The Warriors started slow once again and couldn’t dig themselves fast enough out of a 18 point whole. IQofaWarrior has comprehensive linkage on last night’s game from Jeff Adrien’s valuable minutes off the bench, the random Dan Gadzuric start, and, of course, Monta Ellis’ leadership.
As mentioned earlier, Monta Ellis’ frustration began to show by the second quarter. After struggling to get a good last second shot off to end the half, Ellis, typically emotion-less on the court, yelled out and then clapped his hands angrily. Out of the 5 starters, Ellis had the best +/- at -2.
He was visibly upset when Curry committed a defensive foul when a foul was drawn on him by John Salmon’s pump fake.
Without Ellis last night, the Warriors would have been blow out by a lot. Golden State of Mind’s Fantasy Junkie awarded Ellis with their prestigious “Warrior Wonder” award, given to the Warrior player that played the best, if not just the hardest:
Without him tonight, the Warriors don’t score more than 60 and this game is a blowout. His scoring kept the Warriors around just enough to make that late run. He was the only guy who could make a shot. Adrien doesn’t get a chance to make an impact in the 4th if Monta doesn’t have the game he does.
From the horses’ mouth, here’s what Ellis had to say about their effort (via Marcus Thompson):
“I’m not too happy with it,” Ellis said after totaling 24 points, eight assists, five rebounds, three steals and seven turnovers. “We could’ve gotten this game. We’ve just got to go back home, protect our house and go back on the winning side.”
…
“It’s a sad game, but we’re going to move on,” Ellis said. “We’ve got to do something. Me being a leader on this team, I’m going to go to Coach and get some film and see exactly what it is. Because we’ve got to nip this in the bud if we want to be a playoff team.”
With or without Lee, Ellis clearly feels that they could have had this game. While size was a huge issue, particularly on the defensive end, the Warriors could have had this game if the Warriors didn’t turn the ball over or take a lot of poor shots. Give the Bucks credit for keeping the Warriors out of rhythm early. If things aren’t going right early on — not getting the driving lanes, they need to find some counter moves to help open those up. Either that or get a little more control driving into the paint.
Lastly, what was up with Jeff Adrien’s +10 +/- rating last night? Definitely keep your eye on his minutes with these next few games coming up and Lee possibly out for two more weeks. He provided some toughness and rebounding that the Warriors were missing throughout the game. He wasn’t David Lee, but much better than Brandan Wright and to some extent, Andris Biedrins.