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Returning to the STAPLES Center for the second time in five days, the Warriors will open a home-and-home set with the Lakers on Sunday at STAPLES Center. The contest will tip off at 7:30 p.m. and be broadcast on FSN Bay Area and KNBR 680.
Still maintaining its grasp on the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Warriors will head into Sunday’s match-up looking to bounce back from Friday’s 109-106 defeat to the Houston Rockets. That loss snapped the Warriors five-game home winning streak, and shrunk the Warriors advantage over the Denver Nuggets for eighth place in the West to 1.5 games.
With 14 games remaining on the regular season schedule, each contest becomes crucial for the Warriors, and Sunday will be no exception. Playing against one of the NBA elites, Golden State will be looking to do something the team hasn’t accomplished since November 2, 2003 – beat the Lakers in Los Angeles. Should they succeed in doing so, the Warriors will snap a nine-game road losing streak against the Lakers less than a week after they broke a 15-game skid at STAPLES Center with Wednesday’s victory over the Clippers.
While one streak recently came to and end for the Warriors, they’ll like to keep another one alive. Since January 4, the Warriors have lost 12 games, and they followed the first 11 of those defeats with a victory. In fact, Golden State has posted consecutive defeats just once since starting the season 0-6.
In order to keep that streak intact, the Warriors will need to do what they did during their Dec. 14 victory over the Lakers – contain Kobe Bryant. The MVP candidate was held to just 6-of-23 shooting in that contest, and the fact that Mickael Pietrus is currently playing his best basketball of the season will only help the Warriors in defending Bryant. Los Angeles will be without injured big men Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, but the Lakers have played well in their absence. So well, in fact, that they currently stand alone in first place of the Western Conference.
Following Sunday’s contest, the Warriors and Lakers will meet up again on Monday at ORACLE Arena. Single-game tickets are sold out for this contest, but fans can still purchase tickets to the game from season ticket holders using Warriors TicketExchange. Golden State will then enjoy a few days off before hosting the Portland Trail Blazers  on Thursday in a special KFC Colonel’s Corner contest at ORACLE Arena.
EXTRA NOTES:
On March 10, the Warriors partnered with Colliers International to host a Silence The Violence Rally. Read about the rally and view an accompanying video and photo gallery by clicking here ... For more stats and stories on the Warriors, check out the latest edition of the Warriors Weekly Notes ... The Warriors have recently surpassed the Utah Jazz as the NBA-leader in new season ticket sales for the 2007-08 season. Golden State has sold more than 5,600 new (full) season tickets for the 2007-08 campaign, which is the second most in NBA history, trailing only the 2004-05 Miami Heat.
KIA BLOG SQUAD:
Get a full breakdown of the Warriors' upcoming schedule, plus videos, links, notes, stats and more by checking out the latest entries in the Warriors Blog Squad, presented by KIA Motors.
WARRIORS.COM EXTRAS:
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