IF the Warriors take the championship tonight in Cleveland, any number of things could happen in Oakland and San Francisco as revelers spill out into the streets — and this might be a time to note how much more popular basketball is, as a sport, than, say, baseball. Yes, the Dubs have a shot at winning the NBA finals, and on both sides of the bay people are going to be watching in bars, restaurants, and living rooms, and preparing for the now time-honored tradition of shooting off homemade fireworks, high-fiving strangers on sidewalks, and possibly lighting a trash can or abandoned sofa on fire, if they win.

The SFPD is prepared to deploy crowd-control officers in the predictably "celebratory locations" of Polk Street, SoMa, the Marina, and the Mission, according to the Chron, with spokesman Carlos Manfredi saying, "We already know how to do it... this isn't our first rodeo." Controlling the crowd will also entail some street sweepers with their hoses, per usual.

Over in Oakland, it's an open question whether Mayor Schaaf will be trying (futilely) to corral people onto sidewalks as she and the OPD have recently tried to do to curb vandalism and chaos during nighttime demonstrations. And Oakland City Councilmember Lynette McElhaney basically conflates all mayhem, be it political or sports-related, and tells CBS 5 that troublemakers should just "stay home," especially if they're carpetbagger anarchists. "A number of people who get arrested here for creating havoc have addresses elsewhere, and so we say, keep your misery in your own community," she says wearily. McElhaney did decide to postpone tonight's Council meeting so that people wouldn't have to "choose between civic engagement and a historic basketball game," per the Chron.

Some downtown Oakland businesses, meanwhile, are boarding themselves up in preparation for whatever may come.

Seriously, though, the Bay Area has had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to major sports wins or near-wins in this half decade, beginning with the Giants' historic World Series title in 2010. But the tradition of vandalism and generally going nuts the streets goes back to the 2003 Oakland Raiders' Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay, after which Oaklanders basically rioted and made fools of themselves on national television, setting cars on fire, looting, and all that.

Then came the 2012 World Series, when the Giants won after a hard-won fight, and the mayhem across San Francisco included a huge bonfire in the Mission, and a Muni bus being senselessly smashed up for fun.

49ers fans neglected to riot when the Niners lost in 2013 by three points. And the 2014 World Series victory party, by comparison, was fairly tame and the cops decided to hold back a bit in the Mission hoping that people would just get the revelry out of their system and only set things on fire along Mission Street itself. There was, however, some stray gunfire, and some dancing atop a Muni bus downtown.

In the event that the Warriors somehow do not clinch it tonight, tensions will rise and the stage will be set for an even sweeter victory, in their home arena, on Friday.