Behold the dichotomy of a team divided: meet your 2009-10 Golden State Warriors.
Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images
That particular photo doesn’t really capture the essence of the argument. Granted, while I was up in the upper deck with the denizens of GSoM screaming, “Put somebody on Scola,” Luis was quietly disembowling our starters in the third quarter with a variety of nice moves in the paint and keep-you-honest jumpers. And so soon it was all over on an Anthony Morrow miss from three.
But that’s not the real story. The story is more about the strange emergence of a new thread. A thread that is about the “me” versus “us” of it all. And the back and forth in scoring between the two teams bears out the notion. When it was a Maggette, Ellis, Jackson trio that the Warriors were relying on for scoring, there were problems. Too may isolations. Too many turnovers. Too little passing.
Azubuike, Morrow, and Curry? Different story. Beidrins and Turiaf were expected to do the dirty work and did, so they will be exempted from this discussion, but of the paired trios that were expected to put the biscuit in the basket, a dichotomy emerged. Not perfectly aligned with their production or the lineup order, but a dichotomy nonetheless.
Newly appointed captain Monta Ellis was solid on the stat sheet and still led in minutes and points. But he was minus 12 in his team-leading time on the floor. Erstwhile Cap’n Jax was straight Halloween booed at introductions and came up minus two in his 34+ minutes, in spite of a statistically prominent 17, 4, and 4 night. Finally, Corey Maggette would appear to have been the anomaly with his diving for loose balls and balanced night of scoring, rebounding, and defense, but still. It wasn’t there for him either when it came to the offensive end and team balance. Trust me. I know he was trying. I could tell. But it wasn’t. It’s not the Corey way. Plus, he was often overmatched by bigs. Such is Nellieball.
Meanwhile, when the chips were down in both the second and fourth quarters who were the catalysts? Morrow, on his way to a “hey guys, over here, I’m open” seven points (+5, if you’re scoring at home), Kelenna Azubuike 13 (+7), and young Steph Curry, for whom I need to stop the discourse for a moment.
If your newly de-captained Jack is running some point-forward ish in the second half of a game in which he has shown only marginal interest, after he was roundly booed on nearly every first-half possession, perhaps you should look to the ball handler who is on his way to a plus seven while on the floor and a handy seven assists to go with 14 points, and four steals. Basically, run with the people who increase the team’s score while they are on the floor. If this is the dramatically oversimplified lesson from opening night, forgetting Maggette’s statistics-belying selfishness with the rock, your new starting lineup would be this one.
Curry. Morrow. Azubuike. Maggette. Biedrins. Forget about whether they were playing against first or second teamers and consider only the plus minus. For this game. Why not? This is what they did. And then note that the Dubs lost by a single point.
Turman
PS. Thanks again to GSoM for some real fun in the 200s.
I’m going to go with an even more arcane system of judging performance than +/-, body language. I was there as well and even from The Club 200, it was easy to tell who was really in it to win it. Clearly, Azubuike and Morrow looked confident and vital in their body language. Turiaf appeared motivated as usual. Randolph was still too emotional and out of control. Curry looked too confident, cocky even. Maggette had the one dive for the ball that almost made me spit up my beer, but besides that, it was another day at the office. Jack and Beidrins looked like they know their days are numbered. And then there’s Monta who is completely inscrutable.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 10.29.2009 | 7:41 am
spot on Turman. crazy how clearly delineated the 2 lineups appeared. crazier that Nelson refused to rely heavily on the more successful one. we’re caught in the politics of having our most expensive players be the least effective. Stephen Jackson is a monster we created ourselves. never before has he successfully been any team’s best or even 2nd best player. never before has he been asked to do what we asked him to do, captaining the team, bringing up the ball, initiating the offense, taking all of the tough shots. but without Baron we were rudderless enough, and Jackson volatile enough, that putting these things on his shoulders, most with a calculated sense that he wouldn’t typically deserve them, made psychological sense. now he’s a guy who thinks that’s who he is. “freezing out” probably implies too much premeditation, but i was watching the game thinking “jack and monta are freezing curry out.” jackson’s running alongside a guy who’s going to find him open if he relinquishes the ball to him, but he can’t live with that, because his sense of open doesn’t match that of someone with a high basketball IQ, and he can’t trust that standing on the 3 pt line without the ball is going to get him his. so it’s jack against the world, which quickly devolves into monta against the world, and the kid who has it within him to make this all right for us is jogging around to the right spots and swallowing hard, and wondering what basketball bizarro world he’s wandered into.
Comment by derezee | 10.29.2009 | 10:42 am
I didn’t know Frankenstein played basketball for the Rockets.
Comment by kicknowledge | 10.29.2009 | 3:37 pm
Well said. Maggette is an absolute cancer. Worst shooter on floor, and that includes Biedrins, because knowing what shots you are capable of making automatically makes Biedrins better.
Magette is a farce, I don’t even buy his diving on the floor for loose balls. The dude is so calculating, I wouldn’t put it past him.
Comment by Nelliesliver | 10.29.2009 | 9:13 pm
saw Maggette last Monday walking through LAX in Ed Hardy gear, so…
Comment by derezee | 10.30.2009 | 8:24 am
re: Maggette in Hardy - that speaks volumes.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 10.31.2009 | 12:31 pm