Nice game all around, with Reggie Williams playing the full 48 and leading the team with an efficient 28 points. Curry continued his hot shooting with 18 points on 7-11 from the field, and Dorell Wright became the first player in league history to score more points in his 7th season than in his first 6 combined. And 8 rebounds for Udoh! (But only 3 points.)

The Warriors once again lost the rebounding battle (they finished last in the league in rebounding margin, again, and without even resorting to small-ball much), but at least they moved the ball around great — 33 assists for the team, 10.5 above the season average.

Despite the win, the real news was the hire of agent Dan Myers to be the new VP of Basketball Operations. Despite an extension for Riley, the expectation is that Myers will take over most of the day-to-day GM duties before long. More on this in the weeks to come — have to talk about something during what could be an extremely long off-season, after all — but suffice to say this is the best news I’ve heard from this team in quite some time.

So onto another playoffs without the Warriors, and the countdown to the draft lottery, and hope springing eternal, and all that jazz. I guess I’m kinda used to a postseason-less season at this point, but it still sucks.

Now much to say about this one: The Warriors got smashed from the get-go and never really stood a chance — and capped things off with perhaps their worst 4th quarter of the season.

Not even much to get excited about on an individual level. Udoh was perhaps the bright spot as he had a team-high -1 in 29 minutes, though his atrocious rebounding continues as he only grabbed a single board in that span. Of the others we’re watching here in the final weeks of the season Curry had a so-so game 11 points, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds, and a -8 that was decent compared to the rest of the team.

On the other hand, Thornton was a mess with a team-low -27 to go with 9 points and 4 boards — and no assists. Williams was a bit better at only -11, but not by much.

And hey, Jeff Adrien got off the bench! He matched Udoh’s rebounding total and got to the line 4 times in only 3 minutes. Can we please just play him a bit more to see if there’s anything there?

All in all, another forgettable road performance in a season that is fast becoming unwatchable — especially when there’s good basketball on other channels.

With 13 games left on the season, what should the Warriors be aiming for? If the season ended today they would draft 11th (if my judgment of the eastern conference standings is correct), but they’ve made a good run on the draft standings with their recent swoon and a move up the order is no longer out of the question — getting to 9 now looks like a distinct possibility.

So that’s one “objective,” and figuring out the roster is probably the other. Udoh and Curry could use some development — and please, Smart, let them play through their mistakes at this point — and I’d like to learn more about what we’ve got with Williams, Thornton, and Adrien.

Of course, that would require Smart to throw in the towel and recognize that his head coaching days will soon be going on hiatus. So we’ll see.

I say it’s over, and you might as well start seeing what you’ve got. Let’s see Udoh start at the 5, Lin get some backup guard minutes ahead of Law (who has been better than expected, but can’t shoot and clearly isn’t the future), and push Reggie Williams to see what we’ve got. We’ll see if Smart reads the writing on the wall or if he continues his futile effort to try to save his job for next year.

But 6 points, a -26, and a blown 3 from “his spot” that could have tied things late from Dorrell Wright? And all negative +/- from the starters, and all positive from the supposedly worthless bench? Well, you can’t say the Warriors aren’t finding new ways to lose.

There was one bright spot at least in the play of Reggie Williams. Dude was money from deep in the second half, and almost single-handedly kept the Warriors in the game. He’s been much more consistent of late, and if he could ever learn to become a 2-way player — and with his length, there’s no reason he can’t — he might finally turn the corner from good to, well, really good, at least.

But that was about it. Now the road trip continues, and you have to expect that the Warriors downward skid in the standings will continue right with it.

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

The Warriors ride into the All Star break in style behind a huge game from Monta Ellis and another solid defensive performance.

Monta was the hero in this one, as he put the team on his back and hit big shot after big shot in the second half. What was remarkable was that all his shots felt so needed in order for the team to keep pace. Definitely his best game in weeks, and something that should give him a good feeling while he’s fishing in Mississippi during the break.

Curry, on the other hand, had his worst game in a while, as persistent foul trouble kept him chained to the bench. And when he was on the court, his shot wasn’t falling — until his huge bucket in the closing minute to keep it a two possession game. So credit him for keeping his head in the game despite his struggles.

Dorell Wright played the sort of all-around game that has become the norm for him, with 22 points and 5 rebounds. And Reggie Williams gave the team a great offensive spark off the bench — he’s been exactly what they need on that front since he got off his slide back in January.

The bigs were just OK, though Andris’ rebounding in the fourth deserves special mention. There was one stretch where it seemed like he was grabbing every defensive board (not insignificant when offensive rebounding/putback machine Jefferson is on the opposing team). Slightly disappointing night for Lee though, as his rebounds were down for a second game in a row and he only managed 13. Brandon Wright continues to re-establish his trade value and scored 6 points. and Udoh had another largely stat-free line but continues to be a factor on defense.

And while scoring contributions off the bench outside of Reggie’s were fairly light, every single bench player was a positive on the +/-. If they can keep up that sort of consistency, it gives the team a chance to rest some of the starters (and spell Curry when he gets into foul trouble) — and that’s going to be key down the stretch.

