Davis has urgency to deliver in Warriors' 'critical' year

Baron Davis is among the league leaders in scoring, assists, steals and minutes. AP

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PORTLAND, Ore. -- In review of my splendid Wednesday ...

In the morning, I wrote that Baron Davis should be elected an All-Star.

At noon, I met with Baron Davis to further discuss his candidacy.

At night, I stood in the locker-room hallway reviewing the autopsy report of Baron Davis' game against the Trail Blazers: 1-of-6 from the field for four points with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1 to 2, which was easier than usual to figure seeing as how he had one assist.

"I wouldn't put too much on what happened here,'' said Warriors coach Don Nelson, standing in the hallway next to me holding a beer while I was holding the stat sheet, thus giving him the upper hand.

Nelson realized in the opening three minutes that his team was flatter than ale from a bathtub. He tried to shake it up by calling a couple of timeouts early in the first quarter, but the Warriors were passively determined to lose 109-91 to Portland and there was no way to change it.

"There was just nothing there,'' he said. "It's not the worst thing in the world. It's hard to accept, but I think I've got to put this one behind me.'' At that moment, for emphasis, he could have downed the beer in one big gulp, which I'm sure he's capable of doing. But discipline was shown.

I congratulated Nelson for limiting Davis to 14 minutes amid concerns that he has been playing far too much recently.

"That's a good way to do it,'' the coach said as he walked away before mumbling something I couldn't hear. So I asked a fellow reporter. "He said, 'Next time he can coach the ---damn game,' '' he reported.

I think Nellie was referring to Baron, saying that next time he spends roughly three quarters on the bench, he can do some coaching too. But I wouldn't put too much on what happened there, because Nellie is prone to make jokes. Neither will I change my opinion that Davis is an All-Star. He's still averaging 21.9 points (No. 13 in the league), 8.0 assists (No. 7) and 2.3 steals (No. 2) in 38.9 minutes (No. 12) for the Warriors, who have gone 19-10 since Stephen Jackson's return from a season-opening suspension of seven games.

Of course, that run has been trumped by the relentless Blazers, who have now won 17 of their last 18, including 12 straight at home. In the meantime, Davis was coming off seven games in which he'd averaged 43 minutes of work, culminating in an OT win Monday against the Spurs when he was good for 34 points, 14 assists and no turnovers (another simple ratio) in 48 minutes that essentially ruined him for this game.

"It seemed like they were playing by themselves,'' Davis said of the Blazers as he dressed afterward.

A game like this serves odd proof of just how much the Warriors are asking of Davis this season, and just how hard he has to work to fill the orders. He plays like a fighter who wins by throwing knockout punches, but the knockouts don't come early. His oppressive style requires him to throw one roundhouse after another until either he or they succumb in the late rounds. It's as entertaining as it is enervating.

The Warriors can't afford to keep playing Davis big minutes, and they can't afford to bench him. Among point guards, he is a big, gifted bully who can force his way past any defender -- only to find two or three bigger bullies converging to waste their fouls on him. That's why Davis has been trying to adapt his game by avoiding the physical confrontations until the fourth quarter, as well as a few other times here and there when his team really needs him to mix it up. This is what he has learned after missing 130 games over the previous five years.

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