POSTGAME

** FINAL: Warriors 111, Mavericks 104. INSTA-STAT OF THE NIGHT: Monta Ellis (13 points), Stephen Curry (11 points) and Anthony Morrow (5) combined for 29 of Golden State’s 33 points in the fourth quarter, as the Warriors outscored Dallas by 12 in the final period.

FOURTH QUARTER

** Tommy Abdenour is working over Monta Ellis’ calves at every opportunity. Not clear what kind of shape he’ll be in tomorrow night in San Antonio. Of course, since it’s San Antonio (which means an automatic L for this team), who cares?

** Curry with the floating, one-legged runner high off the glass. That’s just a aesthetically gorgeous shot.

** Kidd/Barea miscommunication gives Monta an open look on the S/R, and he’s gone for a critical layup.

** Curry 3-pointer to put the Warriors up three with 2:20 left.

** Curry drove the length of the court, drew defenders to the middle — leaving Monta Ellis wide open at the 3-point line on the left wing — and got blocked on a layup rather than pass to Ellis. Freezing works both ways, I guess?

** Great look from Curry for the Randolph oop dunk to get the Warriors within two points at 98-96.

** Too many one-on-one Ellis forays where he’s not even looking to pass. And it’s interesting how much of an effect Kris Humphries’ defense is having on him.

** The next adjustment the Warriors will need to make is how to deal with early, trapping doubles on Ellis from teams looking to force the ball out of his hands.

THIRD QUARTER

** After praising Monta’s D, he’s getting run all over the perimeter and losing that battle.

** When Stephen Jackson was here, he took about a third of the initiating duties, splitting them along with Curry and Ellis. With Jackson gone, pretty much all of those possessions are getting invested in slashes to the hoop by Ellis.

** Monta is backing up his defense against Portland with another quality performance tonight. Also, it’s interesting to note that the Warriors are shading every S/R situation by having the on-ball defender slide over toward the pick, looking to initiate contact early and make it easier to cross over the top of screens. It’s an adjustment that’s worked nicely so far.

** Jason Terry starts the second half as the Mavericks try to go small.

SECOND QUARTER

** Jason Kidd abuses Stephen Curry in the low post, draws a third foul and forces him to the bench: He’s…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your (mostly) daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

WEB MEDIA

NBA.com (Geoff Lepper): Yes, it’s an absolute, bald-faced abuse of power in the interest of self-pimpage. And your point is what, exactly?

NBA FanHouse (Chris Tomasson): Even from across the country, Stephen Jackson keeps on bashing the Warriors’ commitment to winning. You’ve gotten out, Stephen. You won. Just let it go, man.

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I have to admit, I didn’t think much of all the praise being lavished upon the Warriors in the wake of their two “close” defeats in Cleveland and Boston earlier this week. I thought the only things missing from all the happy chatter were some freshly-sectioned oranges and homemade Rice Krispie treats, because it all had that air of youth-soccerdom: Good job, way to go, you tried hard and that’s what matters.

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

PRINT MEDIA

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Eons from now, when they sing songs of the Warriors’ greatness in Valhalla, the Ballad of Raja Bell will ring forth and be heard.

(Of course, that’s not going to help Golden State in the here and now, as Bell is still set to undergo wrist surgery that probably, knowing this club’s luck, will cost him the rest of his season.)
Also: Ronny Turiaf’s bad knee would be in great shape if only the NBA were played on a straight line, kind of like this game.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Everybody feels good about losing because they’re close losses. We’ll see how long that lasts.

WEB MEDIA

NBA.com (Couper Moorhead): Kevin Garnett tries his hand at creating his own Yogism: “Nellieball is something different. It’s always been effective when it worked.”

Read the rest of this entry…

POSTGAME

** It’s a final at Celtics 109, Warriors 95. INSTA-STAT OF THE NIGHT: Through 11 games (one-eighth of the season), the Warriors have allowed opponents an eFG% of 55.3 percent. In the 30 years since the NBA ushered in the 3-point shot, there have been exactly ZERO teams with defenses that were that bad over the course of a full season.

The closest? The 1984-85 Warriors, which gave up a 54.0 mark while being anchored by Purvis Short, Sleepy Floyd, Jerome Whitehead, Larry Smith and Lester Conner. Johnny Bach was the coach, and they finished 22-60.

Part of it is that the Warriors have already faced the top three teams in the league in eFG% and all of those games were on the road. But there’s an interesting correlation to Golden State’s victories and the opposition’s eFG% rank on the season:

The losses: home vs. No. 10 (HOU), road vs. No. 1 (PHX), home vs. No. 12 (LAC), road vs. No. 21 (SAC), road vs. No. 24 (IND), road vs. No. 17 (MIL), road vs. No. 3 (CLE), road vs. No. 2 (BOS).

The wins: home vs. No. 23 (MEM), home vs. No. 28 (MIN), road vs. No. 22 (NYK).

The upshot is that if you’re a team that can shoot worth a damn, you will get enough open shots to beat the Warriors. Regardless of what Golden State’s offense is doing.

** @Swopa: Both things are true. Randolph needs to make more of those shots to be effective, and Nelson needs to not have such a tight leash so as to pull Randolph when he misses one badly, as has happened plenty of times over the last season-plus.

FOURTH QUARTER

** The Celtics’ sloppy play is leaving the door open for the Warriors to mount a comeback.

** Raja Bell might be the most effective one-armed athlete since Pete Gray.

THIRD QUARTER

** Celtics push it out to double-digits as the Warriors have scored 13 points in nine-plus minutes this quarter. When their offense dries up and the 18-footers stop falling, the Warriors can’t force tough shots in the manner of top-notch defensive teams, and thus can’t maintain contact, score-wise.

** @Swopa: That’s why it says “making” them. Obviously, when Randolph misses them, he’s ineffective, as I’ve said approximately 400 times on this site.

** The Warriors are doing a great job of poaching lazy passes and finding the open man on the run-ahead. If they could just keep hold of the…