Warriors 107	@	Heat 114

January 1, 2011		1	2	3	4	T
	Warriors	36	36	12	23	107
	Heat	28	30	25	31	114
	Net	8	6	-13	-8	-7
	Season Avg	-2.9	0.8	-0.4	-0.1	-2.2
	Compare to Season Avg	10.9	5.2	-12.6	-7.9	-4.8

	Warriors Stats
	FG%	3P%	FT%	FTA	Fouls	OReb	TReb	Assists	Steals	Blocks	Turns	POTurns	PIPaint	FBPoints
Game	47.1%	48.1%	75%	16	31	7	36	19	7	2	12	14	34	8
Season Avg	46.2%	39.2%	76.1%	20.7	22	11.6	40.5	22.5	9	5	14.1	17.5	42.6	18.6
Difference	0.9%	9%	-1.1%	-4.7	9	-4.6	-4.5	-3.5	-2	-3	-2.1	-6.5	-8.6	-10.6
	Net Comparison
	FG%	3P%	FT%	FTA	Fouls	OReb	TReb	Assists	Steals	Blocks	Turns	POTurns	PIPaint	FBPoints
Net Game	-2.2%	5.3%	0.5%	-31	-19	-3	-7	-5	0	-4	2	-1	-2	-10
Net Season Avg	-0.6%	3.5%	-1.2%	-7	-3.6	-1.2	-4.3	-2.2	0.8	0.7	1.2	2	-2.9	-0.8
Net Difference	-1.6%	1.8%	1.7%	-24	-15.4	-1.8	-2.7	-2.8	-0.8	-4.7	0.8	-3	0.9	-9.2

The Warriors played a perfect first half: on fire from 3, freely running the court, knocking down buzzer beaters — but I think we all knew it was too good to last.

In the second half, the game regressed to the mean and the Warriors just looked awful. Miami clamped down on D and stiffled any flow left over from the first half, the Warriors’ turnover woes returned, Dwayne Wade started drawing fouls for getting breathed on while tomahawk chops on Ellis’ arms went uncalled, and the shots that went in during the first 24 minutes most certainly did not in the second. The Warriors scored less in the second half total than they did in either of the first two quarters.

It’s easy to blame the officiating, and they certainly deserve a lot of scorn — looking at the net stats above, the number that blares out is the -37 (!!!) on net free throw attempts. But Miami deserves credit for dictating the tempo in the second half, for driving and creating contact while the Warriors settled for jumpers, and for exerting tremendous energy on defense that was just as responsible for the Warriors’ scoring woes as the whistles were.

So what can the Warriors take out of this? First, if they play their game — and last night proves that their game is most certainly not a half-court motion offensive game — they can keep up with anyone. Who knows: if they weren’t on the back end of a back-to-back, maybe they would have had enough energy to keep it up just a bit longer and carry a big enough lead into the 4th to hang on.

Second, Dorell Wright has truly turned a corner. He’s been much more aggressive of late, and I think that really helps his outside shot as he’s able to do other things to get himself going if he’s missing from deep early. Before, his only response seemed to be to keep on firing from 3 or disappear completely.

Now they need to put it together for a full game against a quality opponent. Next up is the Magic on Monday, so let’s see if the Warriors can take the positive (perfect first half!) from this game instead of the negative (epic second half collapse!). Here’s where the reportedly awesome team chemistry could make a big difference…