Golden State Warriors Breakdown: Warriors Are a Three-Ring Circus

The Warriors may have only lost to the Phoenix Suns 115-105, but they certainly put on a clinic of how not to play professional basketball.

How bad was it?

The Warriors registered assists on only 17 of their 39 shot makes. And they committed 19 turnovers to those 17 assists—putrid ratios both.

If not for Ronny Turiaf, Andris Biedrins, and Corey Maggette, it would be assumed that Coach Don Nelson instructed his guys to actually not play any defense.

Stephen Jackson is supposed to be Golden State’s go-to guy on offense, and its best player on defense. However, Jackson attempts to many standstill isolation jumpers early in the shot clock, is useless without the ball, and only passes when he senses an assist.

When Jackson drove to the rim, good things usually happened. He went 6-10 in the paint, and at least three of his assists came when he drove or posted up, drew help defenders, and made the correct pass for the assist. Two of Jackson’s other field goals were catch-and-shoot jumpers off of ball movement. In isolations, he only went 2-8 and when he didn’t have the basketball, he lounged around and took himself out of the game.

Furthermore, Jackson frequently stayed behind on plays to argue with the referees, completely taking himself out of the picture as Phoenix wound up with five-on-four scenarios.

In fact, despite Jackson’s stellar defensive reputation, he was a complete disappointment on that end of the court. Losing Jason Richardson without the ball, being beaten down court by Grant Hill, losing touch with Phoenix’ off-ball cuts.

The only defense Jackson played came when he helped down on Shaquille O’Neal to block his shot, and when he jumped into the passing lanes twice to record a pair of steals (his third came when the ball literally rolled up to his feet). Except in those instances, Jackson was routinely dominated by Hill (27 PTS) and Richardson (25 PTS) head-to-head.

It says here that most teams become manifestations of their most talented players. No wonder Golden State played defenseless, selfish, losing basketball.

Taking Jackson’s queue, aside from a handful of Turiaf and Biedrins baseline cuts when their man was forced to cut, and ferocious baseline slice cuts by Maggette, the Warriors employed no weak side action at all.

Maggette was easily Golden State’s most physical player, powering along the baseline to get in good position near the basket, and bulling his way to the hoop off the dribble. However, no matter how open a teammate was, Maggette’s only concern was getting to the hoop, forcing numerous drives into traffic. Like Jackson, Maggette is another selfish scorer.

Jamal Crawford is a streaky shooting guard misplaced as the team’s point guard. While he did make several great passes and decisions with the ball (six assists), his decisions with the ball were often reckless and failed to gain his team an advantage (four turnovers)

Monta Ellis is rudely receiving a harsh lesson on how players who only know how to succeed because of their athletic gifts usually end up struggling mightily after crippling leg injuries.

Whether he was failing to get lift on his way up at the hoop, or whether he couldn’t warp past or shift around help defenders at the basket, Ellis’ helter-skelter game was compromised by offseason ankle surgery.

The clearest indicator of Ellis’ inability to generate any quickness were the two times he put his head down and attempted to blitz the rim with Phoenix’ defenders stepping in his way in plenty of time. Instead of beating the help, or having the shiftiness to sidestep it, Ellis was forced into two important offensive foul calls.

With little ball or player movement, Kelenna Azubuike had no presence in the game, and when he did get the ball, he tried to do too much.

Golden State’s youngsters, whether Anthony Marrow, Rob Kurz, or C.J. Watson, all made damning mistakes and none seem to be very well coached.

Neither do the Warriors play with much selflessness.

In fact, aside from Crawford congratulating Biedrins in a huddle after a smart cut, and the boundless energy of Biedrins and Turiaf, the Warriors don’t show any heart, or continuity, and appear as a collection of individuals playing for themselves, while coached by an individual coaching for himself.

What this miserable season is showing Warriors’ fans is that Don Nelson’s cockamamie one-on-five game plan, despite the perfect storm of elements coming together for one magical year (the second half of 2006-2007, and the first half of 2007-2008), just doesn’t work. It encourages the worst in players, expects them to cut corners, and completely marginalizes the defensive end of the court.

It’s time for Golden State to pitch up the tents, ship out the clowns (Nelson, Jackson, Maggette, et. all), and realize there is more to basketball than individual acrobatics on a flying trapeze. The circus act is a complete and total failure.