GSW @ MIN 1/6/10

PreThoughts

The Wolves are the second-worst team in the league. They're the second-worst team in the league at home... they're just 4-14 in their building. They get outscored by an even ten points a game. They have the league's third-worst offense and the league's seventh-worst defense. They've lost four in a row. And the last time we played them, we beat them by 41 points.

But they can beat us, and don't think they can't. They're 5-12 since Kevin Love came back; we've only gone 3-12 in the same stretch. Their piddling seven wins include two victories over the Jazz and one over the Nuggets -- the real Nuggets, not the B-team we faced last night. They haven't played since Saturday; we're coming off of a draining game at altitude. And the Wolves are eager to erase that 41-point loss. If we are not careful, if we are sloppy, if we are stupid, a loss and a new season lowlight is more than possible.

We will probably come out with some fire, due to anger over last night's loss. And that's good. But that fire must be put to good use. Specifically, we should take care to combat the only thing the Wolves do well: wreaking havoc on the offensive glass. Minnesota is dead-average in defensive rebounding, but grabs a higher percentage of offensive boards than all but seven other teams. Kevin Love is tied with Dwight Howard for the league lead in rebounds per minute, and easily leads the league in offensive rebounds per minute; Al Jefferson ranks in the top 30. This skill of theirs is, in fact, basically the only way they've managed to win the games they have; they've outrebounded their opponents in six out of their seven wins.

The Wolves can not shoot threes. They can not stop their opponents from scoring. They can not take care of the basketball. They only do this one thing well. And this may tempt Nellie to cede the glass, to go small and attack their many weaknesses instead. Nellie might say, "Who cares if they outrebound us by 20, as long as we're running and scoring and playing our game?" To which the only logical response is, "How's that been working out for you lately, tough guy?" We should not limit them to their one weapon; we should try to limit them to zero weapons.

No matter how tired we are, no matter how fired up Minnesota is, no matter how feeble we are on the road, this game is ours to lose. We are much better than the Timberwolves. If he follows elemental basketball logic, Don Nelson can get one step closer to his record today. His assignment is heartbreakingly simple.

Play some fucking big men, you clown.

Warrior To Watch: Andris Biedrins. Let's try this again.

Timberwolf To Watch: Kevin Love. Don't give his fratty face something to leer about.

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PostThoughts

A free-falling Warriors team has mercifully hit its floor. We already knew we weren't as bad as the Nets; we have now demonstrated that we're not quite as bad as the Timberwolves, either.Two down, twenty-seven to go.

A real glass-half-full/glass-half-empty outing here. On the one hand, you'd be hard-pressed to call a six-point win over the league's second-worst team impressive. We let these steadily bleed away at us through the second half. Just about every Warrior played a significantly flawed game... Curry was slapping people like a madman, Randolph threw up some weak prayers, Biedrins had a few pillowy-soft defensive sequences underneath, Maggette missed a lot. Nellie diddled around with some smallball at inopportune moments.

On the other hand, most Warriors made positive contributions as well. Curry continued his aggressive jump-shooting, Randolph avoided turnovers and showed some fire, Biedrins had his most productive game since returning and scored several blocks, and Maggette killed the crowd with one of his transcendently ugly, effective games. And while Nellie did go to the smallball well several times, he had the decency to retreat from it every time Love really started killing us.

It's close, but we're gonna glass-half-full this bad boy, for two reasons.

1) Only nine turnovers total, and no Warrior had more than two. The T-Wolves are admittedly not known for their defensive pressure... still, if we take care of the basketball, we have a much better shot at competing.

2) Monta was friggin' awesome! This is the type of game we need from him, night in and night out. Forget the huge scoring nights and the iron-man minutes and all those histrionics; what we need is an all-around guy, who uses his speed and athleticism to contribute everywhere (seven boards, six assists, five steals and a block), and picks his spots offensively (only seventeen field-goal attempts, only two turnovers). If five of Monta's nightly shots go to Curry, it'll make them both more effective players. Great, mature performance here.

To reiterate, this glass is barely half-full. The Wolves are a listless, crappy team, so crappy that every good Warrior performance must be accompanied by an asterisk. But we did enough to win, and after last night, you've got to be happy for the players.