Beat! The! Mavs!

Immensely entertaining game 5 last night between Golden State and Dallas, as this series gets better and better. Immediately after the game 1 victory by Golden State I was intrigued; everyone loves an underdog, and I am not in the Dallas Maverick fan club; even my boy Jason Terry doesn't impress me much anymore. Then watching the games in Oakland was phenomenal. If all NBA games were like that, the gap between college and pro ball in my mind would be all but closed. That's a city that has been waiting for the playoffs.

The Warriors have me intrigued. Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, and to a lesser extent Jason Richardson and Al Harrington....talk about a team of crazies. Crazy in a good way, though. Crazy in a still caring about winning way. Crazy in an intimidating way, especially against a somewhat soft Dallas team. And don't tell me that Dallas showed toughness last night by winning, either. They blew a 21-point lead, at home, to an 8-seed, in an elimination game. It's been evident the whole series that Dallas is scared of Golden State, beginning with Avery's decision to play smallball with them in game 1.

If I was 7 or 8 years old, and this was my first playoffs, there is no doubt in my mind that Golden State would be my favorite team. I love the Warriors' attitude. The 3 that Baron hit to put them up 9 after he lost the ball was this team in a nutshell. Just a "Fuck it, the play is broken, this thing's going up. Right now." type of shot. And of course it's going in. Yeah, they play completely out of control at times, and Baron is yelling at Barnes, and Jackson looks like he is ready to recreate The Brawl at the Palace at any moment, and Nellie looks like he ate a bad rack of lamb right before tip-off, but I love it. Every second of it. I love how you never know who's gonna get T'd up next, or ejected, or gonna throw a punch (at either a Mav or a teammate.) Danny said it best last night when I looked over and told him towards the end of the game, "Whatever. They've got 'em in game 6 at home. No way Dallas wins in there." Danny's answer: "Yeah. Well, if nobody gets suspended before then. There's still 30 seconds left."

By the way, I am fully aware that I haven't had a single coherent, well put-together thought in this entire post. What can I say, this team and this series has me excited.