The Mets are playing in the desert. The Yankees are in the midst of a double-header. The Rangers are tied with the best team in the East. The Devils are being the Devils. The Nets are being the Nets. So, of course, I’m the most excited about the Golden State Warriors vs. the Dallas Mavericks in Game Six. There are a few reasons for this:
1) My high school mascot was the Warrior, but it was the far less politically correct version. We used to have a cheerleader dress up in a head-dress, fake animal-skin, and war-paint for football games. We’re very PC in Upstate NY. I’ve always had a soft-spot for the Warriors. Basketball is the game I’ve gone the longest watching without actually selecting a team. It only took me like three-quarters of a season to narrow my EPL favorites down to two. Arsenal and Portsmouth. For whatever reason, I just watch basketball like it’s a business. Possibly too many divergent influences between both my grandfathers loving the Celtics, my dad loving the Lakers, every person I ever knew in high school jumping on the Bulls’ bandwagon in the nineties.
2) I hate the Mavericks. I have no real reason for this; I just do. I also dislike Dirk Nowitzky and hate that he’s going to win the MVP when it should either be Kobe Bryant or Steve Nash. This is not even debatable. They also share a town with the filthy Cowboys and love to heap misery on that city.
3) I still own a Golden State hat that I bought in high school. It’s a very not fancy one. Since I never ever wash hats, you can imagine exactly how war-torn a 15-year old hat can get.
4) It gives me some common-Oakland love with Some guy who hates the Mets.
With apologies to Bill Simmons:
10:44 pm: The entire Oakland Coliseum is dressed in yellow. I’m sure it wasn’t even fakely done like the Heat nonsense. It might be, but I can at least buy that it isn’t.
10:46: I switch over the game 2 of the Yankee doubleheader. It’s 2-1 in the top of the seventh. The game has been on three damn hours and it’s not even through the seventh. I hate American League baseball.
10:48: To the Mets’ game and it’s 2-1 Mets. The Mets scored at some point when I was watching the end of Jazz/Rockets. Awful espn.com (who deserves another rant entirely) says it was Paul Lo Duca who FINALLY did something. It was well-timed, too since he’s my backup catcher and Mike Piazza forgot he wasn’t 25.
10:50: And we’re underway in Oakland. The arena flips out for the first 3-pointer of the game that ties the game at 3-3. I’m also realizing that I’ll likely not be in bed until 2am. This is a painful realization.
10:52: Three trips down the court and Dirk is being shut down. The Mavs call their first timeout with 2:18 gone after seven unanswered Golden State points. If the crowd can stay this fired up the whole game, and knowing the energy that’s probably in there right now I see no reason they can’t, the Mavs could be in for a really, really long night.
10:56: Dirk finally gets the ball underneath and a quick double-team forces him to dump it off, leading to a missed shot and a turn over. Steven Jackson turns this into the 10th unanswered point.
10:57: Another turnover leads to a wide-open slam dunk. This crowd is absolutely rabid.
10:58: Stackhouse finally scores, breaking the Mavs drought after a blocked shot. Stephen Jackson immediately answers.
11:00: Stackhouse has caught fire from the corner, hitting consecutive threes, but a goal-tending call keeps the Warriors lead at 8, which is quickly cut to 3 by the Mavericks’ fired-up 3-point shooting.
11:02: Jerry Stackhouse hits a third three from the exact same spot. Thus far, they’ve made Dirk a non-issue, but Stack’s hit Arch-Rival fireball stage.
11:05: During the break, Baron Davis was taken in the back to look at a possible hamstring problem… which could cut this diary very, very short. The crowd and the team is deflated.
11:08: 3:45 left in the first and the fired up opening run is officially over as the Warriors turn it over.
11:10: Crazy sequence where Howard misses three shots in a row but gets his own rebound each time. Something the Warriors might want to curtail. The Mavs are going to get enough chances without help.
