Feb 8, 2008

Webber's return spoiled

Warriors' defense horrid versus Bulls

By Geoff Lepper / MediaNews

OAKLAND - The Warriors spent five days integrating Chris Webber into their fold. In retrospect, maybe they should have spent a little more time reintroducing the rest of their players to one another.

Webber returned to his original NBA home with four points, two assists and a rebound in 12 minutes of work, but he had long since switched to spectator mode when the Warriors and Bulls finally decided things Thursday night at Oracle Arena.

In the end, a Chicago team missing three of its top four scorers - guards Ben Gordon (out with a sprained wrist) and Kirk Hinrich (bruised ribs) and forward Luol Deng (left Achilles tendonitis) - proved tough enough to craft a 114-108 victory against a Warriors squad that lacked any continuity despite nearly a week to work on its shortcomings.

Bulls guard Chris Duhon piled up a career-high 34 points from a wide array of ridiculous angles around the basket, and forward Joe Smith posted 27 points and eight rebounds to win the battle of former No. 1 overall selections who started their career with the Warriors.

Monta Ellis had 25 points to lead Golden State, but Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis combined to shoot a horrid 14-for-43 from the floor and the Warriors' defense was simply shredded in the fourth quarter, when Chicago scored 37 points, 19 of them from the free-throw line. The Bulls would finish with 48 free throw attempts to the Warriors' 21.

The Bulls took a quick four-point lead in the fourth quarter, and Golden State never got back in front again. Every time the Warriors would get something going offensively, they would be unable to come up with the necessary stop. Even as Golden State put up 11 points in 2 1/2 minutes to draw within a point at 101-100, Chicago scored on nine of 10 possessions to keep its lead. That stretch ended with Smith draining a pair of free throws for a 104-100 advantage with 1:38 to go.

Missed layups by Davis and Matt Barnes on the next two possessions sealed the fate of the Warriors (29-20), who had won nine of their past 12.

It all put a damper on the return of Webber, who said before taking the former Coliseum Arena floor in home whites for the first time in 5,028 days, that "There's a lot of special memories here for me, and I'm glad I get to come back and hopefully relive some of them."

When Webber was announced second, between Stephen Jackson and Andris Biedrins, during pre-game introductions, it drew a muddled response from the 19,596 on hand. Roughly half chose to boo Webber - presumably as payback for forcing a trade to the Washington Bullets on Nov. 17, 1994 - as the other half lavished him with a roaring ovation for returning to help the team of his long-ago youth.

As when Jackson returned from his seven-game NBA suspension at the start of the season, Nelson cautioned against thinking Webber is going to be a savior, someone who single-handedly propels the Warriors past the Lakers and Suns to their first division title since 1975-76.

It certainly didn't resemble anything outstanding during Webber's 5-minute, 15-second stint in the first quarter, when the Warriors fell behind 14-8 and looked particularly disjointed, a vibe that would remain during the entire first half as Golden State shot 38.8 percent from the field, 15.4 percent (2-for-13) on 3-pointers.

The Warriors perked up just before halftime, exerting full-court pressure to shake loose a couple of backcourt turnovers and put together a 9-2 run - featuring increasingly savage slams from Davis, Mickael Pietrus and finally Ellis, who easily split three Chicago defenders to throw down his one-handed runner - to cut Chicago's lead to 50-47 at intermission.

Things changed for the better during Webber's second stint. The Warriors outscored Chicago 22-16 with Webber on the floor for the opening 7 minutes and 23 seconds of the third quarter. Golden State pushed its lead to five on a couple of occasions during that time - at 65-60 and then 67-62 - but they were never able to put the Bulls away.