Blazers 105 Warriors 95- See what happens when everyone gets all giddy after beating the Spurs? They lose to the Trail Blazers. If you want to feel better, for those of you who haven't read this yet, check out J.A. Adande's story on the Warriors on ESPN.com. Money quote:

Think about what life would be like if the world operated under the same principles as the Golden State Warriors. Hot fudge sundaes would be nutritious and help you lose weight. Whale-sized sport-utility vehicles would get 50 miles per gallon. "I Love New York" would be up for an Emmy... The thing about the Warriors is they make no sense

-Hey, the Giants signed somebody, Aaron Rowand, who was signed for five years and $60 million bucks. This after being named as possible suitors of every possible free agent and signing absolutely none of them. Rowand's not bad-- he's a pretty decent hitter-- but is known mainly for running into a fence and breaking his nose trying to catch a ball. We're guessing Sabes is thinking the old axiom that you need strong defense up the middle and Rowand is some strong defense up the middle. He is also known as "Gamer," for what’s that worth. The good thing is that with six outfielders on the roster already, they have another one. Who doesn't like an an entire team of outfielders? Still, we're holding our fire on this signing as we don't think it's the only move they'll make, just the first in a long series of moves to make the team halfway decent. They will make those moves, right? Right?

Anyways, if you want to read to really good articles about the mess the Giants have made for themselves, check out Ann Killion and Tim Kawakami's articles in the Merc.

Man, what a big game that Steelers/Pats game was supposed to be. We woke up yesterday morning looking forward to sitting down and watching us some really good football between two really good games only to discover that the game wasn't on because due to the NFL's stupid rules about TV games, we were forced to watch…

Vikings 27 49ers 7- Seriously, there's something wrong about the fact the NFL forces everyone to have to watch this crap. Shouldn't they at least create some sort of Mercy Rule that says that if a team has only three wins and they're down by around 20 at halftime that we should be allowed to watch other games? Okay, yes, the Niners held Adrian Peterson to almost zero yards, but they lost mainly because they gave up ten points on five turnovers, a dangerous proposition when you can't score. They also gave up an 84 yard run by Chester Taylor that looked like at least five or six Niners had a chance to tackle him but nobody could. And now Dilfer's down and Alex Smith is either healthy or about to have season-ending surgery and one of the most historically inept offenses in NFL history could be possibly led by the third string QB. This franchise is shite.

Warriors 103 Kings 96- Yawn, another day, another Warriors win. And when was the last time somebody said anything like that? The Warriors had to earn this game as they were down by two with a little over a minute left and rallied with Stephen Jackson nailing two three pointers in a 20 second span. He really does make a difference, doesn't he? Let's hope he stays away from the strip clubs. Anyways, Golden State is now .500 at 7-7 and now has more victories going than the Raiders and 49ers combined.

Kings 3 Sharks 2- Hey, look, the Sharks (remember them?) played a Kings too but the one from LA and not Sacramento. And unlike the Warriors, they lost, losing in a shoot out. The Kings may be a lousy, lousy team, but they seem to have a big enough boat as it's their third victory at San Jose's expense. That's about a third of their victories at this point. Ouch.

-Hey, using young pitchers as trade bait just ain't for the Giants either-- reports out there say that the A's Danny Haren and Joe Blanton are being dangled in front of the usual slathering big market teams, mainly the New York Metropolitans. ESPN's Buster Olney has actually been throwing out the idea that Haren is actually a better deal than Johan Santana. He's cheaper, younger, has years left on his contract, and has the makings of being almost Santana-like.

And on that note, the purported reason for why Beane is shopping around two of his aces is because after looking out and seeing the Giants, 49ers, and Raiders stink up the joint, he’s decided that he’s all in on joining them and is nipping at the bud to begin yet another rebuilding process. Sigh.

This actually happened to us-- we were walking down 16th street wearing our trusty baggy Giants sweatshirt (we like our sweatshirts baggy) when we walked past a homeless guy who actually said, "I like your sweatshirt. It looks good on someone as big as you."

Yes, some homeless guy called us fat. Needless to say, we did not give him any spare change.

Warriors 129 Suns 114- So the Phoenix Suns, a team that many pick to win the title this year and a team that was possibly one horrendous David Stern judgment from winning the title last year, came into the Oracle riding an eight game winning streak. So what happened? The Warriors whumped 'em. Monta Ellis had 31 points, including 15 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, and Stephen Jackson had 32 to beat PHX. The Warriors have now won six out of seven, leading to the inevitable joke about how they've totaled the amount of victories of both football teams, but as everyone's in a good mood about football, we'll leave it better off alone.

-It looks like the Raiders victory over the Chiefs is going to delay the Coming of JaMarcus at least a week as "Long Balls" Lane Kiffin has already announced Duante as the starting QB next week against the Broncos. We're not sure what the point of all this is either, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Raiders are technically only three games behind division leading San Diego.

