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Warriors start fast, clobber Thunder

Oct 12, 2008 - 7:05 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Golden State Warriors scored the first eight points of the game and never gave up the lead en route to a 122-102 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a preseason game on Saturday.

Second-year guard Marco Belinelli led the Warriors with 22 points, while undrafted rookie DeMarcus Nelson from Oakland added 20 with seven assists and four steals. Veteran forward Al Harrington had 16.

Golden State was in midseason form by running the floor with a fast pace, scoring 70 points in the first half.

The Warriors also saw a 15-point halftime crumble to eight at the end of the third quarter.

But the Warriors would pull away and had a 20-point advantage at the finish.

It is only the preseason but Oklahoma City is 0-3 and will play at Houston before hosting its first home game on October 14 against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Damien Wilkins paced the former Seattle SuperSonics with 23 points and Kevin Durant scored 16.

Off the court, the Warriors suspended guard Monta Ellis for his offseason moped accident, which violated the terms of his contract.

Ellis injured his left ankle and recently had surgery to repair a torn ligament. He will continue to rehab at the team's practice facility in Oakland but he will not be paid for 30 games, costing him nearly $3 million of a six-year, $66 million deal he signed in July.

"Players operate under a uniform player contract in our league and when you violate a provision of the contract, you need to be accountable for your actions and this is something that doesn't happen a lot in the NBA," Warriors president Robert Rowell said. "There have only been a couple of incidents where people were injured while participating in prohibited activities, and to us this is big for the organization.

"We made a commitment to Monta for $66 million to be a great basketball player and we're now in a situation where he's now not with us and we're going to do everything possible that we can obviously to get him back and to help him rehab and get him back on a basketball floor, but right now we felt that it was an appropriate consequence."