Go ahead Bay Area, whoop it the hell up. Call in sick to work, pick up a twelver at the corner store, order some team gear online, call your boys over, and replay game 6 again and again and again on your DVR. It's time to cel-eh-brate, come on! Last night in the O-rena, before 20,677 fanatics-in-arms, your Golden State Warriors rose up and crushed the Dallas Mavericks, 111-86, to close out their first-round, best-of-seven series, four games to two.

OK, so we've gotten some flak about picking the Warriors to take down the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the opening round of the NBA's western Conference playoffs. We'll be the first to admit it's a homer pick, because, well, we do really want the Warriors to win, and we'll be the first to admit it.

But our pie in the sky has an empirical basis. Here's five reasons why the Warriors will beat the Mavs in this playoff series.

Revel in it Bay Area NBA fans: this year the Western Conference playoffs mean something, because for the first time in 13 years, the hometown Warriors are part of the party.

So let's take a quick drive down the lane and see what the Warriors are going to have to deal with as they knife their way to the Finals. (Yeah, we know, but just roll with the sentiment. It's been 13 years and there's an abundance of pent-up enthusiasm to be dissipated.)