48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Warriors forward Brandan Wright is 6-foot-10 and endowed with a 7-foot-3 3/4 wingspan that was just a half-inch short of matching that of the No. 1 pick in his draft class, Greg Oden.

So why is it that Wright can’t seem to put those tools to use fixing the Warriors’ recurring problems on the defensive glass?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Warriors’ historically bad defensive rebounding rate (they’re on pace to post the league’s worst DRR since the 1999-2000 Mavericks) and Golden State has barely ticked the meter in seven games since then, upping their mark from 67.0 to 67.1 percent.

There has been some interesting individual movement, however, as charted here:

Marco Belinelli’s minus-1.8 drop is fairly staggering, but the most distressing item, if you’re a Warriors fan, a Warriors coach or, say, a second-year Warriors forward out of North Carolina, is the erosion of Wright’s defensive rebounding. He now ranks behind Ronny Turiaf (not a huge problem, given Ronny’s improvement of late) and even Corey Maggette, which is a blazing, 40-by-40-foot red flag, given how badly Maggette fared on the boards on his one healthy leg.

Shockingly, according to data at 82games.com, the Warriors are 4.1 percent worse at defensive rebounding with Wright on the floor (63.1 to 67.2). The only guy on the team with a worse differential than that is Turiaf (62.9 to 67.6).

The problem came back into focus after the Warriors were ripped yet again by opposing rebounders — this time for 14 offensive boards and 25 second-chance points by Oklahoma City a 107-100 victory Wednesday for the NBA’s worst team.

Jeff Green had five offensive boards, and Chris Wilcox had four. Wright, meanwhile, had just three defensive rebounds, and while part of that was due to a disparity in minutes — Green played 43:47, Wilcox 36:01 and Wright 19:58 — that’s not the whole story.

Here’s a collection of observations on the wrongs of Wright’s rebounding against OKC:

1, 11:17: Wright doesn’t get credit for one, but it sure looks like he blocks Green. In any case, the miss ticks off Wright’s right hand, although it’s eventually scooped up by Belinelli.

1, 10:08: Kevin Durant beats Belinelli to the R baseline, requiring Andris Biedrins to rotate over and close off the lane. When Biedrins leaves his man, Robert Swift, Wright is stationed about 10 feet from the hoop, looking over his left shoulder at the unfolding play while reaching out with his right hand to keep track of his cover, Green. Wright stays with Green, either by choice or by simply not recognizing that doing so allows Swift to walk in from the L baseline and tap home Durant’s miss.

1, 9:31: Desmond Mason back-irons a fading 15-footer from the L elbow. Wright elevates between two teammates to take the rebound with no Thunder pressuring the play.

1, 8:43: Russell Westbrook blows by Jamal Crawford then feeds Mason, who had cut past a completely inattentive Stephen Jackson on the right baseline. Mason’s reverse layup from the left side rims out and Wright, with Green hanging out at the 3-point arc, is free to go up and collect the easy board.

1, 6:53: Mason airballs a 19-footer under duress from Belinelli and Crawford catches it in mid-air. With Green again trolling the 3-point line, Wright plants himself in the lane. That said, Wright winds up a little closer to the hoop than he probably should, since he has his area well-covered and every step further in he takes at that point just increases the potential for a long board over his head to Green. (This becomes important later on.)

2, 7:27: Fresh off the bench, Wright provides good help to stop Wilcox’s drive on the left baseline. Ronny Turiaf recovers and slaps the shot off the backboard. Wright should have the ensuing rebound, but while he’s trying to corral it on the bounce, Westbrook gets a hand on the ball, which winds up going out of bounds off Wright for another Oklahoma City possession. The Thunder cash in with a jumper by Earl Watson.

2, 3:22: Watson misses a running right hook 6 feet out on the left side of the lane. Since Biedrins went to contest the shot, it’s up to Wright to outfight Wilcox for the board. Wright has the edge, but once again can’t control the ball, which bounces off his hands and fortuitously lands in Jackson’s instead.

2, 2:02: Watson misses a pullup J from 19 feet. But both Biedrins and Wright are heading to the rim when the shot, well short, clanks hard off the front iron and goes over their head to Wilcox, who pump fakes and blows by Biedrins for the layup.

2, 1:37: Wilcox biffs an open layup. Wright taps the ball off the rim, but when he tries to control it, Wilcox bats it away. The ball winds up going to Jackson.

3, 9:20: Durant misses a pullup 17 feet R wing. Wright has Green easily boxed out on the strong side, and when Durant’s shot comes back out on the R block, Wright has another unpressured board.

