While watching the Golden State Warriors shellacking of the T-Wolves last night, I had to keep reminding myself to keep things in perspective:

It’s just one game.

The T-Wolves are horrendous.

We still can’t rebound.

It’s just one game.

Even as I tried, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the performance Golden State put up in their 146-105 victory at Oracle Arena on Monday. For a team that has spent recent weeks and months distracted by the Captain Jack saga, the Warriors showed amazing chemistry last night. They executed the fast break to perfection, kept the crowd in the game, and believe it or not actually played some defense! Their 22 steals was the most since the Run T-M-C days.

A few more thoughts from the victory:

- Kelenna Azubuike deserves every second of playing time that he is getting. Yes, his 31 points were a season high, but he has been playing like an NBA starter in almost every game this season. He plays with passion and has shown he can knock down all sorts of outside shots. According to this piece by Rusty Simmons, Nelson plans to leave Azubuike in the starting lineup, which is absolutely the right move.

- For whatever reason, Stephen Jackson clearly changed his approach against the T-Wolves. You don’t suddenly jump from 2 assists per game to 15 without some kind of adjustment in approach. I don’t think it has anything to do with the quality of opponent, otherwise we might have seen a similar performance against the Kings and/or Clippers. I’m also guessing that Don Nelson didn’t sit him down and ask him to pass the ball more (although I’d pay good money to hear Cap’n Jack response to that request). Rather, I think this could be Jackson’s way of showing other teams out there that he’s still got something to contribute to a contender. If he wants to be traded to the Cavs, he’s got to show them that he can be a team player.

- Can the Warriors survive without a true center? I think so, at least for the upcoming road trip. In the next five games, only the Shaq/Ilgauskas pair will clearly dominate against the smaller Warriors lineup. We all know the Warriors are going to be outrebounded. I would be surprised if they out-rebound a team in any game this season. For the long-haul, this team needs Andris Biedrins to grab some boards, but I like the matchups against Indiana, Milwaukee, and the Knicks with Jackson, Azubuike, Ellis, Curry and Randolph/Mikki Moore.

- Even in light of a promising blow-out victory, Head Coach Don Nelson continued his pessimism in the post-game press conference, pointing out that both of the Warriors wins have come against struggling teams. Couldn’t he put some kind of positive spin on it to encourage the Warriors fans out there?

Golden State Warriors: 2-4. It should be interesting to see whether this game signals the start of a run, or is an outlier in an otherwise dreadful beginning.