48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Corey Maggette had an early growth spurt, so as a three-time All-American at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Ill., he manned the low post.

More than a decade later, he’s going to be doing it all over again.

Small ball is back in vogue (if it ever could be said to have left) in Oakland, thanks to the Warriors putting together their first winning streak of the season via a 111-106 victory over Portland on Tuesday.

Coach Don Nelson cited the emergence of rookie guard Anthony Morrow, who led all scorers with 25 points, as the driving force behind the change. But none of it would work without Maggette at power forward, giving the Warriors a mismatch that they exploited fully, and surprisingly, against Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge.

“If (Maggette) is able to play the 4 position, that really can change our team for the better,” Nelson said. “That’s where we like to have him. He’s strong enough to guard. We’ll give him a lot of help when he has mismatches. But I don’t know how they guard him with a 4. I just don’t. They can’t.”

They certainly didn’t on Tuesday, when Maggette scored 20 points against an assortment of forwards: primarily Aldridge, Channing Frye and Travis Outlaw.

More importantly, Maggette drew three offensive fouls on Aldridge, helping to drive him from the game after 19 1/2 Teddy KGB-like minutes (“I feel so un-say-tis-fied”): 2-for-7 shooting, four points (13 off his average) and four rebounds.

When Aldridge was matched up with Maggette, the Blazers looked for him practically every time downcourt. But when he got the ball (usually 12 to 15 feet out on the left wing) the Warriors would often run a second player at him — not in a hard trap, but a soft double that allowed them time to get back and recover. It was meant to convince Aldridge to give up the ball early in the possession, rather than allowing him the opportunity to back Maggette down, and it often worked.

But even when Aldridge did try to attack Maggette, it failed. He couldn’t get any traction, and settled for an 0-for-4 performance in head-to-head matchups with Maggette. (Aldridge’s buckets came over Morrow and Stephen Jackson).

“I think I’m going to be in a position, as well as Jack, where we might play 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5,” Maggette said earlier this season. “Am I ready for that? Yeah. I’m going to have to be. It’s what they expect of me, and you have to just buckle down. You never know what Nellie’s going to do.”

** Now, I don’t want to accuse Maggette of flopping on a couple of those offensive fouls (although the Warriors DO have a drill designed to enhance those skills).

Let’s just say this: For a guy with the musculature of a Mister Universe hopeful, Maggette sure did get knocked down pretty easily.

** Morrow looked so nervous at the outset — witness that first shot, which skimmed badly off the iron — I half expected him to go the full “Donovan McNabb in the huddle during the closing minutes of Super Bowl XXXIX” route.

But the undrafted rookie proved he has to be taken seriously with another outstanding shooting night: 8-for-12 overall, 4-for-5 on 3-pointers.

If Morrow can continue to have an impact for the rest of the season, Nelson will have a bevy of options when Monta Ellis comes back from his ankle injury. (Remember, Ellis is scheduled to have surgery Wednesday to remove the hardware holding his torn deltoid ligament in place; after that, assuming there are no complications, it’s just a matter of how fast Ellis can get back on the court.)

Since the Warriors are not going very deep — hey, look, it’s a six-man rotation! Shocking! — right now, there should be plenty of minutes to peel off and give to Ellis. Assuming the lineup stays small, and you have Jackson at the 3 and Maggette at the 4, what will be interesting to watch is whether Morrow gets placed ahead of Kelenna Azubuike at the 2.

** I thought Jackson might draw a flagrant foul for his no-chance-of-getting-the-ball, reach-around karate-chop on Brandon Roy with 2:45 left in the first quarter, especially given the circumstances: It came in Portland’s backcourt immediately after Jackson failed to get what he thought should have been a call while backing down Roy at the offensive end.

I don’t think Nelson was planning on pulling Jackson out at that point, but it was a very smart adjustment. Jackson got a rare chunk of first-half rest (he didn’t return until there was 9:10 left in the second period) and got his head on straight for the remainder of the game.

By the end of the evening, it was Rudy Fernandez who blew his cool entirely, although I have to agree with his complaint; Morrow had a whole fistful of shirt on that final inbounds play.

** Speaking of that end-game ridiculousness . . . I would hope the Warriors’ first order of business at practice Wednesday would be about 30 minutes working on inbounding the ball safely.

