Warriors-Mavs

I decided to watch the spring league game of my own basketball team at Prep rather than watch Game 6 between the Mavericks and the Warriors.

This was a good decision for one reason only:

I would have been flipping between channels and saw the Mariners lose to the Red Sox in the eighth on a Manny home run in which he apparently did not start running to first base until the ball had already landed. Pretty sure I would have broken my television.

I only have a few thoughts on the game and series that I mostly did not watch.

1. This has been beaten to death, but Avery Johnson clearly made a mistake changing his line up. In fact, in the one game I did watch, Diop did very well.

2. The Mavericks didn't seem to really care. I know everyone annointed Avery this great coach, but shouldn't he be able to get them to play harder? Have they already tuned him out?

3. Stephen Jackson might be crazy, (I say might be because what if he reads this blog and finds my home address? Oh god, if he is reading right now I am in trouble. Let's hope he doesn't know how to read in parentheses) but he helps win games. He won a title with the Spurs and was on a two-time playoff team in Indiana. You know, before he starting beating people down in the stands.

4. Baron Davis. Wow. Did you know that in his eight seasons, the Baron's teams have made the playoffs six times? And this is with Charlotte/New Orleans and Golden State. Additionally his averages go up in the playoffs. 19.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. He is awesome.

5. Dirk completely blew it. Seriously, 2 of 13 from the field in a deciding game? 8 points. Unbelievable. But maybe Dana figured it out. As the game ended she turns to me and says, "Maybe the Jackson guy told Dirk he was going to slit his throat or they call him a Nazi or something".

(I wouldn't put it past him).

Warriors! Come out and play!

I have been waiting to write about the Warriors-Mavericks series because I haven’t seen a full game yet. And it is absolutely killing me. I missed Games 1 and 4 due to the Sopranos and Entourage on HBO. And I sort of regret it. Those are the only two programs I watch consistently, but come on – this series has been ridiculous!

Needless to say I made it a priority to watch Game 5 last night while flipping to another Mariners victory at commercials (Jarrod Washburn with a sub 3.00 ERA? Huh?).

Early on the Mavs were rolling and I watched out of the corner of my eye while I did some other things (check box scores for fantasy baseball – Papelbon what are you doing?). With the score 57-37 in the 2nd quarter, I really didn’t feel the need to watch with full attention. Then I heard, “And Harrington knocks down the first three of the night”. Only to be followed by threes from Stephen Jackson (from here on known as Step-Jack because at any time he could step on your face or jack you for everything you got) and Jason Richardson. It was still a fourteen point game. But when the Warriors start making threes, everything else falls into place.

To me the Warriors are like an all-star AAU team. They love to run and dunk, shoot threes, and play aggressive/lazy defense. Don’t get me wrong, the Warriors played extremely hard last night. But they are all about tapping the ball from behind or Baron picking your pocket or blocking shots. They don’t necessarily always stay in front of the offensive player and make them shoot over them. They would rather just pick you and go play offense. So they are an AAU team that actually plays hard.

Golden State does not run a lot of sophisticated sets offensively. They run the typical NBA high pick and roll/pop usually involving Baron Davis. Otherwise they penetrate and kick for threes or post up Richardson or Jackson and then kick out for threes. But when they start feeling it and playing with energy, Dallas struggles.

Dirk picks up his third foul as he drives to the basket like a fourth grade girl. Seriously how timid did he look? He passed before the double team even came. No aggression, no rebounding, no anything. Dirk was blending on the court.

Meanwhile the Warriors came out to play! Matt Barnes was hitting threes and dunking on people. I mean, Matt Barnes? This guy looked like the most average down-to-earth guy at UCLA. And he played at UCLA when Lavin was there and the whole team looked average. Now he has tats up and down his body, creeping up his neck. And he has a Mohawk. He literally looks crazy now. Put him on the court with Stephen Jackson and teams are in trouble. Literally. Here is an actual exchange from last night:

Dana: “Is that the guy who shoots at strippers?”

Me: “Yes”

Dana: “Wow, his eyes look crazy.”

Between Matt Barnes one handed/twist my ankle dunk, the alley oop to J-Rich, and Baron’s ridiculous three, the Warriors would not be stopped. They led 112-103 with 3:20 left. And then something happened to Dirk.

The man was 1 of 2 before this point. He took two shots the whole second half? That is a MVP? But Golden State left him open and he drained a three to cut it to six. And it was almost like that shot made him think to himself, “Wait, I’m Dirk Diggler”. Or maybe Devin Harris told him.

After a missed shot on either end, Matt Barnes appeared to have an open lay up. Except Dirk absolutely rejected it from behind off the backboard. Then on the other end, he up faked about 52 times, dribbled about 75 times to the left and drained another three. Just like that it is a three point game. All of a sudden the Mavericks have energy and are playing harder.

With a Devin Harris ridiculous lay in to cut it to one, Dirk then made 6 of 7 free throws to end the game (Josh Howard made one as well). The Mavericks scored the last 15 points of the game and the Diggler had 12 of them. I couldn’t believe it. I literally said on the phone to Ravi, “Dirk hasn’t done anything” and then he hit the first three.

Will this mean the resurgence of Nowitski and the Mavs? Or will the Warriors’ crowd carry them to a Game 6 win?

Let’s hope the Warriors win so Baron’s Beard can order some Thug Passion and a Pack of Newports. And if you don’t know what I am talking about, you better check this out.

http://sayhey.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/the-warriors-celebrate-their-big-win/