Playoff update: Warriors take Mavs in 6



The biggest upset in playoff history occured last night as the 8th seeded took down the number 1 Dallas Mavs with special mention to Baron Davis, Matt Barnes and a lot of help from a home crowd that aint seen playoff action since back in the days of Run TMC.

It wasn't just the biggest upset but also a fun series with the Warrior small ball showing the potential that the Phoneix Suns lack, strength at all 5 positions. The Warriors though did come in with a decisive edge that
of their coach just happening to be Don Nelson the Mavs previous coach, a definite psychological advantage.

But to be fare to the Mavs the Warriors were better than 8th seed, possibly as high as 5th in my opinion. The Warriors entered the playoffs with a strech of 9 wins out of 10, while the Mavs spent early April, having clinched homefield advantage, resting key players in anticipation of a long playoff run. One of the ironies of this series, as noted by Steve Kerr on TNT last night, was of a matchup of these two in the final week of the season that would of kept the Warriors out of the post season if they had lost it.

Still the Mavs where the better team and really the blame should fall on the coach and the big stars. Did Avery need to change his line up to match Nelly or should he have stuck with what won him 67 regular season games. Maybe? but remember in 3 competitive regular season games the lost all of them and had their 17 game win streak ended by the bay area crew, so I think trying to second guess Avery here is unfair. It is towards the players that a fair amount of blame should be attached, Howard had a good series but Nowitzki was contained most of the time and no one else apart from Stackhouse stood up when it mattered. With many experts pointing to the strength of the Dallas bench this was a huge disappointment especially when the starters failed to show up.

But for all the failings of the Mavs, the Warriors showed that they are a team to be reckoned with though I doubt they have enough to win a championship this year, mainly because I don't see Davis staying healthy the rest of the way. Without him they lose too much experience and with Nelly threatening to use a 6 man rotation already, major bench issues could be just around the corner.

The positives at the moment though out weight these potential problems. Nelly showed that time off between jobs has not blunted his edge and his adjustments kept Dallas from gaining a foothold every time they threatened. Avery was never able to find a solution to the 5 position with his centers slowing the team down too much when in and the paint too open when they where out. One example of this was Steven Jackson's ability to drive to the rim early in the 4th quarter for easy points as Avery tried to match up without Diop or Dampier in the game.

Another plus was Baron Davis, reacting to the big time by being the only star that earned his big paycheck, keeping the Warriors in games when they looked shakey and fighting through the pain last night when he picked up an early injury in the first. At this crucial point Dallas looked like they could of pushed forward for a big blowout but Davis came back on and even though his ability to reach the rim was severely hampered he still hit some crucial shots. Next up for special attention is Matt Barnes, who was a a game time decision yesterday and in the end moved from the bench to the starting line up. The whole series he showed the kind of hustle that teams need coming of the bench and hopefully next season he can start to be more consistent in a team that looks like it has most of the pieces to challenge seriously in an western conference already loaded with talented teams.

Finally special attention must be given to a homecourt crowd that showed the essential advantage of homefield advantage, and a final advantage that pushed the Warriors over the edge to victory.