So all-in-all another really positive win, and a great one to take into the All Star break (their 26 wins matches the win total from last year). The Warriors took care of business in these final games before the break, and by playing their best basketball of the season they give us hope that a late-season run is a legitimate possibility. We’ll know soon enough once they head back out on the road in the coming weeks, but for now we can at least savor the fact that this team is, unequivocally, improving.

QUOTABLE: “It was so weird the way the game ended. I didn’t know what was going on. We were all looking like, ‘What’s going on right now?’ because when Nene shot the ball the horn went off. I didn’t know what was going on. I’m happy he took the shot, a step-back or whatever he was doing, instead of one of their other weapons.”
– Warriors forward Dorell Wright, who finished two assists shy of a triple-double, on the Nuggets not calling a timeout in the final seconds.

On the Warrior’s end, Monta had a game high 37 points including 4-7 from behind the arc. He did finish with a -5 though it felt like the team was playing better when he was out there on the court. Curry on the other hand got into major foul trouble in the 3rd quarter which allowed for some very productive minutes from Reggie Williams. Williams looked like the best player on the court at times with 18 points, 6 assists and 4-4 from 3 point land. Udoh’s stat line is not impressive but he gave some good defensive energy minutes once again and should hurdle Radmanovic on the depth chart soon as the Radman has cooled off in a considerable way. Dorell Wright may have been player of the game with 23 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 0 turnovers, if not for shooting pretty poorly from downtown (4-11). Biedrins had a solid game, at time dominating the boards and David Lee performed well and ended with a good stat line and +/- even if I didn’t notice him all that much during the game.

Rick Berry sat in with Fitz and St. Jean for half of the 3rd Quarter and was his usual feisty self. He called out bad shots, bad whistles, bad defense all within earshot of the benches, but he was right each time. It was a nice treat to have a more critical voice on the broadcast. His best line of the night might have been “How does he live with himself?” when discussing Biedrins’s awful free throw percentage.

Overall a good win after a lousy start and a lousy finish. There was a quarter or so when the Warriors looked flat out dominate and clicking on all cylinders, if you disregard one of their cylinders (Curry) on the bench with foul trouble. TK mentions in his post-game that the Warriors looked better with one of Monta or Curry on the floor then they did with both of them on the floor together. I have to say I agree, but I hope it was a one game aberration and not the doomsday scenario he alludes to. Does anyone else out there in Warrior’s and Whatever land feel that one of the has to go rather than being willing to let one of them go?

3-point shooting, one of the Warriors’ biggest strengths this season, really failed them tonight as they went 2-18 — and never adjusted. Defense was the biggest problem though, as Lee and Biedrins had team lows of -22 and -16, respectively — though all the starters were double digit negative on that stat. Monta was a volume shooter at 5-17 (though he picked up 12(!) rebounds), Curry was 0-6 from three, and Dorell Wright did a Monta impression at 3-13.

Silver linings? I guess you could point to solid bench contributions from Udoh (team-high +13) and Reggie Williams (19 sorely needed points).

But, ultimately, the team just wasn’t ready to play in a game they needed to win. And as this “easy” stretch of the schedule starts to come to a close, the future of this season is starting to look fairly bleak.

With Monta clearly off his game (come to think of it, he hasn’t really been the same since he rolled his ankle — hopefully the 3 days off will help him pull things back together), the rest of the team really stepped up and helped them end their 4-game skid.

Curry was of course the top performer last night, but we also have to mention Biedrins’ second straight double-double (his first such streak since January of 2009), solid games from Lee and D. Wright, and Reggie Williams coming up big off the bench. And Udoh bounced back nicely from a rough game with 21 quality minutes (4 points and 5 rebounds).

Sure, Utah was missing Deron Williams, and sure, they’ve been on a downturn lately, but they’re still talented and well-coached, so it’s not like the Warriors beat the Timberwolves last night. And to do it with very little from Monta, with a huge bench contribution down the stretch, and after a demoralizing loss to the Bobcats, you really do need to give Smart some credit for having the team ready to play and for making adjustments throughout the game. Perhaps the best bounce-back performance of the season for a Warrior!

The Spurs rode an incredibly balanced attack on the way to victory: 6 players in double-digits, and 46 points off their bench. Meanwhile, only two players really came to play for the Warriors: David Lee posted an encouraging 31 points (his season high) along with 12 rebounds, and the other stats that jumps out of the box score is Dorell Wright’s 9 assists, which he paired with 18 points and 7 rebounds (dude is probably the second most likely to have a triple-double on this team after Curry — shows how well rounded he’s become).

But with Monta and Curry both cold (shooting a combined 16 of 41, nearly half of the Warriors 85 total shots from the field), Biedrins once again posting a team-low -18 (when was the last time he scored a point?), and little help from the bench (the low-light of which was probably Reggie Williams’ 0 points and -11 in 14 minutes), a win against the Spurs was going to be tough to come by. Gotta play the best to beat the best.