"...the Warriors have a chance at pulling off a first-round upset of the Mavericks..."

[tiptoe]

ODDS:
4/22 9:30 PM ET Opening betED Bodog Sportsbook WSEX 5Dimes
DALLAS by 10 vs Golden State

Five difference-makers in playoffs

Baron Davis

Warriors
An all-purpose point guard Davis is as important to the Warriors as Steve Nash is to the Suns. Injuries have been common in his career including this season, but since coming back from a calf injury in early March his play has been stellar, and it's been a big reason why Golden State is in the playoffs for the first time since 1994.

As far fetched as it may seem with Davis at his best the Warriors have a chance at pulling off a first-round upset of the Mavericks, the team that finished with the best record in the league. [considering Warriors defeated the Mavs 3-0 this year, does the "best team in the league" have a chance against the 8th seed, who finished the season 16-5, winning against Dallas, Houston, Utah, Phoenix, Denver]

With Davis on the floor Golden State opponents are presented with a difficult challenge defensively as the 10-year NBA veteran gets all his teammates involved, and he plays at a pace that other teams find quite demanding to match. [Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson and Monta Ellis, along with Baron Davis, can collect 7-to-9 assists]

If Davis stays healthy and demonstrates the panache that he likes to play with he is a guy who makes a difference for the Warriors in several key ways including the quality of shots they get. The Warriors have a lot of firepower, and they play a loose, wide-open game [understatement]. When Davis gets the ball to all those on the floor with him, the pressure on opposing defenses greatly intensifies. [no mention of Warriors' small-ball defense: leads league in steals and points-off-turnovers]

Dallas has Jason Terry and Devin Harris as its top guards and while Davis is not quite as fast as Harris, he's stronger, and quicker in getting where he wants to go. For a point guard he is a brute, quite a load to handle, and quite the difference-maker when he's out on the run pushing the ball and feeding his teammates.

http://tinyurl.com/QKK23

[erpowers]

1. Maybe, But Not Sure

I am not buying this although it may happen. I understand they beat the Mavericks during the regular season, but I think the Mavericks will try to step things up during the postseason. The Mavericks might feel the have a great deal to prove since they were supposed to win the championship last year. Dirk might try to step up and play better in the first round of the playoffs. In addition, I do not think one guy can beat three guys or a team. The Mavericks have Dirk, Terry, Harris, stackhouse, and others. This article mainly talked about Davis. Yes he has people around him, but do any of them have any playoff experience and are they had good as the Mavericks as a whole?

[tiptoe]

2. :) When analysts focus on season-long favorites, it's easy to leave unnotices how GS has come along

dynamically as a team over the final three weeks, and how Nelson's team has become much more than just Baron Davis (who's still essential for GS to beat Dallas, Phoenix, Utah, etc).

(And, yes, with Mullins' eight-player trade w Indiana, the Warriors added playoff experience in Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to that of Baron Davis. As per one fan's quote: "Baron Davis has exploded when he has played in the post season, and Stephen Jackson has gotten past all the rounds and has a ring with the Spurs, and he was a major role player that year for SA.")

As I tried to point out with bracketed comments in the article: The author seems unaware of advances in GS' play that have surfaced over the season's final days (...finally! in an overall injury-disrupted season). Have a look at the boxscore of GS' Mar 12 117-100 upset of a (presumably motivated) Dallas team nurturing a 17-game winning streak. The Warriors were six games under .500 (30 - 36) and not playing as well then as they're doing now at season's end (one example: Apr 4 game...frustrating and holding 7'5" Yao Ming to a mere four shots, via a team-defense concept of 6'9" Al Harrington aggressively fronting Yao and 4 piranhas alertly covering AH's back. It worked beautifully, because the players are intelligent and (*gasp*) defense-oriented in addition to being "controlled-chaos-creative" on offense: Baron Davis and/or (former UCLA teammate) Matt Barnes and/or Stephen Jackson and/or Monta Ellis (superb one-on-many penetrator-and-finisher) and/or Jason Richardson and/or Mickael Pietrus and/or Andris Biedrins (2nd in NBA FG %) and/or Harrington kicking out with skip passes or stolen balls for relentlessly fast-breaking their opponents).

Nelson, a tough self- and team-critic, recently commented: "We're very difficult to beat."

From Mar 12 Dallas vs Golden State boxscore (comparing stats with season averages):
Turnovers:
Dallas 23      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 13.1 / 13.8 )
GS 15      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 15.7 / 15.9 )

Steals:
Dallas 8      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 6.8 / 6.9 )
GS 13      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 9.1 / 8.3 )

Shooting Percentage:
Dallas 42.3%     (season avg, OWN/OPP: 46.73% / 44.70%)
GS 57.1%      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 46.27% / 46.16%)

Assists:
Dallas 21      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 19.9 / 17.9 )
GS 31      (season avg, OWN/OPP: 23.8 / 24.7 )

The article's author makes no acknowledgment of the Warriors DEFENSE ("Huh? a Nelson run-&-gun, 'small-ball' team plays defense?" - Ya betta b'lieve it! Of a kind Jerry Sloan hasn't seen in 19 years.) Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Mickael Pietrus, Matt Barnes, Harrington, Richardson, Biedrins...many intelligent TEAM-defensive players on the Warriors, and Nelson has those "small" players -- each and collectively -- negating mis-matches efficiently: smartly checking opposition-drives to the basket, showing a "sea of wicked-quick hands" -- like piranhas feasting -- whenever opponents penetrate the paint-area, employing a scheme of intelligent switching at the perimeter, and further neutralizing size disadvantages by fast-breaking away from height-disadvantages in transition at every opportunity (GS leads NBA in points-off-turnovers)! Jerry Sloan's comment after GS' Apr 9 126-102 slaughter of the Jazz: "They just outhustled us all the way around...They went after loose balls, and they made us turn the ball over. They were all over us defensively. I don't know if I've seen a team play as quick as they were.")

NBA End-of-Season
Rankings -- Steals       ( vs final 8 games + #comparable season-ranking )
#1 Baron Davis 2.14      (  2.625  #1   )
#8 Monta Ellis 1.71      (  2.625  #1   )
#39 Stephen Jackson 1.12      (  1.625  #10  )
#78 Al Harrington .83      (  1.125  #38  )

So when Mullin grins, he has reason. His team is in the postseason, and his ideas are coming to fruition.

"That's what makes me happiest, just seeing Mullie with that big smile," Nelson said. "He's got it all the time. He had it before the (clinching) game, had it after the game. He's had it for two weeks."

Because the Warriors, after 12 years of futility, two on his watch, now look as Mullin envisioned. Healthy. Running. Passing. Cutting. Trusting. And winning.

Nelson's done a Coach-of-the-Year job for everything he's had to deal with this year...and certainly not bad for a 66-yr-old-coming-out-of-retirement coach whose first game back had him reflecting DURING the game: "I don't know what I'm doing."

He's certainly got his sh*t together by season's end:

[tiptoe]

3. (typo) "unnoticed"

[Auggie]

4. DONE!!!

And quite convincingly, too.

[spoony]

5. Yeah I was stunned how they seemed to give in

But, I have to say, it was nice to watch. I hate it when teams start a season by saying that if they don't win the championship it's a failed year, that's such a smarmy attitude to go into competition with. Bet they won't be doing that again.