Different Times

Exhibition home opener should cheer Warriors fans from SJ Mercury

It was a reminder of what happened last spring, a taste of what could be and a whole bunch of the choppy-sloppiness that the Warriors' franchise hopes to leave behind forever.

In other words, the Warriors beat Phoenix 108-96 on Wednesday in a meaningless, uneven, mistake-riddled and occasionally quite exciting exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, with no conclusions possible except:

This Warriors season is already very different -- hugely different -- even though the regular season won't start until Nov. 2.

As different as night and day; as different as Speedy Claxton and Baron Davis; as different as Mike Dunleavy air-balling shots and Dunleavy swishing practically everything he tossed at the rim, which is what Dunleavy did Wednesday.

That kind of different.