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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San Francisco Chronicle (Bruce Jenkins): Bruce’s numbers about Anthony Randolph’s lack of movement on offense in the Warriors’ last two games are compelling, although they come without context. How many times did every other player stand around? Frankly, you could easily argue that every member of the Warriors stands around too much. This is a team predicated on the one-on-one (or one-on-two or even one-on-three) attacks of Monta Ellis. Stephen Curry is acknowledged by the general manager to be a better scorer with the ball in his hands. Anthony Morrow’s value is trolling the 3-point arc; ditto for C.J. Watson. This is a stagnant team both by design and by coaching, and singling out Randolph to grouse about his following suit is kind of silly.

Plus, it unfortunately masks what I think is a good and powerful point Bruce is almost hitting on – that Randolph does require some sort of go-to move. Where Bruce’s argument fails is with the assumption that such a move has to come with his back to the basket; if Randolph developed enough confidence with the one-step-crossover-and-pullup move that he has shown of late, he could create space with it (by getting his defender going backwards) at any time. Then, if he could consistently drain the open 15-footer that results from such a move, the guy would be damn near unstoppable (until defenses adjusted, at least).

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Before Cleveland shipped Larry Hughes out of town last season as part of an 11-player, three-team trade, one disgruntled Cavaliers fan was so moved by Hughes’ continuing legacy of inaccuracy that he started a Web site with the following address: heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com.

Friday, the Warriors wanted Hughes to stop shooting, but for a very different reason: The ex-Warrior hit five of his seven 3-point attempts en route to a team-high 26 points in the Chicago Bulls’ 115-110 victory.

Though their first 10 games, the Warriors were doing pretty well at defending the 3-pointer. This week, that’s all changed. Thanks to a combined 22-for-45 performance on treys by the Trail Blazers on Tuesday and the Bulls on Friday, Golden State has gone from a top-five spot in the league (31.1 percent) to 15th-best (34.9).

To see Portland, the league’s best 3-point shooting team, have success at the arc is understandable.

But to be battered outside by the Bulls, who are strictly middle-of-the-road when it comes to that discipline (35.0 percent, 16th in the league), demands some further investigation. Especially when you consider that Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha and Lindsey Hunter, who hit for nine treys against the Warriors, came into the game having shot a combined 2-for-19 in that zone.

The details:

10:07 remaining, first quarter, Sefolosha, left wing: This one wasn’t quite cricket, as the Brits would say; Chicago took advantage of the fact that Corey Maggette fell down while scoring on the Warriors’ previous possession and Sefolosha took his time before draining the shot.

6:31, first, Sefolosha, right corner: The possession started to break down for the Warriors (as so often was the case Friday) when point guard wunderkind Derrick Rose blew past his man (in this case, C.J. Watson). When Andris Biedrins slid over to provide help, Rose fed the ball to Biedrins’ man, Drew Gooden. Gooden steamed down the lane, and when Maggette left Sefolosha to stop penetration, Gooden found him for the open look.

2:33, first, Hughes, left wing: Anthony Morrow, Hughes’ defender, stumbled trying to avoid crashing into Maggette while the play was developing. Sefolosha swung the ball to Hughes, who immediately pulled the trigger.

11:18, second, Hughes, top key right: Maggette, who is covering Hughes at this point, gets sucked into the lane when Hunter misses a long 2. Andres Nocioni grabs the offensive rebound and kicks the ball out to Hughes.

5:48, second, Hughes, top key left: Stephen Jackson stands at the free-throw line and watches while Hunter…

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.…