• Monta’s attitude. It’s been a trying pair of games for Monta, as he carried the team both games only to be largely kept out of the offense in the fourth quarter. I don’t really expect him to have a let down against the Lakers (and the only player he considers better than himself), but if he is once again the only player who can hit a first-half shot it will be interesting to see if he starts to dog it a bit,
• Inside hope. Lee remains out and Brandon Wright stayed in Oakland with his bad back, leaving it up to the same cast of characters that got massacred on the boards against the Knicks. I don’t expect them to win the battle tonight, but it would nice to get a glimmer of hope that the Warriors have a chance until they get their big guys back.
• Curry’s funk. Curry had a good stat line against the Knicks, but it just didn’t feel right. He was ugly in the first half, and his second half surge came at the expense of chances for Monta. For the Warriors to have any chance tonight, Curry needs to have a great *point guard* game tonight.

• Return of the shot. In their last two games, the Warriors have shot 34% and 41%. Can they get back on track now that they’ll be playing at home and with good rest for the next two games?
• Get to the stripe. As Owen at the Golden State Worriers notes in his stats-based recap of the first ten games, one place that the Warriors have really fallen off this year is in getting to the line. I think this starts with hitting enough outside shots to make the other team pay attention to the shooters, which creates the space for Monta to drive and draw obvious fouls against recovering defenders. But if the other team doesn’t need to honor the shooters, they can pack the lane and watch as the refs swallow their whistles while Monta drives right into a brick wall of interior defenders.
• A new backup 4? In Saturday’s game, Jeff Adrien did what Brandon Wright seems congenitally incapable of: taking full advantage of an opportunity. Adrien grabbed 8 boards in 19 minutes with a +10 and was by far their most productive backup at the power forward spot. With Lee out another game, will Adrien get the start? And if he does, can he make it count?

UPDATE: View from here

AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps

The road trip mercifully comes to an end, and one can only hope that a good night’s sleep in their own beds will remind these guys (Monta excluded) how to shoot. Outside of his 9-16, the rest of the team went 19-66 (29%). Ugly.

And the board-work wasn’t much better. The Warriors got creamed 58-42, a margin that would have been worse without Adrien’s solid contribution of 8 boards in 19 minutes. Adrien posted a +10, and after Brandon Wright’s lifeless zero-rebound performance I’d like to see Adrien get some more playing time in the games ahead. Adrien’s already 6th on the team in Wins Produced in just 30 minutes, so might as well see what you’ve got before Amundson and Udoh return.

Aside from Adrien’s nice contribution off the bench, Monta deserves a ton of credit for being the only starter to really show up tonight. Curry went 3-14, Dorell Wright went 2-14, and Biedrins went 0-4. These are just not the sorts of lines you can get from your starters on the road and expect to win (especially with a guy like Lee out).

With the new owner’s half-price promotion on Monday, I’d expect to see a sold out, extremely drunk crowd in their return to the Oracle. If that doesn’t give this team some energy and snap them out of their scoring funk, I’m not sure what will.

• The Wonder Duo. Can Monta and/or Curry go nuts and will the team to the victory? I have a hard time imagining the Warriors winning this game without an all-world performance from one of their two available stars; Curry seems the better bet with his matchup tonight against Jennings.
• Second Chances. Brandon Wright totally blew his chance to turn some heads in his start against the Bulls, and did nothing to prove he can get the job done. He gets relegated to the bench tonight, but with Lee out he’ll have ample opportunity to make up for his missed chance in the last game. But will he?

Read Feltbot for a recap of just how awful Brandon Wright was in his first start of the year. File this one under “Not seizing the opportunity.”

Upsides to this game? None that I can really see. The deficit hit 30 points in the second quarter, and still Monta played 37 minutes. You get the opportunity to see if Jeremy Lin and Jeff Adrien have anything to offer, and they get 9 and 6 minutes, respectively. They lose the rebounding battle, shoot 41%, and give up 55% shooting.

At least it’s just one game, and no one really faults them for losing to the Bulls on the road without Lee. Still, you’d hope to have at least seen a better effort. Let’s hope they get some needed rest before playing the red-hot Bucks tomorrow night.

• Da Bench. Four of the five starters played 40+ minutes last night, so to have any chance the Warriors are going to need some quality minutes from the bench. Wright and Lin have been making progress, so I’d hope to see them get some run tonight. Reggie Williams was decent last night, but I think the team will need a lot more scoring from him to have a chance. And can Radmonovic turn around his recent woeful play?
• Da Boards. Boozer is still out with an injury, but Joakim Noah has been an animal on the glass and is averaging 15 boards a game. I’d expect Lee to be a bit stiff tonight after the elbow injury (not to mention the emotions from last night’s return to the Garden), so Biedrins better bring it against Noah in the middle. If Biedrins can equal Noah’s rebounding total tonight, then the Warriors should be in good shape to steal one.
• Controlling Rose and Deng. Derrick Rose had the hot hand early for the Bulls, but in recent games it was been Luol Deng who’s done the most damage. This will be a hell of a test for Dorrell Wright — let’s see if he can be the perimeter stopper he was advertised as when the Warriors signed him (though, in fairness, he’s been doing a hell of a lot more than just defending so far this season).

