By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — There was plenty to make a Warriors fan giddy Wednesday at the Arena, what with seven Golden State players reaching double figures for the second straight game, the ball zipping around the floor, an improved performance on the defensive glass and the grand opening of Marco Belinelli’s Trick Shot Emporium.

What might have been the most impressive, however, was also the most basic.

The pick-and-roll, and its multitude of permutations, is a bedrock piece of every team’s arsenal. And in their 119-96 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Warriors showed off a renewed ability to run their pick-and-roll sets with aplomb.

Golden State put up 11 points in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the second quarter, a span of seven possessions in which they ran some form of the two-man game on each occasion.

What made it interesting was the diversity of pairings the Warriors used. This wasn’t simply the Stephen Jackson-Andris Biedrins tandem that has become a focal point of opposition scouting reports.

Instead, you had Jackson in the opposite role, setting picks for Jamal Crawford, who zinged passes to Jackson for consecutive layups against the defensive tandem of Ramon Sessions and Luc Mbah a Moute.

Then it was Anthony Morrow using the looming presence of Ronny Turiaf to free himself for a wing jumper. Turiaf was repaid the next time down, when Jackson took a turn as ballhandler and spoon-fed him a bucket.

Finally, it was Crawford and Turiaf working together. After the first, ill-advised pass — a looping lob into a lane packed with three Bucks — was stolen, Crawford came right back with an adjustment. As the Bucks once again had the angle to Turiaf covered, Crawford, who was heading towards the right wing, smartly fed the ball back to Jackson at the top of the key, and the captain whipped it down the wide-open lane to Turiaf for a pair of free throws.

The run of screen-rolls ended when the Warriors had a fast-break opportunity that led to a missed jumper for Morrow, and it was truly over when Kelenna Azubuike took the ball at the top of the key the next time downcourt and went on a solo drive to nowhere.

“The films that we watch, we thought that was a good area for us to attack,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said.

Even Belinelli got into the act. Two of his most circusy shots in his 11-point fourth quarter came off pick-and-rolls with Turiaf: First, the 16-footer while fading at a 90-degree angle to the basket from the right wing; then, after Charlie Villanueva tried to pick him up on a switch, Belinelli blew past him to the baseline and fired up the high-arcing 5-footer from behind that backboard that’s already making the rounds on YouTube.

“The Italian Larry Bird, that’s what we were calling him,” Jackson crowed.

Notes
Credit where it’s due: After five games with at least one inbounding disaster, the Warriors had two nice buckets on wide-open shots — a layup from C.J. Watson with the shot clock running down and a 17-foot jumper for Morrow — from sold inbounds plays. . . . According to the official heights and weights, Andrew Bogut was the biggest guy on the floor, at 7-foot and 260 pounds. He did OK using his robotic moves in the paint against Biedrins, but when he was matched up the much smaller Jackson, he was totally flummoxed as to how to take advantage of the situation. . . . With Earl Boykins playing in Italy, Luke Ridnour may be the only guy left in the league that Watson can post up.

The Lineup Project
With a 31-9 run to open the fourth quarter, the smalls clearly were the way to go. Milwaukee, which started small (Mbah a Moute opened at PF), could not make Golden State pay by going big, since the Bucks’ version of going big was to play Villanueva at PF. And that won’t scare anybody in this league.

Lineup GSW MIL Time
Large N/A N/A 0:00
Turiaf-Biedrins 11 13 4:28
Medium 13 11 6:49
Small 95 72 36:43

Without Monta . . .
A win was expected and a win was had. The Warriors remain on pace for a 7-19 start without the suspended Monta Ellis, however, because the prediction is for a four-game losing streak beginning Friday against Houston. That will be a litmus test for the Warriors’ new European-style offense.

Contact: geofflepper@48mintues.net