From: terry@garfield.Stanford.EDU (Terry Wong)
Subject: Warriors Weekly Review
Keywords: Warriors 
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 00:26:41 GMT

-------------------------------
|	Warriors Week         |
|	Week 1:  Nov 6 -12    |
-------------------------------

The Warriors first week was marked by inconsistency and some disturbing
trends.  They started out in stellar fashion with a emphatic win at Utah,
then struggled to beat the Wolves in Minnesota in OT, then played one of
their worst games ever in losing to the Lakers, and ended the week losing
in double OT to a excellent Cavalier squad. 

On the positive side, Billy Owens had his best week ever.  Latrell Sprewell
continued to impress, and Mullin had a good week. 

The most disturbing trend was the poor play by the Warriors at crunch time.  
Against Utah, Minnesota, and Cleveland, they let double digit leads slip 
with about 5 minutes left in the game.  While they were able to reestablish 
their lead against Utah, they were forced to OT in the other two games.
They also showed they have no home court advantage by losing both of their
home games.  Also, they can still be badly rebounded especially
on their own defensive boards.  While they were able to outrebound Utah
39-36, and the Lakers 47-43, they were outrebound by the Wolves 49-40 and
killed by the big Cavs 52-37.

A lot of their inconsistency can probably be partially attributed to 
the youth and inexperience of the team.  There are basically 5 new players
on the team since Buechler sat out most of last year with a broken
wrist.  Though their new players are faster and more athletic, they
miss the experience of Rod Higgins, Mario Elie, Vince Askew, Tom Tolbert
and Jim Petersen. 

Other factors in the Warriors' somewhat rocky start are:
1) The poor play of Hardaway:  Hardaway played below average against Utah
and Minnesota.  He played one of his worst games ever against the Lakers
missing 12 of his first 14 shots.  Part of the problem may be that
he is not familiar with the new players.  Also, with Marciulionis out of
the lineup, he is the only go-to guy on the Warriors.  Other teams have
been double-teaming him early.

2) The absense of Marciulionis: Rooney is the most dominating 
player on the Warriors team.  If
you give him the ball, he can almost always get a shot or a foul.  His
absence has been most noticeable at the end of games when the Warriors need
critical baskets.

3) The poor play at the center position ( a familiar refrain):  
None of the players that make up
the Warriors 4 headed center have really asserted themselves.  Against the
Cavs, Lister, Hill, Alexander, and Gatling combined for 11 points and 15
boards.

4) An awful half-court game:  Whether Hardaway or Owens is running the
offense, too often the offense stagnants as the Warriors seem to stand
around waiting for someone to make a play.  
The lack of a credible half-court game has especially hurt them 
at the end of games when they have tried to hold on to leads.

5) Awful free throw shooting.  The Warriors as a team are shooting about
68% from the line.  Mullin and Hardaway are the only reliable shooters,
while Owens and Grayer are terrible.

============
Game Reviews
============
-------------------------------
Nov. 6th   G.S. 125   Utah 114
Game Summary
-------------------------------
The Warriors opened their season at the Delta Center on Friday night 
riding a 13 game losing streak in Salt Lake City.  The last
two times they faced the Jazz in the Delta Center, they had lost by
29 and 37 points.  However, after playing what Nelson described as 
"their best game of the season" :) the Warriors not only upset the 
heavily favored Jazz, but beat them convincingly 125-114.  
1) A swarming Warriors' defense that disrupted the slower Jazz and led
   to 25 points on 14 Utah turnovers.
2) An awesome display of depth that featured contributions from
   11 Warriors.
3) A fabulous game by Billy Owens who contributed 29 points on 14 for 19
   shooting, and 13 rebounds.  
4) 26 points and 4 blocked shots from Chris Mullin.
5) A great show by the Warriors' rookie trio of Latrell Sprewell,
   Keith Jennings, and Byron Houston.
6) A great rebounding effort, especially by Owens that saw the Warriors
   outrebound the Jazz 39-36.
7) The absence of the man mountain, Mark Eaton.

The Jazz built up a 15-6 lead in very atypical fashion, mostly
on fast break points.  Jeff Malone did most of the damage (6 for 8 in
the 1st).  Midway through the first, the Warriors defense took over 
generating easy fast break points.  
Owens and Sprewell were particularly impressive.  Owens had 10 points
and 5 boards in the quarter.  Sprewell hit for 8 points showing good range
on his catch and shoot jumper.   The quarter ended with the 
Warriors on top 30-29.  

Utah opened up the 2nd taking a 42-35 lead.  
Then the Warriors subs, Grayer, Jennings, Houston, and Buechler came 
in and along with Owens went on a 25-6 run.  The half ended with 
the Warriors leading 64-57.  In the 2nd, the Warriors shot 63% 
and the Jazz shot 27%.

