Golden State of Mind post-game linkage of the Heat (or Lebron James, really) dismantling of the Warriors 106-84 shows you some of the best in fashion reporting, inadvertently. Via Golden State of Mind, here is Dorell Wright looking good, when his game wasn't (4-16 from the field, 0-6 after halftime, 1 missed put-back dunk off his own shot).
I enjoy Wright's optimism and I enjoy his attention to style even more.
But one of the things that the Warriors must work on is getting David Lee more involved. Lee's taking 14 shots clearly shows that he is active, to some degree on offense. But his measly 1-2 from the line says something quite larger about the ineffectiveness of the Warriors offense in getting Lee shots where he can make plays that aren't outside of his repertoire. In a Q/A session with Tim Kawakami, Lee points to being out of sync since returning. But I think part of that could be related to the kinds of shots he's taking versus the kinds of shots he should be taking.
Case in point, when the Warriors ran the pick-and-pop or spotted Lee up wide on the baseline, Lee was effective launching those shots, making them at a surprisingly high-mark for this season. I counted at least 3 open jumpers made. When Lee was asked to initiate offense on his own, that's where the problems seem to begin. I'm not saying Lee can't create his own offense; he clearly can. But his efficiency goes way down when he's not 1) hitting open jumpers, 2) getting easy 2 foot layups off drives and dishes, and/or 3) putting back shots with tip-ins.
Face it folks, this is Lee's game for now. He's been horrible -- Andris Biedrins horrible -- trying to go one-on-one. Shots hardly seem to fall and most of the time they are ridiculously contested. These aren't easy shots, but Lee needs to get better at converting them. I know he can, but perhaps part of the problem is that the Warriors don't call his number enough, in places that allow him to make plays better.
Perfect example of this would be Louis Amundson's offensive and defensive spark off the bench. In 20 minutes, Amundson has 8 points and 4 offensive rebounds. Nothing spectacular, except the fact that he made 3 more free throws than Lee and attempted 4 more free throws in about 12 LESS minutes. And the reason for that was that the Warriors fed Amundson the ball near the hoop where he was layed out repeatedly by Miami's bigs, such as Juwan Howard, who during the 3rd quarter played like Bill Laimbeer.
Again, Amundson was nothing spectacular. He shot a paltry 2-5 from the field. But, Amundson played his game and unlike Lee, merely had a -5 in his +/- for the game. Lee, however, had a -28.
And we're not even talking about defense yet, either.