First let me start off with stating the obvious, going 2-1 on a West Coast swing is a good thing. I didn’t get a chance to fire off one of these last night so I don’t want the fact that we lost tonight & I will be complaining take away from the fact that I do consider this a successful road trip.
We haven’t turned the corner as a team yet but you can certainly start to see some improvement from where we were just 3 weeks ago.
Now having said that let’s deal with tonight’s loss.
The Warriors are actually pretty good. In the long run I don’t see them leading the Pacific but who knows with some of those teams out there. They have a really good back court & while they still need some more size up front they have at least started to play a far more physical game than they used to. You can thank Mark Jackson for that.
Honestly being the second night of a back to back I’m not surprised we lost and actually even though I can’t say we played particularly well I will say if Jack had not had the incredible shooting night he did I think we could have pulled this one out. But then again maybe not, can’t live off of what ifs. He did get hot and they pulled away.
Again I am not blaming the entire loss on this but once again Frank played the bench as a unit in the first and let the get behind on a G.S. 10-0 run before he did anything. The starters had the lead but once they lost the lead I think we battled back to take a one time two point lead but that was it. He has got to stop using them as a unit or if he must he has to realize right away when they get behind a 6-0 run he has got to stop it.
Now to their credit they played very well in the 3rd when the starters just didn’t bring it so there is that.
I think David West was just gassed and sadly right now we have to depend on him for almost 40 min. a night as on the W.C. trip Tyler has just been horrid. His shot is not falling and every since we have come out west his lack of vertical has really been exposed more than normal.
Also it is very apparent that Frank has a very short tolerance for Lance Stephenson. Lance made a mistake by not being ready for a pass that West threw to him causing a turn over and he also showed up late on a couple of defensive assignments and that was the night for him. I have no problem with that btw as long as he does that with most of the other players, but let’s just say that our other wing player is not held to the same standard and frankly tonight did not deserve to play one min. more than Lance.
Also just for an interesting bit of trivia for tonight. Miles Plumlee drafted at 26 was not dressed to play tonight (it was his turn to not play) and Festus Ezeli drafted at 30 started for the Warriors. Don’t get me wrong Mahinmi played well tonight, I thought anyway, but man wouldn’t it have been nice to have that big bruiser waiting in the wings?
Let’s just do grades for tonight.
David West: A
He is still living some off of that A+++ game from Sacramento. But you could tell he didn’t have his legs totally under him tonight but even with that he still led us in points, rebounds, steals and tied for the lead in assist. What more can you ask from the guy? I’m sure he would have liked to have gotten any help at all from someone beyond Hill & Roy but alas it wasn’t to be. While these are game to game reviews I want to say that West has stepped up and played large & in charge on this W/C swing.
Paul George: F-
His trade value will never be higher.
I was tempted to just leave it at that but his game is so putrid right now that I feel the need to add this. I never want to hear another word about moving Granger so Paul George can play his natural position of small forward. I knew at the time his 37 point game was pyrite and I said so after the game. Will he get better? Well frankly he has to, I don’t know if it’s possible to play worse. Hell Roy in his worst games of the season still somehow scored a point. He’s starting to make me miss Brandon Rush and I don’t even like Brandon Rush. Here’s a fun fact, he has now played in 17 games and has only shot a total of 33 free throws.
Roy Hibbert: B+
Very solid defensive game from Roy. He also did fairly well from the field and hit 3 of his 4 free throws. His rebounding might have been a little better but the danger of playing a team like the Warriors is that a lot of their shots go long so that kind of negates interior position. If we could have gotten anything at all from George Roy’s game was good enough to win. But when your small forward position nets you 8 points (all by the backup) everybody else is going to have to play above average. Well Roy defended slightly above average but his offense was just average.
Lance Stephenson: C
Started the game out great and even as bad as his night ended up it was still better that Paul George’s craptastic game. He made a couple of mental errors and Frank pulled him. I think he was hoping that lightning would strike again & Young would not only defend well but have another amazing scoring night. Didn’t happen and Lance was, IMO, needlessly benched. Still learning to move without the ball and I think that is probably going to be very hard to learn for him but he is getting better.
