By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — In his pregame talk Monday before facing Miami, Warriors coach Don Nelson acknowledged the obvious: “Your small team has to be better than the other team’s small team. When it’s not, that’s not going to work that much.”

He forgot to mention: Your small team also has to be able to rebound. Or else that’s not going to work that much.

Yes, it’s time to dust off that old Warriors chestnut, the rebounding deficiency storyline. Because it cost Golden State a victory that the Heat snatched up in overtime, 130-129.

On this seven-game losing streak that shows no sign of ending soon, the Warriors have been outrebounded in every game but one (they managed to tie Chicago, 39-39). Golden State is dead last, and by a wide margin, in terms of defensive rebound rate.

Even so, Monday’s numbers were especially painful down the stretch, when Nelson finally gave in to the allure of small ball.

The Warriors led 94-93 when they went small for the first time all night at the 11:03 mark of the fourth quarter. Golden State had been alternating Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph at the power forward spot up until then, and the youngsters had given the Warriors this combined line: 21 points on 9-for-16 shooting (3-for-4 from the free-throw line), seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

But when Wright threw up an ill-advised runner with his off hand — a shot that crashed high off the glass and never had any chance of going in — Nelson immediately sent Corey Maggette into the game in Wright’s place. With the exception of a 91-second stint after Maggette sprained an ankle in overtime and some last-second offense-defense exchanges, the Warriors stayed small the rest of the way.

The move was somewhat defensible in context. Miami went small first, moving 6-7 Shawn Marion to the 4, which meant that Maggette was not being asked to guard a man with 2 or 3 inches and 20 or 30 pounds on him, as he had been doing in previous games.

Nevertheless, the Heat managed to pound Golden State on the glass when it counted. In the fourth quarter and overtime, Miami had 20 rebounds (eight offensive) to the Warriors’ 13 (10 defensive). The Heat also notched 11 second-chance points to the Warriors’ four.

Included in those 11 points was Miami’s game-tying bucket at the end of regulation, where Miami utilized not one, not two but three offensive boards before Udonis Haslem was finally able to convert a putback layup as the final horn sounded.

They also included Chris Quinn’s game-tying 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds remaining in overtime. And Michael Beasley’s free throw at the 3.6-second mark that proved to be the margin of victory.

Probably the Warriors’ best rebounder on the night was point guard C.J. Watson, who outfought Haslem on a couple of occasions for critical boards down the stretch.

I don’t want to bang the anti-small ball drum all season long. But after Beasley stole Andris Biedrins’ inbounds pass in the closing seconds of the game and had his first shot rejected, the only thing standing between Beasley and the rim was the Warriors’ power forward: Maggette.

Would Ronny Turiaf, far and away the league’s leader in blocks per 48 minutes, have been able to deny Beasley for a second time and give the Warriors a chance to win in double OT? We’ll never know. But we know what happens when it’s Maggette in that situation. And it’s nothing good.

Inbounding follies
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team have more problems with inbounds plays than the Warriors are suffering right now. This has become a mini-epidemic.

In addition to Biedrins’ attempted pass to Jamal Crawford with 7.1 seconds left — which Beasley easily gobbled up — there was an earlier situation in which the Warriors were left discombobulated on an inbounds play.

Golden State was clinging to a 102-101 lead with 4:56 left in the fourth quarter and had to inbounds with only 3 seconds left on the shot clock. Nelson and assistant Keith Smart were both scurrying up the sideline, shouting instructions that clearly weren’t getting through, so they burned a 20-second timeout to get things set up just right.

And what do you know? It worked: Crawford slipped a screen near the free-throw line while Maggette cut hard to the basket to force a switch between Marion (who was originally guarding Maggette) and Daequan Cook (who was guarding Crawford). Before Marion could reverse direction to give chase, Crawford popped out to the left wing and drained an open 3-pointer.

“Maybe with this team I’m going to have to start using the timeout there to inbound,” Nelson admitted post-game.

This is just the continuation of an ongoing saga, of course. Let’s not forget:

** The Watson step-on-the-court debacle against Detroit.

** The two horrible passes that turned out to be OK at the end of the victory against Portland.

** Stephen Jackson touching the ball before it was inbounded in Philadelphia.

There’s no maybe about it: Something needs to be done.

Notes
En route to his first 40-point game as a Warrior, Crawford was fouled three times on 3-point attempts, and almost drew another whistle on a fourth. I’ve never even heard of that before in a single game for one player. . . . Nelson’s right on one thing: Watson’s natural position is backup PG. Watson is excelling right now at coming in and being a disruptive force on defense. . . . Here’s a sign of the times on the not-so-run-and-gun Warriors. With 1:25 left in OT, Dwyane Wade missed on a flying layup attempt, crashed to Earth and slid on his back into the Warrior Girls seated along the baseline. Three seconds later, Maggette secured the rebound, knocking over Haslem in the process. The Warriors had a 5-on-3 opportunity, a golden chance to extend their then-two-point lead. But Crawford just kind of jogged the ball forward, passed off to Jackson on the right wing. By the time Jackson passed back to Crawford, Haslem had managed to sprint back into the lane, and after Cook turned aside Crawford’s tentative drive towards the hoop, Wade got into position as well. It goes without saying that last year’s team would have ran that ball down Miami’s throat.

The Lineup Project
In a game this close, there’s not much to glean from this data:

Lineup             GS    OPP   Time
Large                 N/A   N/A    N/A
Turiaf-Biedrins     4       0        0:12
Medium              96     97      38:28
Small                 29     33      14:20

The Turiaf-Biedrins number is admittedly misleading in this instance because it came about when Nelson brought Turiaf in for two short stints at the end of overtime as a defense/rebounding specialist, and the plus-4 rating came about because Miami was intentionally fouling to try to pull off the upset.

Without Monta. . .
The Warriors slipped another game off the pace, as I had put this game in the “LEAN WIN” category. Unless something changes dramatically, Golden State is now looking at being 7-19 when Monta Ellis’ suspension ends on Dec. 17.

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net