Nelson ready to give Ellis more time

OAKLAND - Now you're going to learn something about player/coach relations in the National Basketball Association. It starts with a scene.

On Thursday, Warriors guard Monta Ellis was standing in the middle of the floor, a blank expression on his young face. Nothing new about that. He generally maintains a blank, unreadable expression. It's just that Ellis, the Most Improved Player in the league for the 2006-2007 season, isn't improving in these playoffs.

He's regressing, playing tight and worried, playing like the young kid he is.

Coach Don Nelson has taken away most of his minutes and, all in all, Ellis' lack of poise is hurting the team. Ellis said Nelson has not talked to him, not taken him aside and given him an Atta Boy. Nothing like that. It seems peculiar, a veteran coach like Nelson not building up his player's confidence.

I walked over to Nelson to get the scoop. He was seated in a highchair, one of those chairs you put the dunce in at school, except Nelson is no dunce. He's shrewder than you and me, and he was in full "Nellie" mode, which meant he was folksy and jovial.

You half expected him to whip out a hunk of wood and a penknife and start whittling right there in the gym.

"Monta says you haven't talked to him," I said.

"That's right," Nelson said.

I was surprised with such honesty.

"I know I can't give him the minutes," he said. "So I talk to him through my assistants. They take him to dinner, encourage him. It's done as a staff. When the head coach talks to a guy, you've got to give him the minutes. I'm not prepared to make that promise. Maybe now I will. I need him to play 18 to 20 minutes."

I don't know about you, but I like what Nelson is doing -- this freezing out by a coach as a message, as a challenge. Professional athletes must face hard times or they remain soft, and Nelson is making it hard for this kid.

When I told Ellis that Nelson will give him more minutes tonight against the Jazz, he said, "I love Coach for saying that."

He really seemed to be deeply in love at that moment. He seemed happier than Wednesday night when Nelson yanked him and he sat on the bench punching himself in the head.

"I was frustrated," he said. "I want to be on the court so badly."

Ellis' problem is symbolic of the Warriors' problems against Utah. Ellis is a small guard who's getting pushed around, and the Warriors, a team of shrimps, are facing the outer limits of what we've affectionately come to call "small ball."

Small ball involves playing a lot of little fast guys who scoot around like hopped-up squirrels and cause all kinds of match-up difficulties for the opponent. Big guys aren't used to running after little guys. And big guys are often slow and pokey.

But small ball is a desperate strategy -- call it un-basketball. A coach like Nelson uses it because he doesn't have the real stuff, good big forwards and centers who do what good big forwards and centers do.

The Jazz are creaming the Warriors on the boards -- sometimes it seems like the big kids playing against their little brothers. And the Jazz are scoring so many points near the basket, driving right into the teeth of the Warriors' defense where the small-ball Warriors can't stop them. Utah's strengths clearly are the Warriors' weaknesses.

"The bottom line," Nelson said, "is they are bigger, tougher, stronger inside than we are."

Stephen Jackson knows that. When he flew home after Wednesday's game, he stayed up until 50 in the morning watching the game again and again, and remembering the fierce loud crowd in Salt Lake. He is known for his hot temper, especially in the midst of competition.

"I was surprised, playing in Utah and hearing all the stuff I heard, that I didn't get a technical," he said.

Lack of size isn't Nelson's only problem. He has committed himself to eight players. Period. Because Ellis isn't carrying his load and because Mickael Pietrus isn't doing much better, Nelson almost is reduced to a six-man rotation. (At practice on Thursday, Nelson walked over to Pietrus and cupped his hand on the back of Pietrus' head, then patted his shoulder.) Six is a very small rotation, and it makes those six tired. You could see how pooped Baron Davis was Wednesday from playing so much, Davis missing a free throw that could have won the game.

"I'm not going to expand my rotation (from eight)," Nelson said. "They're going to have to perform. If they don't, we have a problem. We're not going to win."

Oh, that topic, winning. Kind of important. Well, here's the crazy thing. Wednesday, the Warriors got outrebounded almost 2-1, and they should have won, absolutely had the game wrapped up. You could argue the young Warriors don't know how to close out an opponent, but that's not true. They knew how to close out Dallas. They won't give in to Utah.

This series could be two-zip in the Warriors' favor -- maybe it should be. The Jazz are not a great road team, and they will have trouble in Oakland. Expect the Warriors to run them out of the arena in at least one of these home games, and don't be surprised if the Warriors win the next two at home.

This series will not be straightforward, easy or predictable. Many twists, detours and unexplored roads await both teams.Lowell Cohn can be reached at lowell.cohn@press democrat.com or 521-5486.