-Is Sabean going to trade Tim the Enchanter for Miguel Cabrera? Were the A's really interested in Barry before the whole indictment thing? Read it for yourself.

Image by Jose Carlos Fajardo of the Contra Costa Times.

-With tonight's 108-82 win against the running joke that is the New York Knicks (seriously, what does it take to get fired in that organization?), the Warriors have now won three in a row and are one game from totaling the amount of wins our local football teams have. The Beard led the way with 31 points, seven assists and six rebounds and Stephen Jackson got 23 points. For the Knicks, Starbury played his first game of the season showing that blackmail does work

-According to reports, Al Davis stepped out of his cryogenic chamber once again to announce that he won't retire until the Raiders win two more Superbowls, which at this rate will be, what, in the year 2525? He'll probably still be alive then anyways. Davis also said it wasn't his idea to trade Randy Moss but his coaches. We bet the rest of the NFL is wishing Al didn’t listen to his coaches.

-Anne Killion of the Merc has been throwing darts at Mike Nolan ever since Sunday and is saying that the best thing the Niners could do is to say buh-bye to their coach. She think's that it's not that he has too much responsibility, as others think, and that's what is making him a lousy coach-- he's just a lousy coach. And it's not just he's a lousy game-day coach (see last Sunday and the infamous field goal) but that the whole thing with Alex Smith (was he healthy? Was he fine? Is Zeppelin really touring next year?) shows that he's just not good at the whole communicating thing either. There's more to it but after reading both columns, all we can say is ouch. The Niners, btw, hired Ted Tollner as an offensive assistant. We don't know what means either.

-And finally, is the Enchanter trade bait? Nooooooooo!

OK, so we've got some new and intriguing faces like Marco Belinelli, Brandan Wright, and Stephen Lasme joining returning favorites like Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, and Andris Biedrins to give coach Don Nelson's player-friendly up-tempo small ball another go. Basically, more of the same for the Warriors this year.

Nellie has some new pieces to play with but it's his same old game plan, so we pretty much know where the Ws will land this year. Based on the weakening of the Western Conference over the offseason and the anticipated emergence of exciting players like Belinelli and Kelanna Azubuike, we look for the Warriors to improve on last year's 42-win season. Gazing into our eerily reliable crystal ball, we see 48 wins this year for the double-u's, good enough for second in the Pacific Division and the six seed in the WC.

Photo from unbeknownst.net

Attrition has been one of the Warriors' best pickups this offeseason. While the Warriors have taken some baby steps forward, many of the Western Conference rivals have been moving in the opposite direction.

When looking at the Warriors chances to make the playoffs this year, it runs from the bottom up.

• 15. Minnesota -- Congratulations Kevin McHale, after trading franchise keystone Kevin Garnett, your team is officially irrelevant for years to come.

• 14. Sacto -- Until the Kings move perpetually troubled Ron Artest this team will be mired in the delta blues. It's the first of many rebuilding years in the capitol city.

• 13.Memphis -- Quick, name one player on the Grizzlies. Just one. Any one. Exactly. Next.

Look, we love the 90s as much as anyone. We loved the Smashing Pumpkins and the whole grunge thing and we loved Pubic Enemy and watching "BH 9'er" and "Melrose Place" back-to-back and we loved being in our twenties and partying all night in our tiny apartment in North Beach and actually being able to dream of a Democratic President. But as much as we love the idea of those days, we also realize we can't go back to them. Among other things, it's pretty much near impossible as we don't have a space ship we can slingshot around the sun with. And second of all, we're old enough to realize that, as a wise man once said, you can't go home again.

Which brings us back to the Warriors who this morning fired Mike Montgomery and re-hired Don Nelson. That Don Nelson. You know, crazy, eccentric, mad-genius basketball coach known for employing smallish lineups with an emphasis on scoring and well-known inability to go anywhere in the playoffs. That Don Nelson. The Don Nelson who helmed the last hey-day of the Warriors, the RUN-TMC Warriors. The one who accidentally started the whole free-fall downfall of the franchise when he got into it with Chris Webber. And yes, the one who coached the Mavs and couldn't take them to the Finals until he retired and handed the team over to Avery Johnson.

This has to be considered a bit of a shock and that's an understatement. Nelson seemed to be happily enjoying his retirement in Hawaii and going to the Oscars with Mark Cuban. And Mully seemed to be happy with Montgomery. Then there were all those Larry Brown rumors out there (say this for Larry, his teams do make it to the Finals). This is probably the last thing anyone expected. But on the other hand, Mullin seems to be kind of building a Warriors team that resembles Run-TMC as if it's the only style of play he knows.

Has anyone checked the water around here lately because something seems to be going around.