A new day for Warriors Morrow.
November 25th, 2008 Posted in NBA basketball newsA new day for Warriors Morrow. Don’t think of yourself as any less of a basketball fan if youhadn’t heard of Anthony Morrow before last week. He wasn’t exactly ahousehold name.
The Golden State Warriors guard burst onto the scene inspectacular fashion last week in his first start by scoring 37points — the most ever by an undrafted rookie in his first seasonand the most by a rookie this season. He also added 11 reboundsagainst the Clippers.
He followed that up with a game-high 25 points against Portland.Morrow sank three straight free throws in the closing seconds toseal the victory over the Trail Blazers.
He made a combined 23 of 32 shots (71.8%) in those games,including eight of 10 from three-point range and is now the toast ofthe Bay area.
“He’s the real deal,” said coach Don Nelson. “And we haven’t evenlearned how to play with him yet.”
Said Golden State’s Stephen Jackson, “Morrow is a flat-outscorer.”
So who is Anthony Morrow?
The 6-foot-5, 23-year-old rookie was not drafted last June afterplaying four seasons at Georgia Tech where he set a school careerrecord for free-throw percentage (86.7%). He was signed by Golden State as a free agent last July after he had given some thought toplaying in the Ukraine. Last summer, he played for the Warriors inthe Las Vegas summer league and in the Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City, averaging a combined 18.1 points and shooting 73.9% fromthree-point range. He was named the most valuable player of theRocky Mountain Revue.
Morrow doesn’t own a car yet — although he has his eye on apretty cool Dodge Challenger — and rides the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) or scrounges rides from his teammates. He doesn’t have anapartment and is living in a downtown Oakland hotel.
Since he signed a two-year, only partially guaranteed contractfor the league minimum, he’s waiting for his finances to stabilize abit before making too many investments.
Nelson likes Morrow’s ability to provide some instant offense, tograb a rebound or two and the strides he’s taken since trainingcamp.
Nelson put Morrow in the starting lineup because he has decidedto play small ball, with the 6-6 Corey Maggette shifting over topower forward.
“When the better teams start coming in or we go there, we’ll seehow it all works,” said Nelson. “But I think that this is the waythat we’re going to have to play to max out what we have.”
It all adds up to only one thing where Morrow is concerned.
“I just wake up every day like, ‘I’m in the NBA,’ ” he said.
Perkins acting badly
Celtics center Kendrick Perkins isn’t bothered by the fact thathe’s accumulated a league-high seven technical fouls in the first 13games. He says he loves the intensity with which the Celtics areplaying and has no plans to tone down his act. Coach Doc Riverstakes a slightly different view of the situation.
“He’s the one guy I think emotionally when he starts gettinginvolved with other guys and getting techs, it affects his game,”said Rivers. “He has to be better at that. He still doesn’tunderstand that just because a guy is trash-talking to you, notresponding is a sure strength more than responding. What do you needto respond for? Just play?”
Andrea’s new position
Toronto coach Sam Mitchell has been experimenting with using the7-foot Andrea Bargnani at small forward alongside 6-10 Chris Boshand 6-11 Jermaine O’Neal, and it’s worked pretty well so far. In thefirst three games with that combination, Bargnani averaged 14.3points and 3.7 rebounds while the three together averaged 56.0points and 30.7 rebounds. Asked why he went with Bargnani overJamario Moon at small forward, Mitchell said, “We have to startgetting some production out of that spot.” But can Bargnani guardsmall forwards? “It wasn’t like we were going a great job anyway,”said Mitchell.
Oh, Danny Indiana coach Jim O’Brien has lightened the defensive load onforward Danny Granger, and it’s worked wonders for Granger on theoffensive end. In past seasons, Granger has been matched up againstthe other team’s best perimeter player but now Marquis Daniels hasbeen given that duty, at least at the beginning of games. Grangerhas responded with three games of at least 30 points and isaveraging a career-high 24.3 points.
“I don’t want to have Danny get totally worn out playing guyslike that,” said O’Brien. “Danny is responsible for a lot of ourscoring. I don’t want to take his legs out of it.”
Byron stays upbeat
The New Orleans Hornets have been losing more than they hadanticipated which has led to frustration, scuffles among players inpractice and players ducking out after practice without talking withreporters. Coach Byron Scott, who has joked that he’s had to act asa security guard at practice to keep players from going after eachother, looks at the bright side.
“Our guys are not real happy with how we’ve played,” said Scott.”Just like I told them, we have to keep fighting. The one thing thatI am proud of is that our defense has been much better. It’s just amatter of time before the offense clicks.”
Coming up short
Rookie Michael Beasley will continue to ride the bench at the endof the games because of his defensive shortcomings. Coach Erik Spoelstra thinks his best defensive lineup includes Udonis Haslem atcenter and Shawn Marion at power forward. “We’re going to have tosee it,” said Spoelstra, referring to some defense from Beasley.”I’m not going to back off at all on the accountability andexpectations.”
Not a passing grade
Last week’s loss to the Lakers was disappointing to the Suns forseveral reasons. Phoenix coach Terry Porter wanted to use the gameas an indicator to see where the Suns stood, and they didn’t measureup to the Lakers even with Kobe Bryant having a mediocre night.Also, it followed losses to Houston and Utah — two of the other topteams in the west – and it came on national television whichprompted Porter to recall how many TNT games he was involved in ascoach of the Bucks. “We had the same number as a dead man. ..zero,” said Porter.
Home, sweet home
The Mavericks are thinking it’s time to get things turned around.They followed up a five-game losing streak with a three-game roadwinning streak and will play nine of 11 at home. That includes aseven-game home stand to start December. The only problem is thatthey have struggled at home, where they lost their first four games.
“Those five losses in a row really seemed like a month,” saidforward Dirk Nowitzki. “The atmosphere is not the same. Nothingbeats winning. If you lose all the time, it’s not fun being around alosing program.”
Fast breaks
While admitting that there are some interesting possibilities outthere, Heat president Pat Riley plans to wait 20 or 30 games beforemaking any personnel moves.. .. The league plans to move its pre-draft camp from Orlando back to Chicago next summer.. .. Bosh hassix career 40-point games with three of them coming against Orlando.. .. Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley continues to stay away from theteam while it tries to trade him.
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