Makes Love to Pressure

The season is all but over at this point. The Golden State Warriors were out-played and out-coached in the most critical game of season against the Denver Nuggets. After starting hot and taking a 16 point lead in the first quarter, the Nuggets went into a zone defense and the Warriors settled for jump shots. Coach Nelson also did not call a timeout during the Nuggets comeback run to emphasize to the players to break down the zone; instead, the team became more and more frustrated and chucked up shots quicker and quicker.

It didn’t help that the main chuckers, Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson, were a combined 14 of 42 including 3 of 15 from the three point line. The lack of bench play was also a sore point for the Warriors. While the Nuggets received 34 points from their bench with the athletic JR Smith and the scrapper Edjuardo Najera, the Warriors received 7 points from Kelenna Azubuike and Matt Barnes. The fact that Coach Nelson did not play the bench at all throughout the entire season may have attributed to the undeveloped bench’s play.

Since the Coach did not trust the bench enough to play them decent minutes through the season, the starters were forced to play a high amount of minutes. In some cases, the minutes played were a career high as can be seen by Stephen Jackson’s 39:23 minute average. The game against Denver was no different. The bench contributed nothing, the starters played almost the entire game. As the legs got tired and worn down, the drives to the basket ceased, the passes become lazy and the focus goes out the window.

The only chance left for the Warriors to make it into the playoffs is to win their last three games of the season and hope Denver loses 2 of their last 3.

Taken by Rocky Widner (NBAE/Getty)

Stephen Jackson’s Line:

Tags: 2007-2008 Season, Denver Nuggets, NBA
Posted under On the Court |