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Fresh off a home loss at the hands of the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors (20-29) will be hosting the New Jersey Nets (17-35) tonight at Oracle Arena. Warriors World reached out to Devin Kharpertian and Justin DeFeo of Nets Are Scorching, the New Jersey Nets’ ESPN TrueHoop Affiliate Blog.

The last time these two teams met, New Jersey pulled out a victory at home thanks in large part to the brilliant play of Deron Williams, who put up an impressive line of 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds on 6-for-13 shooting from the floor. Should we expect the same type of game this time around? Bloggers weigh in…
1. Which fan base has it worse after the trade deadline: Warriors or Nets?

Justin DeFeo, Nets Are Scorching: Amazing question. As tortured as our fan base certainly seems there still is some room for optimism. After all, we do have a move to a bigger city, into a brand new state of the art arena and have the chance to re-sign Deron Williams as well as an outside shot of Dwight Howard…still. So for now I’ll say the Warriors fans have it worse, although we can easily reevaluate the dust settles on free agency.

Devin Kharpertian, Nets Are Scorching: I can say the Nets without sounding like a “negativity homer,” right? The Warriors were never seriously in the discussion for Dwight Howard (sorry), and Dwight waffled about thirty-seven times over whether he wanted to tear Orlando apart and never look back, or hang on for one more non-contending year. The dust settles, and the Nets take an enormous risk on a 30-year-old small forward on the wrong end of his athleticism, with a good chance they’ll lose their first-round draft pick in the deepest draft in a decade. That’s worse than Andrew Bogut maybe being awesome one day, right?

J.M. Poulard, Warriors World: The Warriors lost their leading scorer who also doubled as the face of the franchise while the Nets lost out on the possibility of acquiring Dwight Howard and perhaps keeping Deron Williams with the team.

Jersey technically lost what they never had while the Warriors basically traded away Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown for Richard Jefferson since Andrew Bogut won’t be playing this season. So Warriors fans have it worse for now…


2. In November, Deron Williams will be playing for….

Justin DeFeo: Or as we refer to this in Jersey, the million dollar question. I think it’s 50/50 at this point between Deron staying with the Nets and the field. The Mavericks certainly seem like a logical destination for him, but I believe other teams could come into the fold when it’s all said and done. The thing with DWill is, he just wants to be in a good basketball situation and all of the other factors (market size, geographics, etc) are secondary for him. I do believe he is comfortable with his standing in the Nets organization and the direction we are headed, but he’s playing situation this very close to his chest, so there’s just no way to know for sure.

Devin Kharpertian: Keeps. No, seriously, I have as much of an idea as anyone else you ask. Dallas is in play, but requires some creative maneuvering, and it’d be strange to see Deron turn away from a franchise that bends to his every whim and a borough that he’s signing endorsements in. Call me cautiously optimistic.

J.M. Poulard: I was convinced Williams would remain with the Nets organization until Dwight Howard agreed to waive his early termination clause for the 2012-13 season. Given that Deron plans to become a free agent this summer and wishes to play for a good basketball team, I could in fact see him playing for numerous teams: Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers and Denver Nuggets.

The Mavericks offer the lure of an owner willing to spend to build a title team as well as Dirk Nowitzki. However, the Pacers offer a great core that’s only missing a point guard to get the ball to the right people to help them put up points on the board. Seriously, Indy could potentially become a huge Eastern Conference power with Williams at the helm. Does that mean he will end up there? No. But I’d be awfully intrigued to see it happen.

3. The ________ will be victorious tonight because….

Justin DeFeo: The Nets will be victorious because they play better on the road and because they have the best player in the game (Deron Williams). Other than that, hard to analyze two teams playing for lottery position.

Devin Kharpertian: Warriors, since the Nets are allergic to winning streaks.

J.M. Poulard: The Nets surrender 37.3 percent 3-point shooting (second to last in the league), while the Warriors convert 38.3 percent shooting from deep (fourth best in the NBA). Put both of those together, combined with the GSW playing at home, and it has the makings of a — pun intended — scorching shooting night for the Dubs as they win by double digits.

Devin Kharpertian and Justin DeFeo are bloggers for Nets Are Scorching and can be found on Twitter under the handle names @uuords and @justindefeo.