11:11: Pam Oliver reports that Baron Davis has a slightly tweaked hamstring just as the Mavericks conspiracy begins as Barnes is called for two offensive fouls on consecutive possessions.
11:14: The first quarter ends. Baron Davis makes his way back to the court with the Warriors up 28-25 in one of the more exciting 12 minutes of basketball I’ve see all season.
11:16: Flip back to the Mets’ game in time to hear Ron Darling try to analyze the Suns. They mention that the Suns’ like to pass the ball. Then says the Suns play defense, which is cute in a “baseball guy trying to analyze a sport he doesn’t watch” sort of way. I love Gary, Keith, and Ron, though. SNY has the best announcers in baseball.
11:17: They show Stackhouse’s open looks. The Warriors’ zone is leaving him wide open to hammer threes from the corner.
11:32: I miss 15-minutes as I play “guide the drunk guy to the nearest subway station over the phone.” That’s always fun. See what you people miss not living in a city? I guess it’s better than the late night “I’m hammered, come get me an hour away” calls. The Mavs are now up by one and the Mets are down by one. Clearly, I’m good luck.
11:35: Jose Reyes gets picked off at first as I hang up. Maybe not.
11:35: And as I flip back the Warriors go up by 1. I rule.
11:39: And then Baron Davis hits consecutive threes before consecutive turn overs by Golden State to tie.
11:43: Nowitsky misses another 3, he’s 0-7.
11:44: 0-8.
11:45: Diop pulls down his seven thousandth rebound of the half, kicking the ball out to Nowitsky, who finally scores.
11:45: Baron Davis immediately responds with a three, which makes the crowd in Oakland go insane. He’s made the last 11 points for the Warriors.
11:47: The half ends with Nowitsky losing his shoe off a rebound and one arming a prayer at the buzzer. 50-48 Golden State.
11:48: Pam Oliver interviews Jackson before halftime. I’ve also come to the conclusion that Stephen Jackson isn’t a bad guy. He’s the type of guy who would have your back in a 10 on 2 bar brawl that you have no business starting. The whole “good friend will bail you out of jail but best friend will be there with you” dynamic.
11:49: I suddenly discover this is the Oracle Arena. I loathe Oracle with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.
11:51: Sir Charles drops: “Nowitsky’s got to play better” on us. Thanks, Chuck.
12:01 am: As we switch over to AM, Mariano Rivera’s in for his second save of the day because Kyle Farnsworth can’t even be put in a Hoffman-save situation. I know they wanted him to get some work in, but really, two games in a day? YES is also enamored with their super-slo-mo cameras. They show a slow motion replay of every swing. For those of us not watching YESHD, this is somewhat annoying.
12:03: Mo lets the first two on for shits and giggles, then Ks Gerald Laird and gets Kenny Lofton to ground into a double play. This proves, obviously, that Rivera is washed up and should call it a career.
12:08: Damon Easley, who jacked a game-tying home run at Shea last week to tie a game the Mets eventually won, knocks a three-run homer in the top of the ninth off Jose Valverde to put the Mets up 6-4. The wheels then come completely off and the Mets hang a six-spot in the ninth. David Wright puts the cherry on top.
12:12: Followed by Dirk missing another three. Dirk is so off his game right now it’s frightening. Jackson, amused by Dirk, nails another. He heads back down the court with a grin on his face. The Warriors are starting to really believe they’re going to win this game. You can see it.
12:14: Time out called to settle down Stephen Jackson. For those not keeping track, Dirk is 1-11 from the field, 0-5 from three-point range, has four rebounds, and one assist. If you think he’s more an MVP than Steve Nash, you’re out of your dome.
12:16: Marv Albert relays a quote form Dirk from before Game 4, which said “if we lose game 4, our season is pretty much over.” MVP quality guy, right there.
12:18: The Mavs miss another three pointer followed by Jackson hitting SEVEN FOR SEVEN from three putting the Warrriors up by 12 and has scored the last THIRTEEN points. Off the replay, it was off a beautiful behind the back pass by Barnes.
