David Lee had his finest game as a Warrior, helping the team to a +7 rebounding advantage by pulling down 20 boards to go with 29 points. Monta and Steph also chimed in with 30 and 28, respectively, and as they mentioned on the postgame show this was the best game these three have played together as a trio.

Amundson gave some great second half minutes off the bench — even hitting his free throws — and while Dorell Wright couldn’t hit a shot to save his life, he didn’t screw things up too badly either as he posted a +21.

Now the Warriors head down to LA to take on the Lakers on the back end of a back-to-back. As the great Fitz just mentioned on the telecast, winning tomorrow would complete the most improbably 3-game winning streak…just about ever.

Stat of the game: 22-24. That’s the Warriors mark from the line, 3.2 above their season average in attempts and well above that in terms of makes, and they even managed 4 more attempts than the Mavericks. If they can get to the line — and make them — this team can really hang in there.

Monta kept the team in the game through the first three quarters, then went strangely silent in the 4th. But Al Thornton picked up the slack, with 12 points and 9 rebounds off the bench — most of that in the final period. Amundson also came up big off the bench with 8 points and 10 rebounds.

So all-in-all a feel good win against a quality team that still has a lot to play for in terms of playoff positioning. It’s just too bad they couldn’t do this more consistently throughout the season.

The bigs deserve most of the credit in this one, as they frustrated Kevin Love and his frontline friends on the way to a +41 between Lee, Biedrins, Udoh, and Amundson. They won the rebounding battle against a team that bested them by 21 on that stat in their last meeting, and fueled the Warriors big turnover advantage by making Darko cough up the ball and generating 10 blocks (5 of those for Udoh). And, of course, ending Love’s double-double streak is a nice trophy achievement — one that should go in Lee’s case.

Another thing that stood out about this game was how ugly it was during the Warriors’ run over the 3rd and 4th quarters. It had a slow, plodding pace with a ton of whistles, but for once the Dubs were the beneficiary of ugly ball as they completely flummoxed the Timberwolves’ offense and got plenty on their own offensive end to pull away.

So, good to see a game play out the way it was supposed to, as the Warriors have been a bit lazy about playing up/down to their level of competition this year. But to win consistently you need to beat up on the teams you should, then steal a few against those above you. This was a nice step in that direction — and tonight we’ll see if they can keep it up with a road game against the Kings.

The defensive rebounding in the 4th quarter was just atrocious; hard to say you deserve to win when you give up 3 defensive rebounds off free throws in the final 12 minutes.

Have to give credit to the backcourt in this one — Curry’s four made 3′s were all big, and Monta got his scoring touch back despite a less-than-efficient 11-23 from the field. David Lee had a quiet line with 8 and 8, but came up with a lot of big rebounds in the closing minutes.

I usually don’t like to blame officiating, but some of the calls in this game were just atrocious. Amundson got destroyed on a layup with no call, that Monta offensive foul after he was clearly held was brutal, and that Diaw pass-to-himself that wasn’t called was insane — though thankfully someone on the crew noticed and gave the Warriors a makeup call on the out of bounds.

And as for my Stephen Jackson key to the game in the preview? My dream came true — with that ugly shot at the end, he arguably lost the game for the Bobcats. Happy New Year!

(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

Well, how about that! VladRad makes up for A LOT with that deep bomb to tie the game (not to mention 13 4th quarter points), and it was enough to forget that the Warriors gave up two monster runs to a horrible Kings team.

For the first time, they were able to fully climb their way out of a deep hole of their own making. Sure, the game shouldn’t have been this close, but I think Lauridsen put it best: “Meeting exceptionally modest expectations is still better than collapsing below them.”

I’m wondering if Smart started reading Feltbot, as for the second straight game the Warriors had 31 fast break points. That made up for getting beat on the glass, as the Kings managed to break into triple digits on field goal attempts — but only hit 39%.

Monta’s efficiency was way down but he still carried the scoring load for the team, and his circus shot near the end of overtime was one of his all-time best. Reggie Williams also regained his touch, scoring 24 points and almost making us forget his 1-3 from the line in the closing seconds of regulation.

