ChicagoTom wrote:I am absolutely gutted with this loss. The Warriors were in total control of this game until early in the 4th quarter. This is not going to be a popular opinion on this board, but I blame this loss completely on the shoulders of Baron Davis.
As the Nets started chipping away at the Warriors 11-point lead, Baron slowly phased out his teammates and it became Baron-ball with ill-advised fadeaways and three-pointers. Rarely, if ever, in the final quarter did Baron go to the basket or better yet, find a teammate for an open shot.
A point of fact to prove my point is that Baron had 8 assists in the first half and none in the second half. That is not right.
Don't tell me no one else stepped up to make the plays. We do not know that because other than maybe Dunleavy, no one else was given the chance to make a shot or two in the 4th quarter.
The team quit moving on offense because Baron was just hogging the ball and honking up bad shots. The rest of the team was just watching and Nelson on the bench looked like he was disinterested and did little to prevent this slefish kind of play from Baron.
The first three quarters of this game the Warriors played great and I thought they were primed for a win. Boy was I wrong.
I know Baron scored 25, had 8 boards and 8 assists, but as we all know, it is what you do in the fourth quarter that determines how well your team does and Baron was absolute rubbish in the 4th quarter.
As always, the zone was picked apart in the second half and unlike the Nets, the Warriors made no adjustments. Hell, any remotely knowledgeable basketball fan could see that the Nets were simply loading up in the lane and bringing people through to exploit the open gaps. Where were the adjustments from Nellie and his staff? Nowhere to be found.
I am freakin' pissed about this lost. If the Warriors can't learn to play as a team and play unselfishly (Baron specifically) this team is going nowhere fast.
Chi-Tom, I watched the game with a friend at a sports bar and the conversation by us along with 1/2 a dozen pained Ws fanatics was EXACTLY what you said. It was painful. Baron has done this again and again, to the point where, after yet another selfish chuck I screamed at the big screen "bench his ass, Nelson, show some balls." It is sickening. I even turned to someone and said "that's why stats can be so misleading". You look at Baron's stats, and you go "wow, excellent game", but you watch him play after they went up 86-78 and then were outscored 17-2, and it is blatant why: His selfish wanna-be Kobeionics and the utter inability of the Ws to get a rebound.
