First Home Game, First Loss: Thoughts

Warriors Open Practice 10-13-12[This is where an awesome photo of an enraged Andrew Bogut would go, if I had one.]

Hate to sound like a homer, but tonight we saw some incredibly horrible officiating at Oracle. Of course I hate the calls that went against us — but  the reffing was incoherent, chopped up the flow of the game, and eventually inspired a boisterous chorus of “REF YOU SUCK!” from the infuriated crowd.

As a copy editor, I think my role is to help authors sound most like themselves; I enforce rules, sure, but with a light hand. I’d like to see more referees follow my philosophy: Enforce the rules of basketball, but let the flow of the game dictate which calls need to be whistled.

Tough loss, made worse by Greg’s noticing afterwards that we were -11 while Biedrins was on the floor. The earnest non-fan sitting next to us said she “felt sad” about players getting booed, but she’ll just have to get used to it — Biedrins isn’t going to be getting a warm reception from Warriors fans anytime soon.

The most interesting lineup we put on the floor was Bogut/Landry/Barnes/Curry/Jack — I’d love to see them play as a unit more. The plus/minus on the backcourt pair of Curry/Jack is going to be very interesting — Curry lit up the Grizzlies when he was playing shooting guard with Jack at point.

Brandon Rush going down the way he did made me sick to my stomach — and those were the very words Jerry West used in discussing the injury after the game. Hoping against hope that we’ll get good news after his MRI tomorrow; from our seats on the second level, it looked really, really bad.

Speaking of that post-game session: I went 1 for 2 at the free-throw line, putting me WAY ahead of Biedrins for the night.

photo by: yarnivore

First Game, First Win: Thoughts

Carl Landry for the Golden State Warriors

The bench was big tonight.

Tonight the Warriors faced down a terrifying situation: Stephen Curry’s ankle seemed fine, but he suddenly COULDN’T SHOOT! Surely it’s just an off night and not the result of a witch’s curse. Despite that, and David Lee’s similarly awful shooting effort, at the end we’d succeeded in the only stat that counts: Warriors 87, Suns 85.

Initial rumbling on various Warriors’ forums is that this was an ugly win. Really? Are we, as Warriors fans, in a position to be so picky? This win is a thing of shining beauty: Despite losing a SEVENTEEN POINT LEAD, we gutted out a win in a game we would surely have lost last year (or any of the previous few). This could have been one of those games where afterward the early scoring advantage was praised, the boys patronized with the scathing/charitable epithet “fun to watch”, and the fans left dissatisfied but hopeful — “We only lost by X!”

Happily, we’ve crossed into a new reality. One where the first five minutes of the game are a better highlight reel than any collective five minutes from all of last year! (Andrew Bogut in particular came ready to put on a show.) One where our BENCH is so deep that the hero of the game is our backup backup center! (Carl Landry scored 12 in the fourth quarter.)

There’s lots to critique about tonight’s game, and clearly some stuff to concern us, but I don’t have the heart to fuss about it right now. We went to Phoenix, we beat a team we knew we could beat, and we proved the guys can play hard, together, to pull out a win.

I’m happy.

Cumulative Rate Stats – Warriors Preseason

First 4 preseason games, roughly grouped by first and second units, descending by Points Per Shot.

  min MPG PPS FG% PTS/36 FGA/36 REB/36 BLK/36 STL/36 TO/36
Festus Ezeli, C 101 25.25 1.87 .800 9.98 5.35 8.20 2.85 1.07 1.43
Stephen Curry, PG 59 19.67 1.54 .577 24.41 15.86 4.27 0.00 1.83 4.27
David Lee, PF 92 30.67 1.43 .595 20.74 14.48 9.78 0.00 1.57 2.35
Harrison Barnes, SF 105 26.25 1.27 .514 16.11 12.69 4.11 0.34 1.03 2.06
Klay Thompson, G 112 28 1.14 .431 18.64 16.39 4.82 1.61 1.29 2.25
                     
