Warriors 131, Bobcats 105

“After an emotional win last night,” commentator Matt Devlin said in the middle of the Bobcats blowout loss to Golden State, “you could see a game like this developing.” This game didn’t “develop” so much as it “detonated.” I didn’t hang around long enough to find out what the official Wachovia Pivotal Moment of the Game was, but my vote would have been for the tip-off. The Bobcats got off to about as good a start as those troopers jumping out of the boats in Saving Private Ryan, trailing 21-2 after about 30 seconds. And then it got worse. How bad was it? Garbage time lasted long enough for Walter Herrmann to score 19 points.

Players are fond of likening their great performances to video games. “It was like a Playstation game out there,” Gilbert Arenas will say after scoring 40 points. The Bobcats were like video games too last night, except they were a bunch of Atari 2600’s out there. Admittedly, a three-game West Coast trip is brutal, and they were playing for the second night in a row after an OT-win, but they looked positively asleep out there. They left the Warriors open to hit 10/17 3-pointers, turned it over 22 times, and were lazily outscored 30-5 on fast breaks. They were twice whistled for delay of game calls for not being in proper uniform—presumably they’d forgotten to tuck their pajamas in.

After giving up 40 in the first quarter, the Cats—to their credit—actually cut the deficit down to 7. Gerald Wallace put in a spirited 19 points, and Okafor, who may have proven that he can literally get a double-double in his sleep, had 10 points and 12 boards. But Raymond Felton had just 3 points, Matt Carroll had 1, and then there was that pesky thing known as the second half…

Just a few games removed from their 8-player Extreme Makeover trade, I’d say Golden State is poised for a run. They made me a believer, at least; I feeling like calling them Golden Shower State for the way they pissed all over us. They already had a strong nucleus (or “nuculus,” as the President would say) with B-Davis, Monta Ellis, Mickael Pietrus, and up-and-comers Andris Biedrins and Matt Barnes. Now you add Al Harrington, who dropped us like his Mohawk with 29 points on 9/11 shooting, and Stephen Jackson, who had 17 points? Yikes. It wasn’t until late in the 3rd quarter that the delighted Oakland crowd demanded—and got—Sarunas Jasikevicius, but he’s also fully capable as well. As long as Jackson can avoid more headlines such as this one on ESPN.com a few days ago: “Judge: Strip Club Incident Violated Jackson's Probation,” (question: isn’t that headline kinda missing the main gist of that affair, which was that Jackson fired a gun several times at a car?), the Warriors will be fine, especially when Jason Richardson returns…