Playoffs: Game 1 - Warriors @ Mavs April 22, 2007

WARRIORS!!! I love the reaction during the game by Mark Cuban. He looked like he wanted to kill a REF! but Baron..unstoppable and I must say Barnes impressed me in this game. Everything i said bad about him I'll eat it because he stepped it up in the playoffs. Though he does need to shave his head

 

The tnt guys still giving us no respect......I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don't worry the Warriors will lose this Dallas series! </div>

<div class="quote_poster">Run BJM Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Thats more like it. </div>

Yeah, Avery, Dirk, and Howard are real mad now. They're gonna look at the Sir Charles half time tape and take it to the midgets. It's over. Stick the fork in it .

 

Gotta admit that after BD and Jackson, Barnes was the next best player.

 

How we won without a center, we'll never know.

Actually, the way we inbound and recognize where to get the outlet passes to helps in neutralizing bigger players because we can outrun them in numbers.

Where we might run into trouble is if we can't get anything inside or we're not getting defenders to play honest D against us. In tonight's matchup Baron Davis was so dominant as a guard, that nobody could matchup with him on the Dallas side. And with Stephen Jackson as this matchup that has the quickness to play some shooting guard, but has the size and physical skills of small forward, made a type of mini Joe Johnson. I loved it! He's been the guy I've been craving all year to put next to Jrich and as long as he's staying out of trouble he's cool! Both Baron + Sjax = Triple Threats.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Mercury Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">My gosh Baron!! Where was this kind of play before?</div>

Baron always had that kind of talent. He has so many incredible moves (that other people can't do), but for one reason or another like injuries, immaturity, or whatever, he didn't use it game in and game out. Even Don Nelson was surprised Baron could be that good.

 

Seriously guys, what an unbelievable game. Warriors coming up huge and shocking the world.....lets go game 2!

 

Everyone wants the Warriors to win, except Dallas fans. Lets not let our people down.

 

words cant express how happy i am right now.

 

Wow, what an exciting game. Who would have thought that our strength was a defense of all things for that game? We really shut down Dallas throughout the game, and if we hit our usual jumpers, which didn't come till late 4th quarter, we could have blown out Dallas. This game showed that why it would be so hard to replace Davis regardless of his health. I mean, he carried this team for victory when other players struggled to score. Both Jackson and Barnes had excellent games, and Richardson's block pretty much sealed the game. We stole one game from Dallas. Let's go for two...

 

Great D on Dirk. GS stole homecourt Can they capitalize?

 

After Stockton and the Czar mentioned how many rebounds Baron had half way through the first quarter, I thought he would get a triple double tonight. However that didn't happen, but he made enough points to make the lack of a triple double very tolerable.

I think this was a very interesting game. The start was just a track meet if you ask me. I mean it was up one way (brick) back the other way (brick) now back the other way (brick) for the first few minutes. The Warriors definitley looked like the better team then, even though they didn't have the lead. The Warriors really attacked the rim well in the first and then had some wide open shots from the perimeter. Finally, thanks to some offensive boards and hustle points and some good contribution from Matt Barnes in the once he stepped on the court, the Warriors finally got back in the game after being down 7-2 or so. But obviously from the start of this game we can see that the Warriors are a lot faster and quicker than the Mavericks. The Mavericks at times even seemed to give up a little bit on offense knowing that once they gave up the ball they'd most likely have to start sprinting again, which didn't seem like something they are used to doing.

Dirk is not such a big-game player in my opinion. I was wondering why people were going goo-goo over Dirk but not mentioning anything about Baron Davis before tonight(I guess I could cite a post where I said this, but that's kind of dumb). The Warriors really have Dirk's number, especially Don Nelson. This is not to say that Dirk is not going to have some big games coming up, I think he will. But definitley the game plan wasn't there. The players that have really beat the Warriors this season have been the Mike Miller's and Jason Kapono's who can catch the ball on the perimeter after the Warriors' defense collapses on a cutter and then get open shots like that; also players like Elton Brand who can glog the paint (ask Monta Ellis or check out that one game right after the All-Star Break to see what I mean) stand out against the Warriors. Usually slashers can do pretty well also. But Dirk who just puts his head down, back to the basket from 20 feet out, puts the ball on the floor and does nothing type players isn't going to do it for the Mavericks. They definitley will need to make adjustments, and I think they can, and because of this it will still be a long, long series - no doubt.

