By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Things have gotten so ridiculous in the Jamal Crawford-Don Nelson power struggle that it’s prompted a first in the (admittedly short) history of this site: The retraction of an earlier entry.

Back in November, when the Warriors swapped unhappy forward Al Harrington to the Knicks for Crawford, I wrote that it was the best deal Golden State could have made at that time.

My position was that since the Warriors had already cashed in their future salary-cap space by giving a maximum-allowed contract extension to Stephen Jackson, throwing away Harrington’s expiring deal wasn’t a horrible move it would have been for some teams.

[Sidebar on the Jackson deal: It still boggles the mind that the Warriors agreed to that extension some 18 months before a decision needed to be reached. There still has not been any adequate explanation (check that, no explanation AT ALL) by anyone at 1011 Broadway (including, most notably, team president Bobby Rowell, who hashed out the contract details with Jackson) about why Golden State abandoned two years’ worth of tough-as-nails negotiating stances with every member of its roster, then threw a pile of cash in Jackson’s lap.]

And exchanging someone who had no intention of playing here again for a guy in Crawford who can create off the dribble and shoot from distance could only help in the short term.

But after four months of watching the Jamal Crawford Era in Oakland, I can say this with certainty:

The Warriors should have eaten Harrington’s contract rather than pull the trigger on that deal.

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FOURTH QUARTER:

** Jer: I don’t think Turiaf is necessarily more aggressive — I think it seems that way because Biedrins is so good as finding the seam in a D and filling the open spot that he doesn’t need to be as physical.

As for Biedrins coming back, I agree that it’d be nice to see him back out there, but with only 12 games left and his plans to play for the Latvian national team this summer, I’m not sure the Warriors won’t get more value from giving him some extra rest.

** BS: I don’t think it’s unspoken — Nelson wants Crawford to opt-out and go elsewhere, and Crawford doesn’t want to be forced into giving up $20M. Nelson sat him as a healthy scratch against the Clippers and Lakers, and Crawford asked out of the 76ers game, saying he needed more practice time. The Warriors’ next practice should be tomorrow, so we’ll see if he plays Tuesday in San Antonio.

** CR: I will say one thing in Nelson and Smart’s defense — Turiaf does not have much of a post-up game. Neither does Randolph. Nor Wright. So it’s not as though you can just dump it into those guys and say, “Here, hit that fadeaway 12-foot turnaround and keep us afloat until the perimeter players start hitting their Js.”

** You cut the lead to nine points with 90 seconds left, you get away with a blatant push to come up with a steal, creating a 4-on-2 break, and what does your offense come up with?

A pullup 3-pointer for Stephen Jackson. So emblematic of everything wrong with this team.

THIRD QUARTER:

** Perhaps Keith Smart shouldn’t converse with Ronny Turiaf at the precise moment when he’s supposed to be catching an unguarded inbounds pass.

** Not sure I’ve seen Turiaf be any more demonstrative than he was after that missed dunk attempt (and, in Turiaf’s mind, foul).

** So, what does the fact that the Warriors’ big adjustment at the half was to run everything through Jackson say about Monta Ellis’ point-guard skills?

Not much, it would seem.

** Jer: That’s a chicken-or-egg question. Did Biedrins get away from effecient conversions in the S/R, or did the Warriors go away from the S/R to Biedrins and therefore he’s gotten rusty? Of course, at this point it doesn’t matter because I think it’s a 50/50 shot that we’ll even see him again this season.

HALFTIME:

** This is one of those performances that…

FOURTH QUARTER:

** Anthony Morrow is making Marco Belinelli seem awfully expendable right about now.

** It’s amazing how Corey Maggette can look so good and then so bad, all in the space of the same game.

** I don’t think there’s much of a market, but if the Warriors could use Belinelli to motivate someone to take Crawford’s $20M in exchange for an expiring deal this summer, that would probably qualify as a win at this point.

** Credit again where it’s due: The 76ers want this game, badly, and the Warriors just aren’t letting them have it.

** Eddie: I don’t think it’s necessarily just a go-small-and-lose-the-lead-in-the-fourth thing. The offense just keeps collapsing in the fourth, and I can’t put my finger on why that keeps happening then.

