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Nov19
Thoughts on Game No. 11: Warriors 111, Trail Blazers 106
Filed under: News; Tagged as: Andris Biedrins, Anthony Morrow, Brandon Roy, Channing Frye, Corey Maggette, Don Nelson, Donovan McNabb, Kelenna Azubuike, LaMarcus Aldridge, Monta Ellis, Rudy Fernandez, Sidney Moncrief, Travis OutlawBy Geoff Lepper
48minutes.netCorey Maggette had an early growth spurt, so as a three-time All-American at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Ill., he manned the low post.
More than a decade later, he’s going to be doing it all over again.
Small ball is back in vogue (if it ever could be said to have left) in Oakland, thanks to the Warriors putting together their first winning streak of the season via a 111-106 victory over Portland on Tuesday.
Coach Don Nelson cited the emergence of rookie guard Anthony Morrow, who led all scorers with 25 points, as the driving force behind the change. But none of it would work without Maggette at power forward, giving the Warriors a mismatch that they exploited fully, and surprisingly, against Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge.
“If (Maggette) is able to play the 4 position, that really can change our team for the better,” Nelson said. “That’s where we like to have him. He’s strong enough to guard. We’ll give him a lot of help when he has mismatches. But I don’t know how they guard him with a 4. I just don’t. They can’t.”
They certainly didn’t on Tuesday, when Maggette scored 20 points against an assortment of forwards: primarily Aldridge, Channing Frye and Travis Outlaw.
More importantly, Maggette drew three offensive fouls on Aldridge, helping to drive him from the game after 19 1/2 Teddy KGB-like minutes (“I feel so un-say-tis-fied”): 2-for-7 shooting, four points (13 off his average) and four rebounds.
When Aldridge was matched up with Maggette, the Blazers looked for him practically every time downcourt. But when he got the ball (usually 12 to 15 feet out on the left wing) the Warriors would often run a second player at him — not in a hard trap, but a soft double that allowed them time to get back and recover. It was meant to convince Aldridge to give up the ball early in the possession, rather than allowing him the opportunity to back Maggette down, and it often worked.
But even when Aldridge did try to attack Maggette, it failed. He couldn’t get any traction, and settled for an 0-for-4 performance in head-to-head matchups with Maggette. (Aldridge’s buckets came over Morrow and Stephen Jackson).
“I think I’m going to be in a position, as well as Jack, where we might play 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5,” Maggette said earlier this season. “Am I ready for that? Yeah. I’m going to have to be. It’s what they expect of me, and you have to just buckle down. You never know what Nellie’s going to do.”
** Now, I don’t want to accuse Maggette of flopping on a couple of those offensive fouls (although the Warriors DO have a drill designed to enhance those skills).
Let’s just say this: For a guy with the musculature of a Mister Universe hopeful, Maggette sure did get knocked down pretty easily.
** Morrow looked so nervous at the outset — witness that first shot, which skimmed badly off the iron — I half expected him to go the full “Donovan McNabb in the huddle during the closing minutes of Super Bowl XXXIX” route.
But the undrafted rookie proved he has to be taken seriously with another outstanding shooting night: 8-for-12 overall, 4-for-5 on 3-pointers.
If Morrow can continue to have an impact for the rest of the season, Nelson will have a bevy of options when Monta Ellis comes back from his ankle injury. (Remember, Ellis is scheduled to have surgery Wednesday to remove the hardware holding his torn deltoid ligament in place; after that, assuming there are no complications, it’s just a matter of how fast Ellis can get back on the court.)
Since the Warriors are not going very deep — hey, look, it’s a six-man rotation! Shocking! — right now, there should be plenty of minutes to peel off and give to Ellis. Assuming the lineup stays small, and you have Jackson at the 3 and Maggette at the 4, what will be interesting to watch is whether Morrow gets placed ahead of Kelenna Azubuike at the 2.
** I thought Jackson might draw a flagrant foul for his no-chance-of-getting-the-ball, reach-around karate-chop on Brandon Roy with 2:45 left in the first quarter, especially given the circumstances: It came in Portland’s backcourt immediately after Jackson failed to get what he thought should have been a call while backing down Roy at the offensive end.
I don’t think Nelson was planning on pulling Jackson out at that point, but it was a very smart adjustment. Jackson got a rare chunk of first-half rest (he didn’t return until there was 9:10 left in the second period) and got his head on straight for the remainder of the game.
By the end of the evening, it was Rudy Fernandez who blew his cool entirely, although I have to agree with his complaint; Morrow had a whole fistful of shirt on that final inbounds play.
** Speaking of that end-game ridiculousness . . . I would hope the Warriors’ first order of business at practice Wednesday would be about 30 minutes working on inbounding the ball safely.
