It was fun to be at the Warriors/Cavs game last night, which was a really bizarre game. At the beginning of the third quarter, the Warriors were up by 19. Even without Boom Dizzle and JRich, and with both Monta and Biedrins having slightly off nights, they were playing great, pretty much entirely due to Al Harrington (14 pts, 12 rebounds, 3 assists) and Stephen Jackson (season-high 29 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, 5 3-pointers), who was simply stellar. The Cavs didn't look good, not even when they were winning. This is obviously due to the traveling; they must be exhausted. Also, I'm sorry to say, I'm not personally drawn to their style of play. How many times can Varejao fall down in one game, only getting the calls he wants a small percentage of the time? However, as tends to be the pattern, the Warriors simply fell apart. They imploded. What was bizarre was that it looked like they were getting the same looks overall that they were in the first half, but not a single shot was going in. You have to give the Cavs credit for coming out with such tremendous energy after the half. At the end of overtime, Stephen Jackson sent up a beautiful 3-pointer for the win, and it just didn't fall. I think that's fine, though. In some ways, it would have been just too much to win like that their first game together.
It was interesting to watch how the Warriors and Pacers used their new players yesterday. It's strange to watch the Pacers play the Knicks; the old rivalry is just a specter since the two teams are just shells of their former selves. For a few minutes there it looked like the Knicks were going to end up losing their third game in a row by 1 point, but thankfully it didn't happen. Dunleavy and Murphy played quiet but respectable games, and there were very nice signs in the stands welcoming them, which is probably a nice change after the boos Dunleavy would get here if he missed a single free throw. Indiana is probably happy to get some clean-cut white boys (TMurph cut his hair for the occasion), and Oakland doesn't mind being a repository for felons. I've been curious about what it's like to throw new players into the mix, who don't know the plays and just don't have a sense of their teammates yet, but as Jake pointed out during the Warriors game last night at one point it was as though the Pacers were playing, since Jackson and Harrington and Jasikevicius were all on the floor, so they obviously know what to do together.
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A few notes from the nosebleed seats at ORACLE ARENA last night:
The trade was good for the warriors. It might have also been good for the pacers, but from my perspective, they are still a few donuts short of a dozen, so to speak. Stephen Jackson exceeded my expectations as a pure scorer. With Baron Davis and Jason Richardson healthy, that's a pretty sweet 3rd option. Harrington is a great player, but I have noticed all season that he has a suspiciously low shooting percentage. I don't know exactly why that is. Sarunas looked really comfortable at PG, and knocked down some sweet shots, including one crucial one. Definitely more than I expected. I said that with Baron Davis suspended for the game that "this team belongs to Monta," but Sarunas held the reins down the stretch instead. The game as a whole was a hard to stomach, especially because, as Ben pointed out, the cavs win meant that the Pistons did not overtake the lead in the central, after an all-too-rare "easy" win over a mowhawked Ron Artest's Kings. Phoebe's right, though -- the Warriors kept getting all the shots that they could have wanted or needed, they just bricked more wide-open threes than I thought possible. Then again, it was the law of large numbers, because I think they were 7/10 from 3-point land to start the game, so you almost expect the next 10 shots to miss in order to maintain a wordly 35% . . . My favorite moment for the cavs was went Varejao scooped himself up off the floor to give a bear hug to a decidedly indifferent Ilgauskas, who had just chipped in a put-back while getting fouled. Speaking of Ilgauskas, he looked like he could have been Biedrins' dad. And speaking of the former soviet block, who the hell is Sasha Pavlovic?? Also, David Wesly got some playing time -- he was basically out of the rotation for the entire road trip -- I thought he was their big free-agent signing over the summer . . .
Props, Le B: the warriors held you to a quiet 4th quarter, but you managed the ice-cold 3 with nothing on the shot clock to effectively end the game in OT.
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