Ya Better Win That One

I'm no hagrid, but I'll provide some insights as well. The dominating story of the night was how we played without our floor general, Gary Payton. The result: eh, ok. Here are the other quick thoughts I wanted to share.

1. I saw a beautiful thing tonight - no, I'm not talking about Allen's dunks or Paul's triple-double. It was one play in the first quarter where the shot went up, Kendrick immediately put his prodigious hindquarters on his man, and grabbed an easy rebound with both hands and passed it cleanly to a guard. He proceeded to look like a high schooler most of the rest of the time he was in there, but that one play almost brought a tear to my eye. I rewound and watched it 3 times. Who knows when I'll be able to see it again.

2. 2nd Quarter was one of the worst quarters I've seen this team play in a long time, and that's saying something. I was gearing up for a good old fashioned rant. It may still happen if they continue to struggle, but the second half cooled my jets a bit.

3. Need I say anything more about Tony Allen? This kid would be starting on half the teams in the league. Jiri played solid tonight, but if he ever gets traded, I would be the first in line to try and convince Ricky to stay in the 6th man role and put Tony in the starting spot.

4. Speaking of Jiri, he picked JR Smith cleanly and made me remember when Doc would talk about how he capitalized on Allen's mistakes in practice. Which further made me think of Ice Man from Top Gun. He just stays with you and waits for you to get tired and make a mistake, then he's got you. Val Kilmer would be proud.

5. Marcus Banks got a vote of "no confidence" from Doc tonight. He got schooled on both ends by Baron Davis and was benched in the 4th until garbage time. I keep preaching patience to you guys and to myself. I wonder how long the Doc and Danny can wait on him.

C's played a good 3 quarters of basketball tonight. Seems like a trend. Thankfully, the bad quarter was early enough to recover from.