Here's todays sports highlights...

-In the biggest game of the year, the Warriors stepped up and beat on the Indiana Pacers with ex-Pacer Stephen Jackson leading the way. What does it all mean? ...

If you were born after 1994 you have no idea what it's like. If you're a long-time fan, you might have a hazy, vague recollection of it. If you come from places like Los Angeles, Chicago, or Miami, you desperately miss it. We're talking a big game -- more specifically, a Warriors big game. An important game. A game that means something besides wrapping up a Lottery pick or nudging out Seattle or Memphis for the 11th overall spot in the Western Conference.

Tonight the Warriors play the Indiana Pacers in their biggest, most important game of this season or possibly the last 10 seasons. If the Dubs win, their slight hopes for the last playoff spot in the WC remain on life support; if they lose, consider the plug pulled on yet another failed season.

In all honesty, we didn't care who won or lost last night, but towards the end of the game, we found ourselves rooting for the Bears mainly because we started feeling bad for Rex Grossman. He was playing such an awful game that we took pity on him. You know how in all the sports movies, there's always that dorky, unathletic kid who that nobody wants on their team but they always wind up being the hero? That was Rex. He was like Lupus in the Bad News Bears. How could you not root for him? But sadly, he didn't wind up being the hero....

Last night, we went to last night's Warriors/Cavs game, a game the Warriors lost in overtime. Now, we'll let Basketball Chris do the analysis and post-game wrap up, but we wanted to make an observation of our own. Mainly, that we went to see Lebron and we were disappointed. But not surprised. ...

You can exhale Warriors fans, there is hope. The universe works in mysterious ways, and yesterday, it worked for the Warriors.

Just when the flagging team needed it, on a day when they could only suit up seven players in a loss to the Clippers (as predicted by our LAist comrades), the Warriors announced that they had pulled off an almost unbelievable eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers. And there is more good news. Some how, some way, VP of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin convinced his Indiana counterpart, Larry Bird, to take Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy. That's right! The Warriors unloaded both baby Duns and Man-o-War in one fell swoop. And it keeps getting better. In return, Mullin snagged Al Harrington to help bolster the frontcourt lineup and guard Stephen Jackson to, uh, help with the police lineup. Both teams also threw in a couple of redshirts to level out the financials and collective bargaining requirements, but even the redshirts are looking good.

Ding-ding! NBA fans, lehhhhhhhhht's get ready to ruuuuuummmmm-bbbbllllllllllllle -- again.

Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, the most famous boxing arena in the world, the NY Knicks and Denver Nuggets set upon each other in the squared rectangle for what snarky bloggers and snide sportswriters have billed as the Throwdown in Showtown.

Pacers 108 Warriors 106: In detailing the game, the Chron's Janny Hu actually uses the word "upset" to describe the Warriors loss. Now when was the last time those words have ever been said about a Warriors loss? Probably sometime last century. In this game, Al Harrington (who Chris Mullin tried to get in the off-season) sunk a last second three pointer to lead the Pacers over Golden State. ...

San Francisco seems a little darker this week, with the passing of former Chronicle photo editor Bob McLeod this Monday. This SFist only knew Bob a little bit. Our most vivid memory of him is from a night we spent in the Chronicle building, the night the Pacers and Pistons got into it. We were hanging out in the photo lab (which we're prone to do), watching the fight and subsequent replays of it......

SFist is broke from the combined evils of holiday excess and rent. We're keeping ourselves entertained on the cheap by reserving books online from the SF Public Library. When we're back to feeling flush, we'll be buying books from our great local independent bookstores. SFist Rita just finished The Punch, about the fight between NBA players Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich back in 1977 where Washington almost killed Tomjanovich on the court. She figured......

Being Jewish, we made our peace with not celebrating the holidays a long time ago. Frankly, it’s kind of fun to be around the city during Christmas- there’s nobody around and it’s all sorts of peacefull and quiet. Best part of the holidays is that since nobody is around, if you feel like not wanting to do anything for three days other than lie around in your underwear eating nachos and watching football (or,......