Game report -- Warriors/Mavs on Wed. 7/11

After I spent the last Warriors game cringing in terror at the outside-shooting brickfest they put on, I'm happy to report that this game had a much more encouraging start.

Troy Murphy hit 4 jumpers in the 1st quarter alone, plus a beautiful up-fake move in the low post for a three-point play. His pet shots so far appear to be drifting to the corner on a fast break for an open jumper, or a standstill jumper near the free throw line if his man doesn't come out on him aggressively enough. Ran the floor well again offensively, and showed quick reactions on defense, blocking a couple of shots and deflecting loose balls.

Jason Richardson made his first two 3-point attempts, and also drew three fouls in first 7 minutes of the game. He doesn't take anyone off the dribble per se, but does have an OK up-fake he uses to freeze his defender, then drives.

Both Murphy and Richardson cooled off after the first quarter, though, making the game a tight contest. Both seemed to be streak shooters in the sense that if they made one outside shot, they'd make two or three before missing (and vice versa).

Although Gilbert Arenas shot a better percentage (3-6 FGs), he airballed his first jumper badly, and the only non-layup he made was a probably unintentional bank shot in the lane to put the Warriors ahead in the final minute. He did flash some PG skills, though, if somewhat inconsistently -- bringing the ball upcourt on several possessions and doing a reasonably good job of pushing the tempo. Nominal PGs Dean Oliver and Rashad Phillips were OK at distributing the ball, but otherwise not major factors. Phillips, by the way, is really small -- IMO, nowhere near his listed height of 5'10".

In the 1st half, the Warriors got worked inside by the stronger/more athletic bodies of the Mavs Donnell Harvey, Derek Hood, and Obinna Ekezie and respectable PG play from God Shammgod and Kenny Satterfield.

Harvey and Ekezie are the classic undersized NBA PF-types who thrive against the smaller and less talented summer-league competition. Hood is much the same, but has some nice touches of finesse to his game (I think I remember him from the McDonald's high school game, around the time of Kevin Garnett). Sadly, he's a dreaded PF/SF tweener with no outstanding skill to get him over the hump.

The Warriors won by tightening up their interior defense somewhat in the 2nd half, and especially down the stretch. They built a 6-point lead late in the game, then let it slip away via a stretch of botched possessions (including at least 2 poor passes by Arenas). After Arenas' go-ahead hoop, though, they played outstanding D on the last play ... nothing flashy, just staying in everyone's jerseys and forcing a tough shot, then snaring the rebound and icing the game with free throws.

My favorite sequence came in the early 4th period: Jason Richardson makes a step-back jumper (his second of the quarter), then a Superman leap to block Derek Hood's layup attempt, gets the ball back and executes a 360-degree dribble just past midcourt to avoid traffic, but unfortunately misses the 3-pointer that would have torn the roof off the place.


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Sorry, but I'm not going to any of the games today/tonight.

The only game I was interested in seeing was the Rockets-Clippers, but I'm committed to seeing a friend's band play tonight in Hollyood, so at best I would have only caught the first half.

It's such a long drive from where I'm staying to Long Beach that I didn't feel up to making the huge commute again just to catch an hour of hoops. If I was the only correspondent you had I might have felt duty-bound to go , but I remember reading that a couple of other BBSers plan to be there.

I'll be back on hoops patrol Friday through early Tuesday.

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[This message has been edited by Swopa (edited July 12, 2001).]