By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

The NBA’s All-Star break does not come at the halfway point of its season, of course. So instead of 41 games remaining to right the ship, the Warriors have only 28 contests left – not nearly enough time to transform their 19-35 record into anything resembling a playoff contender’s mark.

What, then, can we take away from the first two-thirds of Golden State’s 2008-09 season? And what can we look forward to as the final weeks tick away? Here are the assessments of one observer:

THE PLAYERS
Kelenna Azubuike
MID-TERM GRADE: B.
WORK TO DATE: His rebounding ability at power forward shored up the Warriors’ small-ball lineup, and ranking third in the league in 3-point percentage (46.2) was a great bonus. Still has too much of a propensity to not see open teammates, but he is showing improvement there, with an AST/TO ratio since Jan. 1 of 1.64. (Prior to that this season, he was at 1.12; in his previous two NBA seasons, he was at 1.06).
GOALS FOR APRIL 15: Prove that his shooting from distance is something the Warriors can count on long-term, and not just an aberration.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

It’s too bad that Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was afforded the courtesy whistle given to all visiting dignitaries in San Antonio’s 110-105 win over the Warriors on Monday.

Not too bad because it cost the Warriors a win. Too bad because it obscured the real reason why they lost.

“I have to be careful what I say because I don’t want to get fined,” Golden State coach Don Nelson said. “I thought we had the game won in regulation, but the late whistle (on Turiaf) cost us the game, really.”

All the grousing about Sean Wright’s personal Argentinean bailout plan is not without merit. (Fun fact: if you watch the play again on slo-mo, you can see that, at the disputed moment of impact between Ginobili and Ronny Turiaf, Wright’s line of sight from 30 feet out is completely blocked by the bodies of both Tim Duncan and Corey Maggette. That’s quite some vision Sean’s got there.)

But what cost Nelson and the Warriors the game wasn’t Wright’s call. It wasn’t even Stephen Jackson not getting a call when his last shot was defended tightly by Bruce Bowen.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — It wasn’t quite the first thing out of Don Nelson’s mouth once he rejoined the Warriors in the fall of 2006, but for more than a year now, Golden State’s coach/oracle/genius-in-residence has insisted to any microphone, notepad or bullhorn within reach that Monta Ellis needs to be a point guard to reach his full potential as an NBA player.

Must be.

Not, “maybe.”

Not, “well, we’ll try him there and see what happens.”

Must be.

You’ll imagine my surprise, therefore, when Nelson announced last week in Dallas, three games into Ellis’ return from Moped Madness, that the transition to point guard was being shelved. Jamal Crawford moved back to the point and Ellis will play the 2, at least at the offensive end.

** 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.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — The Warriors had just finished streaming into their locker room on Jan. 16, still celebrating a 119-114 victory over the Atlanta Hawks — only their second win in nearly two months against an opponent above .500 — when captain Stephen Jackson called for his teammates’ attention.

Jackson could have been the headline of the day, scoring 24 points with seven rebounds, six assists and four steals in his first game back after straining a hamstring, but he wanted to make sure the spotlight shone elsewhere: namely, on Corey Maggette, who came off the bench to match Jackson’s scoring and more than double his work on the boards with a season-high 16 rebounds.

“I was like, ‘All the young guys, even us (veterans), we can learn something from Corey,” Jackson said, recalling his impromptu speech. “This is his 10th year, he’s been starting every year, and for him to come off the bench, have 20-some points and 16 rebounds to help us win, that shows how you have to be a professional and how you put your team first. He did that without talking, without doing anything but going out there and showing with his play. I’ve got to commend him for that.”

Maggette is not wholly unfamiliar with coming off the bench. He’s done so in nearly 40 percent of his 615 career NBA games. But the majority of those instances came in his first two seasons out of Duke; since the fall of 2001, Maggette has started 369 of 469 contests.

In Maggette’s previous work as a reserve, he wound up with numbers similar to those he had put up as a starter. His scoring was up slightly, his shooting down a little. His rebounding had a spike, but his assists dipped by almost 25 percent.

This time around, the change is almost exclusively in one direction: Up.

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