The San Jose Mercury News reports: Ann Barnes, mother of the Warriors’ Matt Barnes, died Tuesday after battling cancer. Matt has apparently told the Warriors that he wants to play tonight in Sacramento, which is home for him and is where he returned to be with his mother often over the last few fateful weeks. I can’t say anything more than his teammates have already said: They’re with him, they support him, they want whatever’s best for him.

The Golden State Warriors have assigned center Kosta Perovic (COAST-a PEAR-a-vich) to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin announced today.
Perovic, 22, has not appeared in any of Golden State’s first seven games during the 2007-08 regular season, spending the first five games on the inactive list.  The 7-2 center, who was originally drafted by Golden State with the 38th overall selection in the 2006 NBA Draft out of Serbia, is a rookie this season after staying overseas to play the 2006-07 campaign in Serbia.
Perovic is the sixth player assigned to the D-League from the NBA following Ramon Sessions (Milwaukee Bucks), Kyrylo Fesenko (Utah Jazz), Steve Novak (Houston Rockets), Brandon Wallace (Boston Celtics) and JamesOn Curry (Chicago Bulls).
The D-League is way ahead of last years pace in terms of NBA player assignments. During the 2006-07 season there hadn’t been one NBA player assigned at this point. The first player sent to the NBA Development League occurred on November 22, 2006 when Ryan Hollins of the Charlotte Bobcats was assigned to the Fort Worth Flyers from the Charlotte Bobcats.
Perovic joins a Bakersfield club led by head coach Jim Harrick who won the 1995 NCAA Championship with UCLA. The team tips off their second season in the NBA Development League on November 24 when they visit the Austin Toros, the affiliate of the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs.

The Golden State Warriors, who with a 1-6 record have been one of the league’s worst teams in the still-young season, have signed free agent center DJ Mbenga to a contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, Chris Mullin.  Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.
Mbenga (Ben-ga), 27, was not drafted by an NBA team, but was signed as a free agent by the Dallas Mavericks prior to the 2004-05 season.  He played three seasons with the Mavericks (2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07) prior to being waived before the start of this season (October 30).  A native of the Congo, Mbenga has averaged 1.3 points and 0.9 rebounds in 79 career regular season games.  He appeared in a career-high 43 games with the Mavericks during the 2005-06 campaign and logged a career-best 237 minutes overall.
Mbenga will join the Warriors in New York on Monday and will wear uniform #28.