Charlotte Bobcats vs. Golden State Warriors preview -- Game 31

The Big Picture: Being a Warriors fan must be an exercise in frustration. On the one hand, management has had a knack for finding talented offensive players through a variety of means, from Monta Ellis, to David Lee, to Reggie Williams. However, they haven't been able to put together any kind of adequate defense over that same time period, so, at best, their teams have been locked in a kind of entertaining mediocrity. To boot, Warriors fans have been subject to crazy coaching turnover. Don Nelson is the only coach that's been allowed to stay three full seasons in a row since 1986, when Johnny Bach finished his third, and final, season as head coach of the Ws. To give you an idea of how long ago that is, Joe Barry Carroll led that team in minutes played. Yikes.

Having grown up in San Francisco, I know a few Warriors fans, and they're all die-hards. Pro basketball is behind baseball and football in the Bay Area's sporting consciousness, but the Warriors are the one team The City and The East Bay can both rally around, so those who do give themselves to Ws fandom are joining a cult unique to the region.

They've got a new coach and a few new faces this season, but the results are the same. No matter how fast a pace the team plays, it doesn't hide that they're really just about average on offense (15th in ORtg) and horrific on defense (28th in DRtg). They've got a better win percentage this season than they did last year, but is Louis Amundson going to be a difference maker? I doubt it.

Is there a lesson for the Bobcats in how the Warriors have handled their business the past few years? Probably. The primary lesson is that teams don't get very far without a true superstar, even if four or five starting spots are occupied by guys who could start for most other teams in the league. If those guys are affected by the Curse of More, kiss competitiveness goodbye.

Musical Interlude: The Roots ft. Cody Chesnutt -- "The Seed"

Key to Victory: The Warriors start a pair of smallish guards in Ellis and Stephen Curry. While both are big enough to consider bullying D.J. Augustin, the Bobcats ought to use Stephen Jackson to post up whichever man guards him, until either he proves he can stop Jackson or Golden State subs one of them out.

Secondarily, the Warriors are second in the league in three-point percentage. The Cats are below-average on defending threes, though not by much. What's odd is that they're seeing more threes per game than any other team in the league, which, if the Warriors continue that trend, does not bode well for Charlotte.

Detail That May Interest .08% of You: Reggie Williams is fifth in minutes played for Golden State this year. In college at VMI, he scored 28.1 points per game his junior year, then 27.8 points per game his senior year. Even though he's 6-6 and poured it in like that, he went undrafted.