48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Don Nelson always said he’d go with the lineup that gave him the best chance to win.

He never said anything about giving it any rest, however.

The King of Smallball went big for once Friday, and it worked for 44 1/2 minutes. Then came the inevitable fatigue, and a 112-108 overtime loss to Toronto.

Stephen Jackson once again played point, Corey Maggette moved to the 2, Al Harrington to the 3 and Ronny Turiaf — who a couple weeks ago was slated for only for backup center duty — manned the 4.

But for all the great work that group did in staking the Warriors to a 93-88 lead, it all came crashing down in the final 3:30 of regulation, when Golden State scored once — a 3-pointer from Harrington that came only because of a fortuitous bounce after Jermaine O’Neal spiked a drive by Maggette.

“Everybody had their shot at it,” Nelson said. “We didn’t deliver that much, but we got the ball where we wanted it when we wanted it. We were 3-for-16 in the fourth quarter. You can’t do that and expect to win.”

A typical possession came with 46.5 seconds left and the Warriors clinging to a 93-92 lead: Maggette gathered in a pass on the right wing and turned to face Raptors swingman Anthony Parker. After three ineffective jab steps elicited no movement from Parker, Maggette settled for a 17-foot jumper that came up short.

At the other end of the floor, Chris Bosh practically sprinted past a gassed Andris Biedrins — one of four Warriors to play more than 40 minutes Friday — for an uncontested dunk.

“In the preseason, we weren’t playing 40 minutes,” said Harrington, who was already sucking wind in the classic hands-on-knees position midway through the third quarter. “Right now we are, so it’s something we’ve got to get used to, get adjusted to, and quick.

“The preseason is usually a time where you’re resting. It seems like we should have been playing a little bit more so we’d be prepared for now. It’s going to take us a couple of games to get adjusted to and then we’ll start knocking our shots down in the fourth.”

** Going big worked defensively because the Warriors were able to dominate on the glass even though Sam Mitchell went with Nelson and tried to out-muscle him by using a combination of Jermaine O’Neal, Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani combo. It would have been interesting to see what the result would have been had the Raptors really gone small, putting Bosh at the 5 and Moon at the 4, rather than using Bargnani and planting him on the block.

** For all the problems with fatigue, Brandan Wright wasn’t the answer Friday. Three consecutive plays early in the second period summed things up: Bargnani posts him up, then wheels around him for an easy layup, O’Neal goes Dikembe on a Wright dunk attempt, and then Bargnani beat him again for a baseline slam.

** If I’m scouting the Warriors, I’m wondering why Mitchell wasn’t trapping the hell out of Jackson and Kelenna Azubuike. I understand T.J. Ford (who would have been excellent in that role) is no longer in Toronto, but why give a pair of non-point guards a free pass until they get within 30 feet of the hoop?

** So much for Maggette as the answer at the end of games. Wednesday, the Hornets were able to simply keep the ball out of Maggette’s hands. Friday, the Raptors let him have the ball, and he was unable to close the deal. Six shots in the last 4:05 of regulation, all misses, including a drive on the final possession that illustrated part of the problem: Maggette’s game is dependent on getting to the line, and when you’re not a star and trying to drive for the winning bucket in the last 5 seconds, you don’t get the same kind of calls you do with 8:35 left in the third quarter.

** On the plus side, Maggette was already earning double-teams after his 27-point performance in the season opener, which makes exactly one Warrior who merits that kind of attention from opponents.

** Jackson had another five turnovers, keeping his season pace at 410. One problem with Jack at the point is that he usually makes a couple careless mistakes per game — dribbling the ball off his foot or something similar — regardless of what position he plays. Add in the further difficulty of learning to be an NBA point guard on the fly, and you get a league-leading 5.0 tpg average.

** A healthy Shaun Livingston would kill in this system. Absolutely kill. Too bad he A) isn’t healthy and B) is in Miami.

** The reemergence of the one-pass, step-back jumper offense — especially with the starters on the floor in the first half — was not a good sign.

** The repeated open layups off busted screen-and-roll plays in the first half — where the Warrior bigs would show hard on the topside of the screen, and their Raptor counterparts would proceed, unimpeded, to the hoop — is why Nelson wants to switch at all times.

** Cause and effect: Azubuike leaves Jason Kapono wide-open for a 3-pointer to double down on O’Neal. Maggette gets called off the bench immediately. Azubuike gets an earful from Nellie all the way down the sideline.

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

I’ll be writing a story about the news of the day — rookie Anthony Randolph passing second-year forward Brandan Wright on the depth chart — a little later, but first I wanted to post something about the latest salvo in the Chris-Mullin-and-Bobby-Rowell-are-heading-for-a-caged-death-match-showdown story.

The flames were fanned Monday by Tim Kawakami, who said on KNBR that, “I believe that Chris Mullin was going to offer — would have offered — Shaun Livingston two years guaranteed. Rowell was not going to offer him two years guaranteed.”

From there, it’s become a fait accompli among Warriors die-hards that Rowell prevented the team from signing Livingston.

Now, it’s very possible that Rowell — who was the driving force behind the demand for some kind of health guarantee from Baron Davis, a point which eventually killed any hopes of an extension and led to Davis’ departure — would have eventually come down against giving two guaranteed seasons to a guy with a totally rebuilt knee. (For his part, Rowell said Tuesday that “I’ve not had any discussions about Shaun Livingston, with anyone,” which doesn’t entirely shoot down Tim’s claim.)

Whatever Rowell’s opinion, however, it’s not the reason Shaun Livingston is in Miami instead of Oakland.

Livingston is in Florida because that — and not Northern California — is where he wanted to go.

I talked informally with Mullin about Livingston last week, before the deal was signed off in Miami, and I asked him on the record again Tuesday. Both times, the answers were the same: the Warriors were interested in Livingston, but Livingston was simply not interested in joining the Warriors.

“We were the fourth dog in a three-dog race,” was how Mullin put it Tuesday.

There’s no doubt that Mullin would have loved to have Livingston here. Mullin has always praised Livingston’s game, and his eyes lit up when talking about the prospect of a long-term pairing between Livingston — who has enough length to fill the point-guard-on-offense/2-guard-on-defense role that Davis played last season — and Monta Ellis in the Warriors’ backcourt.

Mullin said he talked with Henry Thomas, Livingston’s agent, but they never traded any parameters about salary or contract length or guarantees because Livingston was more excited by other teams, including the Heat. Corey Maggette, a former teammate of Livingston’s for three years with the Clippers, said that when he last talked to Livingston, two or three weeks ago, Livingston offered no evidence he wanted to play in Oakland.

“It just never got that far,” Mullin said.

– Geoff