November 1st, 2008: Golden State at New Jersey

Golden State Warriors 105, New Jersey Nets 97

Poor Nets. But there are beacons of hope and awesomeness out there.


There's always something good to be said for home openers. The crowd is enthusiastic, especially when the team's already won on the road. There's anticipation I the air- is something special going to happen this year? Do we have the magic? Who the hell are some of these guys? That kind of thing.

A lot of people, but a lot of empty seats in the lower bowl. Bad combination, in my eyes. A gold star to the two Warriors who made a point of signing for all the kids waiting before the game. I have no idea who they were, but they signed while a couple of their teammates ran past or only signed for one or two people. It's nice to see NBA guys do that; it defeats the stereotype, and I like to see stereotypes be defeated.

Wasn't a great anthem. She had the potential to sing it well, but then she started throwing some ridiculous styling into it, and things went downhill from there. I'm thinking about starting the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to National Anthems. I think its time has come.

The most impressive play of the night, in my eyes, was when Corey Maggette, who was about to go flying into the stands, instead hurdled the two rows of courtside seats to land safely in the aisle behind them. Who knew cross-training would have such uses? He had a quietly solid game. Their center, Andris Biedrins (whose name the PA guy constantly pronounced as if he were drunk, and I know Latvian has some strange pronunciations, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it), played surprisingly well in the paint for a Euro, but I've never seen someone cherry-pick so badly as he did- there were two or three plays that I can remember where he never even bothered to cross halfcourt, including plays where he would have been really needed since his team missed the initial shot. Stephen Jackson is an asshole. A good shooter, but an asshole. Al Harrington was a better shooter and less of an asshole. Didn't see much of Nelson. Wasn't terribly impressed with the Warriors' bench, but I do like Azubuike- I remember him from college.

I like Josh Boone. He didn't play in the preseason game, and it's been a while since I saw him play in college, but seeing him now, I like what he brings to the table. Something good always seemed to happen when he was around the ball, whether it was a follow, a rebound, or some other kind of key play. Does anyone know what happened to Yi? He didn't play the second half, and the Nets really could have used him- or, y'know, anything when they started to fold in the third quarter. Carter got his shots, and had a couple of great plays- I think what actually amazes me most about him is his range from long distance, not the acrobatics he's better known for. During shootaround, he was launching from near halfcourt and hitting half the time. What can I say? Chicks dig the long ball. Harris, in my eyes, played too far away from his strengths, trying to be a scoring point instead of a distributing point- too much Becky Hammon, not enough Ticha Penicheiro. Bobby Simmons was unremarkable, which is all I expect of him. Brook Lopez got screwed by the refs- well, okay, the Nets got screwed, especially in the third quarter, because I refuse to believe that Golden State's defense is so vanilla that a 39-21 foul differential that leads to a 52-28 FTA discrepancy is legit- but his fifth foul was not a foul. I like Ryan Anderson on offense, not so much on defense. I think I will eventually prefer Douglas-Roberts over Dooling at the point, but for now, Dooling is the marginally more effective player.

Battle of the Bands winner performed at halftime. Nice instrumentals, not impressed with the lead singer.

Small featurette on Lopez and Anderson trick-or-treating. Better sound quality might have made it funnier, but it was pretty amusing as is.

Before I end these notes, there is a moment of awesome I need to share. As we left, it occurred to me that Sean Williams hadn't been inactive, but also hadn't played, and I commented on it to the boy. An older gentleman walking near us mentioned that there was a preseason game that Williams was supposed to start, but that Williams went to Coach Frank and said that Lopez needed the time more. Yes, the guy gave up a start for the benefit of his teammate and his team. That's unusual in any sport, but it's even more effective in a league that's so often considered to be a haven for the most selfish assholes out there. I knew there was something I liked about him!