George Hill: A-
Just ran out of gas at the end. He could not keep up with the fresh Jack and then the refreshed Curry. Had a great night from behind the arc and almost brought us back in the game but I just think he didn’t have anything left.
Tyler Hansbrough: F
He also was scoreless but at least he only played 11 min. and frankly being a bench player isn’t expected to bring at least 14 points a night to the floor. Is that to much to ask of Paul btw? Just bring 14 points to the game on a nightly basis; I’ve given up on the 20ppg that we all thought might be there so how about just reaching double figures? Anyway Tyler has had a horrific W/C swing and he has got to get to playing better because West will not be able to keep up these kind of min. Maybe seeing Carlos Boozer will light a fire under him.
Ian Mahinmi: B+
We are finally starting to see what we saw in the pre-season from Ian. He fouls to much but I think we are just going to have to get used to that from him. He is doing a decent job of protecting the rim and while I’d like to see him get more active on the boards he at least has been playing offense like he means it lately. 6 of 8 from the line is a blessing. Again he played well enough from his position to win this game, if only he could have gotten some help from his small forward.
Gerald Green: B
Not the greatest defensive exhibition you will ever see but it was good enough. His shooting was solid and he was doing work on the board. In fact you could say that he played well enough from his position for us to have won the game. If only he could have gotten some help from his starter.
Sam Young: C+
Deducting some points for not hitting enough shots. However let’s be honest here if you are really needing him to hit his shots to give you a chance to win your likelihood of winning is not great anyway. Decent defense as always and hustle as always. But since I didn’t get to comment on his Kings game I’ll give him a little break on this game.
D.J. Augustin: C+
Honestly just too short for Jack. He couldn’t do anything with him because Jarrett would just pull up and nail the jumper right over him. But I still wonder why with his size he doesn’t try to press the dribbler and get the ball out of their hands. Decent from the field and he made good passes to get people good shots but they just flat out missed them. Still once again we are only able to get Hill 11 min. of rest for the game; I have real doubts about if George ever gets injured.
No real shame in losing the game but there is one player who should be ashamed of the game he played. Again good west coast trip and now we can come home for a day and get ready to face the Bulls.
We haven’t turned the corner as a team yet but you can certainly start to see some improvement from where we were just 3 weeks ago.
Now having said that let’s deal with tonight’s loss.
The Warriors are actually pretty good. In the long run I don’t see them leading the Pacific but who knows with some of those teams out there. They have a really good back court & while they still need some more size up front they have at least started to play a far more physical game than they used to. You can thank Mark Jackson for that.
Honestly being the second night of a back to back I’m not surprised we lost and actually even though I can’t say we played particularly well I will say if Jack had not had the incredible shooting night he did I think we could have pulled this one out. But then again maybe not, can’t live off of what ifs. He did get hot and they pulled away.
Again I am not blaming the entire loss on this but once again Frank played the bench as a unit in the first and let the get behind on a G.S. 10-0 run before he did anything. The starters had the lead but once they lost the lead I think we battled back to take a one time two point lead but that was it. He has got to stop using them as a unit or if he must he has to realize right away when they get behind a 6-0 run he has got to stop it.
Now to their credit they played very well in the 3rd when the starters just didn’t bring it so there is that.
I think David West was just gassed and sadly right now we have to depend on him for almost 40 min. a night as on the W.C. trip Tyler has just been horrid. His shot is not falling and every since we have come out west his lack of vertical has really been exposed more than normal.
Also it is very apparent that Frank has a very short tolerance for Lance Stephenson. Lance made a mistake by not being ready for a pass that West threw to him causing a turn over and he also showed up late on a couple of defensive assignments and that was the night for him. I have no problem with that btw as long as he does that with most of the other players, but let’s just say that our other wing player is not held to the same standard and frankly tonight did not deserve to play one min. more than Lance.
Also just for an interesting bit of trivia for tonight. Miles Plumlee drafted at 26 was not dressed to play tonight (it was his turn to not play) and Festus Ezeli drafted at 30 started for the Warriors. Don’t get me wrong Mahinmi played well tonight, I thought anyway, but man wouldn’t it have been nice to have that big bruiser waiting in the wings?