I know it’s a cliché to say that great rebounders latch onto a ball and never let go, but cliché’s are often just over-used truths. And that’s why the most concerning thing here is the number of times — four, in less than 20 minutes — Wright got a hand on the ball but was not able to come up with full possession. All the athleticism in the world doesn’t do you any good if you can’t close out the deal and finish a defensive stop for your team.

The Lineup Project

As bad as Wright’s rebounding was, the Warriors were still worse off without him on the floor, which was prompted in part because of Wright’s foul trouble (two in the first quarter, two more just 3:12 into the third period). Wright’s absence was all the more keenly felt because Don Nelson appears to have lost faith in Anthony Randolph after the rookie had two horrible turnovers in the first quarter against the Lakers. Since then, we haven’t seen him play a minute that mattered (he did come back for garbage time in Staples).

That left Nellie without many options, and he chose Kelenna Azubuike as his power forward for more than half the game (24:23) rather than use Turiaf there. Turiaf did make a cameo appearance at the 4, starting the fourth quarter up front with Biedrins, but that stint lasted less than 2 1/2 minutes — and Azubuike manned that spot the rest of the way.

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

So, how much do you think Warriors coach Don Nelson said he would fine anyone who dribbled downcourt and jacked up a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left on the shot clock against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday? $5,000? $10,000?

Whatever the case, the price was right in the Warriors’ 112-102 victory.

Where the Warriors managed to hoist four no-pass 20-footers in the space of nine possessions in the first quarter Saturday, they only did that once in the first quarter on Monday, and even that was by design: C.J. Watson was holding the ball at the end of the quarter, trying to drain as much clock as possible so as not to give Oklahoma one final shot, before hitting his own 18-footer.

Jamal Crawford was the biggest revelation on that front. Where he had been in the vanguard of the “Dribble, Dribble, Launch” Brigade in San Antonio on Saturday, along with Watson and Corey Maggette, Crawford was much more judicious in the application of his own offense Monday.

Against a team as pliable as Oklahoma City, Crawford could have gone wild; on Nov. 14 with the Knicks, he took 22 shots in 44 minutes and dropped 29 points on Thunder. But Crawford took only 13 shots Monday, instead choosing to show off his facility at getting Andris Biedrins an open layup off the pick-and-roll or with an unexpected wraparound pass.

In fact, the Warriors were guilty on occasion of being too unselfish, as when Ronny Turiaf passed up a wide-open dunk to give Kelenna Azubuike an opportunity to show off in his home state, only to be blocked from behind by Kevin Durant.

That was one of at least four instances of fast breaks gone awry, something that speaks, sadly, to the unfamiliarity of this team with running; it’ll be fascinating to see if Monta Ellis, when he does come back, sparks a renaissance in that area, or if the rest of the reconstituted team will struggle to catch up to his tempo.

Wright wronged?
I wasn’t in OKC, so I haven’t talked to Nelson about why Brandan Wright didn’t play in the final 17-plus minutes of the game. It appeared as though the decision stemmed from a couple of misplays: Wright was whistled for a defensive 3-second call at the 5:39 mark of the third that drew Nelson’s ire. And then on the ensuing possession, Wright was in the lane while Russell Westbrook went up for an offensive rebound and putback bucket.

Nelson was springing off the bench even before Westbrook’s shot cleared the net, calling on Biedrins to head to the scorer’s table.

The amusing aspect of the story: The Westbrook bucket was less the fault of Wright — who was fending off Jeff Green with his left hand while reaching for the ball with his right — and more that of Crawford, who whiffed entirely at boxing out Westbrook and thus set the whole play in motion.

Don’t forget the discount
Yes, it was a win, the Warriors’ first in 10 games and it’ll look just the same as their five previous victories when the standings get printed, but don’t forget about the quality of competition Golden State faced on Monday.

The defining play of the first half for the Thunder (and it was a tough field to choose from) came when Westbrook was bringing the ball upcourt against no pressure. He appeared to think momentarily of throwing a pass on the left wing and thus picked the ball up, but then changed his mind.

The only problem? He was still running downcourt as all this happened, which meant he couldn’t touch the ball again without incurring a traveling or double-dribble call. Crawford outraced Green to the ball at midcourt, gained possession and steamed in for a layup.

Notes
Fun with the +/- stat: Azubuike was plus-19 in 44:44, meaning the Warriors were minus-9 in the 3:16 that he rested. Crawford, on the other hand, was at even in 39:48 on the floor, meaning Golden State was plus-10 in the other 8:12. . . . How does Durant ever manage to get an open shot for the Thunder, given the lack of other viable options? I’m not saying you need to double him every time he touches the ball, but denying him the pass wouldn’t be a bad prescription. . . . After watching yet another last-minute inbounding snafu for the Warriors — this one leading to a turnover and a Thunder possession in which Durant bounced home a 3-pointer — I’ve come to a conclusion: Golden State needs to break new ground, roster-wise, and bring on a designated inbounds passer. Just think of it as the NBA’s equivalent to the NFL’s long snapper.

