The Warriors: Ain't Nothin' but a Ballgame
"Ain't nothin' but a ballgame fellas, ain't nothin' but a thing."
That's probably what Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson were telling their teammates Tuesday night on the flight home to Oaktown after letting the Dallas Mavericks slip the hangman's knot in game 5, 118-112.
With the series now a little tighter at 3-2 in favor of the Warriors, the C word (choke) hangs over Tuesday's bobble like Adonal Foyle's contract against the Warriors salary cap. We're still seeing all this as a win-win though. Game 5 was an incredible game for playoff-starved Warriorphiles. Both teams played spirited ball. The Mavericks faced down elimination from the very brink of defeat. The Warriors had a chance to close out their opening round best-of-seven playoff series with the Mavs, but couldn't quite pull it off. The game featured great defense, clutch shots, a little intrigue (again), last-second heroics, and playoff drama -- everything a hoops fan expects from the postseason.
Dallas's big D stepped up when they needed him in game 5, but it will be a whole new ballgame tomorrow night when the Warriors look to close out the series in the O-rena. Photo from espn.com.
The Mavs jumped out to a big first quarter lead and pushed it to 21 points midway through the second. But the Warriors responded with one of their patented period-ending flourishes, cutting the deficit to just seven points at the half.
The two squads jousted, parried, and sparred throughout the third quarter, but it seemed like the Mavericks might have found their sea legs. The hand-to-hand struggle continued into the fourth until the Warriors caught fire and seemed to suck all the air out of the American Airlines Center, taking their first lead of the game at the 9:32 mark. An improbable three-pointer by the Beard pushed the lead out to nine points with just 3:21 to play and the crowd was so quiet you could have heard a number one seed drop. Unfortunately, those were the last points of the night for the Dubs.
Out of nowhere, and seemingly for no reason, Maverick MVP Dirk Nowitzki reached down and rediscovered his sac. Having yet another wallflower game up to that point, Dirk went unconscious in the final 3:07, scoring 12 of his game-high 30 points. It started with a fantastic block on a Matt Barnes layup, followed by a couple of dead-on threes, some free throws, and suddenly, it was the Mavs up by one with thirty seconds to play!
And, and, and!!! Baron fouled out with 21.6 seconds to play, leaving the Ws a little wobbly in the floor generaling area. Jax proceeded to turn the ball over, Jason Richardson took a bad shot, a couple of fouls, and the Mavs were up four with just 8.9 seconds to play en route to closing out the game with a 15-0 run.
That's when Jax decided it was time to check out, again. Piqued by a foul call against him, Jax pulled a "Tim Duncan" -- showing up the ref by clapping and smiling in an exaggerated fashion -- and he was quickly shown the gate after receiving only one technical foul. That's two DNFs for Baron and two ejections for Jax. And the team lost both games. Jax will again be fined by both the Association and the Warriors for his antics, but he fortunately will not be suspended. Another bullet dodged, but Jax, baby, control yourself, the Man has an itchy trigger finger.
Just for good measure, JRich apparently mixed it up with a courtside fan in the fourth quarter. According to the Mavs, the fan filed an incident report with NBA security and the issue is now under investigation. According to JRich, "I didn't say nothing to nobody." Stick with that story JRich, it's been working for Karl Rove.
Ain't nothin' but a ballgame. After coming completely unhinged in game 2, Davis, Jax, and the Warriors came back huge in game 3, handling the D-men 109-91 in the O-rena. Which is where they'll throw down for game 6 tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
If it wasn't obvious to the Mavericks at the end of game 5, it will be when the step on the O-rena floor for game 6 on Thursday: the confidence and swagger of this Warriors club are boundless. The Mavericks can try to shift the pressure to the Warriors, but head games may not work on this Warriors squad. Led by the Beard, Jax, and Matty Ballgame, this team is blind to its deficiencies and cold blooded without conscience when it comes to attacking. Missed shots, turnovers, bad fouls, even tough losses -- just moments in time. Confidence and the Warriors both have short memories.
Look out Mavs, the underdawg Warriors didn't expect you to go easily and they aren't about to be cowed by a simple fourth quarter comeback. "Bottom line is we don't like each other," Matt Barnes said. "We don't like them and they don't like us. It's going to get chippy. There's going to be hard fouls, and that's the way we like to play."
Confidence is one thing, and experience is another. While there aren't many Warriors with close-out playoff games in their past, they have the confidence and breathing room to overcome any doubts. And there's the luxury of having three games to win one. Of course, now it's two to win one, but ain't nothin' but a ballgame.
Some might look at game 5 as a Warriors choke, but it was really more of a Herculean effort by Dirk and the Mavs. They are a championship-caliber team and a squad like that is not going to go down quietly. They fought hard, never gave up, and scratched out the victory. Rather than the nascent rumblings of an historic comeback, think of game 5 as the Mavericks death throes -- one last gasp before the lights go out in Big D.
One fun part of the game for Warriors fans was watching the Dallas crowd twist in the wind. Heralded as one of the best crowds in the Association before the series, we for one feel that Dallas' sixth man has been missing in action. During that critical stretch in the fourth quarter when the Mavs went cold and the Dubs started to tighten the screws, the Dallas crowd was sitting on its hands. Actually, the crowd stood most of the night, but you would have thought they were attending a funeral it was so quiet in the building. In fact, we're positive we even heard a few boos rain down on the home team with about four minutes to play.
Of particular enjoyment was Mark Cuban's antics. He stood, he sat, he clapped his hands (embarrassingly out of rhythm with the clapping section of "We Will Rock You"), he squirmed, he grimaced, he forced himself to play positive-attitude cheerleader, he sulked. It was quite a performance. In the end, he got to pump his fist and raise the roof, but ain't nothin' but a ballgame.
Forgive him his temporary pleasures, for soon it will be over for he and his team. Thursday night, there'll be some fists pumping, but our guess is that it's going to Diddy, Jax, Matty Ballgame, Beans, MP3, JRich, Monta, and 20,629 of their closest friends going Tommy Hearns into the Alameda air.
Ain't nothin' but a ballgame -- that's what the Warriors need to remember in order to forget about game 5 and handle their business in game 6 Thursday night at 7:30 in the O-rena (TNT, KNBR 1050). And they will.