** 19 of 19 from the line in the fourth quarter? Sidney Moncrief earned his money right there.

** Andris Biedrins’ string of double-doubles ended, but his fast-break layup midway through the first half — in which he caught the ball at full speed, took one step to casually swivel around Steve Blake and finally switched the ball from his right hand to his left in mid-air before gently laying it home — was worth more than that whole streak.

** In the interest of full disclosure, I’m going to keep tabs of the team’s actual record versus my prediction from last week. I had this down as a “LEAN LOSS,” so the Warriors flipped the outcome.

Predicted record on Dec. 17: 9-17. On pace for: 10-16.

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Anthony Randolph may have stood alongside the Warriors’ four other rookies Sunday as they delivered an off-key, warbling rendition of Stevie Wonder’s arrangement of “Happy Birthday” to guard Monta Ellis, who just turned 23 years old. But that was about the only time Randolph resembled a rookie during Golden State’s annual open practice.

Randolph started early during the scrimmage session by dunking with relish over veteran Al Harrington. Later, he threatened to deliver a knee to Harrington’s sternum while swooping in for a layup. Finally, he shot a withering look to second-year guard Marco Belinelli when the Italian and he got tangled up filling the same lane on a fast break.

So much for rookies not making an impression.

Warriors captain Stephen Jackson helped keep Randolph in check by juking past him from the right wing and flushing a two-handed jam as the 19-year-old tried vainly to block it.

“They only remember the last dunk, so Jack got that,” Randolph said. “I got him. (Revenge) is coming. Y’all might not see it, but it’s coming.”

For his part, Harrington chalked up Randolph’s successes to a veteran’s prudence.

“I wasn’t trying to block the shot,” Harrington said of Randolph’s tomahawk. “That was fake hustle. You know that. Everybody knows that.”

And as for the retreat on Randolph’s knees-up drive?

“I got out of the way on that one,” said Harrington, who attempted to take a charge on Randolph earlier but was whistled for a block instead. “I could have got another (charge), but these refs probably would have called a blocking foul. He probably would have kneed off of me and dunked. It would have been all bad.”

** A team source confirmed the examiner.com report that rookie forward Rob Kurz will officially become the Warriors’ final cut Monday, an unsurprising move that secures a roster spot for fellow rookie guard Anthony Morrow.

It looked like Kurz might have been informed of the move prior to practice; his most memorable sequence involved getting blocked in quick succession by Kelenna Azubuike (while trying to exploit his size advantage in the low block) and Andris Biedrins.

** Ellis came dressed in an almost entirely monochromatic outfit (his sweatpants had white stripes on the outside), but unlike Johnny Cash, this Man in Black had nothing to say.

Ellis, moving briskly on crutches and wearing regular sneakers, walked past the assembled media outside the Warriors’ locker room (since it was still considered a practice day, the media was not allowed inside) and declined multiple requests to stop and take questions regarding his 30-game suspension in the wake of trying to cover up the August moped accident that shredded his left ankle.

[EDITED 10/27/08, 2:27 a.m. for clarity] A Warriors spokesman said his department has tried on numerous occasions to get Ellis to meet with the media — a situation that would afford him the opportunity to follow through on his September pledge to explain, after any potential disciplinary action had been handed down, what happened in his accident.

But Ellis still has not done so, and his explanation for the continued silence — delivered through the spokesman — is that the situation is not yet resolved. That leaves the distinct impression that Ellis and his agent, Jeff Fried, are still planning on filing an appeal to the Warriors’ unilateral ban.

** Marcus Williams went off for the second team in the Blue-White scrimmage, scoring a team-high 24 points for the Warriors’ reserves, 16 in the third quarter alone. But he also showed exactly why fellow rookie DeMarcus Nelson has jumped so far ahead of him on the Golden State depth chart: Despite getting explicit instructions from White team coach Sidney Moncrief to duck under opposing screens, Williams kept getting picked off with ease, leaving the man he was covering plenty of room to wreak havoc.

Nelson, on the other hand, consistently went over the top of screens with success, something the Warriors have been lacking at the point guard position for a long while, at least on a consistent basis.

