The Warriors just sent out a release with details of second opinion on Monta Ellis’ injured left knee from Dr. James Andrews, the surgeon who originally fixed Ellis’ ACL tear in that knee as a high schooler. The release says that Andrews confirmed the team’s original diagnosis of a sprained knee. Ellis won’t play tonight against the Sacramento Kings but will be listed as day-to-day after that.

The upshot? Well, it’s interesting that Ellis feels the need to seek out a second opinion, since that would seem to potentially indicate he’s still having trouble with the knee, even after nine days of rest. (Rest from the team, at least. Who knows how that fishing trip went?)

It also means Stephen Curry will have every chance to press his case in the Rookie of the Year race in tonight against front-runner Tyreke Evans.

– Geoff

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I’m not sure if Anthony Randolph rents or owns his in-season home here in the Bay Area, so I don’t know which piece of advice to give him. It’s either:

a) Call your landlord and find out what you need to do to ensure to get your security deposit back.

or

b) Call a good real-estate agent and get started on staging that sucker, because with this market, it could take months to sell.

Whatever is the case, it appears obvious from general manager Larry Riley’s comments Saturday night that Randolph is on the block and that the Warriors expect to give up the second-year forward in the near future.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Word comes from this morning’s shootaround (via Jaymee Sire’s Tweet) that the Warriors are keeping forward Anthony Tolliver and making room by cutting loose guard Speedy Claxton.

The move is both expected to some extent — someone prediced correctly almost a week ago that the W’s would keep Tolliver — and yet also surprising, in that Claxton represented one of the Warriors’ largest expiring contracts at $5.2 million.

Honestly, I thought it would be either Chris Hunter or Devean George who got the kiss off to allow the Warriors to retain Tolliver, who had already served out two 10-day contracts and had to be given a deal for the remainder of the year or let go.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

With a 103-99 victory over Boston on Tuesday, the Warriors have themselves just their second winning streak of the season. The first one was pretty impressive, as you may recall; back in November, just after the Stephen Jackson saga resolved itself, Golden State beat Portland (before the Trail Blazers were wracked by injuries) at home, then spanked Dallas on the road.

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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): “(Don) Nelson said (Stephen) Curry is tougher on his post defense now, and he defends pick-and-rolls well. Perhaps his biggest asset is that he understands and executes the game plan, which sets him up to have the help he needs.”

I’ll admit, I’m not in the room for post-practice film sessions or present during the installation of game-by-game tweaks during morning shootarounds. And, indeed, much of playing perimeter defense in the NBA is simply a matter of guiding a player the direction you want him to go. Maybe Curry is grading out higher on these internal measuring sticks.

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