The more I think about it, the more I conclude the Warriors have to make some kind of move. The West is too deep. 45 wins may not get you in. The Warriors are clinging to the eighth seed right now, and you know Utah and Houston are going to make a run.
There are some guys out there, too. Zach Randolph is supposedly on his way to Milwaukee. He would be pricey (three years $48 million after this year), and would put to end whatever chances the Warriors have of being players on the free agent market. But imagine Randolph with this lineup? It may be worth looking into.
There are other options. Mike Miller (two years, $17M-plus after this year) would be great offense coming off the bench. He may not even cost you Al Harrington, as the Grizzlies are chock full of perimeter-oriented forwards. The expiring contracts of Pietrus, Patrick O’Bryant and Kosta Perovic just might do the trick.
Another player who would be a good fit, believe it or not, is Antawn Jamison. He’s an expiring contract ($11.6M) so he wouldn’t hurt the Warriors ability to make future moves. He’s a true scorer and a pretty good rebounder who would fit perfectly in this offense. Unfortunately, the Wizards are still in the hunt, so they may just hang on to him. But if Arenas is serious about shutting it down for the season, they may look to unload Jamison and re-stock with a cheaper player to compliment Arenas and Caron Butler. It may cost the Warriors Al Harrington, which is almost a lateral move (Antawn is probably a better rebounder and scorer around the basket).
This is a long shot, but may be more feasible than you’d expect: Elton Brand. He’s possibly an expiring contract who would be just returning from injury at around the trade deadline. He has the ability to opt out, and rumor is that he wants to. The Clippers, whose season is done, may be looking to get something for Brand now. The main problem is that the Clippers wouldn’t want to help the Warriors, especially not after the way Mike Dunleavy Jr. was treated. Plus, Brand is expensive ($15M), so the Warriors would have to give up quite a bit, maybe Harrington and Pietrus. But stranger trades have been pulled off.

So, the Warriors have conquered their Spurs jinx, and they may have finally started showing up for the Lakers rivalry. Now they can’t beat Portland.
This begs the question, what are the Warriors playoff chances? Realistically. There are 10 really good teams in the Western Conference. The Warriors just may be 9 or 10. They certainly aren’t going to finish higher than seven.

San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas, Lakers, New Orleans and Portland are all better, or at least will finish with better records. That leaves the Warriors, Denver, Houston and Utah fighting for the last two spots. Maybe you can throw Portland in this mix (will they slow down, right?), making it five teams fighting for three spots.

As Warriors fans, you have to be nervous about the team’s chances. They’re a good team, but they may not be good enough. They’re going to be forced to make a move at the deadline to get even better just to keep up.

You want to know what’s wrong with the Warriors at home? The last play of the first half Monday told it all. The Warriors hustled up a steal and had a three-on-one fastbreak in the final seconds, with Stephen Jackson leading the break.
What does he do? You knew it was coming as he slowed down and gathered into his trademark shot. He pulled up for three.
I know what you’re thinking. If he makes it, it’s a huge shot. True enough. The problem is that he’s going to miss it far more than he’s going to make it. At best, he makes 20 percent of those pull-up 3-pointers. Are the eight misses worth the two makes?
Instead of getting a lay-up, and going into the locker rrom up 53-44, he took a gamble worth one extra point. For what? To gain momentum that would’ve dissolved by halftime anyway?
It’s those type of decisions, the thirst for the big play, that have the Warriors 8-7 at Oracle Arena. Instead of going for the dagger, trying to play into the crowd, make the smart play, get to the basket.
Here’s a stat that shows what I’m talking about. At home, the Warriors average 23.9 free throw attempts. On the road, 27.9. Shouldn’t you get to the line more at home than on the road, where you don’t get the calls?
When the Warriors play the same smart ball they do often on the road, they’re unstoppable at Oracle. Just ask Phoenix. In arguably the biggest home win of the season (unless they pull it out tonight), the Warriors took 28 3-pointers (right around their average) and had 31 assists. They went right at the Suns, taking it to the rim, instead of bailing Phoenix out with jumpers.
That should be the model for how the Warriors play at home.

We’ll have a story with more details up on the Web in a few minutes, but in the meantime . . .

Chris Mullin and Don Nelson are getting serious about giving Baron Davis some time off. Mullin told the Times at this morning’s shootaround that the team will be signing rookie point guard C.J. Watson today to a 10-day contract, with the hopes of lowering Davis’ average of 39.4 minutes per game.

“We’ll give him a look,” Mullin said of the 6-foot-2 product of Tennessee. “He could be a good backup for us. That’s why he’s coming here, to figure that out.”

Watson, who has been tearing up the NBA Development League this season with averages of 26.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, is scheduled to arrive tonight but isn’t expected to play against the Spurs. After a practice tomorrow, he should be available to suit up against the Trail Blazers in Portland on Wednesday.

