Certainly, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry had some rough nights over the first 10 games. But did he come into his own at American Airlines Center on Monday?

Coach Mark Jackson thinks so.

JACKSON: “He is our leader. But (Monday), I really believe he took it to a whole different level.”

The fact that Curry was able to carry the Warriors despite a rough shooting night was a testament to his development. In overtime, he didn’t take a 3-pointer. Instead, he used screens, ball-handling and the threat of his jumper to get into the lane. It was the most point guard-like he’s looked all season.

The question for Curry, and the Warriors, is can he play with such command on a regular basis? Can he get into the lane with the same kind of frequency? Can he outplay opposing point guards consistently (Mavericks guard Darren Collison had 7 points on 2 of 11 with 5 assists and 5 turnovers in 39 minutes) and force teams to make some adjustments?

A lot of it, as Mark Jackson admits, is going to be based on his teammates and coaches.

JACKSON: “The thing about it is teams are going to treat him like he’s that guy. Were going to have to set screens, get him open, make life easy for him. Tonight, I thought we did a great job of screening and then he did a great job of coming off aggressive, whether it was to score or to make plays. He ran this team down the stretch the way that I envision him running.

Despite Curry’s clutchness, it was the Warriors’ defense and rebounding that won the game. Golden State dominated the boards 62-43. Despite having problems containing O.J. Mayo, the Warriors came up with numerous critical stops. Dallas had just 7 offensive rebounds.

The Warriors held them to 43 percent shooting and 26 points in the paint. That was vital considering they shot 40.7 percent and turned it over 21 times.

CURRY: “It was a team effort on the road tonight. We got stops and played aggressive on both ends of the floor. … We were able to make plays when they counted and that obviously gave us the win tonight.”

More on Monday’s victory …

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The Warriors weren’t going to beat the powerhouse Thunder anyway. The real question was in what fashion they lose.

In the grand scheme of things, Sunday’s 119-109 loss to Oklahoma City was one they could swallow. Golden State shot the higher percentage (52.4) and hung with the Thunder on the boards (40-35). The Warriors kept their turnovers down and their bench outscored Oklahoma City’s.

So how did they trail by as much as 22 and walk away with a loss. To put it generally,Oklahoma City is superior.

MARK JACKSON: “We played against a very good basketball team that went to the Finals last year. They have a couple of very special players. … The thing that I pointed out to our guys is that this is a process and they went through the same kind of experience and learned from it. It is important for us to do the same thing and continue to get better.”

To put it specifically, the Warriors offense couldn’t keep up with Oklahoma City’s attack and their offense couldn’t stop it.

Point guard Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 22 points and six assists. Lee finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Forward Carl Landry’s 14 points led a Warriors’ bench that 47 points (to the Thunder’s 40).

But much of the Warriors’ offense success came in the second half, after they got down big. And they got down big because they were helpless against the Thunder’s stars.

Point guard Russell Westbrook finished with 30 points and six assists. Forward Kevin Durant notched his first-career triple-double: 25 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. Guard Kevin Martin had 23 points off the bench.

More on Sunday’s defeat …

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The Warriors aren’t supposed to win. And they probably won’t.

But how much different would their season, their record look, if they walked out of Oklahoma City with a victory? Playoff teams win big games on the road. Golden State already has one under their belt this season, beating the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center. But beating the Thunder, the defending champions in the Western Conference, on their court would be a real boon to the young Golden State squad.

Of course, staying competitive could even have a positive effect. What the Warriors don’t need is to get run out of the gym like they did against the Lakers.

More on Sunday night’s game …

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The Warriors have their first win streak of the season and are back above .500.

Yes, Golden State was playing a depleted team. The Timberwolves were missing six of their top seven players due to injury: forwards Kevin Love, point guard Ricky Rubio, center Nikola Pekovic, swingman Brandon Roy, forward Chase Budinger and guard J.J. Barea.

Yes, Golden State had a 14-point lead with 7:58 and wound up needing to eke out a victory against the aforementioned second-string squad.

But from the perspective of the bigger picture, the Warriors got some much-needed experience at winning. And they did it while winning, hanging on for a 106-98 victory at the Target Center. In the end, Golden State walked away with a win they had to have.

