So what happened over the weekend in sports? The Raiders looked impressive, the 49ers not so much. In baseball, the Giants played some of their best baseball of the season while the A's played some of their worst. We, however, missed it all as we got suckered into the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on TNT and spent most of the weekend online debating the question of who would win a fight between Dumbledore and Gandalf. For the record, Gandalf totally would--Dumbledore just helped defeat some wizard who looked like a snake. Gandalf helped defeat a giant, flaming eyeball. Now onto the sports ...

Warrior Nation, can it get any better? Seriously. After Golden State's tenacious, gutty, and spirited come-from-behind 103-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night in the O-rena, the Warriors have taken a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. After 13 years of waiting, nobody in the NBA is more jacked up than the Warriors and their long-suffering fans.

The season has gone from just another shit sandwich to a gravy train with biscuit wheels in little more than a month. From nine games below .500 to .500. Not just a .500 record, but playoffs. Not just playoffs, but most favorable matchup. Not just favorable matchup, but a game one victory to take home court advantage in the series and set the basketball world abuzz.

Here's todays sports news...

OK, so we've gotten some flak about picking the Warriors to take down the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the opening round of the NBA's western Conference playoffs. We'll be the first to admit it's a homer pick, because, well, we do really want the Warriors to win, and we'll be the first to admit it.

But our pie in the sky has an empirical basis. Here's five reasons why the Warriors will beat the Mavs in this playoff series.

Thanks to a tipster, we got word that Gavin was going to be on KQED for an hour to answer questions, e-mails, and phone calls. So we dropped what we were doing (mainly watching "Charmed" on TNT) to give a listen in. The Mayor was at his wonkish, earnest, puppy-dog best. To each question, he spent five minutes or so riffing off stats, programs, and pat responses so well that we could just picture him in the studio making all the "politician mannerisms" that you know he's spent hours in the mirror practicing. You know, like the thumb over clenched fist thing or the air karate chop. He was throwing so much stuff out that his voice was going out on him by the end of it. ...

If you long for boundary-crossing or brio or fun in country-western music, git along to San Francisco State University the next three Tuesdays (March first, eighth and fifteenth) to celebrate Bob Wills at 100. The inventor of “Western Swing,” Bob Wills combined country music with Nawlins jazz, blues, ragtime and traditional Mexican music....