Denver Nuggets (7 - 6) @ Golden State Warriors (7 - 6)

Start time: 7:30 PM PST @ The Oracle Arena
Local TV: CSN Bay Area

Probable starters for the Golden State Warriors:

C - Andris Biedrins
PF - Vladimir Radmanovic
SF - Dorell Wright
SG - Monta Ellis
PG - Stephen Curry

Probable starters for the Denver Nuggets:

C - Nene
PF - Shelden Williams
SF - Carmelo Anthony
SG - Arron Afflalo
PG - Chauncey Billups

Team leaders:
PPG - M. Ellis (27.7) | C. Anthony (24.4)
RPG - D. Lee (11.3) | C. Anthony (9.2)
APG - S. Curry (6.3) | C. Billups (4.7)
SPG - M. Ellis (2.6) | C. Anthony (1.5)
BPG - A. Biedrins (0.9) | N. Hilario (0.9)

god i hope we end our losing streak....

As long as Vlad Rad is starting, we prolly will keep losing.

So Rad is to blame for the defeat against the Lakers?

Vlad is looking better and better each game.. .but still should not be our starting PF.
Denver does not have a dominating PF though. They have sheldon williams and Al harrington. Harington is more of a perimeter PF and will be easier for Vald to guard then Odom or Amare was.

All around our match ups are better this game. We need to play some serious D though, can't wait to see if Dorell can disrupt some of Melo's moves. There is no stopping him, but we got him for his defense, so he needs to be able to at least make it tough for Melo.

Also looking for Ellis to have a good night as they are not as long as LA is and their defense is not as though. Hoping this game goes our way before the road trip.

I totally agree, Hoops Fan. Match ups are looking much better against the Nuggets, I hope that Lee's absence won't be that of a big factor in that game.

And I think Vlad is more suited to play SF than PF, but that's just my opinion.

Stay better than the Suns! That's all we can do in this division..

Vlad is most suited to the bench. He has been horrendous this year, with each game worse than the last. Can't shoot, can't D, can't rebound, can't secure a loose friggin ball. He doesn't look like he has a clue or a care in the world on the court. Glad Smart realizes it as well, as Vlad has not played tonight, nor has Bell, another completely worthless scrub. W's hanging tough with solid contributions from Reggie, Carney, and Gadz. Biedrins got hosed on the 3rd foul call, and the first two were iffy as well. If the three's start falling and W's can contain Melo, Al, and prevent Afflalo from pulling a Ray Felton, they should bring it home.

Warriors need to get into the paint and not take too many jump shots. Monta need some help. It seems the game plan for other team is just try to make Monta Ellis work really hard for his shots and the other warriors not contributing much.

AV Dawn wrote:Vlad is most suited to the bench. He has been horrendous this year, with each game worse than the last. Can't shoot, can't D, can't rebound, can't secure a loose friggin ball. He doesn't look like he has a clue or a care in the world on the court. Glad Smart realizes it as well, as Vlad has not played tonight, nor has Bell, another completely worthless scrub. W's hanging tough with solid contributions from Reggie, Carney, and Gadz. Biedrins got hosed on the 3rd foul call, and the first two were iffy as well. If the three's start falling and W's can contain Melo, Al, and prevent Afflalo from pulling a Ray Felton, they should bring it home.

I don't think Rad is that bad, and he's one of the best shooters that we have, he shot around 500.% last game he played if I remember. He gets the rebounds as well, when he gets some consistency. I don't like (not because of Rad, but in general) how Smart uses rotations.

And Dawn, how can you say that Rad is awful (which is not far away from the truth at the moment), and yet say that Reggie is solid contributor? OK, he got 16 points last night, but, half of it was from the FT line, he plays a lot more than Radmanovic does, so I think Rad would pick the same amount of points if he played as much, or took as many shots as Reggie. Also, his shot from the field was 4-13! That's awful, and threes were 1-7. I don't see that as contribution, mostly just missing shots. Though, I don't think he's a bad player.
It's just that our team as a whole started shooting a lot worse than at the very beginning of the season. Don't know what happened there.

