Having beaten the Hornets, Suns, Jazz and Trail Blazers in a 13-day stretch leading into the All-Star break, the Warriors have proven they can be a pretty darn good team when they're mostly healthy.
But what about when they're fully healthy? They hope to answer that question following the time off. No doubt, the Warriors were playing their best ball of the season just as the NBA scheduled its annual in-season vacation. With Monta Ellis getting his feet back under him, Stephen Jackson playing like an All-Star and Corey Maggette embracing his new role as the team's sixth man, the Warriors have sent a message to the Western Conference playoff contenders: They'll be a force to be reckoned with in 2009-10.
The Warriors took a season-best three-game winning streak into the break, and did so without two regular starters (Andris Biedrins and Brandan Wright) and a third guy (Marco Belinelli) who took advantage of others' injuries to gain a starting role and play the best basketball of his career. Biedrins and Belinelli are expected to return to face the Lakers in the first game after the break on Feb. 19, with Wright likely to follow a week or two later.
The club has gone 6-5 since Ellis made his season debut following off-season surgery. That .545 winning percentage would be just 10th-best in the Western Conference if extrapolated over the entire season to date, but it would put the Warriors very much in the playoff picture, just a couple of games out of the No. 8 spot.
The Warriors entered the break 19-35. They have no playoff hopes this season, and even a .500 season would be virtually impossible.
But playing .600 ball over the final 28 games -- 17-11 -- would set a nice tone heading into an off-season that would include a seat at the NBA Draft Lottery. With all their key players locked up long-term, they'd be able to carry that momentum right into next season.
WARRIORS 105, TRAIL BLAZERS 98: Monta Ellis is back. Yes, Thursday's game with Portland was his 11th since rehabbing a surgically repaired left ankle. But it was the first where he was the star of the show.
The slick guard nailed three late jumpers to stall a Trail Blazers rally and allow the Warriors to take their first three-game winning streak of the season into the All-Star break. Ellis finished with 20 points, playing 44 of the game's 48 minutes.
