Warriors vs Mavericks Tomorrow: Breaking out the Vintage

In my English class, we just started our Romanticism unit by reading some short stories by Edgar Allen Poe. The story that intrigued me the most was "The Cask of Amontillado." If you haven't read it yet, "The Cask" is about two friends, one of whom wants revenge on the other.

Montresor lures Fortunato to his wine cellar, claiming that he needs Fortunato to identify a sherry called Amontillado. Montresor leads him deeper into the cellar and offers him multiple draughts of wine. Eventually, Montresor pushes the drunk Fortunato into a room, chains him to the wall, and begins closing off the entrance with mortar and stone. Fortunato jokes and tells Montresor to let him out, but Montresor just mimics his requests. He seals up the last stone and leaves Fortunato to die.

A bit morbid, isn't it?

Tomorrow, the Mavericks come into Oakland. Like Montresor, Nellie cajoled the Mavs into believing that the Warriors would do no harm. Like Fortunato (what an ironic name), the 67-win Mavs were strung up by the Warriors.

This season, the Warriors have been playing shoddy defense and even shoddier offense. Not the best way to face a team who is out for your head for the past 2 years. The optimist in me says the Warriors improved over the past four games, but the pessimist predicts a 20-point blowout loss. Hopefully, the stone-and-mortar holds up because Fortunato might not be dead just yet.