STEPHEN CURRY: “The final score is obviously the most important thing. We might have done ourselves a disservice tonight letting it get interesting down the stretch, letting them come back. But being able to withstand a run like that on the road, that’s a good way to win”

You’d half expect Mark Jackson to be upset that his team blew a lead to the Timberwolves’ JV squad. But what benefit is there in a blow-out road win over a bad team. The Warriors are a work in progress. They have been besieged by inexperience. In the long run, close games are better for them, even if they are a result of a little choking.

Friday, Golden State had to do all of the following:

* Make good decisions to get key buckets at crucial moments. They needed one badly and the play was for Curry, who moved to SG. He often curls off the screen, catches the ball and pivots backwards, bringing the step-back 3-pointer in play. This time, he caught the ball near the left elbow and didn’t give any ground with his pivot. He sized up his options from right where he caught it, which led to a stationary 20-footer he nailed instead of a step-back 3-pointer. His jumper ended a 9-0 Minnesota run.

Minutes later, David Lee got the ball in the post, the Warriors up 94-91 inside of three minutes left. He executed what seems to be a budding go-to move: get the ball at mid post, cross to the right and spin back left for a hook off the glass.

* Get defensive stops. The Timberwolves were held to 3-for-11 from the field over the last four minutes. Most important, when the game was really decided — between the 4:02 mark and the 1:36 mark, when a Harrison Barnes dunk all but put the game away — the Warriors got four straight stops. Before that stretch, Minnesota was 8 of 15 from the field.

* Rebound when they needed a rebound most. Minnesota’s only two offensive rebounds down the stretch came in the chaos of the final 30 seconds, long caroms off desperate 3-pointers, when the game was pretty over.

All valuable experience.

MARK JACKSON: “They made plays. They’re at home. They started making shots. … We knew they’d make a run. Some of it was mistakes by us. But give them credit. At the end of the day, I’m very happy that my guys made the plays necessary to be made to allow us to leave here with a win.”

More on Friday’s victory …

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Warriors center Andrew Bogut has been receiving injections in his surgically repaired left ankle while rehabilitating in Los Angeles, according to a Warriors official.

Bogut went to SoCal to continue his rehab under the supervision of Dr. Richard Ferkel, who performed arthroscopic surgery on Bogut’s ankle in April. While there, he has received several injections of Regenokine injections.

These treatments, designed to diminish swelling and assist in Bogut’s recovery, are a form of blood-manipulation therapy. It is usually used to treat joint pain, lower back pain and forms of arthritis. It works by taking blood from the patient, manipulating it to get a concentrated protein-heavy fluid, then injecting it into the problem area. Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez have reportedly benefited from the procedure.

OK. Maybe, it’s too early to call it a must-win. So we’ll call it a need-this-badly game. And the Warriors did exactly what they were supposed to do — beat a short-handed team on their own floor.

MARK JACKSON: “This was a home game where they were missing two of their top seven players. We expected to win. … If we’re talking about having a successful year, you have to win this game before going on the road because we will be playing some good teams.”

Wednesday’s game was so critical because the Warriors are headed for a three-game road trip (at Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Dallas). Two of those games would be an upset if they pull it out. The Warriors need to get all the wins they can while they wait for center Andrew Bogut to return. It would be ideal if they are at .500 whenever that happens.

Such requires winning games they should win.

The best part about Wednesday’s game was they had to actually win it. It wasn’t a blow out. They had to hold on. They had to make plays. That’s valuable experience for a young team.

More on Wednesday’s victory …

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By Dan Brown (dbrown@mercurynews.com)

As a few in-need families found out Monday, one of the perks of going grocery shopping with a Warriors player is that they can reach stuff of the top shelf.

One group had Festus Ezeli — all 6-foot-11 of him — at its disposal, while another settled for 6-foot-7 Richard Jefferson. “My mom used to make me get all the tall stuff, too,” Jefferson told one boy. “Don’t worry, man.”

By the time they were done, Ezeli, Jefferson and handful of other Warriors had grabbed so much that the shopping carts overlflowed.

“Just trying to do good in the community,” Ezeli said. “That’s what it’s about.”

Each player helped one family walk away with enough goods to make a Thanksgiving meal and then some. As the kick-off event for the Warriors’ holiday outreach campaign, Lucky donated $350 gift cards to each family.

