Jesus fucking goddamned Christ. The Golden State Warriors are down 2-1 in the Western Conference Semifinals after Saturday night’s ugly 99-89 loss to Memphis that ensures two more days of the Grizzlies being praised with ‘grit’ and ‘grind’ related superlatives. This is by far the most uncomfortable development in the Warriors’ storybook 2014-15 NBA season, as Memphis never gave up the sizable lead they took in the second quarter on their home court.

We are not in New Orleans anymore.

Memphis expertly executed its unentertaining, grit-and-grind strategy to beat the Warriors for the second straight game. Memphis’ celebrated mask-wearing point guard Mike Conley was actually rendered ineffective (11 points, 0 rebounds), but their large men Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol manhandled the Warriors and combined for 43 points and 23 rebounds.

Golden State was bad from the free-throw line (19-28, missing 9 shots) and pitiful from three-point range (6-26, 23.1%). At one point the Dubs missed 7 consecutive three-point shots, in what ABC’s Doris Burke rightly called “the little things, the collective playoff inexperience” that has Golden State suddenly choking. Stephen Curry remains in his ice-cold slump since being awarded the MVP trophy on Tuesday and was an awful 2-10 from downtown. His evening went something like this:

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The Warriors’ current predicament may seem daunting and fatal. It is not. All four higher-seeded teams are currently down 2-1 in their respective series, with Cleveland-Chicago scheduled for 12:30 p.m. today and Houston-Los Angeles at 5:30 this evening. It is a perfectly normal blip for an NBA playoff team to briefly go down 2-1 in a series and then still win the series (see the Clippers, Los Angeles, Round 1).

But the Warriors are in more trouble right now than the Cavaliers, Rockets or Hawks, by virtue of being the favorites to win the NBA title. That's a different kind of pressure cooker in which a team is expected to never be down in a series or face a do-or-die scenario in Game 4 of the second round. The Warriors face a do-or-die scenario in Game 4 Monday (6:30 p.m., TNT)

The Warriors have not lost three straight games all season long. If they lose a third consecutive game Monday night, this storybook season may soon be over.