Bay Area is home to a lot of special sports moments refereed to by single words - Dwight Clark's "The Catch", Terrell Owens "The Catch 2" etc. Add to that list "The Dunk". Baron Davis threw a monster facial on Andrei Kirilenko of all people to pretty much bring the roof down at the Oracle tonight. There are way too many dunks these days and though they are all good in their own ways, it is over-played and just not as exciting as they used to be back in the day when only a few ballers could dunk. But this one from Baron was special. He is a good dunker, but he can't consistently get up there because he is usually hurt. Even in this game, he had an earlier dunk where he barely got over the rim to drop the ball in. Not sure what got in to him late in the 4-Th. He beat Deron Williams off the dribble and he saw AK-47 get there to help. Once he saw AK-47, I guess he decided to do something special. He just rose up, hung in the air, cocked the ball one-handed, used the other hand to stiff arm AK in his face, and threw down a thunderous jam.
The crowd spontaneously jumped out of the seat and roared in awe as this was one of those truly "jump off your seat" moment. Fans and media has been talking about this dunk ever since for a day and a half now. AK-47 has had 16 blocks in 3 games and this was a strong message sent to him. Not that AK-47 is going to stop doing his thing, but this was a pivotal play at least for the fans. People are saying this is the best play of these playoffs to this point and may end up being the defining play if the W's go any further. The fans were already at their usual "Oracle Arena" level in this game, but this play gave them another reason to go nuts. ESPN instituted the decibel meter for Oracle Arena as these fans are still the story of these playoffs and I don't remember seeing the decibel meter since the heydays at Arco Arena in late nineties. Warriors rode the crowd for another impressive win in this game.
The game itself started well for the W's. Deron Williams was in early foul trouble again. He has been in foul trouble in all 3 games with Baron being in trouble himself in game 1. I thought Fisher would guard Baron mostly, but Sloan used both of them on Baron and both of them had 3 fouls in no time. Thats a huge problem. I still thought Sloan should have played Fisher through it and risked him fouling out rather than let AK-47 run the point and let the W's go up by 20. Boozer took just 4 shots in the first half and thats just bad offense by the Jazz. They need a PG on the court especially with the swarming half-man, half-zone defense the Warriors play. What's the point of protecting the team from foul trouble if you are out of the game by the second quarter?
Warriors started hot and went up by double digits before Utah came back to tie it up. But then the Jazz offense sputtered and the W's went up big in the second quarter. They made an amazing 11 threes in that first half as they scored 70 and the game was pretty much over. Well, except for The Dunk I guess. J-Rich and Baron had fantastic shooting nights, but everybody hit 3's in that first half as they always seem to do at home. J-Rich had 25 points in this game shooting 5/9 from the 3. He is shooting with confidence these days. Warriors got production from everybody including Pietrus who scored 14 on 8/9 FTS after missing the 2 in game 2 that would have won the game for the W's. Monta had 10 and AL had 15. Al also started instead of Matt Barnes, another great adjustment by Nellie. But the story of the day was Baron. He shot 12/20 for 32 points to go with 9 dimes. He made one jaw-dropping move after another for either baskets or pretty assists. He is operating at whole another level (HNL as I like to call it) right now and the Warriors are riding him as far as he can take 'em.
As for the Jazz, Boozer shot 8/10 shots for 19-11, but they need to get him the ball more. AK-47 was amazing in the first half as he was all over the place. He single handedly brought the Jazz back in that first quarter. He also did well at the point, but they need more than him at point if they want to win. They need to find a way to keep Deron on the floor at all times much like the Warriors do with Baron. AK had 15-5-5 with 3 blocks and 5 turnovers. Jazz out-rebounded the W's again, but the margin came down drastically to 44-32. Warriors can live with that. Nellie also played Biedrins for 38 minutes and he responded with a 13-13 night. Now both teams have to get ready for the pivotal game 4.
Utah @ Golden State - 105-125
Playoff schedule for 05/12/2007
Phoenix @ San Antonio - Amare has upped the ante by calling the Spurs and Bruce Bowen "dirty". The Suns better be ready for this one.
Cleveland @ New Jersey - Can the Cavs do to the Nets what they did to the Wizards in the first round? Probably not, but they at least need a split in these 2 road games.
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