** 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.

Read the rest of this entry…

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…

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…

So, there’s an aside at the end of Mitch Lawrence’s column in the New York Daily News today that says “Earl Watson wants out of Oklahoma City.”

First reaction: Who doesn’t?

But seriously: Earl, your team took Russell Westbrook with the fourth overall pick in this summer’s draft. Now, even though he’s more of a combo guard than a straight point, and even though Darren Collison ran UCLA’s offense instead of Westbrook . . . They took him fourth! Fourth! They’re a young team that is — unlike the Warriors — is choosing to give the kids’ experience, regardless of the outcome. What did you think was going to happen?

If you didn’t want to play behind him, you should have had your agent tell Sam Presti to deal you instead of Luke Ridnour.

End of rant. Beginning of picks:

Warriors (2-4) at Kings (2-4), 6:05 p.m.
Pick: Kings -3.5
The death match for 11th place in the Western Conference is SO on.

Raptors (3-2) at Bobcats (2-3), 10:05 a.m.
Pick: Raptors -3.5
Larry Brown’s not-so-merry band continues to befuddle me when it comes to this exercise.

Jazz (5-0) at Knicks (3-2), 12:05 p.m.
Pick: Knicks +4
This could be a nice milestone in the Knicks’ rebirth under Mike D’Antoni, even if Utah is missing Deron Williams.

Mavericks (2-3) at Clippers (0-6), 12:35 p.m.
Pick: Mavericks -4
I was going to say, “well, at least the Clips have their health going for them.” And then Tim Thomas had to go and screw up even that little slice of good news.

Celtics (5-1) at Pistons (4-1), 3:05 p.m.
Pick: Celtics +1.5
Part of me wants to stay home and watch this game, instead of driving to Sac.

Hawks (4-0) at Thunder (1-4), 4:05 p.m.
Pick: Hawks -4.5
Can Atlanta continue without Josh Smith in the lineup?

Grizzlies (3-3) at Nuggets (2-3), 5:05 p.m.
Pick: Denver -8.5
I’m hoping the Warriors’ power as a transitive property — GSW beats Denver, Memphis beats GSW, ergo Memphis beats Denver — has been drained.

Rockets (4-2) at Lakers (4-0), 6:35 p.m.
Pick: Rockets +7.5
Houston’s two losses this season have come by a total of six points. If the oddsmakers are going to cover that whole total, how I can I pass up such hospitality?

Yesterday: 3-2-1
Season record: 39-44-1

– Geoff