Warriors Non-Existent Effort Against Grizzlies Is Sickening

The Warriors had a relatively easy game tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies. A team they shouldn't have had any problems with.

Yet, instead they made the Grizzlies look like a playoff caliber team. The Grizzlies didn't beat the Warriors tonight. The Warriors beat themselves.

The only player on the Warriors to have any type of effort was Andris Biedrins, who went 8/14 from the field with 16 points and grabbed 22 rebounds. The only person remotely coming close to his energy was DeMarcus Nelson who did what the Warriors should have been doing all night long and that is attacking the basket.

The Warriors instead lived on one-on-one play, with no ball movement whatsoever. The Warriors missed open looks.

What epitomized the Warriors one-on-one play came when CJ Watson grabbed an offensive rebound instead of bringing the ball back out and setting the offense again, he takes a tough jumper with a hand in his face which lead to an easy basket for the Grizzlies.

Corey Maggette was definitely not himself tonight. He reinjured his left hamstring and was supposedly questionable to return. He came back for the third period where the Warriors went on a little run and eventually took a 5 point lead but it was all for not.

The capping of Maggette's night was he had a wide open three-pointer on a pass from Stephen Jackson that he normally makes, but he flat out missed it.

So, the question for Warriors fans was why was Maggette out there? He wasn't effective from the floor as in his jumpshot, he was limited defensively, and furthermore by playing him the Warriors are risking him being out for a much longer period of time.

It was apparent that something wasn't right because he wasn't attacking the basket. He did before the injury, but after it he settled on jumpers.

The next issue that needs to be addressed is Don Nelson's substitution method. There have been plenty of articles written in regards to the seven man rotation the Warriors have sent out.

It's just not working.

Stephen Jackson can't go 42-48 minutes a night. He had some great drives against the Grizzlies to get to the rack but he was so tired he wasn't able to complete the play and lead to him missing the layup and the Grizzlies pushing the ball up the court.

During the game, what got the Warriors back in the game was going to a 2-1-2 zone. It forced turnovers by the Grizzlies and it helped out with the defense on the Grizzlies big man Marc Gasol who played like an all-star didn't help them much and that's why they had to go to the zone.

The zone proved to be effective, but Nelson went away from it and by switching from it the Warriors got burned and ended up losing the game 90-79.