The Cousins-Udoh matchup I was looking forward to didn’t turn into much: Cousins struggled from the field but was still a beast on the glass. Udoh cooled off from last night and didn’t score a point (didn’t even take a shot), and it’s pretty clear that he was winded by the end of his run (as any human being would be after playing nearly 50 NBA minutes in 26 hours after logging just 8 in the previous 8 months). While Udoh’s -9 was the worst on the squad, I still like his activity and great hands. Plus, he’s avoiding something that has plagued every rookie Warriors big man that I can remember: constant fouls (and it’s not like he’s avoiding physical contact).

So now the Warriors get a few days off before their Christmas night matchup against the Trail Blazers (think the NBA schedulers wish they could have this one back?). By all accounts Curry should be back, and hopefully we’ll see Biedrins back on the court as well. Maybe then we can get the minutes smoothed out a bit more — Law backing up Curry, Reggie subbing for Monta but still providing some scoring punch, Amundson down to the low-minute energy guy that he should be (how about his 6 fouls in 13 minutes tonight?), and maybe even some VladRad and Carney at the 3 to get Wright down to about 30 minutes a night.

But for now, good to get a win that the Warriors HAD to have. It was more stressful/exciting than it should have been, but at this point in the season, with postseason chances slipping away with every turnover (seriously, can anyone catch an interior pass on this team?), I’ll take it.

Wright was awful, Law went 0-5 from deep, and Amundson was ineffective starting in place of Biedrins.

But at least we got something to get excited about, as Udoh provided 25 quality minutes and led the team with a +9. The team still sucks of course, and the playoff hopes are quickly fading with each late-game turnover. But at least we have something to look forward to watching in the next game, as he was active and had a couple of jaw-dropping plays (especially that dunk/block sequence in the 4th).

Of course, if they hadn’t dug themselves into a 15 point hole with less than 8 minutes left, their impressive run over the closing minutes could have made the difference.

So I guess in terms of positives we can appreciate the contributions of both Carney and Radmanovic off the bench, and the fact that Lee didn’t have the worst +/- of the night for the first game in a while (Amundson barely edged him).

But other than that, this was a weak performance in a very winnable game. In fact, I’m starting to wonder if Mike Singletary has taken over this team: the offense is uncreative, the players make stupid mental errors constantly, and the staff never outcoaches their counterpart (and regularly gets pwn3ed on that front). As the Kawakami’s of the world will (rightly) note, the Warriors can’t blame injuries when they lose to a team that has clearly outdone them on that front.

No excuses: the Warriors should have won this game. And the more they miss these opportunities, the more the case for blowing up both the roster and the coaching staff is being made.

Postscript: I guess the hype about Udoh was just that, hype. A DNP-CD on a night where Biedrins was out and Amundson was basically in foul trouble from the opening tip? I get that the Blazers represent a relatively small matchup, but to not even make it off the bench makes you wonder just how ready this guy actually is.

(AP Photo/Eric Gay)

As noted in the preview, this was an unsurprising loss. Still, it was unfortunate they couldn’t put up a stronger fight given the contribution from Reggie Williams off the bench (a sign of things to come?). After closing within a few points late in the second, the Spurs proved themselves the better team by running the margin up to 10 before half time. After that, they never looked back.

With 6 players in double-digits, the Spurs ultimately made things look pretty easy. The Warriors lost Curry early to a re-aggravated ankle (though he still managed a -15 in only 10 minutes), and with Monta going 7-24 there was never really a path to victory.

Aside from Reggie, the Warriors got one of their better recent games from David Lee, and Amundson again provided quality minutes off the bench. It’s nice to see the Warriors with more combination options up front (soon to get even better with Udoh’s return tonight), though also unfortunate that Biedrins is making himself so easy to pull off the court. Hell, Amundson has seemed like the better scoring option since he’s come back.

The roadie is now mercifully over, and only two games left in the murder stretch. With the Warriors having lost 10 of 11, a softer stretch in the schedule can’t come soon enough.

