Warriors (W-L): 12-9
Trail Blazers (W-L): 9-12
TV: FSN Bay Area
Radio: KNBR 680

The Warriors look to build on last night's improbable W against the defending champs tonight up in Portland, Oregon. But before we move on to tonight's match up let me take a few minutes to relish the big win against the San Antonio Snores last night at the Roaracle. I'm sick of NBA analysts and others making up excuses for this team and saying that they aren't boring and how they're so classy. That's nonsense. Don't get me wrong they're a very, very, very good team, but they're boring (just look at the TV ratings for the NBA Finals any time they're playing), they're dirty (Robert Horry's a nice guy, but that shove on Steve Nash was just silly. Also see Bruce Bowen's knee to Nash's groin and his propensity to upset guys like Vince Carter and Ray Allen) and their fans are weak (they couldn't even sell out the Western Conference Finals games at home in San Antonio). I'll pass the mic to my man Adam who wrote these golden thoughts after the Warriors improbably won their first game against the Snores before getting served the next 3 times last year:

Can the hoops gods please save us from the San Antonio Snores?!

Moving on (even though I really don't want to!)...

The Warriors and Blazers have inverse records and I don't think even the most homerish Portland fan will claim that they're a better team than the Dubs. But let's not forget that the Blazers did something last night that the Warriors simply can't do, which is beat the Utah Jazz. They deserve all the credit in the world for pulling that one off especially without LaMarcus Aldridge and the future Greg Oden not in action. They didn't even need Dukie Josh McRoberts for that one! (Seriously that guy fell off.)

I was really looking forward to seeing how the Warriors young dynamic duo of Andris Biedrins and Monta Ellis would stack up head to head against the Blazers two studs for the weak 2006 NBA Draft Class (yes, the one that netted the Warriors both Popcorn O'Bryant and Kosta Perovic aka the Master of the Zero Threat Position), but unfortunately with the injuries to Monta Ellis (see tadams1080's diary) and LaMarcus Aldridge tonight probably isn't going to be that night. Like I said in the Counting W's segment for The W Column for this week:

You've been warned. I can only hope that I'm not even close to my man DJ Fuzzy Logic was in predicting the Wilt Chamberlain-esque 25-17 performance by Matt Bonner. MATT BONNER?!

More solid pregame thoughts:

• Q&A: Dave from Blazer's Edge
• Facing the Blazers (muritqua)
• Game 22 Preview: Warriors at Blazers [Blazer's Edge]
• Q+A With GSOM [Blazer's Edge]

Also, equally as frustrating as the Warriors inability to win a single game in at the Staples Center in downtown LA, is how the Blazer's Edge community routinely whops on GSoM in terms of sheer number of comments in their game day threads. Blazer's Edge is a fantastic site blogging about a small market team currently bringing in about 2,700+ daily visitors. GSoM is unstoppable baby, etc, etc, covers a big market team, and brings in about 6,300+ daily visitors right now. But if you look at the number of comments typically in the open threads for games those Blazer's fans are straight up serving us. Let's not let that happen tonight.

Let's serve them in atoms (the hardwood) and in bits (this open thread) tonight!

Predictions:

• Warriors by 10.
• Boom Dizzle and Stack Jack put this game away in the 3rd quarter with their defense.
• Brandon Roy goes 20-5-5.
• Al Harrington bounces back from his recent shooting woes and notches 25 points.
• Martell Webster or Travis Outlaw- well you know the rest...
• If Marco Belinelli gets into the game during garbage time his first shot is a wild three pointer that barely glazes the rim.
• GSoM whops on Blazer's Edge in the number of game thread comments department-- finally!

Remember what happened the last time the Warriors went up to Portland? Like Roy Jones Jr. Ya'll Must Have Forgot!

Seriously who honestly had the walnuts to tell Roy Jones Jr. this track was wackadocious?

Throw Up That W!

Drop your predictions and live game thoughts in the comments. Let's get this open thread jumping!

Stay tuned for the recap...