Warriors find another way to stun their fans, lose to shorthanded Grizzlies

THAT has to be the worst loss of the season, right?

The effort is the same we gave last year and two years ago, and unfortunately, that is no longer good enough. And so, recognizing that, the effort we have to give now in our fourth run to the championship has to be greater. Teams have gotten better and they've gotten angrier and this may be the first time we're faced with that.

That’s a quote from Rick Fox after the Sacramento Kings defeated his back-to-back-to-back champion Lakers on Christmas Day 2002. That game, Sactown got a measure of cathartic revenge after a highly emotional and bitterly contested Western Conference championship series where Los Angeles prevailed in 7 games.

As a Golden State Warrior fan back then finding my way through high school, I was enamored with the characters (Shaq and Kobe were a problem for their opponents and each other apparently) and the storylines (the upstart Kings team trying to overcome L.A.’s dynasty). I remember looking at the ESPN highlights afterwards and looking at L.A.’s record of 11-19, giving an audible sigh of relief that there was no possible way the Lakers could possibly make the playoffs after such a trash start.

Wellp, the Lakers actually did turn their season around enough to make it to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.

Why am I bringing up that piece of basketball trivia? Well, the Dubs are currently 18-22, an abysmal start by their lofty standards. But there’s still a little over half the season yet, and plenty of time for them to *checks notes* not get embarrassed by teams missing their stars.

There’s plenty of season to be played; let’s just hope that the Dubs can figure it out in time.