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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** 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 — In 568 career NBA games, Warriors guard Jamal Crawford has only gotten to five fouls on 16 occasions. He has not fouled out once.

Keith Smart, Golden State’s defensive coordinator, doesn’t see those facts in a positive light.

“If you don’t get in foul trouble, there’s a reason,” Smart said. “You’re probably not close enough to get a foul. So we’ve got to get him thinking about those things.”

Crawford is thinking about it. He’s an avid film watcher, and Smart has used those sessions to point out Crawford’s flaws on D since his arrival in November.

“I definitely could get better,” Crawford said when asked if he was playing up to his potential defensively. “I think my whole overall game could get better, though. I think that I could be a better player. And that’s the way I work, what I’m striving towards.”

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — As her only son languished in professional purgatory, Michele Williams kept imparting messages of encouragement.

“They pay you all this money to be professional,” Warriors point guard Marcus Williams recalled his mother saying. “So even if you are frustrated, you really can’t be.”

Williams had reason to disregard Mom’s advice. When he was acquired from the New Jersey Nets in July, it looked like a perfect opportunity for the UConn product to shed the labels he’d earned for being a less-than-stellar defender and not-very-active worker

Instead, Williams performed so poorly during training camp that he not only stayed firmly planted behind incumbent C.J. Watson but also dropped behind rookie off-guard DeMarcus Nelson on the depth chart.

“You’ve just got to be professional,” Williams said. “You’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

Some good finally came Friday, when Williams was resurrected from the inactive list by coach Don Nelson. He made his Warriors debut in Golden State’s 109-104 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and finished with four assists in 10 minutes.

Nelson said before the game that Williams was being activated because he reached the appropriate levels in terms his contract’s weight clause — 10 percent body fat or 210 pounds.

But Williams isn’t sure that’s the whole story.

“I don’t think” it was all about the weight, Williams explained. “Coach said my work ethic was kind of bad.”

There was a simple way to change that view, which is why Williams started showing up an hour before practices and shootarounds for extra workouts with rookie guard Anthony Morrow under the supervision of Mark Grabow, the Warriors’ fitness guru, and staff member Rico Hines.

“It’s non-stop continuous running and getting shots up,” said Williams, who figured, “I’m not playing anyway, so I might as well get some extra work in, some game speed work in, just so when my name is called, I can step in and play and not be out of shape.”

Friday, Williams kept pace with his teammates. He had three assists during a 5 1/2-minute stint during the second quarter, the prettiest being a cross-court, 40-foot dish to Kelenna Azubuike for a layup as the Warriors attacked after a made Grizzlies basket.

Williams came on in the third quarter as part of a smallball lineup for Nelson — the first time Williams had played with that group, even including practices — which did not lead to great results at the defensive end. Memphis…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

So many jump shots, and only 48 minutes to hoist them.

After a win in New Jersey that seemed to offer a blueprint for how the Warriors could survive the loss of Monta Ellis without falling completely out of touch with the Western Conference playoff race, Golden State reverted to the stagnant offensive team it was before coach Don Nelson’s arrival in what became a 90-79 win for Memphis.

Corey Maggette (4-for-16), working on one leg in the second half, was ineffective at best. Stephen Jackson (6-for-21) was stymied at every turn. Al Harrington (3-for-15) was -19 on the +/- scale, something you’d ordinarily call astounding, except it was exactly the kind of number his performance deserved.

“This was a game we were supposed to win,” Maggette said. “Tonight was a night that we just didn’t play well. We didn’t shoot the ball well at all. We just got to get better, that’s it.”

But on nights when the Warriors don’t get any fast-break points to speak of and can’t generate any ball movement (15 assists versus 12 turnovers, with a 5-5 ratio for Jackson), they can’t claim that they should beat anybody.

Put it this way: This was one of those nights where the Washington Generals would have actually beaten the Globetrotters.

The Warriors’ 34.4 percent shooting was the franchise’s lowest total since Nov. 21, 2007, when they hit just 33.3 percent of their shots against the Celtics in Boston and lost by 23.

Here’s the play that encapsulated the night: Having just allowed two offensive rebounds that led to an O.J. Mayo layup over Andris Biedrins — giving Memphis an 83-75 lead — C.J. Watson came racing downcourt with no one but Kelenna Azubuike by his side against five Grizzlies.

Instead of pulling back and waiting to set up a play, Watson shoveled the ball off to Azubuike, who clanked an 18-footer short off the iron as part of his 4-for-12 night.

“It was one of those games that we were getting a lot of open shots,” DeMarcus Nelson said. “They are the same shots that we are going to get every game, but tonight we just didn’t complete a high percentage of them.”

** I don’t mean to sound like a pessimist, but Maggette missed time twice due to hamstring strains last season — four games at the beginning of the season, two more at the end. And Maggette had to miss second quarter of…