We Should Believe in the "Dubs"
By Chris Glennon
Bay Area basketball fans can once again break out the thunder sticks and bright yellow t-shirts. The Golden State Warriors are headed back to the NBA playoffs.
The team punched their postseason ticket with a decisive 105-89 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday night. It's just the second time the club will be a part of the eight-team Western Conference field since 1994.
The last time was in 2007, when the whole Bay Area rallied around the battle cry "We Believe." The Arena in Oakland, since renamed the Oracle Arena, was completely sold out, and the majority of the raucous crowd clad in "We Believe" t-shirts stood for large portions of the game. The atmosphere was crazy and proved how loyal a fan base the struggling franchise had.
The Warriors are currently the six-seed, but are fighting off the much-improved Houston Rockets for that spot. Avoiding the seventh or eighth-seed would mean dodging the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder for at least the first round of the playoffs.
If they do that, the "Dubs," as they are affectionately referred to by their fans, have a legitimate shot at winning a playoff series.
It looks like the six-seed will face the third-place Denver Nuggets. The Warriors were only able to win one of their four matchups with the Nuggets, but haven't played them since late November.
Since that time, Andrew Bogut has come back to health and is starting to find his place inside the Warriors offense. Also, Denver sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari went down with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament and is out for the season. With the new inside presence of Bogut, the Warriors should be able to play the game more in the half court, which works against the Nuggets' speed and athleticism, and their superior conditioning thanks to the altitude they play in.
While it still looks like bringing a championship trophy to the Bay might be out of the question this year, the gap between the top tier and middle tier appears to be shrinking. The Warriors took down the defending champion Miami Heat on the road and picked up two big wins after the new year against San Antonio and Oklahoma City.
With the maturing young talent of the Warriors guaranteed to gain valuable postseason experience this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see the club consistently competing at the top of the West in the near future.
Golden State is arguably the closest talent-wise to competing for a title than they've been since the "Run TMC" Warriors of the early '90s. That's something that should excite the folks in Oracle, not that they needed the extra fire power anyway.
Chris Glennon is a sophomore finance major and editor of the Sports section.