Tonight's 116-102 win over the New Orleans Hornets was the first Warriors game where the team played smart and controlled basketball for the full 48 minutes.
Coming into this game, the Warriors lost against Houston the night before where they expended much of their energy coming back from 21 points. They flew to New Orleans immediately after the game to face a red-hot Hornets team that had won 17 of their last 19 games. A Hornets team on a 9-game win streak with a dominant performance against the Spurs and Nuggets.
Nellie tinkered with his lineup and went small with Barnes at PF and Harrington at C. The plan worked with Harrington knocking down three 3s in the 1st quarter. Ellis did his usual one-man fast break for easy points and Jackson played a controlled, efficient game knocking down shots over Stojakovic.
On the defensive side of the ball, the defensive rotations were clean and smooth, especially in the 4th quarter. West dominated the 3rd quarter getting his points against Barnes, Harrington and Jackson at-will. Biedrins came in the game and pretty much just shut him down the rest of the way.
If the Warriors could just play like this in every game, they could get into the playoffs easily.
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