Five games, four blowout wins.
The dominance the Grizzlies had displayed lately sent chills down people's spines.
Many fans who had originally hoped the Warriors could surpass the Grizzlies had now abandoned that thought.
Surpass the Grizzlies? With what?
Against two Eastern Conference teams that had originally posed no threat at all, the Warriors suffered one loss and barely scraped out one win.
Neither result was anywhere close to what the Warriors themselves had expected.
The Grizzlies' game against the Rockets had also fallen short of expectations, but not because they lost—it was because they won by too much.
The Golden State Warriors had now become the most closely watched team in the entire league, because most people were waiting to see them lose and make fools of themselves.
Link certainly wasn't a good guy, but compared to the Warriors' "galactic battleship," most fans would rather see the Grizzlies win.
This time, the Warriors truly did not disappoint most fans.
Just as most people had hoped, they lost once again to an Eastern Conference team.
On March 8, at a roaring Oracle Arena amid the cheers of Oakland fans, the defending champion Golden State Warriors lost 86-99 at home to the visiting Boston Celtics.
The Celtics were indeed a force to be reckoned with in the East. Along with the Cavaliers and Raptors, they occupied the top three spots in the conference.
But the Celtics' 40-24 record at this point in the season simply could not be mentioned in the same breath as the Warriors' 52-11 record.
The Celtics were indeed one of the best teams in the East, but based on record alone, the Warriors were still a tier above them.
Coupled with the Warriors' highly unsatisfactory performances in their previous two games, people had expected the defending champions