By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — With the Warriors nursing a two-point lead and less than 3 minutes to go Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets, Golden State coach Don Nelson called for “one flop, point-five.”

The objective was to have a little give-and-go between Andris Biedrins and Stephen Jackson. Biedrins would feed Jackson the ball at the elbow on one side of the lane, saunter up to his position, then take a handoff back from Jackson while breaking into a sprint past his defender and to the rim.

It all sounded good in theory. More and more this season, Biedrins has been showing the perimeter abilities that executive vice president Chris Mullin has long maintained were in the fourth-year center’s arsenal, dating back to his days as a teenager in Latvia who despite his nearly 7-foot frame played on the wing, not in the paint.

There was, however, one problem. When Biedrins, a lefty, took possession of the ball at the midcourt line, Jackson was lined up on the right-hand side of the lane, with the other three Warriors clogging up the left side of the court.

“Before that play, I told Jack, ‘Go on the left side,’” Biedrins recalled Thursday. “And then I’m running down and I see he’s standing (on the right) and I’m like, ‘C’mon, Jack.’ I was like, ‘OK, let’s run it anyway.’ There was no time to move everything around.”

There was no need, either. Biedrins took one dribble with his unfamiliar right hand, two giant steps and then rammed the ball home for a one-handed righty slam over the attempted block by Denver’s Nene.

“I’ve never seen him really take it all the way with his right (hand) like that,” Nelson said. “That was quite a play.”

It’s just one of many plays Biedrins has made for the Warriors this season. Nelson said at the outset of training camp that Biedrins would be handling the ball more, and that level of responsibility has been rising lately as the rest of Golden State’s roster struggles from the floor.

Biedrins, who Thursday received a wooden plaque from the league commemorating his league-leading field-goal percentage in 2007-08, is shooting 58.3 percent this season; the remainder of the Warriors are hitting at a combined 39.7 clip.

“He’s playing the best out of anybody on the team right now and he’s shooting the best, so I think it’s only right that he touches the ball more,” Jackson said. “We’ll see…