By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

After the Warriors’ season-opening 108-107 loss to Houston, coach Don Nelson said that he would like to see Corey Maggette — who had just gone 1-for-8 on shots outside of 15 feet — drive to the hoop every time he touched the ball.

Wednesday against Memphis, Nelson made sure Maggette had no other choice.

Rather than simply allowing Maggette to get his touches in an iso set, where he has been inevitably settling for jumpers, Nelson ran some smart plays to get him moving towards the basket as he received the ball, basically removing the option of another 20-foot clanker.

The result? 6-for-8 shooting in the paint, 20 points in 30 minutes, and a 113-105 victory over the Grizzlies.

When he checked into the game initially for Stephen Jackson midway through the first quarter, it looked like it would be more of the same for Maggette, who came into Wednesday having missed 16 of 21 shots on the year.

His first possession was a simple clearout isolation on the right wing against Zach Randolph. Instead of attempting to get past the slower Randolph, Maggette took a half-step with his right foot, then quickly brought it back and hoisted a jumper from 21 feet [1, 3:16].

It fell short, as it so often does.

[Corey Maggette bad-shot tangent: I went on NBA Hot Zones and took a look at last season’s shooting numbers for the Warriors on all attempts from 16 feet and farther out. Culling out players who got less then 500 minutes with the Warriors last season gives you this list:

So . . . Anthony Randolph’s 18-footers at 38.5 percent are bad shots, but Corey Maggette’s 18-footers at 35.4 percent are OK? The wonders of double-standards will never cease. . .]

Monta Ellis initiated the next possession with a pass ahead to Maggette, who did try to get by a backpedaling Zach Randolph. But with four defenders around the paint and no teammates to draw their attention, it was no surprise when Marc Gasol slid down the lane and spiked Maggette’s 4-foot floater [1, 2:48].

Rather than simply let Maggette “have his head” and fall back into the same old jump-shooting pattern, Nelson added a new wrinkle, running a designed play to get Maggette a good look at the hoop.

It started with Stephen Curry going left-to-right around a high S/R from Mikki Moore. With Gasol out of position and Moore diving to the rim, Randolph got sucked into the lane, allowing Maggette to curl out from the left corner, grab the pass from Curry at the left elbow and then blow by Randolph for the open layup [1, 2:06].

After Maggette regressed with another one-pass-and-jack-it-up miss from the top of the key [1, 1:12], he tried to feed a seemingly stunned Stephen Curry rather than going for a reverse lay himself [1, 0:55]. (I say stunned because Curry rushed the ensuing floater and missed it badly.)

Nelson then called the same circle play for Maggette, who looped out and this time cashed in an 18-footer [1, 0:38].

All the movement seemed to unstick Maggette. He went on in the second quarter to score five buckets in the paint, in a variety of ways:

2, 7:41: Ellis fires a skip pass from outside the 3-point line on the right wing to Maggette, cutting around Sam Young on the left block, for the easy layup.

2, 5:24: Maggette posted up Rudy Gay in a clearout on the left block, turned to face him and used a quick first step to slip between Gay and Gasol for the layup. (Ellis earned an absolute joke of an assist for making the entry pass a full 5 seconds earlier.)

2, 4:18: With Jackson holding at the left elbow, Maggette dives into the paint from 10 feet out on the right wing, creating space for himself with a subtle elbow on Randolph. Jackson’s well-timed pass hit Maggette as he was reversing direction, and he hit the 6-foot baby hook with his right hand.

2, 2:32: Maggette, rotating onto Mike Conley after Ellis doubles hard on Gasol, comes up with a loose ball (Conley couldn’t control the pass out from Gasol) and taps it to himself for a two-handed layup and foul on O.J. Mayo, coming late to the party.

2, 1:07: The Warriors get lucky when DeMarre Carroll can’t quite corral Jackson’s lazy perimeter pass. The ball ricochets off Maggette and lands in the lap of Moore, who feeds Maggette for a dunk.

