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.

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.

Huge game from Monta, and doing it on national television will help his All-Star chances/trade value; nice return for Curry on the assists-to-turnover front, and a ton of his missed shots were in-and-out so he should get his stroke back soon; nice to see Lee making his jumper consistently; Udoh continues to impress though it would be nice to see him grab a few more boards; speaking of which, how did they get out-rebounded yet still win this game? Ah yes, they outscored them by 14 on fast break points; who knew this team could actually run?

Now, can they keep up the momentum from this TWO GAME WINNING STREAK?

And for the Fitz haters, a Christmas miracle: a chance to listen to a national broadcast team that won’t just marvel at marvelous outside shooting by the Blazers, but will point out the defensive culpability as well…

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.

Biedrins finally came alive with a solid 8 points and 11 rebounds, and Lee had an all star line with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Wright was fairly quiet with 7 and 5 in 18 minutes, but that’s not too shabby averaged out for a full game. Adrien had a good looking 6 and 5 in only 8 minutes (and a +6), while Miles had 3 assists in 9 minutes (with a +8).

Won the rebounding battle, which could be to the Warriors as turnovers are to the 49ers…

The Warriors and Blazers get set to do it all over again two nights after meeting in the Rose Garden. What to watch for:

• Replacing Amundson. With Amundson out for 1-4 months, can anyone step up and show that they can handle backup minutes at the 5? Gadzuric and Adrien are the only real options (outside of playing Lee there out of position), so let’s hope that one of them can give some quality minutes tonight.
• Curry’s handles. He had 8 turnovers last game — let’s see if he can at least get things down to a 2:1 assist to turnover ration, and preferably 3:1.
• The “New” Monta. After a couple of efficient games, Monta threw up a 5-16 last game, with four missed threes. Can he once again give us hope that he’s rediscovering his 2007-08 form when he shot over 50% from the field?
• Bench scoring. Can someone — anyone — score some points off the bench? Williams and Wright, I’m looking at you (since I have little to no hope for anyone else who’s healthy)

With Amundson and Carney finally ready for action, this game is all about figuring out our bench. What to watch for:

• Where’s the beef. Is Amundson the “beef” we need to spell Biedrins at the 5 and provide tough D on the opponent’s center? If he’s truly healthy, I hope we’ll see him getting at least a few minutes defending Oden.
• Who’s Rodney Carney? I admit to knowing next to nothing about this guy. According to Wages of Wins, he’s become a more efficient player over the years and the best place for him to make his mark is clearly defense. But if he starts shooting a ton of threes, then we may have a problem.
• Wither Wright? The reports are that Brandon Wright’s DNP-CD in the last game was for not showing up in practice. Let’s hope he’s made some strides in the days following, as he’s going to run out of opportunities to show what he can do if he can’t even earn himself some preseason playing time.
• The continuing battle for #15. Tonight will give us another data point in the Jeff Adrien vs. Aaron Miles battle for the final roster spot. Amundson’s return will likely have an impact on how necessary Adrien is, so if Miles can show he can actually dish the ball he could make some major strides tonight.