By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

For more than a half century, the Serenity Prayer has been a cornerstone of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

The Warriors accepted the things they cannot change about themselves Friday night, and in doing so become something greater than they previously had been.

By forcing Chris Paul to shoot, shoot and shoot some more, the Warriors were able to control the Hornets’ All-Star point guard in a 111-103 victory.

At first blush, the fact that Paul went off for 43 points and nine assists doesn’t look like a victory. But seven of Paul’s nine dimes went to David West, who finished with 31 points. That’s a nice number, but what the Hornets need from Paul is to get the rest of the roster involved with some spoon-fed buckets, especially since Peja Stojakovic is battling through a bad back and James Posey and Tyson Chandler are on the bench with injuries.

Instead, Hornets not named Paul or West shot 10-for-38 on Friday.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Everyone keeps wanting to compare Warriors rookie forward Anthony Randolph to Lamar Odom or Josh Smith or some other current NBA player.

For a true statistical comparison to Randolph’s rookie season, however, you have to delve farther back into the NBA’s history books.

Since the league started tracking blocked shots as a stat in 1973, there have been only a handful of rookies who have played at least 890 minutes (the same amount Randolph clocked heading into Friday’s game with the New Orleans Hornets) and put up per-minute averages as high or better than Randolph’s in terms of scoring (21.3 points per 48 minutes), rebounding (15.5) and blocks (3.6).

And let’s just say the list puts Randolph in pretty good company.

In chronological order:

** Hakeem Olajuwon (HOU, 1984-85, 27.9 points, 16.0 rebounds, 3.6 blocks per 48 minutes)

** David Robinson (SAS, 1989-90, 31.9, 15.7, 5.1)

** Shaquille O’Neal (ORL, 1992-93, 29.6, 17.5, 4.5)

That’s it.

Read the rest of this entry…

POSTGAME:

** Luke: I hear what you’re saying, and I know this stat is going to be counterintuitive, given that Stephen Jackson is going to end the season leading the league in TO/G, but the Warriors actually averaged 14.3 TOs/G in the 59 games Jackson played versus 17.1 in the 16 games he missed.

OVERTIME:

** Kelenna Azubuike might wind up having the best PER of any Warriors center this season.

** Gill: They’re saving Randolph for the third OT.

** Oh my goodness. Ellis down and grabbing at the left ankle. It looks like he might have possibly landed on Jason Thompson’s foot. But it also looks like he might have had one of his looks-worse-than-it-turns-out-to-be moments that used to be so frequent in his second and third season.

** Also, I know the book play was for the Kings to go for the 2-for-1, which they did, but I really don’t like that. It happened to work out because Turiaf missed one of two free throws, but that 3-pointer by Garcia was just terrible.

** Um, Kelenna, I was just kidding about saving Randolph for the third OT.

** I’m happy most especially for Ronny Turiaf, because without his defense — most especially as Thompson tried to score on that putback with 12 seconds left — this would have been a 152-132 Kings win in regulation.

FOURTH QUARTER:

** I think the Warriors did a horrible job adjusting to this refereeing crew, but I will say this: Bob Delaney, Eli Roe and Joe Forte have rendered this game unwatchable.

Not that it took much, I’ll admit. But it’s still true, nevertheless.

** Gill: No, the Suns have not given up on Grant Hill yet, but I do think that if Maggette is hurt to the point where he’s going to miss Friday and beyond, they will seriously look at bringing someone in on the short term.

** By the way, with two players having racked up five personals (in addition to a T each) and two others also hit with technicals, Rule 3, Section 1 of the NBA manual might come into play:

a. Each team shall consist of five players. No team may be reduced to less than five players. If a player in the game receives his sixth personal foul and all substitutes have already been disqualified, said player shall remain in the game and shall be charged with a personal and team foul. A technical foul also shall be assessed against…

(I originally had this meandering aside plopped down in the middle of the Warriors-Nuggets post, but it just killed the flow, no matter where I put it. So here it is on its own.)

Brief detour to discuss this topic: How much higher is Joey Crawford’s profile compared to every other NBA referee currently working? Maybe Dick Bavetta or Bennett Salvatore could give him a run for his money on the basis of longevity, or Bob Delaney with his Donnie Brasco backstory, or Violet Palmer as a female trailblazer, but I don’t think there’s anyone else as instantly recognizable in a gray addidas T right now than Crawford.

Here was a hilarious first-quarter exchange on the Altitude broadcast between play-by-play announcer Chris Marlowe and color man Scott Hastings:

Hastings: Joe Crawford just came down the bench and told the Denver bench that both ‘Melo and Kenyon Martin have both been warned.

Marlowe: For what?

Hastings: (Snorts.) It’s Joe Crawford, man. . . . Probably talking back, I guess.

Thirty seconds later, Crawford whistled Martin for a tech.

Hastings: I’m doing everything I can, folks, just to not say anything.

Remember when Steve Javie was the guy who was known for having a rabbit ears and a hair-trigger penchant for handing out T’s? Javie should share some of whatever he’s been using to mellow out, because Joey, you need to chillax, man.

– Geoff

FOURTH QUARTER:

** It’s good to see Ellis back out there, but I wonder if this will prompt the team to limit his minutes at all down the stretch. You definitely want him to get as much work as he can handle after missing 50 games, but at the same time you don’t want to risk having him get hurt yet again.

** It’s a pretty hilarious that Ellis is complaining so much about Jaric warding him off from the loose ball when Ellis did THE EXACT SAME THING to Mike Conley earlier tonight, running Conley off a loose ball to ensure Golden State gaines possession.

** Now, that call on Azubuike for allegedly undercutting Rudy Gay was justifiably booed.

** Fatigue is really taking its toll at this point, in terms of bad decision-making, settling for long jumpers and reaching in (ineffectively) on D.

** SWT: I wouldn’t completely trust any box score you see until well after the game is over. Rare mistakes made, and occasionally the stat-keeping software in the arena will crash — that’s when the PR staff has to scramble and play catchup the rest of the night to ensure accuracy.

For example as I write this, the NBA.com boxscore lists Belinelli as a minus-16, even though he has no stats as befitting his business casual attire.

** The Warriors had assists on each of their first eight buckets. Since then, they’ve had only eight assists on 28 scores.

THIRD QUARTER:

** Monta passed on an open look on the perimeter to take (and make) a high degree-of-difficulty driving layup. That’s a play where a “typical” Don Nelson point guard — Timmy Hardaway, Steve Nash, Baron Davis, etc. — lets loose for a 3. It’ll be interesting to see if Ellis develops that range over the summer.

** Is AND 1 sponsoring this game? Because what we’re seeing just reeks of street ball. Latest example: Crawford is so busy dribbling behind his back on the break that he fails to take advantage of Kelenna Azubuike’s cut behind two defenders for what should have been a layup.

** I love that not only did Randolph obliterate that shot by Rudy Gay, but he bounced it off Gay to give the Warriors possession again.

** Looking at that replay, that’s not a good way to land for Ellis. It would have been a classic way to break a wrist, but it appears they’re working on his shoulder and upper arm…