By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

With a 103-99 victory over Boston on Tuesday, the Warriors have themselves just their second winning streak of the season. The first one was pretty impressive, as you may recall; back in November, just after the Stephen Jackson saga resolved itself, Golden State beat Portland (before the Trail Blazers were wracked by injuries) at home, then spanked Dallas on the road.

Read the rest of this entry…

(PROGRAMMING NOTE: No live conversation regarding tonight’s game in New Orleans. Check back in the morning for fresh, piping-hot Christmas Eve bon mots.)

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

PRINT MEDIA

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Marcus pulls off an old favorite, the “glass-half-full switcheroo,” pointing out that the Warrriors made half their shots (yes, my in-game prediction was sadly made wrong by a late surge) and garnered 20 assists before driving it home with a Stephen Curry quote: “We had good stats, they had better stats.”

Also: It sure sounds like training camp invitee Cartier Martin is going to be rejoining the Warriors sooner rather than later, as Golden State nears getting a second injury exception.

Read the rest of this entry…

FOURTH QUARTER

** Given the quality of this game, I almost wish the power had gone out.

** You can force teams into missing tough shots, or you can force teams into making turnovers. When you do neither (59.1 eFG%, 8 TOs), you get blown out.

** Outside of injuries, it’s tough to see what could derail the Lakers from a second straight title.

** Bad Vlad tried a tap-out on the rebound, instead of grabbing it, and that allowed Kobe to snatch it right up. Just lazy.

THIRD QUARTER

** Raiders lineback Kirk Morrison had this to say on Twitter: “The Lakers are clowning right now. They look unstoppable up close and personal. Warriors are just out-sized and over matched.”

Seriously, when the Raiders can dog you out . . . that’s pretty much rock bottom.

** That’s the second time this week we’ve seen Anthony Morrow use that 360 spin from the left side on a fast break to open up that little 4-foot flip shot.

** Ron Artest just went 70 feet through three Warriors defenders in the lane, and not one of them stepped up to stop the ball. It’s not bad enough that it gives the Lakers their biggest lead of the game at 89-68, but it’s just a horrible no-effort look. That shouldn’t be acceptable.

** I’m not sure if that was a broken call, defensively, for the Lakers there, but overplaying Kobe on the high side, then having Gasol fail to move his feet in response to Ellis’ S/R drive seemed to be a bad decision. Ellis never had to break stride on his way to the hoop.

** So does 1-for-7 FG constitute Bad Vlad?

** Ellis’ nifty behind-the-back dribble gets them to within nine points . . . but Artest answers immediately with a 3-point play. That’s what makes a championship team — you can get that kind of run-stopping bucket from almost anywhere on the floor, not just one guy.

** A quick perusal of the Warriors’ first-half shot chart reveals Golden State went 8-for-28 (28.6 percent) on everything outside of the paint.

** Derek Fisher open 3-ball created by the need to double Kobe in the post.

** Can Monta come back strong in the second half, or will the Warriors have to try to win without a big game from him (something they haven’t done yet in the post-Jackson era)?

SECOND QUARTER

** Maggette’s mad charge allows the Warriors to cut the lead to 10 points…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

According to Chris Broussard over at ESPN.com, the Warriors’ one-game experiment with starting Ronny Turiaf at power forward is over, with Anthony Randolph set to move into the lineup tonight in Phoenix.

Somebody cue Jim Nabors, and be sure to employ the “sarcasm” HTML tag:

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Don Nelson used Turiaf on Wednesday because the Rockets were a small, depleted team that looked like a good matchup. It didn’t turn out to be so, but even if it had, Turiaf would still be heading back to the bench, for a multitude of different reasons. The biggest is this one: With Amare Stoudemire and Channing Frye, the Suns have two legitimate big men on the floor, negating any perceived matchup advantage Golden State might get with a Turiaf-Andris Biedrins combination at the start.

Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Nelson puts Corey Maggette into the lineup for Game 3 against Memphis next Wednesday, looking to create a mismatch with either Marc Gasol or Zach Randolph.

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Did Monta Ellis just become expendable?

It was obvious from the moment Stephen Curry fell into the Warriors’ laps on draft day — and the team immediately shut down talks to deal Curry’s rights to Phoenix — that he would be Golden State’s point guard of the future.

But if the future has arrived — as Don Nelson intimated Thursday after Curry’s 14-point, 10-assist, six-rebound, five-steal performance in the Warriors’ 126-92 exhibition victory over New Orleans, saying in the San Francisco Chronicle that “he won the (fifth starter’s) job tonight” — then what do the Warriors do about the present?

The immediate answer is that Nelson will do what he has wanted and planned to do all along since June: Install Curry and Ellis in an undersized backcourt, figuring (or hoping, at least) that the firepower will outweigh the lack of defense and rebounding.

Read the rest of this entry…