No one can claim they didn't see a bad couple of games coming. No fan is so blind in loyalty to team that they can no longer imagine their boys losing a game or looking horrible in another. Honestly, did more than a small cluster of students at George Mason or Bradley pick their teams to go to the Sweet 16 on brackets with chances at fortune large or small attached? Not likely.

Yeah, losses suck. They're even worse when they are a) winnable or b) ugly. Friday night was hecka winnable. Sunday was Hannibal Lector ugly.

But they aren't to be unexpected. No team is going to rattle off 20 in this sport without being one of the all-time elite squads. I'm rather certain this group isn't in the all-time elite club. So losses will come, hopefully rarely in the stretch run.

So why do the L's sting so bad, making us flip past Sportscenter in the fear of seeing the angering score creep across the bottom? Why do we refuse to listen to the radio in the morning after dropping one, instead enjoying the sound of rain pellets meeting windshield? Even visits to my own blog – one which I spend a lot of time working on, updating and generally trying to improve – become chore-like. Certainly after a win, I'm glued to the Top 10 Plays to see if Speed's breakaway made it. I'm listening to The Rise Guys to hear Mark Kreidler hypocritically swoon over two players (Bonzi and Artest) he harshly rejected pre-trade while cackling in self-assurance. I'm waking up at 6 a.m. to get a post up about how great Brad ran the offense and what great warriors Ron-Ron and Reef-Reef are.

It's an insane conundrum, and it's a bit embarassing. A lot of fans seem to get stronger when their teams lose. They call for heads, they call for trades. Their voice becomes louder when the ship isn't right.

Losing doesn't empower me, though. It just hurts. Even if it's March on the road and the Lakers dropped two too. (And yeah, if I'm like this now, you can only imagine how pleasant I was to be around after Game 7. I'm surprised I didn't start morphing into Robert Smith.)

This string of two losses – the first such fall since the first two matches of Ron-Ron's stay in Sactown – isn't shocking, but it is shockingly disappointing. It's like Kevin Federline's musical career. You knew it was going to be god-awful. But then you hear some of it, and wow. Holy crap. That stuff is bad. I mean, way bad. It's impressive how bad it actually is. All expectations of crappiness have been exceeded. Yeah, it's like that.

(Speaking of K-Fed – oh my god, his "battle rap" against all the "haters" is probably funnier than everything Dave Chappelle and Carlos Mencia have done all year combined. I'm not kidding. If you haven't heard this, you're doing yourself a disservice. Trust me, it'll cheer you up from the post-loss trauma.)