Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Golden State vs. Dallas - Game 5 Blog

Even when Dallas was up 20 points at different points in the first half, they still couldn’t stop the Warriors. I kept shouting at the TV that the Mavs should have poured it on more. The Warriors just kept slashing to the lane and then finally started mixing in 3s. Gradually, the Warriors sliced the lead to single digits at halftime… it was within 1 early in the 3rd quarter! Even with Dallas winning the game in the end, I would still be very scared if I was a Mavs fan for the upcoming games. They literally would have to be up 25 points to withstand the Warriors. Dallas just doesn’t seem to have the team speed to deal with all of the swing-men that Golden State can throw out there.
-Takedown !
The weirdest point of the game was when the ball went out of bounds and Jason Terry just decided to throw Baron Davis to the ground. On his head! I don’t know how else to explain it, but it was dumb. Terry got called for a technical, I hope everyone sees it on the highlights.
-Everybody Loves Diop -
Diop already had 3 fouls midway through the 3rd quarter. It appeared that the Mavs were playing better whenever he was in the game, even when he had to come out on the perimeter to guard Stephen Jackson at one point due to a number of passes occurring… and Diop somehow helped force a turnover! Then, a couple of minutes later, Jackson tried to do some crazy crossover moves right at Diop… and Diop somehow forced a second turnover!
-Josh Howard foul trouble –
With 10 minutes left in the game, Josh Howard picked up his 5th foul, which is a HUGE loss, as the lead is down to one, and Howard already has 22 points! Golden State took the lead for the first time after that moments afterwards. Dallas just cannot get enough people back on D. When they are able to stop Golden State from driving the lane, the Warriors have a trailer at the 3-point line to knock down shots. At this point, the Warriors are shooting an absurd 11 for 21 from 3-point land with 4 different people hitting four three-pointers.
-A dramatic ending-
The Warriors actually were up 112-103 after being down 20 earlier in the game, due to Baron Davis hitting an absurd 3-pointer basically by scooping the ball off the ground when it was almost stolen. The arena in Dallas was eerily silent. You could hear a stomach growling. I was just angry because I wanted to see a Game 6. And then the unbelievable happened – Dirk hit a 3, Dirk blocked a shot, and then Dirk hit another 3…and Dallas was only down 112-109. Then Golden State decided that they should focus on killing the clock, so they no longer were mercilessly driving the lane and Golden State actually stopped hitting shots... and suddenly the Mavs somehow closed the game out on a 15-0 run!
-Stephen Jackson loses his temper again
Jackson actually got his 2nd technical once the game was essentially over with a few seconds to go. The Warriors are now 0-2 when a player gets thrown out!

I can’t wait for Thursday’s game!

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