Game report -- Warriors/Lakers, Tues. 7/17

Any Lakers fans who came down to Long Beach this afternoon hoping for a little "showtime" action got what they wanted, but not from the team they might have expected. Once again facing a team without one of its key summer-league players (Devean George was in street clothes), the Warriors picked up where they left off yesterday, racing to a 31-11 lead late in the first quarter on the way to a 120-99 win.

And I do mean racing – with every rebound, Chris Porter and Jason Richardson would be flying ahead of the pack, with their teammates not far behind. The result? 12 dunks or layups for Golden State in the 1st quarter alone. By the time Porter, who already had two rim-rattling dunks, pulled down a lob outlet pass and dished it Jason Richardson for his second monster dunk of the opening period, an audible who-are-these-guys murmur was flowing through the crowd.

The only thing that could have things better for Warriors fans was Gilbert Arenas coming off the bench and hitting his first couple of jump shots – which he did. To put it simply, everything was going right for Golden State: the unselfish and alert passing they showed against the Kings was there again, combined with quick switches on defenses, aggressive rebounding, and the nonstop commitment to pushing the tempo. Troy Murphy was again a polished passer while posting up, and was more of a factor on the boards as well (finishing with 10 rebounds in 32 minutes).

The Lakers were left to rely on their outside markmanship, and to show how outmatched they were athletically, they lost by 21 points despite nailing 10 of 16 three-pointers. (Thanks to the endless stream of dunks and layups, the Warriors shot 64.3% from the field in the first half, and 55.4% for the game.) Dante Calabria should make someone's NBA bench next year, with a beautiful shooting stroke, respectable ballhandling and passing skills, and just enough defense to get by.

Mike Penberthy, who really did make the Lakers' bench for much of last year, can shoot the lights out too, but I can't say much for the rest of his game. On the rare plays when the Warriors didn't have a fast break, Penberthy made Dean Oliver and Rashad Phillips look like NBA players as they blew past his impressionistic version of "defense."

Also on the Lakers summer squad was Korleone Young who showed flashes of all-around skill (including making both of his 3-point attempts) but also a toxic attitude. After missing a dunk attempt in the first quarter, Young lingered near the hoop, glowering at no one in particular as the other nine players sprinted to keep up with the latest Warriors fast break. From the nearby Lakers bench, an obviously furious Jim Cleamons screamed "RUN!!" and soon pulled him from the game for the remainder of the half.


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Both Richardson and Arenas worked out for the Warriors.

As documented in his "draft diary" on NBA.com, Murphy had a workout with GS scheduled for the week before the draft, but a cancelled flight earlier in the week forced him to rearrange his schedule -- and since the Warriors were both the lowest-drafting team on his itinerary and the only one requiring him to travel all the way out to the West Coast and back, it was the logical appointment to drop.

It's not unheard of to draft a player you haven't worked out, especially if he was universally expected to go higher (and so may have refused a workout invitation). For example, Paul Pierce never worked out for the Celtics.

In other cases, teams intentionally avoid scheduling a workout so as not to tip off their interest (although that's not what happened here). An example of this would be Latrell Sprewell being picked by GS in '92 -- Don Nelson was afraid that if he worked Spree out, other teams would get wind of it and Spree wouldn't be available at #24.

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