** 19 of 19 from the line in the fourth quarter? Sidney Moncrief earned his money right there.
** Andris Biedrins’ string of double-doubles ended, but his fast-break layup midway through the first half — in which he caught the ball at full speed, took one step to casually swivel around Steve Blake and finally switched the ball from his right hand to his left in mid-air before gently laying it home — was worth more than that whole streak.
** In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to keep tabs of the team’s actual record versus my prediction from last week. I had this down as a “LEAN LOSS,” so the Warriors flipped the outcome.
Predicted record on Dec. 17: 9-17. On pace for: 10-16.
Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net
17 Responses to “Thoughts on Game No. 11: Warriors 111, Trail Blazers 106”
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it’s games like last night (minus the last 2 minutes, of course) that get my hopes up…
ok geoff, be real with us. what real chance do we have at .500? after you’re done laughing, what chance you think we have at the P word…?
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Given that most people (Warrior fans included) had the team pegged as one of the worst teams in the league, 5-6 has to be pretty good. It will still be difficult to stay this close to .500 with a lengthy road trip and a young (presumably highly inconsistent) roster . . .
. . . but if we’re even within sniffing distance of .500 when Ellis returns (and is healthy), then you have to think we have a shot at the playoffs.
We’re still missing someone who’ll collapse defenses, so Ellis can only help there.
A 48 win team won’t be missing the playoffs in this West - San Antonio and Dallas are already stumbling, New Orleans isn’t as dominating as expected, Phoenix is too flawed to hang around at the top, and Houston recently lost McGrady for his annual doctor’s appointment.
We might end up praying for a top 3 pick, but there’s no reason to give up hope this early.
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M.Squared November 19th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I have to say- that while the small lineup was effective, I cannot agree with Wright only getting 8 minutes when he has had a succesful start to the season. They can’t hold back his development.
If you take 5 minute away from Maggette, Azibuike, and Jackson each- you have Wright playing 23 minutes.
Also- I am not sure what the hell Nelson was doing sitting Morrow at crunch time. I mean- when you are 8-12 from the field why is he not on the floor? They should ride the hot had until it cools off.
As much as I like Nellie, I can say some things about him are completely frustrating. Why doesn’t he call a timeout after the 1st… or 2nd botched inbound play to give them something to run? Yes, they should know how to run something on their own just to get the ball in, but it was pretty obvious that they didn’t, so why not take a t/o and get everyone on the same page. Unreal.Hey Geoff- Don’t splash the pot.
-M.squared -
Morrow admitted he was gassed after the Clipper game. The kid was probably exhausted by the 4th, playing over 35 minutes. He is still a rookie, after all. Conditioning probably isn’t all there yet.
Wright does need more burn.
The inbounds plays were INEXCUSABLE. Fines are seriously in order. On all three turnovers (counting the Fernandez near-miss), the passes were far too close to Blazer defenders. Pass recipients failed to seal off their men, passers were throwing the ball toward the Blazer basket instead of into the frontcourt.
Instead of standing around for the ball to come, the guards need to be moving to create a window to deliver the ball. Basic basketball. Azubuike, Morrow, and Jack are all to blame there.
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blahblahblah November 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Geoff -
Why no Morrow for most of the 4th?
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saltwatertaffy November 19th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Geoff, you wrote, “what will be interesting to watch is whether Morrow gets placed ahead of Kelenna Azubuike at the 2.”
I’ve been wondering the same thing…
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M.Squared: Nellie admitted he should have taked a timeout after the botched inbounds play (see http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/11/18/nelson-on-morrow-after-another-huge-performance-hes-the-real-deal/) and would have taken responsibility had they lost because of it.
Young team = learning and growing.
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Geoff Lepper November 19th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
BB: Are the playoffs a possibility? Can’t rule them out. I think Jon’s right: 45 wins should definitely get in, maybe even 44 or 43 at the low end. I still have them on pace to be 10-16 when Monta’s suspension is up. To get to 45 wins, they’d need to go 35-21 from there. That’s .625 ball — the equivalent of being a 51-31 team over the course of a full season. I don’t really see that happening, but it’s not completely out of the question. Basically, every win they get while Monta is out makes it exponentially more likely.
BTW, Hollinger’s playoff odds have the W’s at 23.1 percent. Of course, they also have Memphis at 19.0 percent, so don’t go betting the mortgage on it.
About Morrow in the fourth: The W’s tried to go super-small to start the fourth against Portland’s three ballhandlers (Roy, Rodriguez and Fernandez) — Morrow, C.J., Azubuike, Jackson at the 4, BW at the 5. They held things even at +7 from the start of the quarter to the 7:20 mark, when they brought back Maggette for Morrow.
