GARY PETERSON
Warriors' run takes a seat
Article Launched: 04/16/2008
The Warriors didn't practice Tuesday, for obvious reasons. Nor were they
available for casual conversation.
Thus, we were left to our own devices to derive deeper meaning from Monday
night's loss to Phoenix, which dismissed the Warriors from the playoffs
before they even got there -- specifically the part where Don Nelson left
an
ostensibly healthy Baron Davis on the bench the entire second half.
Here's hoping you put the time to good use. Because when we catch up to
the
Warriors, they'll have had the better part of two days to script their
answers.
By then the spin could be that it was no big deal. But it was a big deal.
Not an indefensible deal, necessarily. Davis played 17 minutes in the
first
half, which ended with the Warriors down by 14 points. His 2-of-13
shooting
didn't help the cause.
Without Davis in the third quarter the Warriors outscored Phoenix, 38-19.
Nelson had been throwing spackle at the wall with both hands for most of
the
game by then. He'd benched Stephen Jackson the entire second quarter. But
he
brought him back for the third.
Davis stayed rooted to the bench even as the Warriors' lead dwindled, then
disappeared in the fourth quarter. Davis didn't seem distressed on TV. But
neither did he hang around afterward, telling re****ters, "Ain't your
story,"
as he walked out the door.
Now, you could characterize this as one of Nellie's innocent
eccentricities,
and we'll even help you out. This story goes back to another loss in
Phoenix, the one that eliminated the Warriors from their second-round
playoff series with the Suns in 1989.
Those Warriors had fewer answers for those Suns than these Warriors had
Monday night. By the fourth quarter of the fifth game, it was a done deal.
Nelson threw his reserves out for the final minutes of their elimination
loss. Later, at the hotel watering hole, someone suggested to him that he
should have left his regulars in the game to -- no kidding -- maintain the
integrity of the betting line.
Nelson's full and complete reply cannot be repeated here. The gist was
this:
He'd asked his players to exhaust themselves to get as far as they had. He
wasn't going to ask them to continue running themselves into the ground
when
it no longer mattered.
So, non-conspiracy theorists, there's your rope. From here, it doesn't
smell
so simple.
Let's start with Monday's shootaround. When Davis was asked by re****ters
about his contract (he can opt out after this season) he said he hadn't
arrived at a decision. When Nelson was asked about his future (he has one
year left on his deal), he was equally noncommittal.
Nine Warriors can become free agents (restricted or otherwise) this
offseason. Taken in that context, it's difficult to imagine the events of
Monday night as innocent or without ramification.
Then there's this: Davis celebrated his 29th birthday Sunday night. One
re****t out of Phoenix suggested the celebration may have contributed to
his
miserable first half against the Suns, and Nelson's decision to bench him.
Though Davis had no comment after the game, Nelson did: "I gave Baron a
much-needed rest in the second half," he said. Hmmmmm.
Now it's true Davis appears worn down by the interminable grind of the
NBA's
regular season. So maybe Nelson meant that. But it also is true that Davis
enjoys his birthdays.
In March, after an overtime loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles, Davis was
the
guest of honor at a surprise birthday party thrown for him at the Sofitel
Hotel in West Hollywood. Guests included Jessica Alba, Vanessa Williams,
Reggie Bush, Penny Marshall, Derek Fisher and Louis Gossett, Jr.
Last spring, after a home victory over Minnesota, Davis threw a birthday
bash at Mezzanine in San Francisco. It was headlined and MC'd by Mos Def,
and attended by Davis' Warriors teammates. Double hmmmmm.
There's no getting around it, what happened Monday carries the scent of an
untold story. Decisions like the one Nelson made don't happen in a vacuum.
Face-of-the-franchise superstars don't happily spend the last meaningful
24
minutes of the season sitting on the bench. A roster glutted with
potential
free-agents-to-be doesn't consider a scene like that without forming an
opinion.
Eventually we'll get a straight answer from the Warriors, more likely
through their actions than in so many words. By then it may not matter
that
Davis is the ideal facilitator of Nelson's oddball stratagems, or that
together they've given us more fun times in two seasons than we'd had in
the
decade that preceded them.
By then we may look back at the night the Warriors were eliminated in
Phoenix as the night they lost more than a game.
Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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