The Playoffs are less than a fortnight old, but already we have lost both NBA Finalists from last season. The Bulls swept Miami, but last night, we saw the greatest upset in any sport, ever (if you believe the hyperbole that FOX and ESPN have been spouting over the past few hours).
Coming into the Dallas / Golden State series, I was amazed at the long odds for the Warriors, and actually put a quiet dollar on them to win. But I admit that I didn’t really expect it would actually happen.
So credit to Don Nelson and Baron Davis. They did.
Chucks
Stephen Jackson
Is the redemption complete? Gone is the violent, lawless thug; replaced by a passionate, clutch teammate. The Indiana Pacers couldn’t win with him, but the Warriors? Simply put, they couldn’t have won without him. In game 6, back at home, with Baron Davis hobbled and the chance to eliminate the Mavs on the line, Jackson went nuts, especially in the third. He finished with 33 points on 10 of 19 from the field including an amazing 7 of 8 threes… it was a match-winning assault that the Mavericks didn’t expect and couldn’t overcome. Good night.
Mehmet Okur
Okur had been having a rather meek series up until Juwon Howard gave him a nice, hard foul in the second period, which seemed to fire up the Utah big man. Now playing with extra spice, Okur finally found his outside touch, and if Houston were going to continue to let him shoot from his favorite elbow position, he was going to continue to make.  Okur finished the game with a stellar 19 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assist and 3 steals.ÂÂ
Chucks
Dirk Nowitzki
It’s not fair that all the blame for the Mavericks’ extraordinary meltdown is laid at the feet of the 7-foot German, but let’s face it – it’s a another major choke-job by a man who is seen as the franchise player of the NBA’s best (regular season) frachise. Yet maybe, for all his skills, Dirk is simply incapable of being ‘The Man’, as his 8 points on 2-13 shooting would suggest. So instead of owning 1 ring and going for his second, Dirk has come up horribly short in his past 2 playoff series.
Shane Battier & Chucky Hayes
At best, Houston’s starting forwards posess the perfect mix of skills for this team. Hayes is a workhorse who defends, rebounds, scores in the paint off put-backs and dunks, whilst Battier is a leader who defends, passes, makes his threes. The trouble comes when either, or both, players struggle on one end – their play down the other suffers too. So last night, as Boozer and Kirilenko scored 36 points and 14 boards on 15-31 shooting, Hayes and Battier looked enervated and scored just 6 points and 7 boards on 2 of 6.
Ruminations
Yes, there was an earlier game last night – Utah held serve to send the series back to Houston for the deciding 7th game. No matter which team wins, we will have an entertaining second-round series against the Warriors, in another epic offense vs defense matchup.
McGrady had 26, Yao 25.
Utah have scored 90 or more points against the vaunted Rockets’ defense in 4 of the past 5 games.
Houston only blocked 1 shot.
Okur had made 4 of 25 from three on the series, and went 4-7 in game 6.
T-Mac lead the Rockets with 10 assists.
Andrei Kirilenko had his best output of the series - 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 5 blocks. It’s enough to make his former fantasy owners weep. Of course, he had only scored a total of 15 points over the first 5 games.
Luther Head fouled out in 22 minutes.
The Rockets still haven’t found an answer to Carlos Boozer – 22 and 9, shooting 9 of 16 from the field.
Jeff Van Gundy persists with his 2-corner offense. Yao and McGrady combined for 51 of Houston’s 82 points (that’s 62%). Of course, in doing so, they took 64% of the team’s total shots, and made 68% of the team’s turnovers.
By contrast, each of Utah’s starters attempted between 10 and 16 field goals.
Deron Williams had 15 points and 8 assists.
Paul Millsap was a factor again - not missing from the field on his way to 8 points, 3 rebounds, a block and a steal.
Niether starting shooting guard – McGrady or Fisher – committed a foul.
If a ‘J Collins’ goes scoreless with 3 fouls in a playoff game, how do we know whether it’s Jason or Jarron? Look at the playing time. Jarron gets about a dozen minutes off the bench for the Jazz, whilst Jason starts and usually plays around 30 for the Nets.
Think Houston could use Bonzi Wells?
Mutombo played 4 minutes, and didn’t have time to block a shot (although he did have time to pick up a T).
There’s been a lot of talk recently about what statistical measures and indicators mean the most when it comes to encapsulating a team’s success. My personal favourite is the little-known Steal-to-Turnover ratio. If you can go better than 1:2 and force your opponent into worse than 1:2, you’ll invariably win.
Let’s consider. Last night, Utah had 8 steals and 11 turnovers (that’s 1:1.4), whilst Houston had 4 steals and 19 turnovers (that’s 1:4.8). Valid.
Golden State didn’t just upset the Mavs, they smashed them. Game 1, GST won by 12. Game 2, Dallas won by 13. Game 3, GST won by 18. Game 4, GST won by 4. Game 5, Dallas won by 6. Game 6, GST won by 25.
Which reminds me, my father’s initials are GST, so he’s been a Golden State fan for about 20 years. And he was pleasantly impressed when I called last night to let him know his boys had prevailed.
Davis had 20 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists.
Erick Dampier did not play.
Nowitzki shot .416 from three this season, but just .211 in the series including game 6’s 0-6 effort. Similar for Jason Terry – he shot .438 on the this season, .281 this series and 1-6 last night.
Dallas committed 26 fouls to Golden State’s 16.
Mikeal Pietrus had 8 points and 8 boards off the bench.
Possibly the most extraordinary aspect of the Warriors victory storyline was that Dallas essentially allowed Golden State into this playoff matchup by conceding the game against them back on April 17. Avery sat out Dirk, Stack and Josh Howard, and played Terry off the bench, as Golden State gained an easy win which enabled them to prevail in their battle with the Clippers for qualification for the 8th seed. It didn’t make much sense at the time, and it’s an even more dramatic strategic blunder now.
Still, expect Chris Mullin to send a generous fruit basket to Donnie Walsh in appreciation of their deal back in January.
Devin Harris did not commit a turnover in 32 frenetic minutes.
Howard and Stackhouse both had 20. Harris and Terry both had 13.
Dirk attempted only 4 free throws, continuing to take jumpers and fade-aways over the smaller Warrior defenders.
Matt Barnes was superb all series – he put up 16 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists in game 6.
Andris Biedrins was a factor again – he finished with 12 and 12, and shot 4-6 from both the field and the line.
Avery Johnson wanted his team to be up-tempo and aggressive, but even that played into Golden State’s hands. Dallas actually attempted 7 more threes, but the Warriors made 2 more.
Biedrins had all 3 of Golden State’s blocked shots.
Think we can safely classify the Kevin Willis experiment a waste of time?
Austin Croshere went scoreless in 10 minutes. Al Harrington went scoreless in 8. This time last season, both these men were playing for the same team.
In the Steal:TO ratio, Golden State went 1:1.2 (11 vs 13) and Dallas went 1:3.8 (4 vs 15).
Yes, we did get an Adonal Foyle ($8.1 million) sighting.
The issue of ‘what defines an MVP’ is an annual debate – with the core question being whether it is the best player on the best team, or the best individual player, regardless of team success?  Last season, Nash was the former (and Kobe the latter), and you could say the MVP Voters got it right. This season, Dirk was the former (and again Kobe the latter), and it seems like the Voters got it wrong.
Unless of course MVP means Most Vulnerable Player, or Meaningless Vapid Performer, or Missing Via Playoffs…