The Lineup Project
It looked like it would be a huge night for the Turiaf-Biedrins-3 wings combination after it demolished the Thunder’s second team with an 18-5 run to start the second quarter. But that group gave it almost all back with poor performances in the fourth period, and with Wright having been banished, Nelson went small for the final 3:01.

Lineup               GS    OPP    Time
Large                  0        0         0:00
Turiaf-Biedrins     38       37       20:38
Medium              56       49       22:41
Small                 18       16       4:41

Without Monta. . .
Since the victory was expected, the Warriors remain on pace for a 7-19 record when Monta Ellis’ suspension is up. Here are the remaining five games in that stretch, with predictions from mid-November:

Dec. 10, vs. Milwaukee: SAFE WIN
Dec. 12, vs. Houston: LEAN LOSS
Dec. 13, at Denver: LEAN LOSS
Dec. 15, vs. Orlando: LEAN LOSS
Dec. 17, at Indiana: TOSSUP

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

On the strength of a blistering summer-league debut, Marco Belinelli was an instant fan favorite at Oracle Arena last season.

This year, he plans on earning his adulation.

After a rookie season that never lived up to the promise of the 37-point barrage he unleashed in the desert, Belinelli took stock of his performance — a mere 240 minutes on the floor, 38.7 percent shooting, far too much time modeling Italian fashion on the bench — and spent the summer retooling his game. He spent several extra weeks in Oakland, transforming flab into muscle, honing a seldom-before-seen defensive edge, and trading the panache of that patented leg-kick follow through in favor of improved balance and consistency on his jumper.

The results? Belinelli is the Warriors’ leading scorer through three exhibition games, capped off by a 22-point, six-assist performance against Oklahoma City on Saturday that moved Don Nelson to call it “his best game that I’ve seen.”

“I think it’s different because this is my second year, and I’m not a rookie,” Belinelli said via phone Wednesday morning from Guangzhou, China, where the Warriors were readying to play the Bucks at 8 p.m. (5 a.m. Pacific time). “Everything was new for me, the coaches, the players, the type of the game. Now, I know the coaches, what the coach want from me. . . . I know I can help this team. I want to play.”

Whether he’ll get to do that is still an open question. Nelson said last week that Belinelli is still third on the depth chart at shooting guard, behind incumbent Stephen Jackson and third-year reserve Kelenna Azubuike. But if Belinelli keeps putting up efforts such as the one he had Saturday, he could alter that equation.

“Marco, he’s coming back with a chip on his shoulder,” Warriors forward Al Harrington said Saturday. “Not only did he show it to you today, he shows it to us every day in practice. He’s been very productive. We’re proud of him. It seems like he’s really focused in on taking care of his body, and obviously you know he can shoot the ball. He just had to get his confidence back, and it seems like he’s rolling, so we just need to keep pushing him, and everybody needs to keep encouraging him.”

The numbers are encouraging enough in their own right. Belinelli is shooting 56.5 percent, 62.5 on 3-pointers, and seems to have found a way to balance getting his shots off quickly while no longer sacrificing accuracy.

“I worked a lot (over the summer) for my defense and for my shot,” Belinelli said. “Last year, my balance was not good every time. My shot’s better, I’m more balanced. And I can defend. I can be one of the good defenders.”

The Thunder’s Kevin Durant should be able to attest to that. The reigning Rookie of the Year, all 6 feet, 9 inches and 215 pounds of him, was forced into 12 misses in 16 attempts by Belinelli, who was giving up 4 inches and 23 pounds in the battle.

Belinelli admitted that it’s easier at this point for him to try and defend a bigger player looking to utilize that advantage in terms of bulk, rather than chase a quicker point guard around the floor.

“I worked a lot with my feet, I think that it’s very important,” Belinelli said. “Don’t jump on the fake. You have to stay down with the legs and stay aggressive. That’s most important on defense; you have to be ready mentally and with the legs.”

Belinelli was one of only three players who didn’t grade out well defensively in Golden State’s victory over Portland last week — the others were since-released Dion Dowell and reserve point guard Marcus Williams — but he turned that around against Oklahoma City and ranked as one of the Warriors’ best defenders after that win. That’s emblematic of the player he wants to be: More than just a gunner.

“I don’t want to be a guy to come in, make some shot and (then) sit,” Belinelli said. “I want to be a defender, be aggressive, make a pass, be a leader.

“I want to be perfect.”

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

About that post where I said DeMarcus Nelson was the player least likely to make the Warriors’ roster? Just go ahead and delete that from your RSS feeds, please.