For a team like the Warriors to beat a team like the Mavericks, they need to be at the top of their game. They don’t need to be perfect, but they can’t make stupid mistakes in key game situations. The Warriors failed that test tonight in a game where they had a chance to pull off the much-needed upset on the road, leaving us with an entertaining game but nothing to show for it in the end.

Aside from the sloppy play, there was a lot to like in this game: Amundson provided a nice shot in the arm off the bench, Lee had a nice bounce-back from his fourth quarter benching in Oklahoma City, and Dorell Wright had a double-double on the way to a solid overall game.

But, ultimately, the bench provided little beyond Amundson and a few nice Radmanovic bombs (and jeez, Reggie Williams is starting to STINK), and the Mavericks made the plays at the end while the Warriors’ sloppiness sealed their fate. And now they go to San Antonio tomorrow night after four of the five starters played 40+ minutes. Looking like an 0-for road trip for sure at this point…

P.S. Can someone teach these assholes how to shoot free throws?

Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images

The Warriors waste a career night from Biedrins and, more important, a great opportunity to steal one on the road before Lee comes back tonight. They shot 49% from the field, outrebound the Grizzlies 44-33, held Randolph and Gasol in check, and were even close in terms of foul shots with 23 attempts to the Grizzlies 29. But when it really mattered at the end, huge turnovers and missed shots pushed the losing streak to five games.

Dorell Wright was the goat in this one, as he missed two huge shots near the end — one a botched attempt to pick up a foul, the other a wide-open 3 with the game on the line. Let’s hope he bounces back like he did the last time he had a wretched game…3 games ago. After a great start to the season, games like this make you wonder if there was a reason why Wright never got a chance to play big minutes until this year.

Back to Biedrins, he was an absolute beast around the rim tonight. Perhaps most impressive was how smoothly he moved around the rim, taking a single dribble when needed to get in better position for a layup. That’s something we never would have seen from him a few years ago, and combined with his improved set of post moves from about 8-10 feet he might be using enhanced skills to make up for any lessened quickness compared to his earlier days.

The controversy du jour from tonight’s game was Smart’s 4th quarter decisions with regard to the bench: both Monta and Steph were kept out of the first five minutes of the quarter, and while the reserves didn’t do too bad as the deficit only grew from 5 to 8, as Steinmetz pointed out on the post-game show that stretch was the perfect opportunity to close the gap with the Memphis starters on the bench (Smart was planning to bring them in a bit earlier but there wasn’t a dead ball for several minutes). The decision to pull Curry after two bad plays and leave him on the bench until the 2-minute mark was also odd, and raises some questions about Smart’s coaching skills.

I thought this exchange from the Chronicle writeup was a big strange:

“I had two possessions when I was rusty. I’ve got to learn to ease my way back into a game when I sit that long,” said Curry, who had 26 points.

“I don’t buy that out-of-rhythm stuff. That’s a cop-out by ballplayers,” Smart said. “When I played, we were ready to play at any time.”

Silver linings? Jeff Adrien had a breakout game with 12 points (on 6-11 shooting), 8 rebounds, and a team-high +6 in over 30 minutes. Adrien still has flaws — the Grizzlies got a lot of easy inside baskets in this game — but until Amundson is back, he needs to jump over Gadzuric and Radmonovic in the front-court rotation.

Speaking of those two fools, Gaszuric managed a -15 in only 8 minutes of action last night. Radmonovic was slightly better and even hit a three, but his behind-the-back pass to the Grizzlies’ bench near the end of the game was a killer. The rest of the bench was similarly worthless: Carney in particular was extremely disappointing after a few solid games in a row; Lin was ok defensively but went 0-4 from the field with all four shots being blocked; and Reggie Williams played a largely forgettable 17 minutes with only 7 points.

And O.J. Mayo going for 23 off the bench? I guess no one read my game preview…

So now it’s on to Minnesota for a must-win game on the back end of a back-to-back. At least David Lee will be waiting for them when they get there — now we get to see how much the recent slide has been his absence and how much is just a tougher schedule exposing the Warriors’ flaws.