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Nets-Warriors Preview

Jan 21, 2010 - 9:47 PM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

New Jersey (3-38) at Golden State (12-28), 10:30 p.m. EDT

If overtime and a sore ankle aren't enough to get Monta Ellis to take a break, it's tough to imagine what it would take for Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson to pull his red-hot guard off the court.

Short-handed due to injuries, the Warriors may need Ellis to play every minute for a fourth straight game Friday night in a matchup with the New Jersey Nets.

Health problems have limited Golden State (12-28) to eight players over the past three games, and Ellis has not missed a minute of any of them.

Allen Iverson is the last player to play three straight complete games, from April 5-9, 1997, as a rookie with Philadelphia. Over the past 23 seasons, no player has played every minute of four straight contests.

Ellis' run continued in a 123-118 overtime loss to Denver on Wednesday night. He had 39 points and 10 assists despite missing the afternoon shootaround due to soreness in his left ankle.

Ellis required surgery on that same ankle after an offseason mo-ped accident in 2008, one month after signing a $66 million, six-year contract. He didn't come out for pregame warmups until seven minutes prior to tipoff, denying his heavy workload has affected his ankle.

"It's just that I have a plate in my ankle and when it rains my ankle throbs," said Ellis, who has played 10 complete games. "So it wasn't nothing like I've been playing on it too much and it was hurting."

Leading the league with 42.4 minutes per game, Ellis is averaging 36.0 points over the last three games and 30.7 during his past 16.

Ellis and Corey Maggette have been carrying the Warriors offensively. Maggette is averaging 30.1 points over his last eight games, shooting 92.4 percent from the free-throw line and 58.2 percent from the field.

Maggette had 33 points to help keep Golden State competitive against the Nuggets, one of the Western Conference's top teams. Now the Warriors will conclude a seven-game homestand - their longest of the season - against the league's worst club.

Golden State, 2-4 during its stretch at home, beat New Jersey 105-89 on Dec. 9. The Warriors have won four straight against the Nets (3-38), who are 1-21 on the road.

Six players scored in double figures for Golden State in this season's first matchup with New Jersey. Nets center Brook Lopez had a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Lopez had 26 points and 13 boards against Phoenix on Wednesday night, but New Jersey lost 118-94. The Nets have dropped nine straight since their last victory, 104-95 over New York on Dec. 30.

Lopez, in his second year, leads a mostly inexperienced team that has been outscored by an average of 12.1 points.

"You're going to have some dark nights," coach Kiki Vandeweghe told the Nets' official Web site. "But the way to get out it is you have to keep reinforcing good habits and then eliminating the bad ones.

"I do see progress. It's tough now. But I think the future is pretty bright for us."