** Corey Maggette did not participate in practice because of his strained right hamstring, and it’s becoming a more realistic possibility that he won’t be available for the Warriors’ regular-season opener against New Orleans on Wednesday. It’s likely that he won’t practice Monday and Tuesday and will test the leg at Wednesday’s shootaround to determine if he’s OK to play.

“It’s still not ready yet,” Maggette said. “We’re just waiting. . . . I’m hopeful every day. I’m trying to rest it and get the soreness out, be able to run and explode. If I can’t do that, there’s no point trying to get on the court.”

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Don Nelson has already gone on record as saying that he wants to keep three point guards on his 15-man roster this season, and that’s not including the injured Monta Ellis.

Now he’s even claiming he might keep all four point guards that the Warriors have in camp.

The coach put forth that possibility Thursday after being asked if there wasn’t a one-on-one battle brewing between undrafted rookie DeMarcus Nelson, the prep scoring machine from Vallejo who has turned into a defensive specialist, and veteran newcomer Dan Dickau, who played briefly for Nelson in Dallas during 2004.

“I wouldn’t say it is an either-or (situation),” Don Nelson said. “I think we can do whatever’s best for our team.”

So you can see a situation in which keeping both of them would be best for your team?

“Absolutely.”

While that notion seems a little extreme, there’s no denying that DeMarcus Nelson has made what seemed like an afterthought into a legitimately difficult decision. To underscore his rising stock, Don Nelson had DeMarcus scrimmage Thursday with the first-string “blue” team, alternating much of the time with C.J. Watson.

“He’s gone from a guy that I didn’t think would have a chance to make our team when I brought him in this summer – I thought he’d need a year in the D-League – and he’s the coach’s favorite player right now. That must mean something.”

Although the coach considers DeMarcus Nelson’s shooting form to be inherently flawed, the Duke product can do something none of Ellis’ other would-be replacements can easily replicate: Beat his man off the dribble.

“He can get into the lane better than anybody that I have,” Don Nelson said. “And he’s now learning how to find people. He was pretty single-minded to score. That’s the first impulse everybody has when you get in there. But he’s now trying to open his vision up, see people, and he’s making good plays. His shot isn’t great, but he’s doing other things. He’s not living on that.”

With swingman Dion Dowell and center Justin Williams being placed on waivers Thursday by the Warriors, the team has 17 players in camp and must shed two more before Opening Night.

That would seem to leave two big guys — second-round selection Richard Hendrix, who has a guaranteed contract worth $442,114 and undrafted rookie Rob Kurz — fighting over one roster berth, while DeMarcus Nelson and Dickau battle with summer league standout Anthony Morrow for two other spots.

Latvian hip hop?

Center Andris Biedrins shot 64.3 percent from the line for the Latvian national team this summer in qualifying play for the 2009 European championships, continuing on the improvement he made last season with the Warriors, when he set a career-high at 62.0 percent.

But there’s a noticeable difference in Biedrins’ form, courtesy of Latvian coach Nenad Trajkovic. Trajkovic reset Biedrins’ stance at the line, putting his right foot significantly behind his left — the toe of his right shoe now lines up with back of his left. As part of the shooting motion, Biedrins brings the right foot forward in a sort of bunny hop.

“He said, if you do this, and just make the free throw with a little hop, it’ll help the ball get up high enough,” Biedrins said. “So I was shooting that all summer and it kind of worked out. We’ll see how it goes, but now I feel pretty comfortable.”

Sidney Moncrief, the Warriors assistant coach in charge of all things shooting, admitted that he did a double-take upon first seeing Biedrins’ new style, but he took a pragmatic view: “If it’s working, keep doing it.”

Notes

Members of the Warriors have met with representatives for Ellis to discuss potential disciplinary action stemming from Ellis’ ankle injury, which was reportedly caused by a moped accident. If that’s true, it would be in contravention of the six-year, $66 million contract he signed this summer, putting the entire deal in jeopardy, if the team wants to go that far in exacting retribution. A team spokesman said the Warriors would release details of their decision before leaving after Saturday’s game for China. . . . Kelenna Azubuike sat out practice with a sore right hip, courtesy of former teammate Ike Diogu, now a Trail Blazer, falling on him late in Wednesday’s game. Azubuike’s status for the Warriors’ exhibition game against visiting Oklahoma City on Saturday is unknown.