BURN THE BRIDGES!
-VS-
Game Time Start: 10:30 PM EST
Where: Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA
Officials: K. Mauer, D. Bavetta, K. Lane
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Golden State Notes
Television: FOX Sports Indiana / Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM / KNBR 680 AM
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PACERS Danny Granger - left knee tendinosis (out) WARRIORS Andrew Bogut - "left ankle rehab" (out) Brandon Rush - torn left ACL and MCL (out) Richard Jefferson - strained right calf (out) |
Nate Parham: How are the Pacers coping with Danny Granger's absence? The Golden State Warriors host the Indiana Pacers tonight at 7:30 p.m. PST at Oracle Arena. Although the Pacers have been hot lately, a Q&A with SB Nation's Indy Cornrows reveals that they still have some weaknesses that the Warriors can exploit. I can't even believe I'm writing this, but the Golden State Warriors enter tonight's game against the Indiana Pacers tied for first place in the Pacific Division game having won 6 of their last 8 games. As Andy Liu wrote here on Tuesday, "With Danny Granger out and no special scorers on the Pacers' roster, the Dubs should have no problems taking care of them." Add to that the way the crowd at Oracle helped lift the Warriors to a win against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night and it's easy to imagine them adding another notch in the win column. However, despite Granger's absence and the team's offensive struggles, the Pacers find themselves coming to Oakland having won 5 of their own last 7, including a dramatic win against the L.A. Lakers (no, I have no idea what's happening in the Pacific Division this season either, but let's just go with this before someone wakes us up from this dream). So what's going right with the Pacers? Who will maintain their momentum? For some rival insight to counter our West Coast bias, I contacted Ian Levy of SB Nation's Indy Cornrows with a few pre-game questions about Granger, the seeming emergence of George Hill in his absence, and what the Warriors would have to do to stop the Pacers from finishing their California road trip unblemished. GSoM: I'm pretty sure that last time Tom Lewis & I did a Q&A it was in response to flimsy trade rumors about the Warriors offering their #7 pick for the likes of Danny Granger (and interestingly, Harrison Barnes has been compared to Granger once or twice around GSoM). At that time, Tom wrote, "...the team needs to hang on to Granger now and continue improving in other areas. They don't have anyone who can fill in that 18-20 points per game with the ability to score 35..." Yet the Pacers have won 5 of their last 7 without Granger and the two losses (at New York, vs. San Antonio) are perfectly reasonable. What has the team been doing over the last 7 games to make up for the absence of Granger? Ian Levy: They've been defending well, and getting just enough offense. One of those games was the ridiculous Paul George 37 point effort, an scoring output that he won't be duplicating on a regular basis. The Pacers have been talking about new movement, both ball and player, that they've installed in their offense but for the most part things look just as stagnant. They've been getting timely offense contributions from David West and George Hill and that's helped them squeeze out some games. Grinding out wins is a terrific change from where they were two weeks ago, but there is still a lot more ship-righting to do. With regards to Granger, the Pacers certainly miss his points. But the real problem is the way his absence has pushed everyone to the fringe of their own offensive efficiency. Everyone is having to do a little bit more, and in ways they are not entirely suited for, which has dragged down the efficiency of the entire group. If and when Granger returns everyone can slide back into the usage tier they're best suited for. GSoM: I thought it was really awesome to see a Pacers team playing without their "name" star beat a glitzy Lakers team with multiple stars in LA. For fans that don't watch the Pacers too often, what might we be able to take away about the Pacers from that big win in LA? IL: The big take-away was that for all the offensive problems they've had this season the Pacers are still one of the best defensive teams in the league and have the pieces in place to win some games primarily with their efforts at that end of the floor. The Pacers simply cannot score consistently this season, but their effort level and defensive intensity hasn't waned. However, needing a last second shot to win a 79-77 game, against the similarly...CONTINUE READING AT GOLDEN STATE OF MIND |
Jack Winter: Starters Underwhelm for Warriors The Oklahoma City Thunder are the NBA’s modicum for patient, earned, and seemingly sustainable success. Just three years removed from a 3-29 start and in-season coaching change, OKC was a Finals participant last season in a closer-than-it-looked five game series. The trade of James Harden not withstanding, they boast a young, versatile roster with two bonafide superstars, a near All-Star big man that’s only getting better, and solid ancillary parts that play their roles to perfection. They’ve got a model lockerroom culture and maybe the league’s most passionate fanbase, too. So for the perpetually downtrodden Warriors, most any comparison to the Thunder should be welcome and a sign of encouragement. At 8-6 and currently sixth in the Western Conference, that Golden State is even a potential playoff opponent of OKC after the season’s first month is worthy of a small celebration. After all, this franchise hasn’t enjoyed this much pre-New Year winning since the “We Believe” days of 2006. So before we get to the problem at hand, take a moment to appreciate where the Warriors are right now and realize that the following is the type of nit-picking reserved for teams with legitimate and meaningful longterm goals for this season. Basically, know that the purpose of this discussion is good even though it’s bad. So other than the shooting woes of their young, star point guards, what do the Thunder and Warriors have in common? Their starters are absolutely killing them. This is an issue for Oklahoma City that’s well-known; you don’t play in the Finals and have players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook without constant national analysis and scrutiny. The Thunder’s opening quintet of Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, and Kendrick Perkins puts them in an unnecessary whole almost every game, for the simple reason that they just can’t score. The hope and justification for this lineup is that that problem is offset by better play on the other end, most notably influenced by the presence of Sefolosha and Perkins. But that wasn’t the case in 2011-2012 and certainly hasn’t been so far this season either, as chronicled here by the always must-read John Hollinger. The Warriors suffer from the same affliction, and it’s especially comparable to OKC’s because the supposed “stoppers” – rookies Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli – play roles similar to Sefolosha and Perkins. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and David Lee are three of Golden State’s best offensive players, and collectively present a net negative on the other end. Lee is especially poor defensively, and Curry and Thompson – though the latter is improving – are prone to foul trouble. So it makes sense to pair that trio with Barnes, a wing with a rare combination of size and quickness, and Ezeli, a great rebounder and paint intimidator. The expectation, like the one back East in Oklahoma, is that less give-and-take on one end or another would yield better balance and ultimately an early lead. But that on-paper thought hasn’t come close to materializing on the court, as the Warriors’ starters have been awful on offense and merely average on the other end, a fact best reflected by that group’s relation to the team’s offensive and defensive ratings overall. Let’s bullet for emphasis.
Yikes. The trade-off that Mark Jackson anticipates just isn’t there, mostly due to this group’s complete ineptitude on offense; these guys just can’t score. Part of that is likely due to the shooting struggles of Curry and Thompson and the price of playing two rookies simultaneously, but even if they come around on offense it still won’t be enough. Golden State is much-improved across the board defensively this season, so being better by mere percentage points on that end hardly justifies the minutes this ill-fitting quintet is getting right now. Want more evidence? It’s everywhere...CONTINUE READING AT WARRIORS WORLD |
Pacers Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows |
Warriors Tim Kawakami @timkawakami Marcus Thompson @gswscribe J.M. Poulard @ShyneIV Golden State of Mind @unstoppablebaby |
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