All Else Is Unreal

First, read Shoals’s soul-searching here. Then take a trip through tonight’s Hawks/Warriors game:

- Warriors’ color guy Jim Barnett’s keys to the game were all titled after Best Picture winners. I was talking during them and couldn’t hear, but they were: Rocky, Lord of the Rings, and Unforgiven. So I guess the game will be about underdogs (even though the Warriors are the favorite), homoeroticism, and genre revisionism. Actually, that last one makes some sense.
- It’s only five minutes in and it’s safe to predict there won’t be three set plays the whole night.
- Anyone who doesn’t value the importance of style to a team’s performance needs to watch the Warriors with Webber on the floor. He’s actually playing pretty well right now (some rebounds and smooth passes), but you can sense a general state of lethargy enveloping the majority of the team. I stand by my belief that he only needs to play substantial minutes against teams that can make the Warriors play at a slower pace.
- These teams completely demolish our assumptions about the function of the pass. On a regular team, the pass connects parts of the coherent system. On these teams, the pass just gets the ball from individual to individual – the concept reigns over the parts. It’s like the difference between Hitchcock and Malick.



- Childress, Johnson, Marvin, J-Smoove, Horford. My favorite lineup in NBA history. Woodson should start that group and consign his name to legend.
- This game might be too loose for the Warriors. Their style thrives off of other’s teams’ stiffness; I’m not sure the Hawks are even conscious of what the other team does. If the Warriors are Gravity’s Rainbow, then the Hawks are Tender Buttons.
- Is this a pickup game? It doesn’t feel like one. Maybe it’s just what pickup games look like when they’re played by real athletes.
- This is seriously the only time the Warriors have looked conventional. They at least have plays where they get the ball to Baron and let him work. The Hawks just throw it around. They practice basketball nihilism. Say what you want about the Warriors’ style – at least it’s an ethos.
- Monta Ellis dips his hands in hot wax before games. Apparently it helps his fingers get loose. That’s probably the weirdest pregame ritual that doesn’t involve Moises Alou soaking his hands in urine.



- This game is proof that Brandan Wright needs to play more. He fits the style perfectly; there’s no reason he can’t be a more versatile version of Biedrins.
- Conceptually, the Warriors’ problem is that they don’t have Stephen Jackson – his complete lack of conscience would match the Hawks. There’s a big gap in the Warriors here that wasn’t so obvious against the Celtics.
- Everyone said the worst part of the Bibby trade was that he’s not a pure point guard, but his style might make more sense within the team’s overall concept. He’s not exactly monopolizing the ball, which means that Johnson, Smith, et al. still have plenty of freedom to drive without much thought. This might be the only team for which having a top-shelf point guard would make them less interesting.
- The Hawks are up 18 at the half. We can only hope that Jackson is back on March 4 for the rematch in Atlanta.
- I don’t want to live in a world in which the Suns play a 43-30 half.



- There were 18 combined fast break points in the first half. How do you even differentiate a fast break from a normal play in this game?
- After a few minutes of the second half, it seems like it’s not quite as crazy anymore. This will help the Warriors on a night when they don’t have Jackson and Biedrins.
- Wright is perfect for a game like this. He doesn’t have to worry about getting pushed around in the post and he can use his length to do things like finish over Josh Smith. Nellie gets deserved credit for letting his players play, but his unwillingness to try rookies for any substantial amount of time is upsetting and doesn’t seem to fit with his overall philosophy.
- I don’t know why Atlanta looks more conventional this half. Some of it probably has to do with the Warriors trying harder on defense, but they seem to be coasting on the lead. Golden State has something to counteract now and they’re coming back.
- I could watch Monta challenge Josh Smith at the rim forever.



- My pro-Stanford bias definitely affects this take, but Josh Childress is one of the more underrated players in the league. I’d love to see him go to a contender this offseason and turn into the coolest legitimate role player around.
- Al Harrington is the poor man’s Antawn Jamison. Especially if Jamison decided entire sections of games should only involve threes.
- In retrospect, the Warriors didn’t have much of a chance in this game without Jackson. He means too much to their overall philosophy. And the lack of Biedrins obviously didn’t help the defense.
- Looking at the Suns/Celtics score right now (67-56 with eight minutes left) just makes me cry. We all need the Lakers to beat these teams and win a championship for the good of exciting basketball.