I’ve gone on record multiple times to decry the use of Maggette as a power forward, even going so far as to call it “death.” But since sniping about it is not going to change Nelson’s mind, I’ll settle for being pleased to see both he and Maggette changing the paradigm and not allowing Maggette to simply wallow in bad shots.

Notes
Stephen Curry said earlier this week that his shot started to come around just as the regular season began, and the numbers continue to bear him out (55.6 percent on the year). He only took six shots against Memphis, handing out nine assists instead. Given that his shooting was a major plus in his draft file and that Curry is trying hard to fit in by being a passer, it’ll be interesting to see if Nelson eventually starts calling for Curry to shoot more. . . . Full credit to Monta Ellis, who took Nelson’s lectures about ball movement most to heart and finished with 12 assists, one off his career high (even if, as noted above, at least one of them was pure fiction). The question now is whether Ellis can maintain that balance of scoring and still delivering to the open man, or if this is a one- or two-game fad that fades out once Nelson stops harping on it. . . . The defensive intensity on the part of the Warriors was nice, but I’m going to reserve judgment until we see some more proof of a change. Even with last night, Golden State is still 28th in terms of opponent effective FG% at 55.0. (Memphis, BTW, is now 29th at 55.6). . . . About those Nelson-Randolph stories — when the coach gives a 10-word answer to a question on why a certain guy didn’t play much (with the most positive aspect being, “Randolph did fine”), then ends the press conference a moment later, it doesn’t do anything to slow down the rumor mill.

Linkage for those who haven’t already scoped out the scene:

PRINT MEDIA
Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): The Ballad Of The Last Team In The Western Conference To Get A Win. Plus, Anthony Randolph on life as a third-string center: “It’s kind of like déjà vu. But it’s different from last year because people know what I can do.”

San Francisco Chronicle (Scott Ostler): How about those Warriors? At least they’re no Grizzlies.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Another angle on the gamer, while Nelson hints it could be a permanent move to center for Anthony Randolph. Of course, Nelson also said Monta Ellis would have to move to point guard to be a star. Before Nelson that Ellis didn’t have to move to point guard to be a star, that is.

GQ (Stephen Curry): The multi-platform star tackles yet another medium. Curry on leaving early for the gym on game day: “[M]e and some of the other young guys, we take a separate car service with two of our assistant coaches so we can get an extra workout in while the court’s empty, before everybody else gets there. It’s sort of a mandatory and optional thing. They say you don’t have to come, but that’s not a good sign to the coach. Yeah, I take that back. It’s mandatory.”

WEB MEDIA
NBA.com (Frank Hughes): Frank focuses on Memphis and their Iverson problems, with some hilarious quotes, such as this one: “Nobody ever said anything about rebuilding. You know I wouldn’t have come to a team, at 34 years old, that was in a rebuilding process. I’m trying to win a championship.”
Allen, did you think “Memphis” was actually the English translation of “San Antonio”? You talk about stuff being “too fake,” yet you act as though you were unaware of the Grizzlies’ history: 24, 22 and 22 wins in the last three seasons.
It’s almost like Allen is saving all his good lies for the New York media or something. Don’t lie to me like I’m Montel Williams, Allen. Just don’t.

Examiner.com (Mike Massa): Small-ball giveth, small-ball taketh away.

BLOGOSPHERE
Talking Points/San Jose Mercury News (Tim Kawakami): A game-by-game guide for the next month estimating minutes for Anthony Randolph.
My two-word summation estimating minutes for Anthony Randolph: Not many.

Fast Break/San Jose Mercury News (Adam Lauridsen): “The team got hot from the outside because Anthony Morrow found open shots. Morrow found open shots because the team moved the ball quickly and with purpose. And the team moved the ball because Ellis, Jackson, and Maggette decided not to shoot every time they touched the ball. Sometimes — particularly against teams like the Grizzlies in the midst of long road trips — it’s just that simple.”

Golden State Warriors/San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): This was Monta Ellis’ first points-assists double-double since Feb. 2007.

AUDIO-VISUAL
KNBR (Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert): Matt Steinmetz puts the onus on Don Nelson to forge improvement in this year’s Warriors.

Warriors.com: Highlights package.