WARRIORS DO IT BACKWARDS AGAIN.

Conventional basketball wisdom holds that the Warriors should have won at home against Denver and lost to Denver on the road. Home court advantage and all of that. The Warriors of course did it their own way. Friday they struggled mightily to stay in the game with Denver and always looked like they might pull off another comeback win. However, they never managed to put together a string of defensive stops and scoring long enough to get a decent lead on Denver. Allen Iverson had an outstanding game with 39 points. It was a painful game to watch.

Tonight however they were a different team playing in Denver. More hustle, better rebounding, much better defense, and they held Allen Iverson to 13 points. Neither team shot all that well but the Warriors were the masters of their own destiny and it showed. They outscored Denver in the first and fourth quarters and showed how good of a team they can be when they're fired up.

They did much the same thing earlier in the season losing in New Jersey and then winning the following night at Cleveland. Conventional wisdom would have reversed that scenario. At this point they are always interesting to watch (if somewhat painful at times) but very streaky. I'm thinking it is a pretty safe bet that they'll get to the Western Conference playoffs barring injury, acts of god, and so on. However, unless they get a lot more consistent from game to game I think they are going to be in trouble against a steadier team in a best of 7 series. I'd be happy to be proven wrong on that prognostication.

Anyway, there is a lot basketball to be played yet in this season. The Warriors have a serious road trip in front of them. They play at Houston tomorrow night and at Dallas on Wed. Then at home on Fri. against New Orleans and host San Antonio on the following Mon. Should be fun to watch.