In the third, the Warriors extended the lead to 97-86.  By the middle of
the fourth they were maintaining a 15 point lead.  The Jazz made a run of
it bringing the score within 6 with about 5 minutes to go.  At that point,
the Warriors made several big plays to stretch the lead again to double
figures.  
 
Player of the game: Owens
Team Grade: A+

The Jazz
--------
The Jazz really missed the presence of Eaton.  The Warriors scored a lot
of easy baskets because he was out of there.  Karl Malone had a good
game with 33 points but was held to 7 rebounds.  He did not dominate the
Warriors as much as usual.  The Warriors were very active on the double
team forcing Malone to be more of a passer.  This lead to several key
turnovers.  Utah's new acquisitions Jay Humphries and Larry Krystoriak were
unimpressive.  Humphries had 4 points and 3 assists in 20 minutes.
Krystoriak did not score and had 4 rebounds in 17 minutes.

Player of the game: Karl Malone

-------------------------------
Nov. 7th   G.S. 121   Utah 119
Game Summary
-------------------------------
The Warriors struggled to beat a much improved Wolves team in OT.
The Warriors should have won the game easily but they kept the Wolves
in the game with atrocious 17 for 33 shooting from the free throw line.
Then they let a double digit lead get away from them in the fourth
before heroics by Jeff Grayer saved the game for them in OT.
The highlight of the game was the personal duel between Owens and Laettner.
Owens won the duel for the 1st 3 quarters, but then Laettner had a huge
4th.  Owens finished with 23 points and 6 boards; Laettner had 26 points
and 14 boards, 7 of them offensive.  In all, the Warriors were outrebound
49-40.

The first half ended tied 60 all with several shifts in momentum.
The Warriors were outrebounded by the bigger Wolves 25-19.  Mullin started
out hot with 10 points in the 1st quarter.  Owens also had an excellent
half with 14 points.  Laettner had 12 points in the 1st quarter, then
sat out the 2nd.  Longley came in for Spencer and looked good.

The Warriors busted the game open in the 3rd and led at the of the 3rd
by 94-81.  They maintained a 10+ point lead until about 5 minutes left
in the game.  Then some really poor shot selection by Hardaway and Mullin
coupled with the suddenly hot shooting of Chuck Person and the offensive
rebounding of Laettner brought the Wolves back.  Hardaway had a chance
to win it at the buzzer but missed sending the game into OT tied 108 all.

In OT, Grayer had 7 points. Hardaway also played a key role.  Still poor
Warrior FT shooting kept the game close and Person missed a terrible 3
point attempt to end the game.

Player of the game: Grayer
Team Grade: B-

The Wolves
----------
The Wolves are obviously much improved and will be competitive this year.
Laettner can definitely play in the NBA, although I doubt he will be
as successful against more physical teams.  Most of Laettner's points
came on tip-ins.  However, he showed he can also handle the ball and pass
it well.  The Wolves have a pretty good backcourt with Doug West and (21
points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds) and Michael Williams (19 points, 13 assists,
and 6 rebounds).  It seems the Wolves got the better of the trade
with the Pacers.  Person was not a factor until the 4th, but then he got
hot and led the Wolves comeback.  Though he had 23 points, he also made
a lot of dumb decisions in the game, including the last play of the game.
Longley looks to be a lot more active than last year and shows good
offensive moves near the basket.  However, he is still prone to pick up
dumb fouls.

Player of the game: Laettner

-------------------------------
Nov. 10th   Lakers 107   G.S. 106
Game Summary
-------------------------------

The Warriors played one of their ugliest games in a couple of years and
fully deserved to lose to a Laker squad that did not look a lot better.
The Warriors poor performance was in large part due to the horrendous
play of Hardaway, who hit on only 2 of his first 14 shots.   The Lakers
did a good job of slowing the pace of the game.

In the first quarter, the Warriors missed on several easy close in shots.
Still they led 21-19, in part due to pathetic free throw shooting by the
Lakers.  The half ended with the Lakers ahead 55-48, as Threatt made
a 3 pointer at the buzzer.

The Warriors were able to push the tempo at the beginning of the 3rd and
were able to take a brief lead.  However, after Pfund called a TO, the
Lakers slowed the game down again and were able to build a 13 point lead
with 10 minutes remaining.  At that point, the Warriors went on an 18-4
run with Mullin scoring 10 of those points.  Significantly, Hardaway was
on the bench during the entire run.  At crunch time, Hardaway came back
and hit his last 3 shots including a 3 pointer.  Scott's runner across
the lane was the winning basket.  The Warriors still had 15 seconds to work
with, but ran a botched play, ending up with Mullin missing a 10 footer
with Sam Perkins in his face.

