By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — The Warriors haven’t had a 25-point-per-game scorer since Chris Mullin was wearing a No. 17 jersey in 1992-93 instead of a suit and tie. And according to coach Don Nelson, they might not want that fact to change.

Not all 25-ppg scoring averages are created equal, and if the output isn’t arrived at efficiently, it might do more harm than good.

“I could probably get (reserve point guard Dan) Dickau to score 25 a game if I got him about 60 shots a game,” Nelson said Friday. “It’s how it blends in with the team. . . . If the ball is stopping too much and we’re doing too much one-on-one isolation, then no, I don’t want anyone to score 25.”

But for a team that is, thanks to free agency or injury, missing roughly half of its league-high 111 ppg output from last season, there is a need to secure some points in bulk. Into that void, at least until Monta Ellis finishes rehabilitating his left ankle, the Warriors will thrust forwards Al Harrington and Corey Maggette as its first two options.

For Harrington, it’s a bit of déjà vu. The buzz in camp last year was how his scoring average was going to jump from the 17.0 he scored in a half season as a Warrior after arriving in January 2007, but instead he became a discontented statue on the 3-point line, his playing time and scoring average both dropping precipitously.

“Al is going to be touching the ball more,” captain Stephen Jackson said. “I think last year he didn’t get the ball as much as he should have, because he was out spotting up shooting 3s. . . . Al is definitely our best scorer on the team. Al is a guy that probably can average 25 points on this team, so we just hope he can do so.”

Maggette, who fell fractionally short of a career high with his 22.1 ppg last season as a Clipper, doesn’t think the potential 25-ppg group needs to be limited to just one member.

“Being honest, it’s realistic for Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington and myself,” Maggette said. “Even (Andris) Biedrins. I know what I can do. I know it’s on us to score points, which we will do, but I’m not even shooting to score 25. . . . We’re not trying to score 25 and 30 a night, when we can have guys that get 10 or 12 points a night that can help this team win. I think that’s really what we need with this type of tempo. We can have probably eight or nine guys in double figures.”

The biggest obstacle to putting both Harrington and Maggette over the 25-ppg mark is that they overlap somewhat in their preferred areas of work. Both like the mid-post, but only one can set up shop there on a possession, which has led at times to both players sprinting for position downcourt.

“We are definitely racing to see who can get down there first,” Harrington said. “My thing is, I try to take turns. I’m not selfish, I try to play together. You know how that is. Learned that in kindergarten. . . . If he wants to post up, I’ll stay outside, and if I want to post up, then he’ll dive and cut, or he can take an open jump shot also. I think we’ll work with each other well.”

Notes

DeMarcus Nelson is scheduled to get the start at point guard tonight for the Warriors in their home exhibition opener against Oklahoma City, making it three different PGs in as many preseason games. . . . The combined efforts of the point guard quartet have not been impressive enough to make Don Nelson scrap his plans for trying out Jackson at that position next week. The coach joked that being halfway around the world would allow him to conduct the experiment with some measure of privacy. “I’m not going to play him at point until we get to China, so if it doesn’t work, nobody will know,” Nelson said. Upon being informed both games will be broadcast by members of the ESPN family, Nelson said, “Oh — (crap), Lamar.” . . . Jackson has gotten more specific with his statistical goals for this season: 16 to 17 points, with six rebounds and six assists per game. Nelson should be happy with those board numbers, Jackson was told. “He’ll love it,” Jackson said. “I averaged one more last year (4.4 per game, up from 3.3 as a Warrior in 2006-07), and he still told me I was the worst rebounder in the league. So I’ve got a lot to do.” . . . Nelson tweaked his lower back about 10 days ago, and he’s been receiving ice treatment after practice ever since then. The bag of ice made a good prop Friday when Nelson’s 59-game tenure as coach of the New York Knicks in 1995-96 was brought up. “I got sideways with (Patrick) Ewing and a guy named John Starks,” Nelson said. “And they got me in the back — oh, it still hurts. I got ice on the wound.”