Warriors forward Troy Murphy sustained a hairline fracture in his left thumb Friday and did not dress for Saturday's game against the Clippers.

Murphy said the injury occurred when he went up for a rebound in the third quarter and caught a Sonics player who was on his way down.

Murphy stayed in the game and finished with 13 points and nine rebounds in 32 minutes.

Warriors officials said Murphy will be re-evaluated early this week after the team returns to Oakland. He had his swollen and purple thumb immersed in an ice bath prior to the Clippers game.

Brian Scalabrine was given a rare start on Wednesday night in Oakland and responded by scoring a career-high 29 points.  He also grabbed 10 rebounds, as the Nets pounded the Warriors 113-99.

``That was probably the first time in the NBA that I've ever been in a zone where I felt like everything I put up was going in,'' the fourth-year pro said. ``If you just get going like that, the basket gets really big.''

The majority of Scalabrine's points came against the overmatched Mike Dunleavy.

``I was joking with Jason after the game, because we might have to call him (Scalavbrine) Wally Pipp,'' New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank said. ``His first-quarter energy really set the tone. He was all over the place.''

LeBron James had his second triple-double in three games, getting 28 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 105-87 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.

Jason Richardson scored 22 points for the losing Warriors.

The Mavericks scored an amazing 137 points, the most so far this season.  They had four players score at least 25 points, the first time a team has done that since the 1990 Golden State Warriors.

"It was the good, the bad and the ugly," Nelson said. "It's hard to play with a 30-point lead in the NBA. I guess you should assume people are going to make a run at you. ...We were beautiful in the first half and then got caught up in a rag-tag kind of game and didn't handle it very well."

Troy Murphy, the double-double machine of the Golden State Warriors, currently ranks fourth in rebounding (11.6 rpg) and second in three-point field goal percentage (.482).

Should he be able to sustain these numbers through the remainder of the season he'll join the likes of Larry Bird, who, according to the NBA, is the only other player to accomplish such a feat for a season, doing so three times (1979-80, 1984-85, 1985-86).

If there was any doubt about who the Warriors? best player and leader was, there shouldn?t be now. In the last five games with Jason Richardson in the lineup, the Warriors have won. In the nine without him, they lost. That?s the definition of valuable.

In his first game back after the ankle injury, Richardson scored a career-high 42 points to go along with eight assists and superb defense in a win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday ? on national television.

Perhaps the biggest compliment anyone could give about Richardson?s performance was by Nuggets coach Michael Cooper, one of the greatest defenders to ever play.

?I think in my prime it would have been difficult to stop that young man tonight,'' Cooper said after the game.

One game certainly doesn?t solve the Warriors? problems. After all they are 12-27 and going nowhere this season. Any realistic person would know that they have no chance at the playoffs this year. They looked pathetic during the losing streak and barely managed to stay competitive.

The Denver Nuggets will be forced to play the Warriors without three post players because of suspensions for fighting.

The NBA levied suspensions against Nene, Marcus Camby and Francisco Elson for their roles in Friday's fight with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Nene and Minnesota center Michael Olowokandi each received four-game suspensions. For Camby and Elson, the suspensions were for one game.

"I would think that given the climate right now that is in the NBA, the NBA has made it very clear that it's not going to tolerate fighting," said Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe. "Obviously, I don't want to lose Nene for any more games than is absolutely necessary ... I thought he would get at least two games."

The Sonics moved to 26-9 while the warriors slumped to 11-26 in last nights matchup between the two West Coast teams.  The battle between these two RealGM staff picks ended in a quasi-route despite the 27 points delivered by Warriors Guard Speedy Claxton.

Young Sonics? coach Nate McMillan expressed only empathy for what Warrior?s rookie coach Mike Montgomery is going through.

"I talked to Mike before the game," he said. "He's learning about the NBA, the adjustments you have to make. Basically, this is a year of just experimenting to see what he can do and what he likes."

This match up was a far cry from last years battles that saw Golden State take four games from the lowly 2003-2004 Sonics.

The Golden State Warriors have activated center Dale Davis from the injured list prior to this evening's game at Seattle, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin announced today. In a related move, the team also placed center Andris Biedrins on the injured list with a strained left hamstring.

Davis, who was placed on the injured list on January 5, has missed the last five games with back soreness. Davis has appeared in 20 games (four starts), averaging 2.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in 14.9 minutes.

Biedrins has appeared in four games this season, averaging 1.5 points in 5.3 minutes per contest. The 18-year-old rookie became the youngest player in team history to play in a game when he made his NBA debut on November 5 versus Utah.  He is currently the youngest player in the NBA.

With Shaq visiting Oakland on Wednesday, he indicated that he knew Golden State had interest in acquiring him before he left the Lakers.

"It's not that I didn't want to be here," he said. "They didn't move fast enough. I wanted to be traded that day."

The rumored deal for O'Neal involved Nick Van Exel, Cliff Robinson, Mike Dunleavy and Mickael Pietrus.