The players earned their assist by helping kids pick out the best turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. Jefferson even saw the process all the way through by donning an apron at the checkout aisle and insisting on being called “Checker No. 5.”

“It’s good to help families, especially the families that support you on a day-to-day basis,” Jefferson said.

Others to participate Monday were Carl Landry, Draymond Green and assistant coach Michael Malone. The Warriors will hold at least 14 more “Plays for the Holidays” events through December, including toy drives and serving food at homeless shelters. Each Warriors player will participate at least once.

Warriors coach Mark Jackson said after Tuesday’s practice that center Andrew Bogut will not join the team on the three-game road tip this weekend.

MARK JACKSON: “We’re going to stay true to the rehab and try to get him as strong as possible. When he’s ready, he’ll play. But he won’t be on the trip.”

That means Bogut will be out longer than initially announced. On Thursday, Jackson revealed that Bogut was being shut down for 7 to 10 days so he could focus on rehab and strengthening his surgically repaired left ankle. But since Jackson ruled him out for the road trip, Bogut will miss at least 12 days and six games.

The plan was to re-evaluate Bogut at the end of that 7 to 10 days and make a plan from that point. Wednesday is the seventh day, so Bogut was never expected to play. But the initial timetable, which had  suggested there was a chance Bogut could play on the coming road trip, perhaps Sunday at Oklahoma City or Monday at Dallas.

But even after the Warriors get back from the trip, don’t expect Bogut to hope right back in.

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Warriors guard Klay Thompson, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, left Oracle Arena with his uniform on. His jeans, his sweater, his shoes, all left behind in his locker. Not even a week after missing the potential game-winning shot at Sacramento, Thompson has been dealt another cruel lesson by the NBA.

In Saturday’s loss to Denver, Thompson emerged as the goat. He missed a pair of free throws in the final seconds of overtime, and making both would’ve probably sealed the game. To make matters worst, he allowed Denver forward Danilo Gallinari drive right by him for the game-tying WIDE OPEN dunk though the Warriors had a foul to give and all it took was for Thompson to grab him.

Then, in double-overtime, the Warriors were inbounding the ball with 35.9 seconds remaining down 103-101. As the play evolved, the ball wound up in Thompson’s hands. Despite only need a basket to tie the game, despite still having some 15 seconds on the shot clock, despite having missed nine of his previous 14 attempts, Thompson hoisted a 3-pointer. He missed, all but sealing the loss.

MARK JACKSON: “I wish I had an excuse to co-sign that it was his youth. But no. Not at all. I think there’s a part of him that let the missed free throws get to him, or a missed shot. But no, not youth. But he’s going to be fine. And this is not just him. We made mistakes across the board. And we’re going to get better.”

In many ways, Thompson embodies where the Warriors are in their development. Talented and full of promise but don’t yet know how to win. So inexperienced they manage to turn a strength into a weakness. The good things they do obscured by glaring limitations.

No doubt, Saturday’s performance by Thompson — 9 of 26 shooting, 3 turnovers — was devastating. The only question is whether this becomes a benchmark for his development, whether this creates a sense of urgency in him that leads to improvement.

Same goes for the Warriors.

JACKSON: “I understand it’s a process. In order to get there, you’ve got to go through times like this. But I’m not a guy that’s patient with process when it comes to that. There are mistakes that you can’t make. And we made some.”

More on Saturday’s loss …

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Both the Warriors and Nuggets come into tonight’s game at 3-3. But somehow, you get the sense these teams are far apart.

For starters, the Nuggets are coming off a blowout home win over Utah, and the Warriors are coming off getting blown out by the host Los Angeles Lakers.

Denver started slow, but have won three straight and are starting to look like the formidable team many expected. Golden State started well but have lost 2 of their last 3 and are starting to look like the mediocre team many expected.

Of course, the Warriors can change that perception with a win tonight. Watch for the sense of urgency Golden State plays with. Coming off a humbling loss, and playing without starting center Andrew Bogut, the Warriors could respond with another listless performance, demoralized by the cards they’ve been dealt. Or, they could go the other way, get more focused, more hungry, knowing any win they get during this rough patch of season will pay dividends down the road.

Here are some other things to watch for tonight …

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