Update
Round 2 Nuggets
Game 1: Warriors Steal Homecourt
The Warriors fueled by their impressive victory of the Spurs seemed completely loose in the opener while the Nuggets, perhaps rusty after sweeping the Jazz came out flat. The Warriors did everything they need to come out on top and ended up winning by 12.
Game 2 and 3 I simmed, but each team took one game
Game 4: Warriors rally, but Iverson's 3-pointer evens up the series
The Warriors entered the 4th quarter trailing by 14, but behind Davis' amazing playing and feeding off the crowd stormed back. Davis would repeatedly drive and kick to Richardson and Jackson who would bury 3 after 3.
Richardson: I just wanted to help us go up 3-1 and they kept leaving me and Jack open.
Unfortunately for the Warriors after Davis drove the lane with the score tied at 117, the Nuggets had the final possesion. Davis claimed he was fouled on his layup attempt, but there was no whistle. Iverson instead pushed the ball up the floor with 5 seconds left and on the playoff logo hit a fadeway 3 over Davis to give the Nuggets a 120-117 lead with 1.2 seconds to go. Richardson's 3 at the buzzer clanked off the back rim and Nuggets regained home court advantage.
Davis: Camby tackled me on that play. I don't know how that wasn't a foul. I honestly felt like I was a runningback on that drive sh*t!
Game 5: Warriors Rebound nicely, take game 5
Davis, motivated from the fustrating game 4 loss, took over the game, giving the Warriors a 3-2 series lead heading back to Oakland. The Warriors, led by Davis, won a 94-82 game.
Davis: I had to make sure we didn't go back home trailing (the series), and I didn't want the refs to have to decide this one.
Game 6: Warriors are moving on
Back at home, the crowd booed Iverson, but the game was still tied entering the 4th. Bargaini would be huge scoring 11 points in the quarter and grabbing 5 rebounds. Davis would have 2 steals in the final minute to make sure Iverson's heroics would not be part of game 6.
Nelson: Baron played amazing these last 2 games, I don't know if anyone could ahve stopped him. When there is a fire in his belly, its impossible to contain him. He's the reason we are moving on
Conference Finals Suns
The Warriors cinderalla run would end quickly by the Suns who would sweep the in 4 straight games. The Suns proved having better chemistry is key and even though the talent was about equal, the Suns never seemed too challenged.
Nelson: This is an unfortunate ending to a great year. I don't think anyone could have predicted this. This exceeded my wildest dreams. We're going to have a nice long summer to think about this one
Update
Offseason
The lottery was a big suprising, but the Warriors were not too concerned about it.
The Warriors chose to resign Harrington to a 5 year $58 million dollar deal and gave Barnes the midlevel exception for 1 year. They also resigned Pietrus to a 4 year 22 million dollar deal.
Looking to improve their backup point guard position they worked out Italian Prospect Romeo Esposito. He was regarded as the best point guard in the draft and was projected to go number 3. His skill set was impressive:
He had a beautiful shot:
and he could finish with contact:
However, Esposito was drafted number 2 overall by the Lakers, and the Warriors instead settled for small foward G. Munez with the 20th pick. He is an incredibly fast (99 speed) small foward with lots of energy, who probably would have been a lottery pick if he had better free throw shooting.
With our 2nd round pick, the Warriors selecetd A. Marco, another point guard. However the Warriors merely used him as trade bait and on August 14th, 2007 made a trade:
Bargaini: Getting another Italian on the team is great. I'm so excited to be able to speak my native language even during practice. He should be a great backup to Baron.
Mullin: Davis is still our number 1 point guard. There is no question about that. We feel that Esposito will be able to provide solid minutes for Nellie and allow Davis to rest a bit more. He seemed exhausted in the Phoenix series
With Josh Powell, Cabarkpa and Brown all not being resigned the Warriors looked to sign some players to help fill out their roster. Even though they were already over the cap, the Warriors only needed some miminum wage players. Although they were about to give Powell the minimum during the resgined period, Powell stubbornly refused to resgin and held out for 8k more. In free agency, the Warriors saw a better PF rookie who was a 64 overall and who was asking for half as much as Powell. They also signed Kapono to a 2 year minimum deal to boost the 3 point shooting.
2007-2008
Bargaini came back from the sumer having gone through a player evolution. He bulked up and became medium-cut instead of being thin-cut last season. HE improved from being a 74 overall to a 77 overall, and looked like he made great strides in all parts of his game.
Bargaini: Yeah, I was working out all summer. I really want to help the Warriors win more games. We know we have the talent to win a championship so I tried to make myself a better player. I hired Tim Grover (MJ's trainer) to help me improve my game and he was great. I feel much improved this season and look to build off my Rookie year (where he was name ROY).
The Bay Area was buzzing in excitement for the upcoming season, but things did not start off well.
Warriors only had a 7-9 record heading into December and worse yet:
In December things picked up slightly, but not by much:
More to come later!