Nice to see a blowout go in the right direction! You have to give credit for the generous cooperation of the Kings summer-league team, though, because they devoted as much effort as the Warriors did toward making it happen. First-round draft pick Gerald Wallace was not in the lineup or even on the bench. Neither was Art Long, the Kings' regular-season 12th man who was their leading rebounder and third-leading scorer (behind Turkoglu and Wallace) in the first couple of summer games. I caught a brief glimpse of Long about a week ago, and he'd looked promising – a true PF/C in a land of 6'7 wannabes. So the Kings were left with Hidayet Turkoglu and a bunch of scrubs, and just to make things worse something seemed to be wrong with Turkoglu. He sat down around early in the 2nd quarter, and never returned to play. He was cutting the tape off his ankles before the first half was over, and after halftime he was watching in street clothes from the stands instead of the Kings bench. When the Warriors have played well in Long Beach, it's been because of their ability to pressure the ball, and the combination of a day off yesterday and a talent-depleted Kings lineup resulted in a seemingly nonstop procession of deflections, disruptions, and steals. By the end of the first quarter, Golden State was ahead 33-13, and the Kings never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way. Interestingly, the Kings actually seemed to move the ball and execute better once Turkoglu sat down, perhaps because of the tendency to "wait and see what Hedo does" when he was on the floor. The Warriors' Chris Porter seemed to do an excellent job of staying in front of Turkoglu and forcing him into difficult jump shots (1-8 FGs in 13 minutes), although he may deserve less credit if Hedo was injured rather than simply frustrated. It's hard to judge any individual Warriors for his offensive abilities in this game, because they seemed to get a shot near the rim on nearly every possession. Still, it's notable that that this was the game where Gilbert Arenas regained some of his confidence. Most of his 30 points came on layups or free throws, but he hit enough of those that he was able to pop a few jumpers as well (the ones he missed, though, seemed to be way off). If he has a decent game tomorrow as well, that should mean he comes into training camp with a clean slate, rather than worrying if he can shoot in the pros. Aside from that, I am very pleased to report that the Warriors' ball movement was much sharper in this game, and it didn't seem as though all of it was due to the low level of competition. Even though W's players were getting into the paint apparently at will, everyone made a point of looking for teammates who had even easier looks, and there were a lot of tasty interior passes. However many assists Jason Richardson and Troy Murphy are credited for in this game, they probably earned them. Murphy in particular was very alert in his passing. Also, there was an excellent team-spirit vibe coming from the bench that complemented the unselfish passing of the players on the court. The crowd was sparse for the early weekday (12:45 pm) game, and the cheers or disappointed groans from the Warriors who weren't playing were louder than anything else in the arena. (P.S. Sorry, but I blew off the Rockets game tonight, too. I'm hooped out. ) [This message has been edited by Swopa (edited July 16, 2001).]
