Golden State game ...Friday

Guess even some of the cheap seats are going for $400.

Might catch a bit of a break as Thompson turned an ankle late in their win last eve. Surprised his elbow is fine and not inflamed after burning 10 treys last eve...9 in the first half.

We can put pretty good pressure on the outside but GS is playing at an entirely different level than the rest of the league. And they can score inside too.

We have the next best chance to end their run, because only we play them next. Would love to see us screw up ABC's plan for the streak to last through Christmas when the play the Cavs.

beat

Boston by 8..

Boston definitely has a shot to end the streak. In addition to the Warriors' health issues -- Barnes is out, Thompson may be out, Bogut has been hampered by back spasms -- there was a lot of emphasis put on the Indiana game as the being the toughest test on their current road trip, and Golden State came out with intent to show what they can do in that game (through three quarters, anyway). They're likely to have some level of letdown for the next game.

That's not to say that Boston should be favored, but there's a reason that no team has ever gone through a seven-game road trip undefeated. As for the streak, it's got to end sometime. The Celtics have a chance, depending on which team shows up -- the one that wins by 17 points per game, or the one that loses by 10 points per game. They play good D, and if their shot is falling, they have a chance.

From what I've been able to tell, the Warriors won't present David Lee his championship ring on Friday but will instead wait until the game in Oakland on April 1. Has anyone heard anything different?

Its gonna come down to who shoots better from the outside, wish we had Smart for even more perimeter D, but if IT is as hot as last game and AB keeps up his recent level, who knows? if RJ or Young has a break out game and even Crowder has been hot lately, would love to see Sully work over Draymond Green in the paint, but in this new NBA its gonna comedown to whos hotter from outside against this team.

cowen,

We can all certainly hope that James Young has a "breakout" game, but I would not bet a buck on such a happening. He may have played his "best" game the other night, but that was only a few minutes and did not really show that he is going to be better tonight.

But, lets hope that he plays even better again.

Looking at our roster if Young and RJ can get their stroke together like AB has we could be a great perimeter team too, KO and Smart while inconsistent can also only get better at the 3 ball. We might be a year or 2 away from being a dominant 3 ball team....

Not to be the Debbie Downer but we're going to get it handed to us Friday night. We're nowhere near GSW's level of play. Too up and down. I'd love to be wrong. But I'm pretty sure this is a lock.

db

dbrown4 wrote:Not to be the Debbie Downer but we're going to get it handed to us Friday night.  We're nowhere near GSW's level of play.  Too up and down.  I'd love to be wrong.  But I'm pretty sure this is a lock.  

db

dbrown,

Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes are out. There's two starters down for them.

Still probably won't change things. It has been a very, very long time since I've seen a team on this kind of a roll.



bob



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dbrown4 wrote:Not to be the Debbie Downer but we're going to get it handed to us Friday night.  We're nowhere near GSW's level of play.  Too up and down.  I'd love to be wrong.  But I'm pretty sure this is a lock.  

db

no team in the league is near GS's level of play.. but that doesn't mean they are fixin to go 82-o in the regular season and16-0 in the real season.

im stick'n wif us getting 'em by 8

wish it would come down to who wins the Draymond Green- Sully match up, but it will come down to who shoots better from the 3 point line....Klay Thompson being out could be huge for us, AB and KO have been shooting really good lately, IT and Crowder could get hot, who knows?

dbrown4 wrote:Not to be the Debbie Downer but we're going to get it handed to us Friday night.  We're nowhere near GSW's level of play.  Too up and down.  I'd love to be wrong.  But I'm pretty sure this is a lock.  

db

Geesh, Nothing like going to the Roman Coliseum to watch the lions eat the Christians?

On the contrary I think we are in great shape to make a game of it. Not saying we'll win BUT I just don't see the Warriors "handing" it too us. I think we can match their bigs fine and maybe even out do them. As for the guards that's another issue but we can apply better pressure than almost every other team. Thompson if he plays will be less that 100% regardless.

beat

If they are not going 82-0, that means that they ARE going to lose. The ONLY question is "when". Why not here, why not tomorrow? They are wounded, with Barnes and Thompson out. I'm not saying it is going to happen, I'm not going to say it is even likely, but on any given game day anything can happen and we just beat a pretty good Chicago Bulls team last night.

If it is going to happen why not here?


bob



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bobheckler wrote:If they are not going 82-0, that means that they ARE going to lose. The ONLY question is "when". Why not here, why not tomorrow? They are wounded, with Barnes and Thompson out. I'm not saying it is going to happen, I'm not going to say it is even likely, but on any given game day anything can happen and we just beat a pretty good Chicago Bulls team last night.

If it is going to happen why not here?


bob



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And we beat that pretty good Chicago team with such things as AB going 0-6 from 3, IT not scoring in the first half, allowing Butler to go for a career high 36, and getting outshot from the field albeit not by much. Don't want to say the bench won the game but all of our starters were negative on the +- stat line while our 4 main bench players were all on the + side.

