Well, the winning streak is over. The Dubs lost tonight. They could not overcome the plethora of injuries, and the reserves just couldn’t get it done. The trio of KD, Klay and Dray are just not strong enough. At least not against the Blazers…who are a good team, but not an elite team. It was a really, REALLY frustrating game to lose given that the Rockets lost in Toronto. Maybe the only other game they’ll lose for the rest of this season, but we’ll see.

I’ll say this right now: I think Steph is going to be out for a couple weeks, and I think the Warriors are going to be the 2nd seed in the West…maybe even the 3rd or 4th seed overall. Will that mean they don’t advance to the Finals against this year? I’m not sure. With a healthy Steph and KD, I wouldn’t bet against them in the playoffs, home court advantage or not…but this team this year haaaas to be a disappointment in the regular season. They’ve not played up to their potential. Yes, I realize I’m saying that about a team that’s tied for the most wins in the NBA right now.

What I’m saying is two-fold: 1) watching them play almost every game this year, they just haven’t been very sharp all season, regardless of what the win total is right now, and 2) I’m saying the win total will reflect that at the end of the year with them not being the #1 seed. And yes, I do think that means teams like Houston, like Toronto, and like Boston will pose a legitimate threat to knock the Warriors off the trophy podium. The Warriors keep playing like they have another gear they can shift into…but I haven’t actually seen that gear yet. And if you can’t see it, it might not actually exist.

We’ll see.

I had an *excellent* writing day today, and I clocked in at juuuust shy of 8,000 words for the week, which is what my goal was. I’m exceedingly happy with that. EXCEEDINGLY 🙂 Sent off the new chapters to the beta team, and life is good. I have bigger goals next week: all five days of 2,000+ words. Five chapters. Maybe six. We’ll see. I’m going to use my weekend short sessions to plan that stuff out.

It’s almost 1am, and tomorrow is a sleep in day, thankfully. But it’s still off to bed with me.

Good night…and go Dubs.

Artwork tonight is by Paul Gerrard.