12:20: Not only are the Mavericks missing from three, but Biedrens is destroying them under the basket right now. In the last half, the Mavericks were pulling a ton of offensive rebounds. Now they’re getting rejected.
12:23: Austin Croshure gives Baron Davis a clean, hard foul and he’s so amped that he takes exception to it. Stupid by Davis as he draws half of a double-technical. Fortunately, Joey Crawford is suspended and no one gets thrown out of the game. Davis makes his free throws and the Warriors, on an 11-0 run, go up by 16.
12:25: Your MVP, Dirk Nowitsky, is on the bench where he can truly make a difference.
12:26: The depressing unpopularity of the NBA is revealed to me as I can’t find a single person on my buddy list watching this game. It could also be because some people value sleep.
12:28: 18.
12:30: The Mavs are still firing panic-threes down by 18. Might be time to change the strategy.
12:31: 19
12:31: Stackhouse steps out of bounds with the ball, leading to another turnover.
12:32: 20.
12:32: 21. The Mavs haven’t scored in 4.5 minutes. I check the box score only to find out that both teams have committed 12 turnovers. This baffles me. The Warriors must be taking more advantage of them.
12:33: 22. The Mavs finally score following this. The Warriors went 18 unanswered.
12:37: The Warriors are entering slow-down the pace, clock-control a little too early here and would be paying for it if the Mavericks could make a shot. The Mavs look like a team already making golf plans for next week.
12:40: The third quarter draws to an end with the Warriors up 86-63 having outscored the Mavericks 36-15. Your MVP, Dirk Nowitsky, with 4/1/7 and 3 turnovers. I could make an analogy here about the Warriors knocking around the Mavericks like Stephen Jackson knocking around pasty white guys in Detroit but, meh.
12:45: MVP Dirk Nowitsky makes his second field goal two-and-change minutes into the fourth quarter.
12:47: Baron Davis shoots a three with a few seconds left on the shot clock, gets his own rebound and fires it out to the top of the key to kill more time. Jackson then takes the ball in, gets the bucket +1.
12:55: Barnes idiotically makes a flagrant foul up by 19.
12:57: Fun sequence with a beautiful Davis-Pietrus(A)-Richardson slam dunk sequence followed by Richardson grabbing a turnover passing to Barnes and then setting up in the corner to get the pass back and burying a three in the corner, prompting the crowd to freak out.
1:03: The Warriors are staying right on top of the Mavericks, hustling around for offensive boards and everything. I’ve never seen a one-seed look this lost… maybe ever.
1:05: With 2:58 left on the clock, everyone on the floor is entering mop-up mode. The crowd is just starting to get buzzed up. They’re waiting to see if someone’s going to Molina them.
1:14: The Golden State Warriors become the first number one seed to ever knock off a number eight seed since the NBA went to a seven game first round knocking off the Dallas Mavericks 111-86 in, I believe, the biggest margin ever in an upset.
Watching this game gives you kind of a feeling that few stadiums in the United States give you anymore. Yankee Stadium has it, Fenway, Wrigley, Madison Square Garden, Soldier Field, Lambeau Field, and a few others I’m probably missing. The field where the fans just know what to do. You don’t need Titan-trons or music or a PA announcer babbling whenever something happens. It’s something I’ve started to appreciate since I started watching the EPL (That’s English Premier League Soccer for you non-converted out there) this year. In the EPL there is nothing on the field but the game. The fans are the only action off the field. There’s no PA, there’s no music, there’s nothing; just the game and the fans. It’s something we’ve lost here in the US. This game had it.
I’ll officially hop on the Golden State bandwagon for the balance of the playoffs.
And boy-oh-boy I can’t wait until David Stern decides we somehow have to further “fix” the NBA playoffs. Maybe he’ll start making the lower seed play with four guys and two fouls.
And, just to recap, your league MVP with everything on the line: 2-13 FGM-A, 0-6 3PM-A, 8/2/10. He also let his team pack it in with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Go Warriors!