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    27

    Thoughts on Game No. 15: Celtics 119, Warriors 111

    By Geoff Lepper
    48minutes.net

    (Apologies for the delay. Technological challenges while at a family gathering for Thanksgiving.)

    “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

    We begin our discussion of the Warriors’ 119-111 loss to the Boston Celtics with Det. Harry Callahan, a Bay Area icon in his own (albeit fictional) right. This is not because he blew up Hal Holbrook’s car in the same ruthless fashion that the Celtics mangled the Warriors’ offense when it counted on Wednesday.

    It’s because of Don Nelson’s assessment of the performance of his team, which was coming off a 24-point drubbing in Washington just 24 hours earlier: “Compared to our last game, we played about as well as we can play.”

    Was this the best the Warriors could play? Well, was it, punk?

    To tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track.

    In the “Yes” column:

    ** You can’t reasonably expect Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette to be more efficient on offense than they were last night: a combined 23-for-38 from the floor (5-for-10 on 3s) and 11-for-15 from the line.

    Maggette, who started back at his preferred small forward spot and stayed there for his first 23 minutes, was attacking the basket again with some verve. When he wasn’t doing that, he was taking jump shots that made sense in the offense, rather than being obviously forced.

    Jackson continues to hit shots of the “no-no-no-yes!” variety; his success with fadeaways from 18 feet out is actually starting to make me wonder if he can knock that down consistently.

    ** Ronny Turiaf had another strong performance at the defensive end, swatting five shots in 22 minutes although an injury to his right wrist appeared to curtail his effectiveness in the late going.

    In the “No” column:

    ** Jamal Crawford went 5-for-17 from the floor (2-for-8 on treys) with four turnovers and way too many pullup-and-let-fly 3-point misses to offset his six assists. And Rajon Rondo had his way with him at the other end of the floor.

    ** The young forwards made no real contribution. Brandan Wright started but was yanked early for Anthony Randolph, who tossed out two quick fouls (and engaged in a staring contest with Kevin Garnett) before heading back to the bench, never to be seen again.

    ** Even after going big for the first 34 minutes, the Warriors were still outrebounded, 47-34. Of course, more than half that deficit was rung up during the final 7 minutes, when Boston pounded Golden State’s smallball look by an 11-4 count.

    Not coincidentally, 11 of the Celtics’ final 19 points — taking them from a 100-102 deficit to victory — were of the second-chance variety.

    In sum: No, I wouldn’t say this is the best the Warriors can play right now. But I will allow that, other than perhaps the win over Portland, it’s the best we’ve seen them play so far this season. And the fact that it still came up short shows just how far the Warriors have to go before they can seriously consider the playoffs as a possibility.

    Notes
    I loved Turiaf butt-checking Garnett out of the way to clear the space for a second-quarter layup. Too funny. His clank from 17 feet out was not as humorous; he’s now 3-for-11 for the season beyond 15 feet after shooting a very credible 42.6 percent from that range last season. . . . When I see Garnett start to overaggressively body up his man in the backcourt, all I can wonder is, “Does anybody else get away without a foul call here?” Honestly, if Jackson plants himself a millimeter from Ray Allen while the pair are still 60 feet from the hoop, you don’t think the whistles would sound off immediately? . . . I don’t know if it’s simply a byproduct the increased attention that’s being to him, but Andris Biedrins is just kind of treading water right now in terms of his production.

    The Lineup Project
    Continuing our look at the Warriors’ use of small, medium and large lineups. For Wednesday:

    Lineup        Score             Time
    Large         N/A                N/A
    Medium      81-80, GSW    33:44
    Small         39-30, BOS     14:16

    It’s interesting to note that among the Medium lineups — anything two big men on the floor — the most successful pairing was the largest. During the 16:17 Turiaf and Biedrins were in the game together, the Warriors held a 43-32 advantage.

    Without Monta . . .
    The Warriors made good my prediction of a loss, keeping them on pace for an 8-18 start to the season while they wait for Monta Ellis’ suspension to end.

    Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

11 Responses to “Thoughts on Game No. 15: Celtics 119, Warriors 111”

  1. Gaucho November 27th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    hmmm… i have 1 question: what about starting Turiaf and Biedrins together?

    - Crawford
    - Jackson
    - Maggette
    - Turiaf
    - Biedrins

    what do you all think?

  2. Son of Ahmed November 27th, 2008 at 10:56 am

    Happy Thanksgiving, Geoff.
    Always serving a platter of great statistical analysis. I’ll have a little cranberry sauce and pumkin pie with mine, thank youl.

    When I saw CJW, JC, Az, Mags, and AB come on to the court after a timeout a little less than halfway through the fourth quarter, I knew the team was in trouble. The rebounding disparity and second and third shot chances doomed the Dubs in the fourth quarter. Your stats affirm what I saw.

    The dubs dominated the quarter where they dominated the boards. To be fair that was also the juncture where Boston’s big three were getting most of their rest.

    Thanks for keeping track of the big, medium, and small line ups.

    Still waiting for Nels to give you a bigger sample size for the big category. I won’t hold my breath.

    Keep up the great work!

  3. CL November 27th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    Gaucho,

    Your proposed line up has merit defensively but the problem I see is Biedrins and Turiaf can’t play all 48 minutes together at the 4-5 spots. When they do come off the floor to rest Nelson would probably replace them with Wright and Randolph. If I am the opposing coach, I would immediately instruct my players to take the ball inside until Nelson put Biedrins and Turiaf back out on the floor. That’s why I think Nelson seems to prefer using Turiaf as Biedrins’s back up to avoid the imbalance on defense.

  4. Jon November 27th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Geoff,

    Is it me, or has the high pick and roll simply disappeared from the playbook? Does Nellie just not trust anyone on the team to run it?

    As many have pointed out, our offense has degenerated into “dump it into the wing, clear out” far too often.

    Nellie is obsessed with creating mismatches through lineups, but he seems to give his team no help in the actual play calling. He calls this “the best we could play”, but really, two hot shooting nights from Maggette and Jack were what kept us in the game.

    Where is the coaching telling Jamal Crawford not to hoist 27 footers? How bout telling CJ Watson to force Rajon Rondo to shoot an actual jumper if he wants to score 20 points on us? If you’re going to send Biedrins to double team in the post, wouldn’t it help to have someone else BOX OUT to get a rebound?

    There is a point at which aggression is no longer an advantage; it is a liability. We have crossed that point. Nellie’s teams just don’t play with any intelligence.

    Our best power forward has been our backup center.

  5. Ray November 27th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    The Warriors went up against the best defensive team in the league and the woprld champs in there building to boot.If this was any other team in the league the warriors win this game.They are encouraging Crawford to get himself in the game but they shouldnt do it with him at point .When they rest jackson they should slide Crawford to sg and get him involved that way it gives Crawford a easier time finding touches without having to force shots and makes a clear distinction between establishing himself offensively at sg and distributing at pg.

    The warriors have got to learn how to value possessions that is ultimately their undoing in just about every game.At times when they need a key basket too many times it doesnt go the way of team work but someone trying to do it all by themselves.The other disturbing trend is that outside of Crawford and jackson the extra pass pass is missing and the scary thiong is that just about every time they make it one they hit the shot.

  6. THIZZ-A-LOT November 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    Yo some of those foul calls had me screaming. As well did some of the no calls, if we did what House did to Maggs we’d get a fine and a suspension. At least one of the fouls each by AR and BW were straight fiction. AB couldnt buy a foul, I know theyre the champs and were at home but i was livid!

  7. The Oracle November 28th, 2008 at 12:00 am

    Gaucho,
    That’s a solid line up.
    I would play AB 36m at Center and RT the other 12m at Center
    I would play RT 18-24, at PF and BW amd AR the rest.

    Either AB or RT would always be in at center so there would never be a time when one of them wasn’t holding down the fort. The PF would be a rotation of RT, BW and AR.

  8. howl November 28th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    there sure are a lot of Coach Dunleavy’s on this board.

  9. Son of Ahmed November 28th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    Baron Davis is in the room.

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