They brought Maggette in at that point because Jackson had just drawn the Blazers’ fifth foul to put them in the bonus, and they knew he could get to the line and hit those shots (he went 6-for-6 in that final 7:20). Protecting a lead in that manner is a big strength of his.
But to get Maggette on the floor, they had to pull one of their other smalls out. There was no way it was going to be Jackson, so it came down to Morrow vs. C.J. vs. Azubuike.
I think they wanted C.J.’s ballhawking and Azubuike’s strength over Morrow’s shooting; they knew they were going to pound the ball into the paint with Maggette and Jackson, and you don’t want to be shooting 3s when you’re nursing a moderate lead in the fourth (What’s one of the fastest ways to give a losing team a boost? Throw them some long rebounds off treys that they can turn into run-outs for points.)
Also, don’t forget that Morrow gave up a couple of cheap 3s to Steve Blake in the first quarter; I think that played a part as well.
As for BW . . . well, after writing about 300 words here, I think that’s going to be another post unto itself.
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Chris Cohan November 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
On Wright,
It’s all over, folks.
Add him to this list of success:Joe Smith
Todd Fuller
Adonal Foyle
Vince Carter (Antawn Jamison)
Jason Terry (Mookie Blaylock’s rights and Jeff Foster)
Richardson
Dunleavy
Pietrus
BIEDRINS
Diogu
O’Bryant
Belinelli
RandolphWe’re going to ship one of Wright/Randolph. It’s fact at this point. It will be for something that lasts 2 years, tops. Nelson has done it again.
The Warriors are who we thought they were.
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blahblahblah November 19th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Geoff -
Appreciate the detailed response on Morrow. Makes sense to me (and I agree about long runouts off of missed 3-balls…although with Morrow, it’s likely a made 3-ball)
Thanks again for your knowledge
Blah
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On the Rudy/Morrow thing… The refs did well the recognize the play, when Morrow didn’t break free they had to know he was being held.
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M.Squared November 19th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
MOSDL-Good link on the Nellie/Morrow interview. I am glad Nellie stepped up and took that one.
Shame on those guys for not being to get it in with 3 tries- but he had to see this happening and call that t/o. Sounds like next time he will step up and do it.
From that link- it really doesnt sound like Wright did anything to get his minutes dropped except that he didnt fit into the small ball plan. I hope Nellie recognizes the long term neg effect and finds a way to get him 20-25 per night. Gotta be a priority. -
Playoffs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwq7BYOnDrM&eurlThe GSW will need a weaker NBA West if they’re to make the playoffs.
They have to protect the ball and be tops in the league in free throw %.
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People must realize that Nellie is not here to develop BW, AR or anybody else. If those guys can help him win NOW, they will get PT. Otherwise they will sit. Unless BW, AR and other guys can show Nellie that they can contribute NOW, they won’t play.
Cohan is not paying Nellie 5 or 6 mils to coach in an empty Oracle. in case people don’t remember, the W’s have paid over 200mils for AB, Monta, Jackson and Mags. Cohan wants wins NOW, not 3 or 4 years from NOW. If you want to get rid of Cohan, don’t buy tix.
I expect a major trade sometimes this year or next and guys like BW, AH. Belli etc…will be all gone.
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M.Squared November 20th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Cohan should piss off and sell the team to someone who knows how to run a franchise.
He’s a moron. -
JustPuked November 20th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Geoff,
Its true Morrow had a jersey full, but Rudy also had his hand on Morrow’s hip and held Ant from breaking for the lob. It could have been called either way, but Rudy definitely held him.
You probably missed it since you and Ric Bucher were so busy catching up. (tongue in cheek, of course)
Maggette held his own on D, but it’s not like he has a reputation for solid defensive work. You mentioned he started in the post, do you think he could survive the year playing sumo at the 4?
You could see Jackson’s payback foul coming from a mile away. Jax looked like he was going to blow a gasket when on his first post-up against Roy, Roy ripped the ball out of his hands, and then scored at the other end. Jackson’s “What!, No Call!” face is hilarious.
Nice call on why Mo’ Money Morrow sat in the fourth. Tim said something pretty similar. It’s been a long time (Maggette included) since I saw a Warrior head to the line with the game on the line and I had zero doubt he’d splash them. Morrow’s three free-throws did the trick. Here’s hoping he’s as good as he looks and not the next Flip Murray.
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final thoughts on playing/developing kids vs vets. Check out the Sac Kings. They wanted Reggie to play the kids so he playing them but they are not winning and fans are not coming to the arena. The Maloofs already put Reggie on the clock even though he is doing exactly what they wanted him to do. Boston tried the kids and it almost cost Doc his job. We fans love to see the kids but they won’t help win games. My guess is Nellie is trying to stay close to .500 til Mr Moped comes back….if they collapse and go 10-20 or 10-25 then we will see the kids but not now.
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