Agree....why not us ??

beat

The Celts are not going to outshoot GS. Celtics best option for winning this game is to play even better defense. You cannot play sagging defense on them so that means perimeter defense will be the key. Celtics should use a small ball lineup \

dboss

JVG predicts C's win.

http://www.csnbayarea.com/warriors/jeff-van-gundys-prediction-warriors-will-lose-celtics?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo


I predict we'll play but leave it at that.


beat

cowens/oldschool wrote:would love to see Sully work over Draymond Green in the paint

Sullinger has the advantage initially, but when a help defender comes, he'll need to make some passes to perimeter shooters. He'll need to put the ball up right away or kick it out.

The issue for Sullinger will be the other end -- who will he be able to cover? His conditioning will be tested -- will he be able to keep up? How will he deal with all the screens? If his man is Draymond Green, that will be a tough assignment and much different from last year considering that Green is the secondary playmaker who often receives the ball when Curry is double-teamed (Green leads the team in assists). He may be matched up some of the time with Ezeli.

Sullinger had a very good game in Oakland last season with 26 points and nine rebounds. (He didn't play against the Warriors in Boston.) He'll need that kind of effort Friday.

Outside wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:would love to see Sully work over Draymond Green in the paint

Sullinger has the advantage initially, but when a help defender comes, he'll need to make some passes to perimeter shooters. He'll need to put the ball up right away or kick it out.

The issue for Sullinger will be the other end -- who will he be able to cover? His conditioning will be tested -- will he be able to keep up? How will he deal with all the screens? If his man is Draymond Green, that will be a tough assignment and much different from last year considering that Green is the secondary playmaker who often receives the ball when Curry is double-teamed (Green leads the team in assists). He may be matched up some of the time with Ezeli.

Sullinger had a very good game in Oakland last season with 26 points and nine rebounds. (He didn't play against the Warriors in Boston.) He'll need that kind of effort Friday.

Sully needs to get the ball low and get it up fast.  If he doesn't, help will arrive, swiftly.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Sully with an unimpressive scoring game because he'll be kicking it out a lot.  

At the other end, Green will get a lot of fast break points.  Nobody exploits team speed like GSW.  Sully better not take even a nano-second to admire his shot because Green will leave him in the dust.  Sully will be fighting for an offensive rebound and Green will be taking off and letting Bogut, Ezeli or a weakside rebounder like Iggy thwart that.  GSW will do everything they can to NOT make it mano-a-mano.  They will swarm on defense and run like a herd of gazelles on offense.  Whomever is anywhere Curry on a fast break must mark him starting at around 28'-30'.  If you don't pick him up until 22'-25', it's too late.  GSW will get your defense on its heels and then Curry will come up as a trailer on the break, while your defense is down below the arc and nail a 3 from wherever he can see it.  Distance means nothing to him, if he can see it, he can hit it.

When Miami won championships with LeBron a lot of people saw their small but swarming defense and said "that only works because they have LeBron flying in from wherever to cover".  GSW does the same, so do we, except they have more height than Miami did and they have more athleticism across the board.  The help defense will be coming from a lot of vectors.


We're catching a big break tonight.  Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes are out.  The Blur, Leandro Barbosa, was sick and may not play tonight.  


We're a little like Warriors-lite.  We play a similar style but they have more and better talent, they have more veterans (they are also the Champs, so they have that experience) and they are on a historic roll.  Another year for Danny to shuffle the deck, another year for Brad to burn the system in and we could be elite like them on both ends.  Right now, we need them to hit a pothole or two.  I said in the Chicago post-game thread, I think the win over the Bulls is more significant than this one would be, and I think losing to Chicago would have been more significant than a loss to GSW.  Being better than the Bulls is a short, or near-term, goal.  Being anywhere near as good as the Warriors is quite a bit further out.  Living in the San Francisco bay area I watch more GSW basketball than most of the people on this board probably do.  They really are as good as their record and their record is perfect.

If you are enjoying watching this year's Boston Celtics then you are going to love watching the Golden State Warriors.  They are our big brothers.  They are who Brad wants us to grow up to be (or the Spurs, which would be nice too).  When you watch the Spurs you see a machine that plays a system that is positively reflexive at this point.  That's the GSW too.  GSW has been building this team for over 5 years or so (Curry was #7 in the 2009 draft) and Pop has been doing it since the Earth cooled.  


bob



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btw, Curry is shooting 46.3% from 3 this year, and some of his 3s are from the next county.

The only team that is shooting better than 46% from 5'-9' this year is OKC, they are shooting 48%. From 5'-9'. Every other team in the league is shooting worse from in close than Stephen Curry is shooting from 3.



bob



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GS is definitely beatable and Boston has a decent chance to take them down.
GS should have lost earlier in the year to Brooklyn.
Brook Lopez missed a two foot shot at the buzzer which sent the game into overtime.

Boston has a pretty common pattern that I have seen.
They are a solid defensive team.
When their shots fall, they can beat anyone, and often blow their opponent out in those games they are hot. When they are cold, they can or almost lose to anyone. (Philly game, Orlando)
Boston is not a team with good shooters, so it's hard to predict the outcome of their games.
It should be an exciting game tonight.

Celtics played a great game. Glad I was off on the closeness of the game. 2OT is pretty strong, regardless of outcome. Getting more and more ready for prime time with play like that.

db