Nelly is right now a GOD in the Bay Area. His 8-Th seeded Warriors went up 3-1 on the Mavs in a game that had a very different look and feel from game 3 on Friday. This was not a blowout and the Mavs can't explain this one on an off-day or a visit to an alternate universe. This was a hard-fought, tight, punch-counter-punch type game that Dallas dominated for most of the time and led for even longer. This game was the best played game from the Mavs standpoint and they still lost.
The Mavs didn't get a great game from Nowitzki - looks like that may never happen in this series with Nellie determined to stop him, but the Mavs did everything else right. They got a solid game from Howard and more on that later. They got Stack back on track. He dominated the third quarter and just played real smart. He saw that the refs were calling it tight and just milked the Warriors aggressiveness in to multiple foul calls. He was living on the foul line much to the chagrin of the Warriors faithful. They got decent production from Terry, though the Mavs might say he could play better. And Avery's move to start Diop was genius as he controlled the paint. Without him this game would have had a different look and feel. You think Baron Davis dominated now, imagine if Diop was not there! Also the Mavs controlled the tempo. They deliberately slowed the game down and controlled the tempo pretty well. But they lost because they have not been able to do one thing all series and thats stopping Boom-Dizzle.
They have no answer to Baron and he killed them again. Not only did he score 33 points on 12/17 shots with 8 boards and 4 dimes, he just came up big at every big spot. He single handedly swung the momentum from the Dallas side to the Warriors side like 10 time in this game. Not only did his long range 3 pointer at the end of the half to tie the game send the fans into a frenzy, it was also a back-breaker for the Mavs because they had played really well but they were now going into the half all tied up. Baron then did himself one better at the end of the third as he soared high to steal the ball and dunk it into beat the buzzer. His final big play came late in the fourth as he drove in for a lay-up on Nowitzki to give the W's a 91-90 lead. The crowd went nuts and just enjoyed every moment of this game. The Warrior fan truly "believe" his team can do no wrong in this series. They now have 3 shots to close this series out, but in reality they just got one shot with game 6 back in Oakland. I doubt if they'll win game 5 and they definitely wont win game 7 at Dallas.
As for the Mavs, they'll come in all pumped up for game 6. I can't see them losing that one. But they have huge problems in this series. They got no answer for Boom-Dizzle, just nothing. They can't get Nowitzki untracked and the Warriors double and triple him on one end and drive at him constantly at the other end with their "midgets" exposing his defensive liabilities. The Mavs had a great chance today. They led by 9 early and they had a shot at blowing the Warriors out as the W's made a bunch of mistakes. The Mavs could have opened it up right there if not for their own mistakes at the other end which left the game hanging. The W's eventually got back in. Josh Howard was on fire in the first half as he had 20 of his 22 in the first. He just scored 2 in the entire second half. How does that happen?
Not to beat a dead horse and it doesn't have much credibility coming from me - a Suns fan, but this Mavs team needs a good point guard real bad and they had no business letting Nash go. I think a good point guard gets the ball to Josh Howard more in this game. I also think a good point guard helps Nowitzki a lot more in this series as well. I am sure Cuban will disagree.
In other games, Chicago shocked the Heat (but nobody else) with a sweep. It was the same story in this game. Bulls too quick and too athletic for the old-as-dirt Heat. Too much Ben Gordon, to much Luol Deng and too little Shaq. 16-7 for the gazillion dollars Shaq makes is not good enough. With the injured Wade shooting bad again and going 8/22 for 24 points, the Heat had no shot in this one. They are due for a huge makeover in the off-season and it starts today for the defending champs.
Toronto were left in the dust again by the resurgent Nets team. Kidd's 17-8-13 and Vince's 27-7-7 ensured this game was done by the third quarter. Kidd is playing like a mad man right now and the Raptors have no answer to him. As good as Nash is, Kidd might even be better if you take his defense in to account. Vince has just been a different animal at home after shooting those jumpers in Toronto. For the Raptors, Bargnani started and gave them a boost on offense, but it wasn't enough. His 16 is not going to be enough if Bosh is just scoring 13 on 5/12 shots. CB-4 better step up big at home and at least bring this series back to New Jersey.
Phoenix made short work of the Fakers and we'll talk about it later.
Chicago @ Miami - 92-79
Phoenix @ LA Lakers - 113-100
Toronto @ New Jersey - 81-102
Dallas @ Golden State - 99-103
Playoff schedule for 04/30/2007
Cleveland @ Washington - Bring out the brooms. Wizards will play hard to avoid the sweep though.
Utah @ Houston - Utah better win this one if they want to win the series. They are not going to win game 7 on the road.
San Antonio @ Denver - It might be AI-time in Denver. Denver badly need this one to prevent a predictable Spurs win in this series.
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