Let’s just do grades for tonight.
David West: A
He is still living some off of that A+++ game from Sacramento. But you could tell he didn’t have his legs totally under him tonight but even with that he still led us in points, rebounds, steals and tied for the lead in assist. What more can you ask from the guy? I’m sure he would have liked to have gotten any help at all from someone beyond Hill & Roy but alas it wasn’t to be. While these are game to game reviews I want to say that West has stepped up and played large & in charge on this W/C swing.
Paul George: F-
His trade value will never be higher.
I was tempted to just leave it at that but his game is so putrid right now that I feel the need to add this. I never want to hear another word about moving Granger so Paul George can play his natural position of small forward. I knew at the time his 37 point game was pyrite and I said so after the game. Will he get better? Well frankly he has to, I don’t know if it’s possible to play worse. Hell Roy in his worst games of the season still somehow scored a point. He’s starting to make me miss Brandon Rush and I don’t even like Brandon Rush. Here’s a fun fact, he has now played in 17 games and has only shot a total of 33 free throws.
Roy Hibbert: B+
Very solid defensive game from Roy. He also did fairly well from the field and hit 3 of his 4 free throws. His rebounding might have been a little better but the danger of playing a team like the Warriors is that a lot of their shots go long so that kind of negates interior position. If we could have gotten anything at all from George Roy’s game was good enough to win. But when your small forward position nets you 8 points (all by the backup) everybody else is going to have to play above average. Well Roy defended slightly above average but his offense was just average.
Lance Stephenson: C
Started the game out great and even as bad as his night ended up it was still better that Paul George’s craptastic game. He made a couple of mental errors and Frank pulled him. I think he was hoping that lightning would strike again & Young would not only defend well but have another amazing scoring night. Didn’t happen and Lance was, IMO, needlessly benched. Still learning to move without the ball and I think that is probably going to be very hard to learn for him but he is getting better.
George Hill: A-
Just ran out of gas at the end. He could not keep up with the fresh Jack and then the refreshed Curry. Had a great night from behind the arc and almost brought us back in the game but I just think he didn’t have anything left.
Tyler Hansbrough: F
He also was scoreless but at least he only played 11 min. and frankly being a bench player isn’t expected to bring at least 14 points a night to the floor. Is that to much to ask of Paul btw? Just bring 14 points to the game on a nightly basis; I’ve given up on the 20ppg that we all thought might be there so how about just reaching double figures? Anyway Tyler has had a horrific W/C swing and he has got to get to playing better because West will not be able to keep up these kind of min. Maybe seeing Carlos Boozer will light a fire under him.
Ian Mahinmi: B+
We are finally starting to see what we saw in the pre-season from Ian. He fouls to much but I think we are just going to have to get used to that from him. He is doing a decent job of protecting the rim and while I’d like to see him get more active on the boards he at least has been playing offense like he means it lately. 6 of 8 from the line is a blessing. Again he played well enough from his position to win this game, if only he could have gotten some help from his small forward.
Gerald Green: B
Not the greatest defensive exhibition you will ever see but it was good enough. His shooting was solid and he was doing work on the board. In fact you could say that he played well enough from his position for us to have won the game. If only he could have gotten some help from his starter.
Sam Young: C+
Deducting some points for not hitting enough shots. However let’s be honest here if you are really needing him to hit his shots to give you a chance to win your likelihood of winning is not great anyway. Decent defense as always and hustle as always. But since I didn’t get to comment on his Kings game I’ll give him a little break on this game.
D.J. Augustin: C+
Honestly just too short for Jack. He couldn’t do anything with him because Jarrett would just pull up and nail the jumper right over him. But I still wonder why with his size he doesn’t try to press the dribbler and get the ball out of their hands. Decent from the field and he made good passes to get people good shots but they just flat out missed them. Still once again we are only able to get Hill 11 min. of rest for the game; I have real doubts about if George ever gets injured.
No real shame in losing the game but there is one player who should be ashamed of the game he played. Again good west coast trip and now we can come home for a day and get ready to face the Bulls.
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