(By e.Chang)

Currently: 19-13 (.594); 7th Place in the Western Conference

Last Week:
at Denver (WON)
Clippers (WON)
Suns (WON)

This Week:
Sun: at Cleveland (WON
Tue: at Orlando
Thu: at Miami
Fri: at Atlanta

Now that’s more like it. Five of the last five, six of the last seven. For the first time since November 18, the Warriors have strung together more than two victories in a row and are on a legitimate hot streak. Is six straight wins in the cards for the Dubs? They haven’t done it in six years. (Reverse jinx).

*****

When a team is a perennial loser, no one considers them a rival—for there to be a true rivalry, there has to be something for which to fight. And in California, a rivalry needs a good old fashioned NorCal/SoCal divide. Giants v. Dodgers is the classic California rivalry. The Niners and the L.A. Rams, back in the day. For far too long, the Dubs were nobody’s rival—they were just fodder. The same was true for the L.A. Clippers.

Not anymore.

These two teams have experienced nearly parallel rises from the cellar to the rooftops of the Western Conference and each team wants to push the other off the edge. Both sides will deny it, but there is a budding hatred between the Dubs and the Clips and we’re all the better for it. Elbows get thrown, players get ejected, and more often than not, Warriors’ center Andrew Bogut can be found in the middle of it all. And no, he’s not there to break things up—he’s there instigating it all. For a team perceived to be a small, run-and-shoot perimeter team, Bogut is the rough edge under the basket. And he was just that on Christmas day against the Clippers. Bogut mixed it up with Kia spokesman Blake Griffin and got him ejected from the game. After the Warriors snagged a victory, the two teams got into it in the tunnels to the locker rooms. It was a very merry Christmas.

*****

I asked my buddy Jose, who works at Playstation, if Steph Curry is, in fact, playing a video game. He confirmed that it was true. If Steph has only one man on him, he’ll score 30. Put two on him, he’ll have 15 assists and someone else will score 30. And just for fun, sometimes he’ll pull down 13 rebounds because why not? Steph recorded a triple-double against the Phoenix Suns last Friday. His shooting was terrible, but everything else was beyond. He had no business getting those aforementioned 13 rebounds, but then again, he is playing the association like a video game on easy mode.

*****

The Warriors play their second game of a seven-game road trip today. Normally, a seven-game road trip would be an ordeal, but take a look at the schedule: all East Coast teams. That’s like an apple pie on a cheesecake on an It’s It. Soooo tasty.

Game of the week: Warriors at the Miami Heat on Thursday.

Happy New Year, everybody!