On loss at Philly: Randolph's rambunctiousness and the block party

November 23, 4:44 PMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

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Didn’t expect the Warriors to win in Philly on Sunday, but it still should be a disappointing one for them because they had their opportunity.

Not enough fourth-quarter quality in their 89-81 loss to win an NBA road game.

This is without the boxscore and before the 10-minute "cooling down" period.

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We all love Anthony Randolph’s potential, and he did announce himself in a nice way in the second quarter against Philly (block followed by fastbreak dunk), but he’s going to have to throw a pass every once in a while.

My goodness, he’s aggressive. But if he is so smart, skilled and coachable then he’s got to learn to give it up a little bit.

Then, one of the passes he does throw _ a one-handed almost length-of-court bounce pass intended for Brandan Wright that wound up a turnover _ was cringe-worthy.

It was so bad it actually made me chuckle. Only it was a big possession.

Randolph’s trying to make something significant happen every single possession. He'd be infuriating if he weren't so intriguing. He might be able to throw that pass at some point.

So you shake your head, keep him in the game, and move on.

Randolph committed a less egregious, but more critical turnover turnover at the 5:26 mark of the fourth with the Warriors down two.

All he had to do was make a simple pass to Wright, who was wide-open and likely going to get an easy one. Instead, Randolph tried to do one more thing than he should have and ended up walking.

Nothing a season's worth of sanding down the rough edges shouldn't solve.

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It wasn’t just that the Warriors were blocking shots. It’s that it was they were aggressively going after them.

On a practical level, it wouldn't hurt if that was kind of their identity, if nothing else giving them a nudge with that whole ref/reputation thing.

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Hate to pick on C.J. Watson, but he’s got to be better, even if he is pushed back into his “natural” spot of back-up point guard.

He played more like a third point guard in the first half against Philly, if that.

Between the handing off of the inbounds pass to Stephen Jackson to the consistent coming up short with numbers on the break to the unforced carry turnover along the baseline being careless, he’s not as steady as you’d like a player to be in his spot.

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The camera caught Don Nelson leaning over and saying something to assistant coach Keith Smart after a Stephen Jackson airball with the Warriors down 20 late in the second quarter.

Couldn’t help but think it was: “You have any interest in finishing this up?”

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When it comes to Nelson, you can play the “Why didn’t so-and-so play?” game every night. You’ve got to wait for trends, not judge on the game-to-game.

But, from now on it’s news when Marco Belinelli plays not when he doesn’t play.