3/23, 3/25, 3/28
The Warriors are still waiting to break into the second tier of NBA teams. After a promising fall-into-winter campaign highlighted by a four-game winning streak over the Christmas holidays, Golden State began 2005 as if they were playing in Baghdad — dropping 15 of 16 on their way to settling into the cellar of the Western Conference alongside New Orleans. Clearly, the Big Four of Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle, and Mike Dunleavy needed help. To the rescue came 6’3″ former All-Star guard Baron Davis, late of the Hornets and UCLA, who began paying dividends on this month’s long Eastern road trip. The Warriors spend this week at home in the Arena against the powerful Mavs (tonight, 7:30, Student Night prices), the dismissable Bucks (Friday), and the iffy Knicks (Monday). If … if … if. Keep telling yourself: It’s a long season, and anything can happen. Maybe it’s already starting to. Info and tickets: Warriors.com – Kelly Vance
Baron Davis
3/24-3/29
Bearball
Young bats propel Cal baseball
The Cal baseball team is back home after its disappointing trip to Hawaii-Hilo, looking to improve on its surprisingly strong season. Head coach David Esquer’s youthful Bears, led by RBI men Chris Errecart (a sophomore left fielder), Brennan Boesch (sophomore center fielder), and Josh Satin (freshman second baseman), and the gutsy play of freshman shortstop Kyle Spraker, have been lurking in the top half of the Pac-10 Conference standings, so their three-game series this week with Washington State has some meaning. The WSU Cougars games are at 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 1 p.m. Saturday, at Cal’s Evans Diamond. Then it’s a single game vs. the Sacramento State Hornets at 2 p.m. Tuesday, also at Evans. For more info, visit CalBears.com – Kelly Vance
FRI 3/25
Under the Radar
When last we looked in on the San Jose Stealth , the Bay Area’s only professional lacrosse team was hoping to capitalize on the lack of pro-level stick-based spectator winter sports in the Bay Area — its sister team the SJ Sharks having been locked out of their season. But things have not been booming in Stealthland. The team currently sports a 3-8 record, and is hoping that the recent acquisition of veteran forward Ted Dowling — who came out of retirement to join San Jose in an offseason trade with the Calgary Roughnecks — will spark a turnaround. That proposition will be put to the test Friday (7:30 p.m.) at HP Pavilion when the Stealth takes on the bottom-rung Anaheim Storm in the lucky thirteenth league game of the season. Info: SJStealth.com — Kelly Vance
