By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

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

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San Francisco Chronicle (Bruce Jenkins): Bruce’s numbers about Anthony Randolph’s lack of movement on offense in the Warriors’ last two games are compelling, although they come without context. How many times did every other player stand around? Frankly, you could easily argue that every member of the Warriors stands around too much. This is a team predicated on the one-on-one (or one-on-two or even one-on-three) attacks of Monta Ellis. Stephen Curry is acknowledged by the general manager to be a better scorer with the ball in his hands. Anthony Morrow’s value is trolling the 3-point arc; ditto for C.J. Watson. This is a stagnant team both by design and by coaching, and singling out Randolph to grouse about his following suit is kind of silly.

Plus, it unfortunately masks what I think is a good and powerful point Bruce is almost hitting on – that Randolph does require some sort of go-to move. Where Bruce’s argument fails is with the assumption that such a move has to come with his back to the basket; if Randolph developed enough confidence with the one-step-crossover-and-pullup move that he has shown of late, he could create space with it (by getting his defender going backwards) at any time. Then, if he could consistently drain the open 15-footer that results from such a move, the guy would be damn near unstoppable (until defenses adjusted, at least).

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Straight from the desk of the Warriors’ PR Department:

Golden State Warriors guard/forward Kelenna Azubuike, who suffered a left patellar tendon injury during last night’s game at Milwaukee, returned to the Bay Area today and met with team orthopedic physician Dr. Frank Chen at the team’s practice facility. No new information on the injury resulted from today’s meeting, and an MRI has been scheduled for Monday afternoon (November 16) for further examination and diagnosis. Additional information regarding the injury, including specifics about treatment and rehabilitation, will be released when available based on the results of the MRI.

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): Brandon Jennings’ double-nickel forces a retraction from Stephen Jackson (no, not on the topic of being traded): “I take my words back about Tyreke Evans being rookie of the year. I think Brandon Jennings definitely has that locked up.”

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Don Nelson flatly refutes Ken Berger’s CBSSports.com story from Friday that he’s going to be consulting in a week’s time. Oh, and Stephen Jackson is not exactly pleased at being a bit player in the Warriors’ final real possession: “All I know is that I’m one of the best scorers on the team, and I was taking the ball out. That’s all I know. My job was to pass the ball inbounds.”

Dime: The Warriors dominate the daily “Smack” feature. Just not in the way you want to. “(I)f Monta Ellis was worried about he and Stephen Curry getting lit up by bigger guards, what did he think about skinny 6-1 Young Money carving ‘em up like Manny Pacquiao did Miguel Cotto?”
Hey, at least Curry is still prettier than Cotto.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Lowell Cohn): Don Nelson never offered me a watch. Truthfully, I’m a little bitter about that.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I didn’t see the game live (hence, no live blogging last night) but quickly watched the tape this morning. As Rusty Simmons pointed out, it’s the Warriors’ third victory against an opponent with only one win of their own. So while the 121-107 outcome against the Knicks is nice enough, it shouldn’t be used to prove anything other than Golden State can properly beat one of the four teams that definitely rank below it in the NBA firmament.

** On the one hand, Don Nelson deserves credit because the supersmall lineup with a frontline of Corey Maggette, Stephen Jackson and Kelenna Azubuike paid handsome dividends. Now, the fact that it was against a frontline of Danilo Gallinari, Al Harrington and David Lee probably should be taken into account, but when you’re 3-5, you don’t argue with what works.

This was an instance where the absence of Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf actually helped the Warriors; those were the guys who simply couldn’t defend the high S/R in last season’s debacle of a loss to the Knicks, and without them as targets, the Knicks weren’t able to turn Chris Duhon into a Steve Nash clone. In a callback to the 2007 team, with the true centers off the floor, the Warriors were able to either switch or at least show hard on every S/R the Knicks did run, limiting the damage New York could do.

** One reason why the Knicks are so horrible right now: In one first-quarter sequence, Danilo Gallinari leapt over Kelnna Azubuike to secure an offensive rebound, then took two dribbles to the right wing, turned on the second one, went up at a 30-degree angle to the hoop, finished twisting in midair to square up to the basket and let fly from 18 feet.

The fact that Gallinari made the shot should in no way absolve him from the fact that it was a ridiculous decision, emblematic of the Knicks’ shot selection right now.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Warriors coach Don Nelson was a leery of pushing Kelenna Azubuike back onto the floor too quickly. Thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness, that fear lasted only two games before getting outweighed by necessity.

Despite missing a good portion of Golden State’s preseason work because of a bone bruise in his left ankle, Azubuike is expected to start Wednesday at small forward when the Warriors host Memphis. Azubuike will play small forward and replace Anthony Randolph, with Stephen Jackson sliding up to power forward.

“Every time he’s been out before, he’s come back and hasn’t been very good his first couple of games,” Nelson said. “This was the exception to the rule, so it’s just time for him to get back. And he looks good.”

If Nelson does start Azubuike, it will be the Warriors’ third lineup in as many games this season; last year, they spun through 46 different starting fives and never really found a winner.

Azubuike worked exclusively with the team’s first unit during Monday’s practice, and afterwards, Monta Ellis gave a preview of the team’s defensive plans: “Buke gonna play (Rudy) Gay, I’m gonna play (O.J. Mayo), Steph (Curry) is gonna play somebody else. That’s it.”

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