-- Black Francis: Hefty former lead signer of the Pixies gets the Gen Xers up on their feet tonight, along with Eastern Conference Champions, starting at 9:30 p.m. at Cafe Du Nord; $20. more ›

The embattled Warriors came shuffling into Monday night's game down in the dumps like a pair of sunglasses in a pit toilet.

They had a cancerous six-game losing streak.

They were winless thus far on an abysmal road trip.

They were nine games under .500, going up against the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons, on the road.

They carried the second-worst road record in the entire Association, a pitiful 6-25.

They had won only once all season in the second game of back-to-backs.

They had never, ever won in the Palace of Auburn Hills.

While losing to the Shaq-led Miami Heat 98-91 isn't that much of an embarrassment, it being the Warriors' seventh loss in a row is. It's especially disappointing in that not to long ago, back in those halcyon days of late 2004, the Warriors had gone on a four-game winning streak and were making people think that maybe Chris Mullin knew what he was doing. Considering that at that point, the Warriors were about to go play a bunch of lesser-lights in the lesser-light Eastern Conference (the Joey Fatone Conference to the Western Conference's Justin Timberlake), people were even getting gosh darn excited about the Warriors' chances. Those were the days. Even worse is that in three out of the seven games in the losing streak, the Warriors actually were close at half-time, only to come out of the locker-room so refreshed and energized that they were blown out the moment the horn started. more ›