Seriously, we have been awful ever since we started our East Coast road trip at Detroit. Essentially, we have no offense besides our Monty, Musselman type of just shoot jumpers which has plagued our franchise since we lost Webber as a rookie. Ellis has been great but any NBA scout that is not a Warrior homer knows that Curry at the point guard is a complete liability ... and a natural point guard would of been the better compliment to Ellis like Brandon Jennings. The reality is Vlad, Gadz, Bell are all by products of the Nellie talent dump and cap space for the future owners (to either overpay for a free agent or allow Rowell to help them maximize profit for an awful franchise that is always, always in the lottery.) Ellis would have a field day next to Nash, Kidd or even Jennings handling the ball, but now he has to work for his points with no Pippen to his Jordon.
We are in a horrific spot as the 9th seed, another lousy draft pick, and no young kids that really help us in the right position (franchise small forward or a servicable low post scoring big).
Our owners need to move fast ... do we build around Lee and Ellis (who together provide a good nucleus) and bring in a top talent with the expiring contracts ... or just rebuild ... trade Ellis and his reasonable contract ... have Curry back to his natural SG, live and die with the likes of Udoh, Reggie Williams, Lin and lottery picks baby ... Ellis for Harrison Barnes and spare change.
In defense of BW, all bigs are health liabilities (Bowie, Andrew Bynum, Yao Ming,Greg Ogden, Boozer, Powe, Perkins) .. and we forget the other issues (we have no bench, Smart has yet to develop a low post player -post Webber, Curry can't stop point guards, Curry does not create shots for teammates at an elite PG level, D Wright is a lousy streak shooter, Vlade having a career low season fg%, our most talented front court players gone for most of the season (BW, DL, Udoh), franchise went el cheapo on the bench because of the ownership change ... Fakers get Barnes, Blake .. we get Lin, Carney. Between Reggie and DW (bench players on good teams ... they get 21 per game shots at 40% ... you think Biedrins 54% should get more than 6 attempts per game instead of our two brick layers ... Smart offense has been mediocre and good enough for the lottery baby.

dareedle wrote:Seriously, we have been awful ever since we started our East Coast road trip at Detroit. Essentially, we have no offense besides our Monty, Musselman type of just shoot jumpers which has plagued our franchise since we lost Webber as a rookie. Ellis has been great but any NBA scout that is not a Warrior homer knows that Curry at the point guard is a complete liability ... and a natural point guard would of been the better compliment to Ellis like Brandon Jennings. The reality is Vlad, Gadz, Bell are all by products of the Nellie talent dump and cap space for the future owners (to either overpay for a free agent or allow Rowell to help them maximize profit for an awful franchise that is always, always in the lottery.) Ellis would have a field day next to Nash, Kidd or even Jennings handling the ball, but now he has to work for his points with no Pippen to his Jordon.
We are in a horrific spot as the 9th seed, another lousy draft pick, and no young kids that really help us in the right position (franchise small forward or a servicable low post scoring big).
Our owners need to move fast ... do we build around Lee and Ellis (who together provide a good nucleus) and bring in a top talent with the expiring contracts ... or just rebuild ... trade Ellis and his reasonable contract ... have Curry back to his natural SG, live and die with the likes of Udoh, Reggie Williams, Lin and lottery picks baby ... Ellis for Harrison Barnes and spare change.
In defense of BW, all bigs are health liabilities (Bowie, Andrew Bynum, Yao Ming,Greg Ogden, Boozer, Powe, Perkins) .. and we forget the other issues (we have no bench, Smart has yet to develop a low post player -post Webber, Curry can't stop point guards, Curry does not create shots for teammates at an elite PG level, D Wright is a lousy streak shooter, Vlade having a career low season fg%, our most talented front court players gone for most of the season (BW, DL, Udoh), franchise went el cheapo on the bench because of the ownership change ... Fakers get Barnes, Blake .. we get Lin, Carney. Between Reggie and DW (bench players on good teams ... they get 21 per game shots at 40% ... you think Biedrins 54% should get more than 6 attempts per game instead of our two brick layers ... Smart offense has been mediocre and good enough for the lottery baby.

I lean more toward what would our record be if we still had Lee (1-5 without Lee). We've only won the rebounding edge in only one game since he's been out (Detroit), which was the won game we've won since Lee has been hurt. As a trio (Lee, Monta, and Curry), they were playing good and looked like they were gelling. They are all relatively young players. I'm more interested in seeing what they can do a full season or two together than start making changes to our core players.

B Wright had a back injury... WTF? really another injury for a fragile player. BUST!

Guybrush, a few thoughts.
Like everyone, I'm frustrated as hell with the David Lee situation and the ugly losses after the great start.
Vlad has been asked to play out of position, I'll grant, and he may have had some decent garbage time minutes against the Lakers, but for me, he just does not pass the eyeball test, he just looks bad on the court whenever he is in on a play, with perhaps a few minor exceptions. Reggie Williams had a solid first half against Denver - which is when I posted - he was driving and getting fouled, and making the FTs, and considering the horrible outside shooting by the rest of the perimeter guys, that was important. In the second half, he was getting open looks from outside and clanking them off the rim, the same as everyone else (besides Carney).