** beau: If you read this blog, you know that I’m almost always in favor of pulling Maggette.

** Jackson with the potentially game-sealing steal, and then Monta drains the shot clock before pulling up for a 15-foot dagger. This is how the Warriors draw things up in a perfect world.

THIRD QUARTER:

** Somebody’s getting fired in arena operations…

** Kelenna Azubuike’s not shooting it like he did last night, but he’s still having a game: Five assists, no turnovers, and he’s helping to make Iguodala a relative non-factor (2-for-8 floor).

** Philly’s shooting numbers are woeful enough to this point (26-for-70, 37.1 percent), but think about how much worse it is when you remove the 76ers’ 5-for-5 start as they opened a 14-2 lead.

** After Turiaf’s touch pass to Wright for a dunk, that’s 27 assists on 35 buckets for the Warriors tonight, an astonishingly high ratio for this club that speaks to how well they’re carving up Philly’s defense.

SECOND QUARTER:

** Eddie: The same could be said of ANY true PG, no?

** I’m trying to decide which young forward tandem I like better: Young and Speights vs. Wright and Randolph.

The fact that it’s taking me this long is a bad sign for the W’s.

** I was going to write something nice about Rob Kurz in the wake of that 3-pointer and then he had to go and commit what may have been the dumbest goaltend in NBA history.

** Eddie: That would have to be a salary dump for the 76ers, because nobody in their right mind wants Jamal Crawford over Miller, straight up. And if Philly does look to shed salary, I would think they’d rather let Miller walk than take on Crawford’s…

THIRD/FOURTH QUARTERS:

** Sorry I’ve been away for personal reasons (actual personal reasons, not anger at my boss ).

** Barring an unforseen comeback, this loss will give the Warriors the fifth-largest discrepancy between home and road winning percentages. Golden State’s delta will be .353 (.529 at home, .176 on the road). Those teams above the Warriors, if you’re interested: Utah (.435), Portland (.395), Atlanta (.394) and Chicago (.359).

** I don’t mean to sound like Bob, but if Kelenna had hit that floater to get to single digits, we might have a game.

** And then Azubuike gets a tap-in on the next trip downcourt … well, well, well.

** Now they’re back to trading buckets. This game feels like one of those Warrior specialities: Getting just close enough to make it seem like the game’s in doubt when it’s really not. I believe this is what Al Harrington once termed “fake hustle.”

** That’s the problem with leaving a comeback until so late — you jack up a 3-pointer, it bounces off the iron, and they dump it in to the low block on the other end of the floop for an easy deuce. What might have been a tie game is a five-point lead, instead. No margin for error at that point.

SECOND QUARTER:

** Corey Maggette has not had a very good start to the second quarter, let’s just put it that way. His play right now reeks of “gettin’ mine” disease.

** Jerry: As I’m sure you heard in the TNT interview, Jackson’s turf toe is acting up. How well he moves when/if he does come back bears watching.

** Monta Ellis hitting that pullup jumper does a great job of masking the fact that it was yet another no-pass possession for the W’s. No-pass possessions is another one of those stats I wish the league would keep officially (along with unforced turnovers and an entire defensive box score).

** Once Jackson got stripped by Brown on the first drive, you just knew that was going to end in yet another single-minded missed shot/turnover.

** Eddie: I wonder if he aggravated the groin reaching back for that bad pass, or if it was already barking at him.

** I love DJ Mbenga as a human being, but he’s just not a very good basketball player.

FIRST QUARTER:

** Here I was thinking that I was going to be late. . . .

** I don’t mind that TNT is sticking with the Cavs…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

1508. That, prior to Golden State’s 154-130 thrashing Sunday at the hands of the Phoenix Suns, was how many games it had been since the Warriors allowed that many points.

1508. That’s a number so impressive, it deserves to be written out, like one of those oversized checks you give contest winners:

ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED EIGHT & 00/100 GAMES

1508. That’s 18.4 seasons – more than half again as long as the Warriors’ playoff drought had been at its apex.

(Side note: I feel like Jeremy Piven in “Grosse Pointe Blank,” albeit for an even longer timeframe – 18 YEARS, MAN! 18!)

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