The Mind of Mullin: POSTGAME: MAGIC

Monday, December 15, 2008

POSTGAME: MAGIC - 12/15/08

Jackson's shooting slump continues, but still rewarded heavy minutes

MVW: Marco Belinelli

The Good
Marco Belinelli: 31 min, 8-14 fg, 4 reb, 6 ast, 19 pts
Andris Biedrins: 31 min, 10-12 fg, 9 reb, 2 blk, 23 pts
Jamaal Crawford: 37 min, 6 ast, 16 pts
Kelenna Azubuike: 37 min, 10 reb
Stephen Jackson: 39 min, 6-6 ft, 7 reb, 3 ast

The Bad
Stephen Jackson: 39 min, 3-14 fg, 0-3 3pt, 4 to
Jamaal Crawford: 37 min, 6-17 fg, 1-6 3pt, -16 +/-, 2 to
Brandan Wright: 12 min
Anthony Randolph: 2 min

The Ugly
Kelenna Azubuike: 37 min, 2-14 fg, 6 pts

Team Statistics
Warriors : Magic
pts - 98 : 119
fg - 38-91 (.418) : 45-94 (.479)
ft - 17-23 (.739) : 9-13 (.692)
3pt - 5-18 (.278) : 10-20 (.500)
reb - 48 : 51
oreb - 16 : 14
ast - 19 : 26
to - 15 : 13
stl - 7 : 9
bs - 3 : 5
fastbreaks - 18 : 15
points in the paint - 44 : 44

Boxscore
Popcorn Machine's GameFlow

Nelson benches the young bigs....again

Notes

no Dwight Howard
starting 5: Watson/Crawford/Azubuike/Jackson/Biedrins
too many turnovers; trying to force it inside since Howard is out; Gortat doing well to defend the paint - looking like he belongs
Warriors offense flat
Belinelli hits first shot after being subbed in to jump-start the offense
Turiaf in to combat Battie's rebounding
Jackson continues to struggle from the field; slump continues - hand injury should be rested
Belinelli with a 3; Jackson should consider passing the ball to him, Azubuike, or Watson - all of whom have been shooting far better
Morrow in; desperately needs to get his confidence back
Belinelli with 2 swishes; playing PG; beautiful passing; trying to get others involved
Turiaf doing better on the glass
Jackson with nice offensive board and quick flip back in
alley-oop play, Jackson to Biedrins
Gortat out-playing Biedrins; 8 pts, 6 reb, 2 blk vs. 8 pts, 3 reb, 1 blk
Jackson keeps chucking to the tune of 1-11 fg in the 1st half
Morrow hasn't taken a shot; has 2 reb, 2 pf
GSW 40, ORL 46 at the half; 30.6% fg,
leaders at the half: Biedrins 10 pts, Azubuike 8 reb, Jackson 2 ast
Jackson finally hits a jumper; draws 3rd foul for Gortat
Azubuike getting better at dishing on drives
Watson ties game at 53 w/ 2 free throws
Crawford's mid-range shot falling; fantastic cross over and pull up moves to shake his man
Jameer Nelson heats up from long range; latest average player to benefit from playing the Warriors
Belinelli is a far better PG than Watson; better court vision, passing, finishing, unselfishness
Belinelli continues to finish at the rim at a high percentage, huge improvement from last year
Jackson has the audacity to take a contested 3 with plenty of time on the clock; Nelson should give him extended rest
Battie crashing the offensive board; Randolph, Wright, Kurz? Small ball isn't working, why not try to go big
Belinelli needs to always go under the high screen; seems to always stubble after his man and swiping for ball from behind; need to have 2 shot blockers with Belinelli guarding against a capable penentrator
GSW 67 ORL 77, end of 3rd Q
Wright starts 3rd, immediately drains a 12 footer
don't like Morrow body language; timid, unsure
Belinelli with awesome long distance ally-oop to Biedrins; tough and-1 a few minutes later
would like to have seen Williams/Belinelli/Randolph/Wright/Biedrins; Jackson, Crawford, Azubike combine for 11-44 fg
Randolph in and hits a long 2; rebounds strong, needs to look to pass more
Morrow gets some garbage points; I'm starting to lose hope for Morrow to be a big piece of the Warriors future
could have used Randolph a lot sooner to limit 2nd and 3rd chance points
Biedrins should have dominated in this game; played well, but couldn't muster a double-double; hard to do when your the lone big man battling for rebounds much of the game
props to Belinelli for continuing his stellar play; he's played like I thought he would after seeing him last summer, now he has to do it on a consistent basis; he plays basketball the right way - unselfish, versatile, aggressive, confident
only 3 blocks for the entire team; not many minutes given to the bigs other than Biedrins
The Warriors are going to lose a lot of the bandwagon 'We Believe', fans, but they are doing the rightt thing in resting the injured and playing the young guys in waves (Tank Mode); if the Warriors can get a top 3 pick, this would all be worth it (Griffin, Harden, Rubio - if he comes out), too bad this is a very shallow draft with no real franchise changers, except perhaps Rubio who looks less and less likely to declare for the draft
it seems as though Nellie is picking and choosing when to play the bigs, insuring that neither Randolph or Wright get a permanent spot in the rotation for whatever reason

Crawford continues to struggle from 3 point range

Postgame Quotes

Don Nelson
On Stephen Jackson's Injured Hand:

“I think it’s obvious (it’s affecting him). But it’s up to him if he thinks he can still play. He does other things well on the court, tonight he had seven rebounds and passed well. Scoring is not the only thing he possesses.”

On The Small Lineup:

“It was a small lineup game tonight the way I figured. We couldn’t matchup with their bigs so we had to go small and we struggled to score the ball. They made more shots, but it was a matchup we had to do.”

On The Defense:

“It was so hard for us to handle their screen and roll and with their three point shot it takes away from our weak side help. But Jameer (Nelson) has developed in to quite a player”

Stephen Jackson
On Playing Hurt:

“That’s what matters to me, my teammates. Nobody made a big deal of my toe when I played in the playoffs, so I’m not going to make this a big deal about my hand. It happened, but I’m going to keep rolling.”

On The Young Guys:

“We have a bunch of young guys and they just want to play basketball and hopefully we can switch it up and win some games. They are staying positive for the most part and the guys that have been around here are helping them. But it’s definitely frustrating to them and this is something new to them, so they’ll have to find a way to deal with it.”

Marco Belinelli vs Magic (2008, Dec. 15)
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