The Golden State Warriors: It's Fun to Have Fun
It's been a long hard slog, these last 11 years, for Warriors fans. More than a decade of the pitiful records and the NBA irrelevancy, the SportsCenter jokes and the lack of league respect. Were it not for the even greater haplessness of the Los Angeles Clippers, this franchise would be the laughingstock of the league (For example, Yo mama's so stupid, she went to a Clippers game to get her hair cut.). Even the historically woeful Clips have more celebrity fans (#32) than our pedestrian little War-hams.
All that baggage and disappointment disappeared for a few hours this past Sunday afternoon when the second-place Warriors squared off against the first-place Clippers. It was a head-to-head matchup of two good teams, with the outcome anybody's guess. A proving ground for the rest of the season, with respect and confidence as the spoils.
Listening to the pre-game show on KNBR 680 radio, there was a palpable sense of excitement crackling over the air waves. Announcers Tim Roye and Jim Barnett spoke just a little faster and maybe an octave higher. The pregame interviewees sounded overnaturally excited for a game in the middle of November between two traditional dogs.
SFist "Truthmaker" Chris Contributing
But this ain't your older brother's Pacific Division any more. It's like we're reading the sports page upside down or something. This is the bizarro PD; this is thunderdome; this is karma coming around; this is about freaking time! We've suffered so long.
Leading up to game time, the feel of a college rivalry hung in the sweet autumnal air. The early afternoon start time. The roaring crowd. You could practically hear the pep band playing "Louie Louie". This was one of those games where the preceding hours are even more exciting than the game itself -- the expectation of excitement.
Maybe if you're a Lakers fan (sneer when you say that) or a Spurs fan or a Pistons fan, this game was beneath you. But for a Warriors fan, this match-up had that exciting little itch behind it. For a franchise waiting for anything to get excited about, here it was. It seemed to matter to the talking heads; it seemed to matter to the fans; it even seemed to matter to the players. Everybody was jacked. Rare for an NBA game in November, especially one involving the Warriors and Clippers.
The Warriors lost. They could have played better, but they comported themselves well enough by showing heart throughout the game. There were flashes of brilliance, such as JRich's 360 dunk, but their three-point shooting was horrid and other than one nice Troy Murphy crossover and drive down the lane for a very Tom Chambers-like two-hand rim crusher, the front court got eaten alive. The game got away from them in the third quarter, but the War-hoos hung tough and pulled it back to within six points later in the fourth quarter before finally succumbing to the effects of some ill-advised and ill-aimed treys. The Warriors actually outscored the Toe Clippers 22 to 19 in the last quarter.
Even coming off this loss, the tribe is pumped. Looking ahead to playing eight games out of nine at home over the next three weeks, the faithful are counting on a 6-3 record during that stretch to put the Warriors at 12-8 before heading off on a brutal East Coast swing.
Regardless, Sunday's game was one to plan the weekend around. This was a game to invite the crew over. This was a game to go nuts on fast food and beer and chips and ice cream. This was a game to enjoy just for its very being. No pressure, no expectations, just adrenaline and excitement. It felt good.
This game can be the start of a new tradition for the Warriors, and the Clippers too. Fans and players on both sides got a taste of what being competitive in the NBA feels like -- and it was fun.