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I was punished after the basketball gods forced me to watch a Steph-less Warriors against an already boring Memphis Grizzlies team. The game lived up to all the hype as both teams shot below 45%.
In the end, the Warriors lost 88-81 in overtime and their 12th in a row against the Grizzlies. The Warriors had a chance to win the game as Andre Iguodala tried to recreate some of his Oklahoma City Thunder magic, but missed his last second fade-away jumper.
The first half was pretty typical Warrior basketball: excellent shooting partnered with solid defense. It’s why they had a 10- point lead going into the half. It slowly evaporated to start the 3rd quarter as the Grizzlies went on a 15-2 run. Let me stress how slowly this lead went away. It took Memphis 5 minutes and 10 seconds to complete the run. That is basically half a quarter of domination.
The Warriors hung around and were down two entering the 4th quarter. Memphis led by seven with 10:30 left in the 4th quarter before the Warriors went on a little run of their own to draw neck and neck; and that’s where it stayed for the rest of the way.
Golden States’ 8- point run took two minutes, but unfortunately they just didn’t have enough in the tank to win. In overtime Tayshaun “ET” Prince made two of the most ridiculous jumpers I have ever seen; partially because it’s ET and he shoots under 40% from the field, but also due to the severity of the shots. He closed out the game and phoned this one home for the Grizzlies.
Some good things I took away from the game
- Andrew Bogut, when healthy, is a top 10 center in the NBA. The Warriors are a different defensive team when he is on the floor. His ability to protect the rim and lock down man to man defense makes him an elite defender. Tonight he was Zach Randolph’s kryptonite, holding him to one field goal in the last 4 minutes of regulation. He is also the Warriors best front court passer. He sees the floor extremely well and places pin point passes to back door cutters or to mismatches in the post. His only issue is his limited minutes due to consistent foul trouble. If he wasn’t so white I would think he was Demarcus Cousins the way he gets into foul trouble so quickly.
- The Warriors defense had another solid game holding the Grizzlies to 38.6% shooting from the field. They played excellent on ball defense and forced the Grizzlies into mid-range jumpers which are not their strong suit. Without Steph on the floor tonight every line-up the Warriors had was excellent defensively. Aside from David Lee, everyone was a very good defender and made it tough on an already poor offensive team.
- Draymond Green is an excellent role player off the bench. If he can consistently shoot 40% from three with excellent defense and effort he will be a very productive player off the bench.
Now it’s time for Matt’s Home Improvements
- First and foremost will be the disgusting number of offensive rebounds the Warriors allowed the Grizzlies. That combined with the high number of turnovers and you get a recipe for disaster. When you hold a team to under 40% shooting you should win every time. The Grizzlies were able to create six more shots from the field, which ended up being the difference in the game
- The second major issue revolves around this new Andre Iguodala last second shot dynamic. I was extremely excited when he made that fade-away for the win against OKC, but he is not a good jump shooter. He took the final shot in the 1st, 3rd and 4th quarter for the Warriors tonight. He shot fade-aways on all three attempts and went 0-3. I can think of three Warriors I would rather have shoot a jump shot at the end of the game. First, is obviously Steph but he was not on the floor tonight. The Second is Klay Thompson, who is a much better shooter than Iguo. The third is Harrison Barns who loves to shoot mid-range. You could argue that Iguo may be more clutch, but it’s irrelevant. If Steph isn’t on the floor and you know Klay is going to get doubled then just pass it to Barnes.
- Finally, the Grizzlies controlled the pace tonight. The only time the Warriors really pushed the tempo was in the 4th quarter when they went on their run. Otherwise, in the first half they just beat the Grizzlies at their own game. That came back to bite them in the 3rd quarter when the Grizzlies turned up the defensive intensity. If this Warriors team wants to go far in the playoffs they need to learn to assert their up tempo style on other teams.
Obviously the offense struggled without Steph on the floor. So far the Warriors are 0-2 against the Grizz, but really haven’t played at full strength yet. Steph was about 50% in the first game and didn’t play in this one. That would be like taking Z-Bo away for the Grizzlies and having them play the Warriors. I am not going to make excuses because the Warriors are going to have to play without Steph and other players throughout the year because injuries are just part of the game.
On a completely opposite note how the hell did Marvin Williams fall with all his weight on Steph’s head. Can’t you just fall on his back or something? His head? That’s a classic c’mon man! Well it’s off to LA to take on the lowly Lakers where Josh and I will be performing a running commentary. Hopefully Steph will back then and the Warriors will lay a beating in Staples.
One more quick tangent that I thought I needed to add. You can only be bad on defense if you have some sort of exceptional offensive skill that makes up for your poor defensive play.
Steph has that offensive gift but I am not sure David Lee does. He averages a double double, but in meaningless minutes. He can’t get his shot whenever he wants and he turns the ball over a lot late in games. I just think come playoff time his minutes need to be limited.
It says something that the Warriors played better basketball without him in the playoffs last year. They played better tonight when he was on the bench. This team may be more suited to win in a playoff atmosphere when he is not on the floor. I am not saying he can not be very productive come playoff time, but he should not be playing during crunch time. That is all!
