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): Eons from now, when they sing songs of the Warriors’ greatness in Valhalla, the Ballad of Raja Bell will ring forth and be heard.

(Of course, that’s not going to help Golden State in the here and now, as Bell is still set to undergo wrist surgery that probably, knowing this club’s luck, will cost him the rest of his season.)
Also: Ronny Turiaf’s bad knee would be in great shape if only the NBA were played on a straight line, kind of like this game.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Everybody feels good about losing because they’re close losses. We’ll see how long that lasts.

WEB MEDIA

NBA.com (Couper Moorhead): Kevin Garnett tries his hand at creating his own Yogism: “Nellieball is something different. It’s always been effective when it worked.”

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

With tipoff hours away, I’m not going to do game-by-game predictions for how the 2009-10 Warriors will fare. Engaging in that kind of activity is almost as useless as waiting for the Bay Bridge to open.

Besides, I already went on the record last week on Comcast Bay Area’s “Chronicle Live” with my prediction for the Warriors: 34-48, picked not coincidentally because it matches Mike Montgomery’s record in both his seasons with Golden State.

(Isn’t it funny that Monty was brought in to teach the young kids, then Baron Davis was added to the mix, costing Monty his authority, and now that BD is gone, the Warriors, once again, are in need of someone to nurture youthful players? It’s the circle of GSW Life!)

I could see the Warriors pushing that to 36 or 37 wins, but I think the best they can do is to hold off the Clippers and Oklahoma City (sorry, Chuckles!) for the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference.

On the plus side: We’ll all get to celebrate Don Nelson amassing more coaching victories than Lenny Wilkens. Yay!

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

In 18 months as an NBA player, Marco Belinelli’s stock has gone through more roles than a TV character actor: Summer League star, Jason Richardson replacement, defensive sieve, bench ornament, unhappy camper, trade bait.

So is Belinelli’s latest turn — reborn playmaker — just another phase, destined to vanish like the next full moon?

It’s still too early to tell for certain, but in the 13 games since Don Nelson refocused the Warriors’ attack, Belinelli has already weathered one dip and ridden it out. I figured that after back-to-back poor performances in Florida — combined 7-for-24 shooting with four turnovers against five assists in Orlando and Miami — Belinelli’s run was at an end, and that he would go back to being a pumpkin, metaphorically speaking.

Instead, he had one of his two best games of the season in the Warriors’ 117-111 win over Toronto on Monday: 23 points, 6-12 FG, 5-8 3FG, 6-6 FT, 6 AST, 2 TO.

After that game, Warriors coach Don Nelson said Belinelli was succeeding in the team’s revamped, Euro-style offense — 47.5 FG, 40.0 3FG, 16.0 PPG, 3.3 APG — because “he’s a much better shooter on the move than he is stationary.”

I disagree. Belinelli has tamed the wild leg kick that used to punctuate his shooting motion, but he still often twists his lower body to the left when he fires while moving, both off the dribble and situations where he catches and shoots on a cut.

In the Toronto game, for example, Belinelli was 1-for-6 off dribble-drives, 1-for-2 while catching on the move, and 4-for-4 (three of those from deep) on standing shots. All three of those treys came on plays that began with Stephen Jackson driving and drawing multiple defenders, then kicking out, either directly to Belinelli or through an intermediary.

The bigger surprise on offense has been Belinelli’s emergence as a passer. He’s never going to be a straight point guard in the NBA, not unless he significantly upgrades his open-court ballhandling, but as a half-court initiator, he’s just a half-step behind Jackson and Jamal Crawford in terms of finding open shooters.

The style of Belinelli’s passing makes it seem as though he’s cavalierly throwing the ball around. Just as many Italians would find speech without the punctuation provided by their hand gestures to be unacceptably bland, Belinelli seems to use a two-handed chest pass only as a means of last resort. Witness Belinelli’s behind-the-back…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

(Apologies for the delay. Technological challenges while at a family gathering for Thanksgiving.)

“A man’s got to know his limitations.”

We begin our discussion of the Warriors’ 119-111 loss to the Boston Celtics with Det. Harry Callahan, a Bay Area icon in his own (albeit fictional) right. This is not because he blew up Hal Holbrook’s car in the same ruthless fashion that the Celtics mangled the Warriors’ offense when it counted on Wednesday.

It’s because of Don Nelson’s assessment of the performance of his team, which was coming off a 24-point drubbing in Washington just 24 hours earlier: “Compared to our last game, we played about as well as we can play.”

Was this the best the Warriors could play? Well, was it, punk?

To tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track.

In the “Yes” column:

** You can’t reasonably expect Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette to be more efficient on offense than they were last night: a combined 23-for-38 from the floor (5-for-10 on 3s) and 11-for-15 from the line.

Maggette, who started back at his preferred small forward spot and stayed there for his first 23 minutes, was attacking the basket again with some verve. When he wasn’t doing that, he was taking jump shots that made sense in the offense, rather than being obviously forced.

Jackson continues to hit shots of the “no-no-no-yes!” variety; his success with fadeaways from 18 feet out is actually starting to make me wonder if he can knock that down consistently.

** Ronny Turiaf had another strong performance at the defensive end, swatting five shots in 22 minutes although an injury to his right wrist appeared to curtail his effectiveness in the late going.

In the “No” column:

** Jamal Crawford went 5-for-17 from the floor (2-for-8 on treys) with four turnovers and way too many pullup-and-let-fly 3-point misses to offset his six assists. And Rajon Rondo had his way with him at the other end of the floor.

** The young forwards made no real contribution. Brandan Wright started but was yanked early for Anthony Randolph, who tossed out two quick fouls (and engaged in a staring contest with Kevin Garnett) before heading back to the bench, never to be seen again.

** Even after going big for the first 34 minutes, the Warriors were still outrebounded, 47-34. Of course, more than half that deficit was rung up during the final 7 minutes, when Boston pounded…