By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

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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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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

When Monta Ellis came into the league, there was a school of thought (with his own coach being one of the adherents) that he wouldn’t succeed in the NBA because all he did in high school was just break down some poor, under-equipped defender from the Jackson Public Schools league and get to the rim.

He can’t do that in The League, the doubters said. Not regularly, anyways.

OK, so that myth just exploded on Tuesday.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

It’s too bad that Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was afforded the courtesy whistle given to all visiting dignitaries in San Antonio’s 110-105 win over the Warriors on Monday.

Not too bad because it cost the Warriors a win. Too bad because it obscured the real reason why they lost.

“I have to be careful what I say because I don’t want to get fined,” Golden State coach Don Nelson said. “I thought we had the game won in regulation, but the late whistle (on Turiaf) cost us the game, really.”

All the grousing about Sean Wright’s personal Argentinean bailout plan is not without merit. (Fun fact: if you watch the play again on slo-mo, you can see that, at the disputed moment of impact between Ginobili and Ronny Turiaf, Wright’s line of sight from 30 feet out is completely blocked by the bodies of both Tim Duncan and Corey Maggette. That’s quite some vision Sean’s got there.)

But what cost Nelson and the Warriors the game wasn’t Wright’s call. It wasn’t even Stephen Jackson not getting a call when his last shot was defended tightly by Bruce Bowen.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

It’s too bad the Warriors had a chartered bus ready to usher them out of AT&T Center on Saturday after Golden State’s dismal sleepwalk through a 123-88 defeat at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.

It would have been fascinating to count up just how many cabs were needed to deliver them back to the team hotel.

Thanks to two championships in the last five years, the Boston Red Sox have shed their decades-old label of a team that requires 25 cabs for 25 different players due to a lack of unity and camaraderie, both on the field and off.

Based on what took place Saturday in San Antonio, it looks as though that mantle has been taken up by the Warriors. Things seem like they’ve gotten to the point where it’s time to declare “every man for himself” on the S.S. Nelson, which is taking on water at a frightening rate.

Check out what transpired over one 6-minute stretch of the first quarter, during which time the Spurs raised their lead from 8-6 to 28-16.

Golden State had 17 possessions during that timeframe:

** On one possession, the Warriors made three passes, going counter-clockwise around the perimeter until the ball reached C.J. Watson in the right corner. Watson used his agility to change direction quickly enough that Matt Bonner was forced to concede the non-shooting foul.

** On 11 possessions, the Warriors made only one pass in the frontcourt before the receiver would either make a move to the hoop or hoist a jumper. As a team, the Warriors went 3-for-9 from the floor on those possessions, with one trip to the foul line (two shots converted by Jamal Crawford) and one non-shooting foul drawn (Andris Biedrins on Tim Duncan).

** The remaining five possessions involved no passes at all. Twice, Crawford took an outlet pass and called his own number on jumpers, going 0-for-2. Twice, Corey Maggette collected rebounds and dribbled the length of the court, once getting fouled (he knocked down both FTs) and once missing a pullup jumper over Michael Finley. The fifth possession came about when Biedrins grabbed an offensive board and was whistled for knocking over Fabricio Oberto while trying to score the putback.

All told for those 17 possessions: 3-12 FG, 4-4 FT, 1 TO, minus-10 on the scoreboard.

And the good times were only beginning.

It was shortly after that hideous stretch that Maggette corralled a loose ball in the…

(aka How To Lose Fake Money And Real Credibility, Part 35, today’s installment of your faithful reporter’s quest to prognosticate all 1,230 NBA regular-season games this season)

As usual, TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott was first on the scene this morning, putting together a list of potential landing spots for Stephon Marbury, assuming he and the Knicks agree to stand down from their current Defcon-1 status.

Personally, I like three options the best:

1) Miami. I am not really sold on Mario Chalmers/Chris Quinn combo at the point, and Dwyane Wade is certainly going to be able to keep any ego outburst in check.

2) Orlando. To me, the Magic are a little too vanilla. It’s one thing to be even-keeled, but if you don’t mix that with a killer instinct (i.e., Tim Duncan and the Spurs) you get a team that’s just not tough enough. I think here, Marbury might bring some swagger with him that rubs off on the club, similar to Stephen Jackson’s effect on the Warriors, or what Ron Artest has brought to the Rockets this season.

3) Philadelphia. If the 76ers aren’t freaking out, they ought to be. They’re 7-10, and three of those wins came at home against the Thunder, the Clippers and the Warriors. They’ve got a brutal roadie coming up before and after New Year’s (Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Antonio, with the Clippers being the only thing standing between them and an 0-5 spot), Louis Williams was MIA for a good three weeks, Elton Brand still isn’t getting shots where he’s most comfortable, and Andre Miller will have to spend the rest of the season living down this:

For what it’s worth, I think the Warriors can safely be judged a Marbury-free zone now that they’ve traded for Jamal Crawford. Even if it would be on a minimum-wage pro-rated deal for the rest of the year, there is still only one ball in use at a time, right?

Onto the picks, and let’s not discuss my record, because I don’t want to jinx anything:

Heat (8-9) at Warriors (5-12), 7:35 p.m.
Pick: Heat -1.5
I don’t think the Warriors are as bad as they seemed on that road trip. I don’t think they’re good enough to win here, however.

Timberwolves (4-11) at Bobcats (5-11), 4:05 p.m.
Pick: Bobcats -3.5
One of the league’s worst offenses (Charlotte) against a weak defense (Minnesota) that just got worse with Corey Brewer’s injury.

Magic (13-4) at Celtics (16-2), 4:35 p.m.
Pick:…