Will we get a chance to see Warriors youngsters take a shot at Celtics?

December 23, 8:06 PMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

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Let me guess: All the big boys are going to want to play Friday night at Oracle Arena?

Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette and Jamal Crawford.

Sold-out arena and a team maybe coming in on a 20-game winning streak, yeah, I’ve got a feeling those nagging injuries are going to start feeling better come Friday night against the Celtics.

Too bad. I kind of liked what I saw in the 96-88 loss to Miami on Tuesday, believe it or not.

Particularly in the first half.

Hey, it’s not the time to quibble about why Brandan Wright and/or Anthony Randolph didn’t play or played hardly at all in the fourth quarter. That’s for tomorrow or the next day.

And just to be fair to Rob Kurz, how does he go from playing a little, to starting to not playing at all?Guess you have to acknowledge any and all the young guys are subject to ... whatever it is Nelson subjects them to.

For one night, for a variety of reasons, a lot of Warrior young guys played. Sure, I would have rather seen a little less of DeMarcus Nelson and Kelenna Azubuike and more of another youngster or two, but that’s small picture right now.

I’ll take what I saw tonight and throw Monta Ellis into the mix and then see how much better you can become over the course of the season. Why not? What’s the alternative?

Going through another 50 games of trying to get Jackson, Maggette and Crawford to tri-exist and bring out the best in one another? C’mon, we know how that’s going to turn out. That's not going to work no matter how good the shoehorn.

It’s kind of funny, in a way: There were many times on Tuesday when the Warriors were up against the shot clock and one of their players was forced to try to do something in a hurry.

Invariably, nothing really good came of it, and at that time it’s easy to lament an inability to score. But then you started thinking of all the times the Warriors _ with their three veterans on the floor _ never gave a shot-clock violation a chance. It was 19 ... 18 ... 17 ... on the clock and up it went.

Hey, pick your poison. I’ll take a "24" every now and again if it means a few passes were thrown, a couple options explored.

Obviously, there is no doubt a team with Jackson, Maggette and Crawford give the Warriors their best chance at a win on Friday against the streaking Celtics.

But it would be far more interesting, and productive, to see how the Warriors' young players responded to the big-time challenge of the defending NBA champions coming onto your homecourt playing the best basketball of any team in the league.

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Why Jim Barnett is the best _ late third quarter after very ragged stretch: “You’re watching a heck of a scrimmage.”

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By the way, Bakersfield Jam coach Scott Roth got a one-year extension. The Bakersfield Jam are the Warriors NBA D-League affiliate.

Roth's got a nice team to work with, and one with alot of talent, most of it no doubt thinking it can play on the next level.

Those aren't easy circumstances to coach under, and Roth's got the Jam playing very well. They're 9-2 and are without DeMarcus Nelson and Richard Hendrix right now.

Read more ...

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