Regret watch: after seeing Anthony Randolph last night, tonight the Warriors get to see how C.J. Watson is adjusting to the Bulls. Despite the Warriors’ obvious hole at the backup PG spot this year, I still don’t miss Watson much: he just isn’t a PG, can’t play defense, and does little more but give you a backup Monta with a better outside shot but little to no inside game.

UPDATE: Per the twitter, Lee is out tonight as he rests his lacerated elbow. An already tough back-to-back just got a whole lot harder…

But other than that, nice win! Curry had a season-high 34 points, and carried the team in the 4th quarter — never bigger than right after Monta went out. Warriors are going to need him to go crazy over the next few games, so this better be an indication that he’s starting to get going.

Lee struggled with fouls but still had a double-double with 14 and 12. Biedrins had 8 and 9 but seemed to play much bigger than that. The two led the Warriors back into positive territory in rebounding +/-, which is still the key to a win for this team.

I said before the game that the bench needed to come up big tonight, and they did from early on. Jeremy Lin and Brandon Wright gave quality minutes in the first half that gave the starters some needed rest — a needed statement from both of them.

After the debacle last night in Detroit, this was an impressive bounce-back and the strongest statement yet in Smart’s young career.

• Who runs the point and how does Lin deal with a home crowd cheering for his every touch? He has played much better on the road thus far when the pressure has been off him.
• How does Wright respond after his option was declined (we still need to discuss this)?
• How does Lee bounce back from his awful performance in LA?
• Can Biedrins contain the other Gasol and can the W’s win the battle on the glass with Zach Randolph out?

Halftime Update: Monta has been running the point well with some help from Williams. Doing a decent job with 2 TOs between them. Brandan Wright has not gotten into the game, nor has Lin. Lee is playing okay and at least crashing the boards (9 at halftime) but it only 2-10 on the floor. Dorell Wright on the other hand is playing great and Monta is having a typical night. Warriors were -1 on the glass but built a 12 point lead by going to the line 21 times. Biedrins has been pretty non-existent outside of a couple of nice passes and as I write this picks up his 4th foul a few minutes into the second half.

Reggie Williams slid into the point guard role in Curry’s absence and by all accounts was terrific — 27 efficient points to pair with 8 assists. Looks like we may have found our answer to the question of who can spell Curry at the point (mercifully freeing Lin to learn how to play at the professional level in the D-League).

With Dorrell Wright out, VladRad played 30 minutes on his way to a decent looking line, though it sounds like he fell apart near the end of the game. Brandon Wright also got plenty of run, some of it at the 3, but was only able to total 5 points and 5 boards while posting a soul-sucking -23.

Good game writeup by feltbot that makes some interesting points about the Warriors’ aversion to the pick and roll and Brandon Wright’s terrible game.

Biedrin’s line jumps out of the box score thanks to his +19 and 10 rebounds, and Lee also had a solid all-around game with 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists (but 5 turnovers).

The Warriors won the rebounding battle yet again. As Mike Massa notes, the Warriors finish the preseason with a +4.13 rebounding margin, giving hope that they successfully addressed their biggest weakness in the offseason.

On to the regular season!

And: Lin! Sure, his +/- was pretty weak at -16, but he played 18 minutes, had 4 assists, and committed zero turnovers. Not exactly setting the world aflame, but a nice step forward and his best argument yet for getting real minutes in the early going.

And: Brandon Wright and Reggie Williams with production off the bench! Both dropped 14 points, though Wright’s rebounding totals were pretty weak with only two. Overall though, the Warriors outrebounded the Lakers 48-37, continuing one of the best trends of the preseason.

Now the bad news — Monta somehow managed a -29 in just 21 minutes of work, and had a largely invisible stat sheet. Curry went out with a sprained ankle that is apparently better than it looked at least. VladRad got the start (?) and was pretty woeful with 1-7 shooting — I assume that Smart was trying to send a message to Dorrell Wright as he ultimately ended up with the bulk of the minutes at the three, and had a decent line with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists (but a -18 +/-).

And the Lakers shot 56%. That’s gotta change.

Postscript: Jeff Adrien got only 4 minutes of playing time, but grabbed 4 rebounds and had the best +/- of the night at +5. Granted, they were probably garbage minutes, but the dude keeps putting up solid minutes whenever he gets on the court.