-differential. Point-differential is the stat that is the most predictive of the eventual world champion, with a 50% success rate.

Don Nelson is one of the best coaches in the league at achieving point-differential. His 2002-3 Dallas Mavericks led the league in point-differential. And if Dirk Nowitzki hadn't injured his knee in Game 3 of the Western Conference Championships against the Spurs, Nelson and the Mavs may very well have won the title.

How does Don Nelson achieve point-differential? Well, that could be the subject of a book. But here's a thumbnail sketch: it involves having at least one big wing player who's capable of shutting down the opposing team's best player. Like Richmond, Elie, Sprewell, Finley, or Stephen Jackson.

Or Kelenna Azubuike and Raja Bell.

It might involve having a couple of other defensive pieces to play matchups with. Like Josh Howard and Eddie Najera. Or Matt Barnes. Or Andris Biedrins and Anthony Randolph.

It involves shooting the best percentage, by having the best shooters and by relentlessly running the fast break. It involves winning the turnover battle, by having the best ball-handlers and shooting the first available shot. It involves running the other team into the ground. It involves melting the brain of the guy on the opposite bench, by matching up unexpectedly, and exploiting every edge mercilessly.

It involves genius, and the complete and utter fearlessness that has led to glorious playoff upsets - with far inferior talent -- of the Robinson Spurs, the Stockton and Malone Jazz and the Nowitzki Mavs.

Don Nelson is not a defensive coach, he is a basketball coach. One of the greatest in league history.

I want to see it again: I've seen it before. RunTMC. The 2002-03 Mavericks. We Believe. Some of the greatest, most exhilarating basketball ever played in this league.

This team is built in the image of Don Nelson. It is arguably one big player -- and one healthy season -- from being able to play like the best of Don Nelson's teams.

I want to see it again.

Poll

Don Nelson

(Golden State) Warriors where are they now? Checking in on former Chris Mullin favs Mike Dunleavy + Troy Murphy

2010-03-15T02:42:35Z

For old times sake... CHARMIN SOFT!

A lot of the bandwagoners and national/ local media alike might not recall, but pre-Nellieball Dubs version 2.0 and pre-WE BELIEVE we were treated to the prospect of a seemingly endless future with the tandem GSoM friend Damon Bruce termed the "Dun-Murphy Sisters". It was the softest front court ever assembled courtesy of the Warriors publicity stunt at GM.

Well just how are those two Chris Mullin favs doing in Indy?

JUMP to find out.

This pretty much sums it up:

They have played their entire careers without going to the postseason

Even Chris Cohan aka the worst owner in all of pro sports has been to the playoffs once. Even Adonal Foyle was able to achieve that- on the Warriors no less! Just like Monta Ellis with his turnovers and Andris Biedrins with his free throws, Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy are looking to break some NBA records.

Head on over to Mike Wells' piece over at IndyStar.com Pacers' Murphy, Dunleavy hate long playoff drought and definitely read the whole thing. Actually read it twice just for kicks. Remember how Dunleavy bashed the Warriors and exclaimed he was so excited to go to a playoff team and ditch the Dubs and their fans? I guess he took that all that "he's a winner" nonsense that his fanboys showered him with back then a little too seriously. Okay read it a third time just for fun.

For more on the Indiana Pacers check out Indy Cornrows.

Looking back now after all those tortured years waiting for Mullin's "vision" of a Mike Dunleavy- Troy Murphy- Adonal Foyle front court to materialize, it's just funny. Okay it's sad that we actually had to go through that painful "development process" and this organization's asinine delusions that it was even remotely a good idea to build around this pair and lock them up to outrageous big money deals before they even hit restricted free agency (100% undeserved in Dunleavy's case), but all we can do now is laugh.

Some parting questions:

Where are all those folks who used to type furiously at their keyboards screaming at us back in the day for saying Mike Dunleavy was never going to "blossom" and Mullin wasn't out of his mind for inking him to that absurd 4 year 44 million dollar deal back in 2005? (We can't hear you...)
Shoot, where are all those Dunleavy homers who used to whine that the Warriors woes under Monty/ Mullin back in 2005-2006 were because Baron Davis was holding Dunleavy back? (Still can't hear you...)
Let's say Don Nelson didn't come along to save Mullin and this franchise back in the summer of 2006 and didn't publicly bash this pair on his weekly Don Nelson Show and demand they be traded. What would life be like if the Warriors were still (mis)managed by Mullin and still pursuing Dunmurphy dreams?
Okay this isn't a question, but I always thought Murph was a cool cat. His defense left a LOT to be desired and he didn't exactly finish strong around the bucket, but I appreciated his years of service to the Dubs. Maybe if he didn't have a jumpshot and stepped up his defense from awful to bad, Murphy would have cultivated a fanboy following always armed with endless excuses to argue that he's a top 5, top 10, top-something player at his position despite his glaring wholes and bizarre lack of effort to correct his very fixable flaws. (Translation: He'd be Andris Biedrins aka Troy-Murphy-without-a-jumpshot.)
Are Murphy + Dunleavy the worst $100+ million ever spent by an NBA front office man? Or are Murphy + Foyle even worse?

Good times in Dubs Land brought to you by Chris Mullin.

(pic via i.a.cnn.net)

Flip back to the archives:

Poll

What was former Warriors GM Chris Mullin thinking when he locked up Troy Murphy (5 years $60 million) and Mike Dunleavy (4 years $44 million) back in 2004 and 2005 respectively before they were even restricted free agents?

Golden State Of Mind

Warriors Game Day Links: Golden State Warriors 116 @ San Antonio Spurs 147 - Four quarters of garbage time

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GameThread #68: Golden State Warriors @ San Antonio Spurs - Anthony Tolliver vs. DeJuan Blair

San Antonio Spurs Roster

Who's going to win the match-up tonight?

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Will the San Antonio Spurs get past the 1st round of the 2010 Western Conference Playoffs?

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You didn't turn off the TV at 21 pts down, did you??? Pick it.

CJ Watson

Monta Ellis

Anthony Morrow

Corey Maggette

Anthony Tolliver

Chris Hunter

Reggie Williams

Devean George

Multiple guys (specify in comments)

Yes I did turn off the TV. Arrrrgh!

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Lots of guys to pick tonight, so click it!

Stephen Curry

Monta Ellis

Corey Maggette

Anthony Tolliver

Chris Hunter

Anthony Morrow