| A Different Team Authored by Payam Jahromi - March 21, 2005 - 3:39 am
Suddenly, the Warriors look like a good team.
The winning streak is at three, but it feels much different than their four-game streak earlier this season before Jason Richardson’s ankle injury.
This time it feels real.
After beating the Kings for the second time in four days – sandwiched by a win in Phoenix – the optimism is rapidly growing in the Bay Area. And there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
Take the two games against Sacramento. Last Thursday they beat the Kings on national TV behind Richardson’s 40, and last night they beat them without Richardson. Thursday’s game showed anybody who was awake on the East Coast that J-Rich will be an All-Star next year, yet Saturday night’s game proved they still have enough talent to win without him.
That talent includes Andris Biedrins, who started his first NBA game Saturday after Adonal Foyle sat with the Flu. The 18-year-old came through with a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds), including 5-for-5 from the field. Are we positive he’s only 18?
I’ve gotten this far in the article and I haven’t mentioned Baron Davis, who pumped out 33 points in Phoenix Friday while holding Steve Nash to 12.
Say what you want about Davis – either you love the fact that he makes everyone better or you hate the fact he keeps shooting 3’s even when he’s missing– but you can’t deny that he’s made the Warriors better since he arrived. It’s pretty obvious he’s the biggest reason for the turnaround. But he’s not the only reason.
The man teammates call “Z” is making Chris Mullin look like a certified genius. Zarko Cabarkapa, obtained earlier this year for two second-rounders, is proving he is for real, averaging 14.8 points over the last four games.
And he’s doing it in limited minutes. In his only game over 30 minutes, Zarko had career highs in points (26) and rebounds (10) in a close loss to the Rockets. His 17 points Saturday came in only 25 minutes. Perhaps all the talk about how he lost his confidence after the Fortson hit was overblown. Maybe all he needed was an actual chance to play, something he wasn’t given in Phoenix.
Finally, you have the wildcards: Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Mickael Pietrus. Pietrus is by far the most puzzling player of the three and one of the most puzzling players in the entire league. He can look so bad and lost one night, and then look like a future superstar the next. I have yet to figure him out. I don’t think Mullin or Mike Montgomery can figure him out.
Dunleavy has generally played well the second half of the season and it looks more and more like he is part of the Warriors’ future. Dunleavy has been highly scrutinized this season – some of it fair and some unfair. I’ll write an article on him soon.
Murphy, who is starting to fall out of favor with the local fans, is a power forward who doesn’t score inside. That doesn’t make him a bad player, but maybe he doesn’t fit on this team.
Without knowing Mullin’s plans in the off-season, there doesn’t seem to be enough minutes at the small forward/power forward positions for Dunleavy, Murphy, Cabarkapa and Pietrus.
But there is plenty of time to figure all that out. That’s what the final 15 games are for: to continue to build for next year and gain respect around the league, and to carefully evaluate the roster.
Right now, Warriors fans love the fact that some of the recent wins have entered uncharted territory. Saturday’s win in Sacramento was the second time this season the Warriors prevailed at Arco. They had lost there 11 previous times. They also won the season series 3-1, the first time they’ve done that since 1993-94.
The win at Phoenix was a back-to-back game where the Suns had the day off before. That formula is normally a guaranteed win for the home team, let alone when the home team has more than double the wins of the visiting team.
The wins in Washington and Philadelphia were big for many reasons, including the fact that Gilbert Arenas and Chris Webber were involved.
Fifteen games to play with nothing to lose. I haven’t thought this in a LONG time, but the Warriors are a dangerous team to play right now.
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