Player of the game: Mullin
Team Grade: C

The Lakers
----------
The Lakers did not look particularly good but they did employ an effective
slow down strategy.  Sedale Threatt had a tremendous game both shooting
from the outside (10-18 floor, 26 points, 4 assists, 1 board) and defending
Hardaway.  Peeler only played 12 minutes but scored 9 points and looked
impressive doing so.  Scott looked more aggressive than in previous years
and finished with 18 points, 6 assists and 3 boards.  Perkins was
ineffective, and Divac looked slow and fat.

Player of the game: Sedale Threatt

---------------------------------------
Nov. 12th   Cleveland 126   G.S. 122 double OT
Game Summary
--------------------------------------

The Warriors lost a heartbreaker in double OT.  The Warriors again
lost a double digit lead with less than 5 minutes left in the game.
The advantage the Cavs had in depth really stood out in the game.
93 of the Warriors points came from the big 3 (Hardaway 35, Owens 30,
Mullin 28).  Sprewell (10 points) was the only other Warrior with more 
than 4 points.  Both Hardaway and Mullin played 55 out of a possible 58
minutes, while Owens played 50.  By contrast, Williams played 47, 
Price 42, Brandon 39, and Nance 36 minutes.  The scoring was evenly
spread out with Williams having 21, Price 21, Nance 18, Brandon 18, and
Daugherty 13.  Near the end of the game, the Warriors big 3 were running
out of steam.

The Warriors for the first time this year were severly outrebounded.
The Cavs killed them on the boards 52-37.  Sanders had 12, Williams 11,
and Nance 8.

The Warriors burst to an early lead  37-26 in the 1st, but the Cavs
started to slow down the break and closed to 63-59 at the half.  

The Warriors again were able to stretch the lead to double figures in the
4th, but then ran out of steam.  In that critical late 4th period,
the Cavs fielded a team of Danny Ferry, Terrell Brandon, Hot Rod Williams,
Larry Nance, and Mike Sanders.   This team went on a 18-5 run and
had a 3 point lead, until Owens hit for 2 on a 20 foot jumper  and Gatling
hit 1 of 2 free throws.  

In the first OT, both teams only managed 6 points.  Sprewell swatted
a shot to send the game to a second OT.  In the 2nd OT, Sprewell fouled out
and was replaced by Buechler.  With the Cavs up by 2,
Mike Sanders then came up big, first
forcing Buechler to miss his shot, and scoring over Buechler with
5 seconds left to give the Cavs a 4 point lead.

Player of the game: Hardaway
Team Grade: B

The Cavaliers
---------------
The Cavs were easily the best team that the Warriors faced this year.
Their depth and balance was impressive.  Significantly, they were
able to win the game even though Daugherty did not play well for 
3 quarters and had to sit out the rest of the game with tendinitis in his
knee.   Their 4th quarter comeback was also accomplished with Mark Price
on the bench.  His replacement, Brandon, had an impressive shooting game,
hitting on 9 of 17, mostly from long range.  Even Ferry, who played 
from the 4th quarter onward, had a good game with 9 points, 3 boards,
and 2 assists.  
 
Player of the game: Hot Rod Williams (21 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists),
Special mention: Larry Nance ( 18 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 4 blocks)

Player Grades
-------------
Billy Owens:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		40	14/19	1/3	3/13		1	29 
Minnesota	40	10/12	3/6	1/6		3	23
Lakers		38	7/13	5/7	2/7		4	19
Cleveland	50	13/19	4/7	2/9		7	30

Owens was easily the best overall player of the week.  This was the best
week of Owens career.  He was able to hit his outside jumper 
consistently, resulting in an impressive fg percentage.  He is
still struggling with his one-handed ft's.  
However, there is still room for improvement.
He does not have absolute confidence in his jumper yet and passed
up on open jumpers many times.   He also has a tendency to disappear near
the end of a game, as he is much better in the open court.
Grade: A

Chris Mullin:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		42	10/16	6/6	1/7		3	26
Minnesota	39	8/18	1/2	0/2		1	18
Lakers		42	11/23	4/5	0/0		1	26
Cleveland	55	12/23	3/3	2/4		4	28

Mr. Consistency for the Warriors.  The only player other than Sprewell and
Owens who played well against the Lakers.  Never really dominated any game
though.  Had good defensive games against Utah with 4 blocks and Minnesota
with 5 steals.  Mullin surpassed Rick Barry's Warriors' career record of
929 steals in the Minnesota game.  Obviously, he is still playing way
too many minutes.
Grade: A

Tim Hardaway:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		35	8/19	2/2	1/1		9	19
Minnesota	41	10/21	1/2	2/3		10	24
Lakers		39	5/17	3/4	0/1		8	14
Cleveland	55	14/26	4/6	0/3		15	35