Carl Landry, PF 97 24.25 1.47 .611 19.67 13.36 7.42 0.37 0.00 2.23
Brandon Rush, SG 92 23 1.38 .517 15.65 11.35 4.30 2.35 0.39 2.74
Richard Jefferson, SF 56 14 1.33 .333 10.29 7.71 7.07 0.64 1.93 1.93
Jeremy Tyler, F 47 11.75 1.20 .467 13.79 11.49 6.89 1.53 1.53 0.77
Jarrett Jack, PG 91 22.75 0.90 .310 10.29 11.47 3.16 0.40 1.58 1.98
Charles Jenkins, G 42 10.5 1.18 .455 11.14 9.43 4.29 0.00 2.57 1.71

 

#NBARank by Position

ESPN and the TrueHoops Network finished their annual rankings today. I thought it might be cute to sort out the top 180 or so players by supposed position – supposed because positions are kinda arbitrary to begin with. Kobe fans can be happy he’s at the top of a column, and therefore Number One somewhere.

Shooting guard is pretty weak in the league if you go more than four deep. The same is true at SF. Young guns like Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes have an easier path to the top 10 right now than point guards or power forwards.  The center ratings as a whole are probably the most confused – even moreso when we realize Bosh and Garnett are going to be playing a lot more “center” than “power forward”.

As far as the Warriors go, I don’t think Curry and Lee are too far off. They could both be a position or two higher, but that’s not too inaccurate. There are only 4 centers I’d trade straight-up for Bogut, given age and the reality that big men tend to injure their ankles or feet. Warriors are in red. Next up – what #nbarank can tell us about the perception of teams.

PG SG SF PF C
Chris Paul Kobe LeBron KLove Dwight Howard
DRose DWade KD Dirk Bynum
Westbrook Manu G Melo Blake G T Chandler
DWIll Harden Iguodala P Gasol M Gasol
Rondo Rudy Gay Pierce Bosh Duncan
T Parker Joe Johnson Deng LMA Horford
Nash Eric Gordon Granger KG Hibbert
Kyrie Monta Gallinari Josh Smith Noah
Curry Ray Allen Batum Zack Randolph Ibaka
Rubio Tony Allen Gerald Wallace Amare Cousins
Ty Lawson Tyreke Evans Kirilenko Ryan Anderson Al Jefferson
Kyle Lowry Paul George Shawn Marion Millsap Bogut
John Wall Kevin Martin Wilson Chandler David West Greg Monroe
Brandon Jennings Afflalo Kawhi DLee Nene
Mike Conley Jason Terry Battier Anthony Davis Gortat
Jrue Holiday George Hill Grant Hill Carlos Boozer Bargnani
Jeremy Lin OJ Mayo Thabo Sefalosha Luis Scola B Lopez
Dragic Stuckey Caron Butler Faried Javale McGee
Lou Williams Avery Bradley MKG Ilyasova DeAndre Jordan
Andre Miller Wes Matthews Odom Varejo Thaddeus Young
Calderon Billups Budinger Taj Gibson Omer Asik
Darren Collison Jamal Crawford MWP Kris Humphries Okafer
Jameer Nelson DeMar DeRozen Jared Dudley Elton Brand Pekovic
Mario Chalmers JJ Reddick Trevor Ariza Derrick Favors Chris Kaman
Devin Harris Courtney Lee Tayshawn Prince Brandon Bass Spencer Hawes
Jeff Teague Evan Turner Marvin Williams Nick Collison Kendrick Perkins
Eric Bledsoe Jason Richardson Mike Dunleavy Carl Landry Marcus Camby
Mo Williams Gordon Hayward Carlos Delfino Haslem Dalembert
Barea Marcus Thornton Steve Novak Derrick Williams Splitter
Ramon Sessions JR Smith Harrison Barnes Glen Davis Robin Lopez
DJ Augustin Klay Thompson Richard Jefferson Al Harrington Chuck Hayes
Isaiah Thomas Shumpert DWright Boris Diaw  
Jarrett Jack Brandon Roy   Darrel Arthur  
Gary Neal Marshawn Brooks   Jeff Green  
Raymond Felton Landry Fields   Tyler Hansbrough  
Brandon Knight Nick Young      
  Ronnie Brewer      
  Bradley Beal      
  Brandon Rush      

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