Updating the Previous Two Games

Sorry about the delay on posting these games. I fell a little bit behind. But I am making amends right now. In another sludgefest (no not slugfest) the Warriors beat the New York Knicks (again) by 2 points (again). This is a sludgefest because it appeared like the Warriors were running in mud. There was nothing easy about the game, but they still game out with the win, even with falling behind to the Knicks by 13 points. Jason Richardson had another solid game leading all scorers with 24 points, and Davis was a good distributor by dishing out 12 assists. On a side note to this game, the Knicks are a complete mess and I know people want to use this as an excuse to knock Larry Brown's coaching ability, but I disagree. I am a little Bias on this because I think that Larry Brown is one of the best coaches that Basketball has ever seen. I will also admit that he clearly cannot stay in one place too long either, but if that is knock on someone's ability then that isn't so bad. Oh yeah, back to my point. The problem with the Knicks is... The Knicks. That Roster sucks no matter who is coaching them. Isiah Thomas was a good player for the Pistons and a good coach for the Pacers, but he should not be a General Manager, or at least not a General Manager with an unlimited budget. In the time he has been GM he has gotten rid of every player that was there while he took over and made the team much worse. This is a team with a salary like the Yankees, but they play like an expansion team. If the Knicks want to win they need to fire Thomas and let Larry Brown take over. Plus they need to give him a couple of years just to fix the roster. The over priced garbage on this team will be hard to move. I will grant you that Larry Brown has a tendency to want to give up on players quickly (Darko Milicic) but you can't argue his ability to manage extremely talented players (Allen Iverson) or solid players (2003-2004 Detroit Pistons) and make them better. Give Larry a shot.

Now on to the Warriors game o Sunday night versus the Phoenix Suns. This was a tough game for the Warriors as there 4th game in 5 days. With Baron still hampered by the hamstring, the Warriors couldn't quite run like they would have liked with the Phoenix Suns. Last year with Baron Davis on the squad the Warriors beat the Suns at home and away. The Warriors battled back the whole game trying to make up for the 17 point deficit that they accrued during the first quarter, but they couldn't get closer then 6 points. A valiant effort, but still a loss, bring the Warriors record to 4-3.

Here are some quick Warriors notes. The success of the Warriors leans heavily on the health of Baron Davis. The Warriors need a healthy Baron Davis to be a playoff team. We will see when they can get him back to 100%. Clearly the Warriors are better with him then without him, as was clear in the Utah game, but should the Warriors try giving him a couple of days off to heal so they have a 100% Baron and try to just will themselves to victory while he gets better? That is the million dollar question. If they rest him, then Mike Dunleavey better finally remember how to play basketball. His play this year has been horrendous and considering that he just came off signing a 5 year $45 million dollar contract right before the start of the season, that is unforgivable. The Warriors might be better served to start Pietrus (my opinion even before the season started) and let Dunleavey try to regain his confidence coming off the bench. The last note is also injury related. The Warriors will be a stronger team with the return from injury of Ike Diogu, Andris Biedrins and Chris Taft. Although Taft is playing through his wrist injury, it has limited his effectiveness. Diogu and Biedrins will give the Warriors some added inside players to at least improve the defensive rebounding, but Diogu should help the offense on the inside as well. This of course cannot be substantiated by me though because he hasn't played an NBA game yet, other then summer league against other 2 year or less experienced players or people trying to make a team.