FOURTH QUARTER:

** J.J. Hickson blows the dunk, but kicks Maggette in the head while doing it.

** And Maggette gets his revenge at the other end with the pull-up J.

** Nelson has mentioned Ellis’ ability to run down long rebounds repeatedly, and it paid off right there. (Although, to be fair, Varejao should have had the offensive board there.)

** Painful point-blank miss by Maggette with the lead on the line.

** Did Monta yell “Let me play!” after that dunk?

** Based on tonight, I’m believing Monta when he says the ankle’s at 100 percent, physically.

** If Cleveland keeps settling for jumpers, the Warriors can very easily steal this one.

** That’s the problem with depending on Maggett down the stretch — if he doesn’t get a foul call, he comes up empty far too often, depending far too much on the referees.

** Last possession wins?

** Wow. That’s a hell of a play by Biedrins, stopping LeBron on the drive without fouling.

** When your opponent is passing up an open 3 to hit an even more open 3 … man, that’s painful to watch.

** Pavlovic did a great job to keep Maggette from getting the ball in the lane, but Jackson just stuck the dagger in James’ neck.

** No Crawford to muck up this inbound D.

** Of course LeBron hits it. Wouldn’t expect anything else.

** Pure conjecture on my part, but, with Turiaf guarding LeBron from the inbounds pass and Jackson on Varejao, it looked like Jackson was supposed to be lending support on LBJ. With 2.5 seconds left, Jackson floated across the lane, and I think if Maggette had slid up to cover Varejao by the right elbow (which would have been fine because Maggette’s cover, Pavlovic, was deep in the right corner and never could get the ball in time to do anything with it), Jackson would have come on a double.

Like I said, pure conjecture, because I don’t know if that’s a rotation that was supposed to happen or not. What did happen was that Maggette stayed home, Jackson sagged back into the lane to keep Varejao from getting an open flash to the rim, and James rose up over Turiaf for the game-winner.

THIRD QUARTER:

** Another good sign with Ellis: Even when the Cavaliers force Monta to go left, he crosses over and hits the right-handed layup.

** After an entire season of watching the Warriors’ guards giving up penetration that forced…

Just got a note from the Clippers, via the Warriors’ PR Department:

Baron Davis, who has missed the Clips’ last 10 games due to a bruised tailbone and strained hamstring, will stay in Los Angeles to receive treatment, thus depriving his former fans of the opportunity to boo him mercilessly for jumping ship in June.

– Geoff

P.S. Ramona Shelburne, my ex-Dean Mob colleague at the L.A. Daily News, had a nice piece recently on the lack of impact Baron’s made with the Clips this season.

(UPDATES to the updates: Randolph has been deemed officially available, and guard Kelenna Azubuike, who sprained an ankle against the Thunder on Wednesday, is expected to play.)

Quick notes from the Warriors’ shootaround Friday morning:

** Andris Biedrins participated with his left wrist taped and said that he plans on playing tonight against Cleveland. The hand still causes him some pain, especially when he uses it to exert pressure — i.e., when he’s grabbing rebounds. He makes it sound as though the pain is not that big a deal, but keep an eye on how he does boarding in traffic.

** Marco Belinelli will not play. The second-year guard said he has encountered some pain when he pushes off on his sprained right ankle and is going to “get some more treatment,” which makes it sound as though he might miss a few more games in addition to the four he’s already missed. A team spokesman said the club will have an update on Belinelli and Brandan Wright (dislocated left shoulder) this evening.

** Anthony Randolph, who missed practice Thursday due to illness, sat out the Friday shootaround as well. He’s questionable for tonight.

– Geoff

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Not much upstages LeBron James these days, but the Warriors managed it Thursday, announcing on their Web site that Monta Ellis will return Friday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After one moped accident, two surgeries, hundreds of hours of rehab, six practices and one critical meeting to discuss the six-year, $66 million contract that he placed in jeopardy, Ellis is set to step back onto the floor at Oracle Arena.

Warriors coach Don Nelson said on KNBR that Ellis will start Friday — presumably alongside Jamal Crawford — at the point and expects him to log somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes.

“I was very concerned that he would maybe never be the same player again, because it was a very severe ankle (injury) — he severed two tendons in his ankle, and they had to surgically repair them and put pins in them and a whole bunch of stuff — and I was thinking he may never be the same again, but I can assure you that he will be,” Nelson said. “I’m watching him in practice and he’s coming back way faster than I thought. . . . I think he’ll be the same Monta we’ve grown to love and enjoy watching.”

Ellis only began practicing in 5-on-5 drills nine days ago, but has long felt that his ankle was 100 percent physically and that it was merely a matter of getting into basketball shape. In a sign of his anxiousness, he famously yelled, “Let me play!” after dunking at the Warriors’ shootaround Wednesday morning.

Read the rest of this entry…

FOURTH QUARTER:

** And it’s a 7-0 run to put the Thunder back ahead. Golden State just can’t stand prosperity.

** Nice burst from Jackson. He had been 5-for-13 with the 5 TOs and in danger of going sour for the rest of the night. Instead, he beats Durant off the dribble for a reverse layup, creates the deflection that leads to a Warriors steal and converts on a 3-pointer in the corner.

** Wow, what a stupendous reverse layup from Jeff Green, who draws Maggette’s fifth foul on the play as well.

** Maggette still on the court with five fouls: OKC must attack him. And they do.

** A one-point lead, 5:26 to go, and you step out of bounds while catching a cross-court pass. Awful.

** CC: In the W’s defense re: Green, the Sonics gave up Ray Allen, who’s still better than pretty much everyone on Golden State’s roster, to get Green.

** Westbrook slices past Azubuike for the fast-break layup and a three-point lead, possibly four, with 4:34 left. Golden State doesn’t deserve to win, playing like this.

** Turiaf has been the key to so much of the Warriors’ ball movement, such as it is, in the second half.

** I love it when players clearly extend both arms to give the guy they’re guarding a shove in the back — hello, Corey Maggette — then act like it’s a crime to call them on it.

** All credit to C.J. Watson, but Nick Collison couldn’t have telegraphed that pass any more. Why didn’t he get out the semaphore flags while he was at it?

** Westbrook with the J for the lead at 120-119, and then getting the lucky break when C.J. Watson fumbles the ball away to give OKC possession again.

** That will be NBA game-winner No. 9 for Crawford, if it holds up.

** That’s a well-deserved loss for the Warriors. Why Crawford is standing out 28 feet from the hoop, guarding nobody, while Green goes by him to get the ball, is astounding.

THIRD QUARTER:

** Two misses to start the half? Wha’ppen?

** Back-to-back 3s for the Thunder. Good to see the norms are restored.

** CC: My handle is “geofflepper” at any and all Warriors-related sites. I’m a believer in transperancy in Web journalism. And I’ve been a Steve Nash critic for years. The fact he won even a single MVP award, let alone two consecutively, without playing a lick of defense, is an utter, utter…