“He’s playing very well in the D-League,” Nelson said, “and we need some help.”

The DJ Mbenga experiment ended after 16 games when the Warriors waived the 7-foot center Sunday, beating the deadline before his deal would have become guaranteed and saving themselves roughly $500,000 in salary costs.

Executive vice president Chris Mullin had said previously that the deadline “probably will just come and go” for Mbenga; instead, the Warriors reversed course, coming to a different decision over the weekend in the interest of greater flexibility. Both Mullin and coach Don Nelson stressed that Mbenga did nothing wrong from an on-court standpoint.

The move opens up a roster spot that the Warriors could potentially fill with an unbalanced trade, or by signing a player from the NBA Development League — something they did last January with Kelenna Azubuike — or by signing someone to a 10-day contract as an audition.

In the meantime, rookie center Kosta Perovic will be recalled from the Warriors’ D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam.

There are not too many times you are going to see Baron get totally outplayed with the game on the line. One of those times was Friday night.
Chris Paul schooled Baron in the second half, specifically the fourth quarter, when Baron normally shines. Look at these fourth-quarter lines:

Chris Paul – 11 points, 5-for-10 FGs, 4 assists, 1 steal, 0 turnovers
Baron Davis – 2 points, 0-for-3 FGs, 2 assists, 0 steals, 1 turnover

Don Nelson: “Chris Paul is as close to Steve Nash as you’re going to get for a while and he’s still so young, so he’s going to be quite the player for a long, long time.”

In the first half, Davis (20 points, 6 assists) got the better of Paul (9 points, 7 assists). Byron Scott started off with Paul defend Davis, which was a mistake. In the second half, Paul was on Ellis for the most part and a bigger guard (Morris Peterson often) defended BD. Still, Davis guarded Paul, and he was wearing Baron out, running him off screens and killing him with those midrange floaters.

Baron Davis: “You’ve gotta pay attention to him at all times. He’s always looking to pass and has some good shooters around him. He did a good job of spreading the ball around and they knocked down shots and that’s how they were able to break that lead and get it wide open.”

This gives Chris Paul a leg up on the All-Star bid, if he didn’t already have it. Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, based on the third returns, will be the starting Western Conference guards. Steve Nash is a lock to be voted on by the coaches as a reserve. That means one spot left for a guard, two at the most.
The coaches must pick two guards, two forwards and a center and two wild cards. They could use a wild card to pick another guard. But there are a lot of forwards who are more deserving (Duncan, Carmelo, Nowitzki, Boozer, David West, Shawn Marion, Josh Howard), so it is likely the two wild cards will go to forwards. If it does go to another guard, Brandon Roy, Tony Parker and Allen Iverson will be in the discussion.
But if it does come down to one guard spot, it has to go to Chris Paul. His team is better. He handled Baron head up. The All-Star Game is in his backyard.
Advantage CP3

Why is Peja Stojakovic finding himself open?

My man from Hoopsworld, Preetom Bhattacharya, just dropped a good idea on me. Remeber Darius Washington from the San Antonio Spurs. He lit the Warriors up during the preseason. He was good enough for the Spurs to part ways with Beno Udrih.
Anyway, he’s available. San Antonio cut him, so now he’s out on the market. He’s undersized (Nellie likes big guards), and he’s not a good shooter. But he’s quick and he’s a true point. Most important, he’s cheap.

Unlike most coaches, which put their PG on Monta Ellis and have a bigger defender on Baron Davis, Hornets coach Byron Scott said he was starting with Chris Paul guarding B.D. That won’t last long.
First play of the game, Baron posted up CP3. Easy two.
Why Scott would subject his star PG, the catalyst of his offense, to such a defensive task is beyond me. Just plain ol’ pride.

I knew this wasn’t going to be a good game for the Warriors. Everything was against them coming into Dallas and winning Wednesday.
For starters, two days of partying didn’t help. Plus, pulling out the first two games on the road trip took away the urgency.
Add to that, it’s Dallas – a team they’ve owned. The Warriors have already conquered Maverick Mountain. There’s no real need to get up for that again. This game means much more to Dallas than it does to the Warriors.
The Mavericks want this game bad. If they lose to the Warriors again, they will keep having to hear about the Warriors’ dominance the rest of the year. They’re going to hear it anyway, because this is just regular season. But to go 2-0 against their nemesis would do a little bit to change the subject.
The Warriors, on the other hand, lose little. If they go down today (the lead is only 11 right now), they walk away from a three-game road trip 2-1. That’s great. And they still have the postseason upset to hang their hats on when it comes to Dallas.
Just looking at the first half, they aren’t playing with the same hunger and urgency that they usually show against this team, that they showed at Denver and Houston.
But, then again, they waited until the 4th quarter to do so. Don’t look now, the Warriors are down just 8 at the half.