Monta Ellis scored 36 points Monday evening in the Warriors’ 114-97 defeat of Da Bulls, the 6th time in his previous 8 contests the Golden State shooting guard had topped 30 or more.  Rather than tout Monta’s candidacy for the Western Conference All-Star team, the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami says of Ellis and teammate in artificially-enhanced PPG Corey Maggette, “who else is going to shoot?”

With the current roster situation, Ellis and Maggette can™t yanked off the floor for low-effort defense. I know, that™s a theoretical, since Don Nelson never pays attention to defense, anyway¦

The Top Two can™t get de-emphasized if they commit a rash of turnovers. They™re out there for however long they can stand up straight or stay out of foul trouble.

If Ellis had better teammates and was on a winning team, he™d properly have to defer more, take fewer shots, and possibly score a LOT less. A winning team wouldn™t ˜want him taking all those shots and if he took all those shots the team wouldn™t win as much.

You think he™s actually the sixth-best scorer in the NBA? Or is he about the 12th-best scorer who happens to be getting the first-most opportunities to try to score, resulting in the sixth-highest scoring average?