Yeah, well, what'd you expect?

No Baron Davis, no chance, right?

Well, no. That is, yes, there was no Baron Davis, but yes, the Warriors had a chance.

Whatever. 91-85, Jazz over Warriors.

Now, there's good news here:

• The Warriors lost by six but missed 16 free throws for the night, so they could have won the game with better free throw shooting.

But, of course, there's bad news:

• The Warriors lost by six but missed 16 free throws for the night, so they could have won the game with better free throw shooting.

If you'll recall the recap from Thursday, I shrugged off the Warriors poor free throw shooting in the first half of their game vs. the Hawks, partially because the Warriors won that game, and partially because they shot better from the charity stripe in the 2nd half.

But this, this is a problem. It's a problem that has to be fixed immediately, because it has already directly lead to a loss after only two games of play. Can we reason that they Warriors missed free throws because of the absence of Baron? To quote Dr. Evil, "No, not really. I can't back that up."

Was that the only problem? No, not quite -- the Warriors shot very poorly from the field (37.2%), and hit their three pointers at an anemic 23.8% clip. Can we reason that this was because of Baron's absence? Yes, I think we can. The Warriors just don't have a reliable playmaker without Davis, which is why this team was flawed to begin with. Lots of decent-to-good support/complimentary players on the Warriors (yes, Jason Richardson is a complimentary player, but a very, very good one), but no real playmakers.

So, without Davis, the Warriors shots just aren't as open, they don't come within the flow of the offense as often, they become very reliant on their outside shots falling, and...

...they're the same team as before he came. One that wins at around a 30% clip.

Does this game worry me? No, because we all know this season is predicated on Baron playing the vast majority of it -- think Barry Bonds to the Giants as Baron is to the Warriors, and you'll about have it.

We'll see if Baron laces 'em up this morning vs. the Knicks. Frankly, I'm all for resting Baron against the lower eschelon East teams, as the Warriors of last season without Baron had a 6-7 record against Eastern non-playoff teams, a group to which I'd believe the Knicks belong again this year. If he's really recovered, fine, but if he's not, why push it against a team that the Warriors may actually be able to beat without him?