Barring a tumble off the Great Wall this week or some other injury catastrophe, the Vallejo product who grew up watching the Warriors should be a Warrior when the regular season begins Oct. 29.

Nelson drew uniform raves Saturday after starting at the point and proceeding to knock down eight of 10 shots, record seven assists and create four steals against just two turnovers in 33 minutes against Oklahoma City.

Don Nelson started off his postgame remarks with a remark to those doubters in the audience (“Well, now you know why I like the guy”), and teammates Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson both gave him unqualified support in his bid to beat out fellow guards Dan Dickau and Anthony Morrow in a bid for one of the Warriors’ last roster spots.

“I’m not surprising myself, because first I have to have confidence in myself before anybody else can believe in me,” DeMarcus Nelson said. “And the things that I’m doing now are the things that I’ve been doing all my life. I think now it’s just people are starting to get a better understanding of how good or how effective it can be at this level.”

It started on the first on the Warriors’ possession of the night, when Marco Belinelli kicked a pass out to Nelson on the left wing and he knocked down an open 18-footer, a jab at those folks who don’t believe in his shot (don’t know who that could be…). It didn’t stop until he rocked a pair of dunks in the second half that brought the house down.

“He has my vote to make the team,” Harrington said. “Hopefully he did enough tonight to show that he wants to be a Warrior. And I think that he’ll bring a very interesting dynamic to this team, something very different than what we get from most point guards. To me, he plays like in his mind he’s 7 feet tall. That’s big. He’s a guard that could not only distribute the ball, but he’ll help with rebounding and is definitely going to be a presence defensively, so I think that’s definitely a guy that we should have around for 82 games, because we’ll need him at some point.”

Since Nelson is officially listed at 6-4, I asked Harrington what he meant about playing like he’s 7 feet.

“How aggressive he is, how he rebounds,” Harrington said. “How he’ll go in there with the trees and come and make plays all the time. That’s why I say he plays like he’s 7 feet.”

Jackson wasn’t enamored enough to necessarily put Nelson into contention for the starting role alongside C.J. Watson, but echoed Harrington’s call to keep the Duke product around.

“As far as his play, he’s making it known that he needs to be on this team,” Jackson said. “As a teammate, I’m happy with the way he competes. A lot of times, you get young guys that go out there, they’re real tentative in what they do. They worry about making mistakes. This kid goes out and plays hard, and he’s definitely paying well.”

** If you assume that Nelson is guaranteed a roster spot at this point and that rookie forward Richard Hendrix has been made safe by his 12-point, 13-rebound performance, that leaves only one spot remaining for forward Rob Kurz, Dickau and Morrow. I’m betting on Morrow, but we’ll see after the two games in China.

** Belinelli was impressive in all facets of the game, from his shooting to his passing to even his defense on Thunder star Kevin Durant, who tried hard to take advantage of the apparent mismatch by posting up Belinelli but went 4-for-16 from the floor with six turnovers.

I understand now why Nelson says Belinelli isn’t running the point, even though he’s often bringing the ball upcourt and initiating the offense; he’s doing those things, from the 2 spot, playing alongside either Watson or Marcus Williams or DeMarcus Nelson.

Also, given that Belinelli played 45:28 without a break, I guess the coach’s comments about Belinelli’s improved fitness are not just another Nellie smokescreen.

** Don’t read anything into Morrow’s only getting 2:32 worth of playing time. Nelson planned on giving him significant burn, but just couldn’t bring himself to pull Belinelli when Belinelli was having such a dominant game.

** I’m no big fan of the Suns’ “P-H-X” jerseys, but if ever an NBA team’s uniform is crying out for that three-letter abbreviation treatment, it’s “O-K-C.”

** The Warriors are probably just landing as I post this, but they shouldn’t have been too bored on the nearly day-long journey to China.

“Everybody went and bought PSPs with the same games,” Harrington said. “They didn’t have (NBA) 2K9 for the PSP. We got (NBA) Live, we got Madden 09, and we got poker. And the poker we can play with up to 6 guys, so I think we’ll probably end up playing poker more than anything. . . . For free.”

** Harrington started shaking out his right hand noticeably after slamming down a sweet alley oop pass from Nelson in the third quarter, and went to athletic trainer Tom Abdenour for some quick relief at the next break in play. Turns out Harrington suffered sprained ligaments in his hand two weeks before training camp. Team doctors have told him there’s nothing to do but play through it, so that’s what he’s doing.

“I can’t make it any worse,” Harrington said. “It’s just whenever I get a hit, it’s going to take two or three minutes for it to just feel a little bit better.”

I couldn’t resist: “You weren’t riding a moped, were you?”

“No, I was blocking a shot, which I had no business doing,” Harrington said. “I don’t block shots.”

– Geoff