A below average game against Utah. Then a spotty game against
Minnesota, although he did come up big at the end.  
Then a truly horrible game against the Lakers.  In fact, the
Warriors made their comeback when he was on the bench.  He did play well
in the final 2 minutes though.  Much more aggressive against Cleveland
but started to poop out in OT and made some bad passes.
Grade: B-

Latrell Sprewell:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		29	6/10	3/4	3/3		0	15
Minnesota	29	4/8	1/2	1/1		1	9
Lakers		30	4/7	4/4	3/11		2	12
Cleveland	39	5/12	0/0	0/5		2	10

With Marciulionis out, Sprewell has already become the 4th best Warrior.
The best defensive player, he can also be an offensive force.
He took the first shot of the season for the Warriors, a 19 foot jumper
against Utah and has done well from that point on.  Nelson criticized
his rebounding but he really brought up that part of his game in the last
2 games.  Though he is still making rookie mistakes at key times, he
has been promoted to the finishing line-up in the last 2 games.
Grade: A-

Tyrone Hill:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		25	3/4	2/2	1/5		1	8 
Minnesota	20	4/6	4/7	2/7		1	12 
Lakers 		15	1/1	1/2	1/6		1	3 
Cleveland	19	2/3	0/0	3/6		0	4 

Hill started the first 3 games.  However, 
he is still struggling and foul prone.  More than any other player though,
he is fingered for ticky-tack fouls.  For example, he was unfairly fingered
for 4 phantom fouls against Malone.
Not much of a factor the last couple of games.
Grade: C+

Chris Gatling: 
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts 
Utah 		 7	1/1	2/3	0/1		0	4
Minnesota	15	3/6	2/4	2/4		1	8	
Lakers		22	3/6	2/3	2/5		0	8
Cleveland	12	0/1	1/2	0/0		0	1

Gatling has been primarily the finishing center, which indicates that
of all the centers, Nelson has the most confidence in him.  He still
continues to make mistakes at inopportune times though.  Was ineffective
against the big Cleveland front line.
Grade: B-

Jeff Grayer:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		25	5/8	2/4	1/2		2	12
Minnesota	24	6/10	3/6	1/5		0	15
Lakers		12	1/5	3/4	0/3		1	4
Cleveland	10	0/2	2/2	0/1		0	2

Grayer was a critical component in the two Warrior road victories.
He did a good job driving to the hoop.  He was especially impressive
in OT against the Wolves.  However, in the last two games, he has
come in in the 2nd quarter, and been ineffective.  Coupled with the
stellar play of Sprewell, his minutes have shrunk.  
Grade: B-

Victor Alexander:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		6	0/1	1/2	1/1		0	1
Minnesota	9	1/3	1/2	1/1		0	3
Lakers		18	4/8	2/2	4/11		2	10 
Cleveland	9	0/2	2/2	1/3		0	2

A good game against the Lakers.  He has done reasonably well in limited 
minutes in the other games, but Nelson still does not trust him enough to play 
many minutes.
Grade: B-

Keith "Mister" Jennings:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		15	2/2	6/6	0/1		5	10
Minnesota	16	0/6	0/0	0/1		3	0
Lakers		16	3/3	1/3	0/2		2	7
Cleveland	12	2/3	0/0	0/0		0	4

A very good first game.  Then a horrible shooting game against the Wolves. 
This seemed to affect his confidence and he has not been aggressive
enough on offense.  Has played well defensively in every game.
Grade: B

Jud Buechler
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		 7	0/2	0/0	0/1		1	0
Minnesota	11	3/4	0/0	3/6		0	6
Lakers		 4	1/2	0/0	0/0		0	2
Cleveland	 6	1/3	0/0	0/0		0	2

Done well when asked to play.  Was beat by Sanders in the last couple of
critical plays against the Cavs.
Grade: B

Byron Houston:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		 9	2/3	1/1	1/4		0	5
Minnesota	20	1/1	1/2	2/4		1	3
Lakers		 4	0/2	0/0	0/1		0	0
Cleveland	 5	0/0	0/0	0/0		0	0

Quite effective defensively against Karl Malone, but picked up 5 quick
fouls and had to sit down.  Instrumental in Warriors win in Minnesota.
His last two rebounds saved the game for the Warriors.  Got cut over
the eye against the Lakers so had to sit out most of the game.  Nelson
did not feel comfortable playing him against the big Cavs.
Grade: C+

Alton Lister:
		mins	fg	ft	reb(o/t)	a	pts
Utah		0	0/0	0/0	0/0		0 	0
Minnesota	0	0/0	0/0	0/0		0 	0
Lakers		0	0/0	0/0	0/0		0 	0
Cleveland	18	2/7	0/0	4/6		1	4

Started against Cleveland.   Did a reasonable job against Daugherty.
Daugherty finished with 13 points and 1 rebound.  
Grade: B-


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