Well the bench is what I have stated will win this series for either team. This game Matt Barnes was HUGE doing everything with hustle, some sweet assists, big boards, and some sweet shots. Andris Biedrins had a sweet bucket in the start of the second half I believe, but was mostly absent due to matchups and not needing him on the floor a whole bunch thanks to Diop's foul trouble. Also Pietrus had a sweet dunk which TNT played often in replays and highlites off a sweet dish from Baron, and Pietrus did pretty well defending Dirk one-on-one.

I'll say the keys in the upcoming games will again be the bench. I think Josh Powell will be getting some big minutes at some point in this series to help on the boards and to defend Diop especially if Andris gets in foul trouble. Also the Warriors need to keep up the defensive pressure. The Warriors are going to need a big team effort for the rest of the games as well. The Mavericks will probably make adjustments to try to slow down Baron's penetration, so that will mean that Monta will need to take advantage of very possible mismatches of being quicker than his opponent, Jason needs to knock down his perimeter shots again (and quit making bad turnovers), Al Harrington will need to slip to the outside while probably a big who would be guarding him like Diop or Dampier fills the middle to stop Davis which will then put some pressure on Harrington to make his open shots outside. Pietrus making those corner 3's which was money for him earlier this season, will be key as well. Some of his attempts tonight just seemed to go in and out. Most of all securing the defensive glass is going to be huge, which is why I talked about Powell probably being important.

As far as Baron Davis goes: Well when he's on, he's on and unstoppable. The problems with Davis in the past has been injuries and not having the necessary mentality of a leader. The other conflict with Davis is that he is inconsistant to some degree. Like he said at the end of the game he missed some layups and attempts close to the bucket, which is a spell he goes through for a whole game even. But, that second quarter, he knew it was time to step up, and he definitley came through. He might have had some help from the refs (maybe another reason why he hasn't necessarly been that great because he doesn't always get the superstar Dwayne Wade calls) but overall he was awesome and once he was going he is tough to stop. Don Nelson has had a good effect on him. Also I think Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington replacing Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy (two players that I think Baron got tired of) was huge for Baron as a leader of this team, because he has confidence in Jackson and Harrington, but I couldn't say the same about him having confidence in Dun or Murph. But yeah, Baron's pretty awesome. He was a potential league MVP somewhat like Dirk is this year, but not that high of a candidate with the Hornets that year. But he has had some big playoff games; tonight was just another one of them. And let's not forget how clutch Baron is. All season long, that's how Baron has played in big situations. Just ask Houston and Seattle.

 

<div class="quote_poster">K8BE24 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Great D on Dirk. GS stole homecourt Can they capitalize?</div>

We can only hope. I pray that we live up to our great home record. Our fans are going to bring the roof DOWN, unlike the Mav fans.

 

Go Warriors

 

Only if the Lakers would go "small ball" with Kobe @ the point

 

<div class="quote_poster">K8BE24 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Only if the Lakers would go "small ball" with Kobe @ the point</div>

Imagine if Kobe was on a small ball team... He'd score like a madman with all those open looks.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Legacy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Everyone wants the Warriors to win, except Dallas fans. Lets not let our people down. </div>

lol, yeah. It's funny. It's only one game, so it doesn't mean a whole lot, but it definitley is significant. The funny remark during half-time was Kenny's comments about, "'who are the Warriors?' is the question everyone is asking" and after the first half he thinks he knows it all. I guess nobody really does know anything about the Warriors. Barkley thinks that they are just a bunch of midgets. Some outside NBA fan I read just thought the team is filled with a bunch of punks (a la Jackson and idk who else, Harrington maybe?), most experts just see this team as all offense and no defense or very unversatile and just being "hector skeltor" or Peter Vesey's "[something] combustion". But then Magic questions at halftime what this team does when it becomes more organized. Then after the game Magic is going goo-goo over Baron his 'little brother" and Kenny Smith's "cousin" and all that. It's pretty funny. I guess when you are a big name like Magic or Barkley you can say whatever you want and not be insightful and it'll be OK for most.

Tonight I guess people have recognized the Warriors defense, met Matt Barnes, and got to know Baron Davis a little better. And hopefully when people are asking what bigs the Warriors have, they'll get a pleasurable experience getting to know Andris Biedrins.

But really, the Warriors play best as underdogs. So maybe it's better if the people around the NBA still think very little of this team.

 

<div class="quote_poster">AnimeFANatic Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Imagine if Kobe was on a small ball team... He'd score like a madman with all those open looks.</div>

Yeah, he'd probably average 45-50 points per game hah.