Player of the D.A.Y.
He B-didd it again.
I have something very special planned for later this afternoon. It’s going to post around 3 P.M. It has nothing to do with basketball, but everything to do with one of my co-workers. This is going to be BIG. I spent entirely too much time on it. You will know when you see it.
Player of the D.A.Y. is Baron Davis. B Diddy, Boom Dizzle, The Baron of Westwood. 24 points and the game winning three against the Rockets. This is his fourth time winning. Way ahead of the field.
6 Responses to “Player of the D.A.Y.”
Dec.15 at 3:02 pm
DubsGonDoIt says:
Pssst: Warriors are 5-0 without Murphy (and 7-11 with him)
By Tim Kawakami
Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 6:46 am in Warriors, NBA. It’s proven: I’m a meany. I pick on poor Troy Murphy. Sorry, everybody! He’s never done anything to harm anybody! MEAN. MEAN. MEAN. I’M MEAN. I actually hold players accountable for things like… when the team plays sooo much better when they don’t actually play. MEAN. But there are some facts to consider with Ol’ Troy, and if nobody else is going to mention this, and I’m not sure anybody will, I guess it’s left to me: The Warriors’ fun, fast-paced, semi-miraculous home victory over Houston on Thursday pushed their record to 12-11… and 5-0 when Murphy is injured and not in the line-up. * Warriors: 5-0 without Murphy playing. * 7-11 when he plays. OK, all five of those non-Murphy victories came in home games, so that skews it only a bit. * 5-0 at home without Murphy. * 6-5 at home with Murphy. Sort of interesting, no? I know this won’t go on forever, even if Troy’s Achilles’ soreness might. If he doesn’t play tonight in Phoenix, the perfect streak will probably end, because the Warriors are not a good road team and Phoenix is a very good team and it’ll be that dread back-to-back finish on the road thing. Then if Troy keeps sitting through the six-game road trip, the Warriors will pile up losses–because they’re going to lose a bunch of games with him or without him. Period. (1-5 is my best guess for the trip; 2-4 actually wouldn’t be bad; 0-6 is definitely possible. This is a tough one.) Plus, Troy’s not a terrible player. He broke his nose in the exhibition season and has struggled with that. He doesn’t fit into Don Nelson’s playing style. He rebounds OK, or so I’ve heard. All that. A million NBA teams are dying to have him, or so I’ve been told by his agent. But still… What gives with the with/without Murphy win differential? Just plain bad luck? I ran some other numbers–not the real technical stuff, just the Warriors’ record when some of their other big players have been hurt this season: –Warriors with Jason Richardson in the line-up: 8-8. * Warriors without Richardson: 4-3. * Without Richardson and when he plays 20 minutes or less: 4-5. –Warriors with Baron Davis: 10-9. * Without Davis: 2-2. You know I have a theory on this. I’ve typed it about 10 times a year since Murphy’s come here and I’ll really briefly sum it up one more time: 1) He and Mike Dunleavy cannot play together. They’re too slow to ever be paired together defensively and they’re too stationary on offense to be paired together on the other side. Yet coach after coach has tried to play them together. TOGETHER. Nelson figured it out in two games. That has kept Murphy on the bench during some key stretches when Nelson wants Dunleavy handling the ball or spacing the floor and cutting–which is the fourth quarter, mainly. 2) Murphy is the worst defensive forward in the NBA. I know: I’m mean. But he is. How else can you explain the Warriors playing so much friskier on defense WHEN MURPHY’S NOT PLAYING? I don’t know. Just plain luck, again, I guess. 3) Andris Biedrins is gobbling up all those cheapie rebounds Murphy used to knock over people (mainly his own teammates) to get–and Biedrins is earning them by playing monster defense, instead of Murphy’s no-defense, run-to-the-backboard style of play. Shh: Biedrins’ version of double-doubles is better. 4) On this Warrior team, as with the last three or four editions, Murphy’s a classic minor duplicative player. He’s a stationary, jump-shooting, no-low-post-game, no-defense, defensive-rebounding player on a team that already has four or five guys who all do those exact same things better–with the exception of rebounding for the last three seasons, but Biedrins is taking care of that now. If Murphy isn’t out there bombing away from three-point distance, without the ability to create a shot for himself or anybody else, then Dunleavy can do the same or Richardson or any of them. Or someone else can step in for Murphy, someone WHO DOES DIFFERENT STUFF–like play defense, penetrate, get to the post, block shots, fill the lane on the fastbreak… you know, crazy stuff like that. That’s why the Warriors’ record is so neutral–and has always been neutral–for Murphy’s 10 or 12 really good games a year. His stats are just taking away from another duplicative (and better) Warrior player or a different kind of player who helps in many different ways. * When Murphy gets minutes and plays poorly, the Warriors are in trouble–because those are minutes somebody else could do much the same stuff, and better, or different stuff, and much better. Why do you think the Warriors look so different when Matt Barnes is out there? It’s not because he’s a superstar–except vs. Sacramento. It’s because he does different stuff… runs, tips passes, takes weird trips to the basket, dishes… -In the six games Murphy has scored 8 points or less, the Warriors are 2-4. -In the six games Murphy has totaled three rebounds or fewer, the Warriors are 2-4. (TWO OVERLAP games, Warriors are 1-1 when Murphy scores less than 10 and rebounds less than three.) There. If this Murpy plays/doesn’t play W-L stat turns around during the course of this season, I swear, I’ll type about it. I swear. But pssst: I sort of doubt it. Sorry.
Dec.15 at 3:14 pm
DubsGonDoIt says:
Baron carried the Dubs last night & it was even bigger considering their looming 6 game road streak, ouch!
Dec.15 at 3:15 pm
Bryant Reeves says:
BOOM goes the Dizzle.
Dec.16 at 6:35 am
Boing Dynasty says:
That’s way longer than any post about the Warriors should ever be. Unless it’s the movie Warriors, then it’s cool, but not in this case.
1
Dec.17 at 2:00 am
New era says:
Kobe had 53 points 10 rebounds and 8 assits kobe player of the day. Hell kobe player of the century.
Dec.29 at 12:12 am
razzo says:
fuck kb8 ball hog, davis is the best pg in the game he drills nash every time they go against each other, kills parker, embarrasses kidd, makes paul look stupid, makes blake sit on the floor not that it matters, who else is there, no one, he exposed miller for the one dimensional jack ass he is cause baron had 21 and 16 while miller had ten and five and kept forcing it. I donno a point guard who is better, you name it i’ll doubt it.