finally back in the garden after 2 long weeks. man, that road trip felt like an eternity and ended with turmoil galore.

- the upper tier (400's) were pretty much empty. early start time (12pm) along with the week before thanksgiving and the giants game kept some people from the game. energy wise, the crowd was dead until the 2nd half.

- as marbury was introduced, i heard some people start booing but they were quickly drowned out by the cheers. telfair got a nice round of applause.

- the last home game, it was donald trump sitting celebrity row. who was there for a 12pm game vs. the blazers....john legend. and people were like "who?" it was too funny.

on to the game...

- a win is a win is a win is a win is a win. we needed it badly but it really was nothing to write home about. everyone was appeased as we played good defense in the 2nd half, steph got creative freedom and frye continued to impress. we won the game and we need to win games if we're serious about making the playoffs.

- i don't know if it was b/c we just got off a road trip, or the recent comments, or the matchup with his cousin, but lb did let steph go off a little bit. steph was very aggressive and it worked for us today. telfair is unreal and pretty much matched up with steph point for point (you could even argue that telfair was better) but we won b/c we're just more talented. frye played great, despite the early fouls. i don't know why they don't go to him more in the post, especially after curry was out in the 2nd half but he still shot 80 F'N % from the floor. jamal and steph had to make up for Q's absence so they had to take alot of shots today so that's one of the reasons i think why we saw what we saw from them. (btw, WTF is up with Q? is he in the doghouse? is he legitimately injured? why hasn't he been incorporated into the offense? we don't hear jack from Q or from LB about Q. it's very weird...but that's a post for another day.)

- i was watching lb closely this game and it may not have been shown on tv, but even though we won, lb was not happy most of the game from the sidelines. there were many times where he was throwing his hands in the air in disgust or just shaking his head. when did he do this? when steph and craw did one on one moves. there were too many instances of that where not only did they have the ball early in the clock, but they didn't get rid of it, only to go one on one against their man, and lb was not happy with it. i think Q's absence kind of forced them to do it, but i don't think this win will be typical of what we're going to do from now on. i DO think steph will get more chances to score and there will be a slow transition of giving craw more point guard duties but all the one on one is probably gonna stop. he would've yanked them at some point yesterday but nobody was available. don't be surprised to see penny activated for wednesday. another season ticket holder mentioned to me during the game that it looked like last year's team at times where steph dominated the ball and everyone just kind of waited. that wasn't the story the whole game but at times, it did look like that. but i will say this, with curry out, and no q, steph did carry us offensively which is what we need him to do on days like this. that's why we all hope he gets to play off the ball a little more as he's most helpful to us as a scorer.

- ariza is getting THOROUGHLY exposed out there. he's a nice piece and all out hustle but there is NO WAY in hell he should be re-signed for more than 3 years $5 mil. this kid is way too raw and on the offense end, is really just a recipient of passes in transition. if he gets the ball in the half court set, his handle is too weak to make a seroius move, he's too spastic in the air to finish, and he can't shoot a jumper. he's 20 so he has the upside but in all honesty, he really needs some serious coaching. he HAS to work on a shot. there has been zero improvement in that category this year. and if he doesn't become a lock down defender against (usually) the opposing team's better players, then he may soon be fighting for minutes. this is why malik plays. although he can't hit shots, he's our safest and most sound player at the 3 spot.

- nate has all these great tools but sometimes, his brain just shuts down. again, growing pains and i can live with it but he needs to check his head sometimes. he has got to stop taking jumpers so early in the clock.

- when frye gets ready to check in, the crowd starts buzzing a little bit. frye is our best jumpshooter and best ft shooter on the team.

- crawford has come such a long long way it's not even funny. we're looking at a different player out there. they stopped running the curl play for him (i don't know why) but when he gets he feet set at the 3point line, it's becoming automatic. the chucking is limited to one or two shots a game.

- anyway, in conclusion, a win is a win is a win is a win. and we needed it. all we can do is build on it and hopefully carry over the success to wednesday night. we need to win some games and go on a nice 4 of 6 or 5 of 7 stretch.

[Edited by - djsunyc on 11-21-2005 09:55 AM]

you said everything about this team. you forgot to mention jerome james is also in the doghouse, injured AND pouting.