VIDEO

KCAL (via YouTube): Start here, with Shannon Brown crapping all over Mikki Moore in hi-def. (Or click on the jump for the embedded video.) Honestly, that dunk was so personal and intimate, it felt like we ought to give the two of them the arena, alone, for a few minutes, to work out the ramifications amongst themselves.

BLOGOSPHERE

Ball Don’t Lie/Yahoo! Sports (J.E. Skeets): The Dunk Heard ‘Round The Internets.

(BTW, all jokes aside, when you take the Brown dunk and combine it with Kobe Bryant skirting Moore like a pylon on the Lakers’ very next possession on his way to a banked layup and three-point play, it does make you wonder if all Moore can give you defensively is a poor imitation of Mike Dunleavy Jr.’s constant attempts to draw charges. Because if that’s the case, the Brandan Wright injury is going to hurt more than I even expected.)

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I can’t decide which injury Monta Ellis’ stiff left ankle – which will keep him on the bench tonight in Los Angeles, as well as against Charlotte on Friday and Utah on Sunday – brings more readily to mind.

Is this like Baron Davis’ sprained ankle in 2005-06, when he ended up shutting it down for the remainder of the season?

Or is it like Jason Richardson’s arthroscopic knee surgery of the following season, when he ended up pushing too fast for a comeback and looked terrible — until a broken hand forced him to rest for several more weeks, and then he came on to play a huge role down the stretch?

Based on the Warriors’ record, the obvious answer is to treat Ellis’ setback as the former. He’s shown that he can at least take the floor, and occasionally reached for the level he was at last season – although it was only for a play or two a night, with two dozen instances of rust and regression for every highlight.

But everything hinges on the one thing Ellis has not shown much of: The ability to get lift off of that left leg.

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Warriors coach Don Nelson said this morning at Golden State’s shootaround that, with Stephen Jackson hurt, Marco Belinelli would open on Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Then he smiled and joked, “My defensive stopper.”

But in the Warriors’ 130-113 loss to the Lakers in LA 10 days ago, Belinelli was no joke – or, at least, no more a joke than Jackson or Kelenna Azubuike when it came to trying to corral Bryant, who scored 31 points in 32 minutes before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.

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Traded some Q&A material with Daniel Sagal of Laker-devoted LABallTalk in advance of tonight’s game, which should be fascinating on many fronts, including most especially whether the crowd will turn on the team when the Lakers go on their inevitable 20-4 run to seize command of the game.

Other things to watch for:

** The number of fans wearing bags on their heads.

** The number of fans holding signs, a la Guns ‘n’ Roses, asking “Where’s Monta?”

** Whether Bob Delaney will continue his streak of Warriors-Lakers games.

In any case, on to the Q&A:

48minutes.net: So, does Mitch Kupchak highlight Andrew Bynum’s line on the boxscore after every game and then leave it in Kobe Bryant’s locker? And, more seriously, is Bynum the piece that puts this team over the top this season?

LABallTalk: I highly doubt Kupchak is too happy with Bynum right as he has proven to be somewhat lazy and immature. You hear about all the guys working their butt off in the gym and in practice trying to improve while Andrew only does what he is asked. I’d like to see him grow up a bit more but I supoose that will come with age.

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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…