** The talk for more than a few days has been about Warriors guard Anthony Morrow making the 3-point contest, but Don Nelson doesn’t think he should limited to just that portion of All-Star weekend. The coach is pushing for Morrow to take part in the Rookie Challenge as well.

“Well, I think that he should make the rookie team. For me, that would be a bigger honor than shooting in the 3-point contest,” Nelson said. “It would be nice to be represented by somebody. What he’s done as a rookie, I don’t know there’s 12 better rookies in the league than Anthony Morrow. . . . He is leading the league in 3-point shooting, and he is having an awful good year for a rookie. Especially when you guys say I don’t play rookies. It must be unbelievable, huh?”

Despite Nelson’s glowing recommendation, Morrow’s chances would seem to be fairly slim. The nine-player roster is made up of four guards, four forward/centers and one wildcard entry, so there will be at most five guards.

Chicago’s Derrick Rose, Memphis’ O.J. Mayo and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook are three guards with guaranteed spots. That leaves Morrow fighting with Portland’s Rudy Fernandez and Miami’s Mario Chalmers for the last guard spot and the wildcard position. (Morrow may be helped there by Fernandez’s inclusion in the dunk contest; although the Rookie Challenge is set for Feb. 13 and the dunk competition isn’t until the next day, Fernandez may want to concentrate on not getting blown out by Dwight Howard.)

** Jamal Crawford (right hamstring contusion) took part in the Warriors’ light practice on Monday (mostly shooting drills), but how he does on Tuesday will determine whether he can play Wednesday in Dallas.

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

By now, you’ve undoubtedly read Marcus Thompson’s blog item regarding the report from Stephen Jackson that Baron Davis wants to be traded back to the Bay less than six months after bolting to go back home.

Aside from the usual eye-rolling that comes with most Baron pronouncements, there’s a very specific and immoveable obstacle to this scenario: BD can’t seriously think that the Warriors (i.e., team president Robert Rowell) — who didn’t want to be on the hook for four fully guaranteed years because of concerns about Davis’ health and motivation — are suddenly going to be willing to pay for FIVE seasons.

Here, then, is a helpful guide to 30 things more likely to happen than Baron Davis coming back to the Bay:

1) Barack Obama arrives at the White House on the afternoon of Jan. 20, spots George Bush ducking out the back door, tosses him the keys and says, “You can keep it. I just got Hank Paulson’s last report, and I’m outta here.”

2) Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter each play 82 games — in the same season.

3) Clay Bennett goes bankrupt and the City of Seattle picks up the Thunder for $42,598 plus court costs in an Oklahoma City repo auction.

4) Warrior fans make it through a broadcast without being reminded that they’re missing (insert number here) points per game.

5) Larry Brown quits the Bobcats out of sheer frustration with Sean May.

(Wait, that one could actually happen.)

6) The L wakes up to the fact that Kevin Garnett has crossed the line from “hard-nosed” to “wantonly overaggressive” and finally takes some punitive action.

7) Allen Iverson takes two weeks off from the Pistons, undergoes 274 laser treatments and comes back without any tattoos.

8 ) Jose Calderon misses a free throw. But only one.

9) Gilbert Arenas announces that he’s quitting the NBA to switch to blogging full-time.

10) Jamal Crawford starts to play lockdown defense.

11) Barry Bonds is named the San Francisco Giants’ new strength and conditioning coach.

12) Kobe Bryant drops 71 on the Suns, then tells a live ABC audience: “Shaq, your ass taste like chicken. At least, that’s what Steve Nash said.”

13) Al Harrington tells Jackson that he’d like to come back to the Warriors, too.

14) Erick Dampier acknowledges that he hasn’t played up to the seven-year, $73 million deal he signed in 2004 and gives Mark Cuban an oversized posterboard check for $30 million in a halftime ceremony at a Mavericks home game.

15) Cuban’s attorneys immediately take half as a retainer.

16) The San Jose Sharks…

(aka How To Lose Fake Money And Real Credibility, Part 35, today’s installment of your faithful reporter’s quest to prognosticate all 1,230 NBA regular-season games this season)

As usual, TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott was first on the scene this morning, putting together a list of potential landing spots for Stephon Marbury, assuming he and the Knicks agree to stand down from their current Defcon-1 status.

