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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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.

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

At a Warriors practice last week, Golden State captain Stephen Jackson stood on the sideline talked for roughly 10 minutes with team president Robert Rowell and minority owner Michael Marks.

I have no idea what the gist of the conversation was, but Rowell needs to have another meeting with Jackson, with one simple message:

Sit down until you’re healthy.

Like Oscar De La Hoya’s cornermen after watching him get pummeled for eight rounds at the hands of Manny Pacquiao last week, someone has to step in and say it, because Jackson refuses to admit what’s obvious to everyone — that his injured left hand is crippling his effectiveness on the floor right now.

Jackson showed reporters this week how his middle finger is misaligned, and said that the ligaments had been pushed out of place when he originally incurred the injury against Boston on Nov. 26 (his hand got caught in a Celtic’s jersey as Jackson tried to fight through a screen). Nevertheless, he steadfastly refuses to ask off the floor in games, even after he takes a shot and can clearly be seen between plays rubbing the hand to try and ease the pain.

The team has not given any indication that Jackson needs anything other than rest to get better. If that’s the case, then the rest should start immediately.

Jackson was 1-for-13 from the floor in the Warriors’ 123-105 loss to the Nuggets on Saturday. Teams are overplaying his right hand now, knowing that he can’t get anything going on a dribble with his left.

That’s bad enough, but let’s be honest: Even if Jackson had been playing at his 2007-08 level against the Nuggets on Saturday, does anyone really think that would have turned the tide? On a night where Don Nelson’s top three possibilities at power forward — Corey Maggette, Brandan Wright and Ronny Turiaf — are all off the floor? Maybe an 18-point defeat becomes an eight-point margin. But there’s not much more to it than that.

The only way the Warriors are going to make the playoffs — assuming you’re not joining the Tank Brigade after a quarter of the season — is if they win a stunning proportion of the games once Monta Ellis comes back. We’re talking a 65, 70, 75 percent proportion.

Running Jackson out for 31 minutes on back-to-back nights in games where the Warriors already have next to no hope because of their myriad other…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

It’s too bad the Warriors had a chartered bus ready to usher them out of AT&T Center on Saturday after Golden State’s dismal sleepwalk through a 123-88 defeat at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.

It would have been fascinating to count up just how many cabs were needed to deliver them back to the team hotel.

Thanks to two championships in the last five years, the Boston Red Sox have shed their decades-old label of a team that requires 25 cabs for 25 different players due to a lack of unity and camaraderie, both on the field and off.

Based on what took place Saturday in San Antonio, it looks as though that mantle has been taken up by the Warriors. Things seem like they’ve gotten to the point where it’s time to declare “every man for himself” on the S.S. Nelson, which is taking on water at a frightening rate.

Check out what transpired over one 6-minute stretch of the first quarter, during which time the Spurs raised their lead from 8-6 to 28-16.

Golden State had 17 possessions during that timeframe:

** On one possession, the Warriors made three passes, going counter-clockwise around the perimeter until the ball reached C.J. Watson in the right corner. Watson used his agility to change direction quickly enough that Matt Bonner was forced to concede the non-shooting foul.

** On 11 possessions, the Warriors made only one pass in the frontcourt before the receiver would either make a move to the hoop or hoist a jumper. As a team, the Warriors went 3-for-9 from the floor on those possessions, with one trip to the foul line (two shots converted by Jamal Crawford) and one non-shooting foul drawn (Andris Biedrins on Tim Duncan).

** The remaining five possessions involved no passes at all. Twice, Crawford took an outlet pass and called his own number on jumpers, going 0-for-2. Twice, Corey Maggette collected rebounds and dribbled the length of the court, once getting fouled (he knocked down both FTs) and once missing a pullup jumper over Michael Finley. The fifth possession came about when Biedrins grabbed an offensive board and was whistled for knocking over Fabricio Oberto while trying to score the putback.

All told for those 17 possessions: 3-12 FG, 4-4 FT, 1 TO, minus-10 on the scoreboard.

And the good times were only beginning.

It was shortly after that hideous stretch that Maggette corralled a loose ball in the…