Personally, I like three options the best:

1) Miami. I am not really sold on Mario Chalmers/Chris Quinn combo at the point, and Dwyane Wade is certainly going to be able to keep any ego outburst in check.

2) Orlando. To me, the Magic are a little too vanilla. It’s one thing to be even-keeled, but if you don’t mix that with a killer instinct (i.e., Tim Duncan and the Spurs) you get a team that’s just not tough enough. I think here, Marbury might bring some swagger with him that rubs off on the club, similar to Stephen Jackson’s effect on the Warriors, or what Ron Artest has brought to the Rockets this season.

3) Philadelphia. If the 76ers aren’t freaking out, they ought to be. They’re 7-10, and three of those wins came at home against the Thunder, the Clippers and the Warriors. They’ve got a brutal roadie coming up before and after New Year’s (Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Antonio, with the Clippers being the only thing standing between them and an 0-5 spot), Louis Williams was MIA for a good three weeks, Elton Brand still isn’t getting shots where he’s most comfortable, and Andre Miller will have to spend the rest of the season living down this:

For what it’s worth, I think the Warriors can safely be judged a Marbury-free zone now that they’ve traded for Jamal Crawford. Even if it would be on a minimum-wage pro-rated deal for the rest of the year, there is still only one ball in use at a time, right?

Onto the picks, and let’s not discuss my record, because I don’t want to jinx anything:

Heat (8-9) at Warriors (5-12), 7:35 p.m.
Pick: Heat -1.5
I don’t think the Warriors are as bad as they seemed on that road trip. I don’t think they’re good enough to win here, however.

Timberwolves (4-11) at Bobcats (5-11), 4:05 p.m.
Pick: Bobcats -3.5
One of the league’s worst offenses (Charlotte) against a weak defense (Minnesota) that just got worse with Corey Brewer’s injury.

Magic (13-4) at Celtics (16-2), 4:35 p.m.
Pick:…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Before Cleveland shipped Larry Hughes out of town last season as part of an 11-player, three-team trade, one disgruntled Cavaliers fan was so moved by Hughes’ continuing legacy of inaccuracy that he started a Web site with the following address: heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com.

Friday, the Warriors wanted Hughes to stop shooting, but for a very different reason: The ex-Warrior hit five of his seven 3-point attempts en route to a team-high 26 points in the Chicago Bulls’ 115-110 victory.

Though their first 10 games, the Warriors were doing pretty well at defending the 3-pointer. This week, that’s all changed. Thanks to a combined 22-for-45 performance on treys by the Trail Blazers on Tuesday and the Bulls on Friday, Golden State has gone from a top-five spot in the league (31.1 percent) to 15th-best (34.9).

To see Portland, the league’s best 3-point shooting team, have success at the arc is understandable.

But to be battered outside by the Bulls, who are strictly middle-of-the-road when it comes to that discipline (35.0 percent, 16th in the league), demands some further investigation. Especially when you consider that Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha and Lindsey Hunter, who hit for nine treys against the Warriors, came into the game having shot a combined 2-for-19 in that zone.

The details:

10:07 remaining, first quarter, Sefolosha, left wing: This one wasn’t quite cricket, as the Brits would say; Chicago took advantage of the fact that Corey Maggette fell down while scoring on the Warriors’ previous possession and Sefolosha took his time before draining the shot.

6:31, first, Sefolosha, right corner: The possession started to break down for the Warriors (as so often was the case Friday) when point guard wunderkind Derrick Rose blew past his man (in this case, C.J. Watson). When Andris Biedrins slid over to provide help, Rose fed the ball to Biedrins’ man, Drew Gooden. Gooden steamed down the lane, and when Maggette left Sefolosha to stop penetration, Gooden found him for the open look.

2:33, first, Hughes, left wing: Anthony Morrow, Hughes’ defender, stumbled trying to avoid crashing into Maggette while the play was developing. Sefolosha swung the ball to Hughes, who immediately pulled the trigger.

11:18, second, Hughes, top key right: Maggette, who is covering Hughes at this point, gets sucked into the lane when Hunter misses a long 2. Andres Nocioni grabs the offensive rebound and kicks the ball out to Hughes.

5:48, second, Hughes, top key left: Stephen Jackson stands at the free-throw line and watches while Hunter…