Game 6: Dallas at Golden State (May 3) It was another do-or-die game for Dallas, this time in Oakland where Dallas had lost the last 5 times there. Another lineup change as Matt Barnes (who was playing with a tweaked quad) was inserted in place of the struggling Monta Ellis. A 3-pointer by Jason Terry opened the game and that would be a sign of things to come. Jason Richardson answered with a 3-pointer to kick off 12 straight Golden State points and the Warriors went up 12-3 with 8:45 to go as Dallas missed 5 straight shots and turned the ball over once. Here comes a theme: Jerry Stackhouse hit a 3-pointer, Stephen Jackson answered with a 3, Stackhouse hit another 3-pointer, Andris Biedrins got a layup, Josh Howard hit a 3-pointer, Barnes hit a jumper, Stackhouse hit another 3-pointer, and Howard hit a 3-pointer to pull Dallas within 18-19 with 4:35 left - it was a 15-7 run with all of Dallas' points coming off of 3-pointers. With 5 minutes left in the quarter, Baron Davis left the game with a strained hamstring - he did return to action early in the 2nd quarter and played the rest of the game (though sometimes limping). After Ellis got a layup, Dirk Nowitzki hit 2 free throws with 4:10 remaining for Dallas' first non-3-pointer points of the game. A dunk and 3-pointer by Barnes gave Golden State a 28-22 lead with 45 seconds to go, but Stackhouse hit his 4th 3-pointer of the quarter with 25 seconds left and neither team scored the rest of the quarter - Ellis' half court heave did go in, but the shot went up about 2 seconds after the final buzzer. Golden State led 28-25 after 1. Stackhouse had 14 points. Dallas shot 0-14 2-pointers and 7-11 3-pointers in the quarter. Jackson hit 1-2 FT to open the 2nd quarter. Terry hit a jumper to finally give Dallas a 2-point field goal and, after the teams traded a string of misses, Howard hit a jumper to tie the game at 29-29 with 9:45 remaining. The game would stay really close the rest of the quarter as the largest lead by either team would be just 3 points and there were 6 ties and 12 lead changes. A jumper by Dirk Nowitzki (his first field goal of the game after missing his first 8 shots) tied the game at 46-46 with 35 seconds to go. Davis hit a ridiculous 3-pointer off of one leg while being heavily defended as he went for the 2-for-1, Stackhouse had a layup, and Barnes hit 1-2 FT to close the quarter. Golden State led 50-48 at the half. Davis had 13 points in the 2nd quarter. After their 1st quarter 3-point fling, Dallas only attempted 4 3-pointers in the 2nd quarter and missed all of them while Golden State remained hot behind the arc in shooting 4-8 3-pointers in the quarter (they shot 4-6 in the 1st quarter). The teams traded 2 points early on in the 3rd quarter and Golden State led 56-54 with 9:25 remaining. The bottom then fell out for Dallas as both teams fell in love with the long ball - except Dallas wasn't hitting them. Jackson hit 4 straight 3-pointers (with a technical free throw (defensive 3 seconds) in the middle and a 3-pointer by Howard) to kick off a 24-3 monster run that resulted in a 80-57 Golden State lead with 2:40 left. Dallas did not attack the basket once during the run and shot 1-10 FG including 1-7 3-pointers and turned the ball over 3 times. A 3-pointer by Devin Harris pulled Dallas within 63-82 with 1:10 left, but Golden State scored the last 3 points of the quarter as Dallas missed 3 more 3-point attempts. Golden State led 86-63 after 3. Jackson had 15 points in the quarter. Golden State out-scored Dallas 36-15 in the 3rd quarter - 30-9 in the last 9 1/2 minutes of the quarter. Dallas shot 2-12 3-pointers in the quarter. Dallas finally started attacking the basket early in the 4th quarter, but it was much too late and Golden State wasn't going to collapse in this game - and after not making a dent in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the quarter, Dallas reverted to 3-point shooting (and missing). Dallas got no closer than 19 points (once) in the quarter (and Golden State then scored the next 5 points). Golden State won 111-86. It was a pathetic excuse of a basketball game from the Dallas Mavericks - no player had a performance to be proud of. The team got completely suckered into playing an outside game. They won Game 5 because they were aggressive in attacking the basket (as well as some 3-point shots falling). In this game, they fell in love with the 3-point shot - it saved them in the 1st quarter and killed them the rest of the game as they shot 5-22 3-pointers in the 2nd half. To see how passive the Mavs were inside, all you have to do is look at the free throw numbers: Dallas shot just 10-13 FT (and they didn't deserve more). So thus becomes a wasted season for Dallas. A team record 67 regular season wins and hopes of a championship run went down the drain. The Mavs were out-coach in this series and the team was not mentally tough enough to stay in their game plan instead of settling for jumpshots. Long time Mavs fans have been on both sides of this coin before - the elation of an upset victory over a title hopeful in the 1st round in defeating Utah in 2001 after a 10 year playoff drought and the utter disappointment of a history making collapse in losing to Seattle in 1987 (the first time a #2 seed lost to a #7 seed). Dallas was also the Division Champions in 1987 (the only other division championship for the team), so maybe there is a jinx for Dallas on winning the division. This was the 3rd time that a #1 seed has lost to a #8 seed [the "first in a 7-game series" is practically meaningless as they just switched to a 7-game series for the 1st round in 2003]. Kudos to Golden State! They came into the series with a ton of momentum in having to play hard all of April just to get the #8 seed and they were extremely hot shooting throughout the series. They took a ton of confidence in winning Game 1 and carried it through the rest of the series - one of the most dangerous things that can happen is for an underdog to get confidence and to feel they can win any game. I've always liked Baron Davis and the Mavs could do nothing to stop him as he stepped up his leadership role and his performance in the playoffs. And, again, Don Nelson did what he does best: created matchup nightmares and rode it until Dallas stopped it, which they never did. As for the numbers, not surprisingly they all favor Golden State. Golden State shot 46.8% (37-79) FG including 14-30 3-pointers. Dallas shot 37.6% (32-85) FG including 12-37 3-pointers. 67 combined 3-pointers attempted was the 2nd most attempts in playoff history (record: 68 in a 2OT game). Golden State shot 23-30 FT and Dallas shot 10-13 FT. Golden State out-rebounded Dallas 53-38 including 16-10 offensive. Golden State had 24 assists and 13 turnovers. Dallas had 20 assists and 15 turnovers. Golden State takes the series 4-2 and advances to the 2nd round. Stephen Jackson was a 3-point bomber as he hit 7 straight 3-pointers before finally missing one 4 minutes into the 4th quarter. He scored 13 straight Golden State points to spark the 3rd quarter monster run that turned the game. Jackson had a game high 33 points including 7-8 3-pointers and had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Baron Davis overcame his hamstring injury and played a complete game - at times it looked like he was limping and at other times he looked healthy as can be. He had 20 points including 3-10 3-pointers, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists, but did also have 5 turnovers. Matt Barnes was the unsung hero. It was questionable if he would play in this game after suffering an injury late in the previous game, but he started and had a stellar performance with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Jason Richardson had 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Andris Biedrins had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. He also had 3 blocks. All 5 Golden State starters were in double-digits scoring. Mickael Pietrus had 8 points and 8 rebounds in 20 minutes as he was the only productive player off the bench. Monta Ellis had 4 points in 16 minutes. Golden State took the series despite Al Harrington being MIA the entire time. Harrington had 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 fouls for his only stats in 9 minutes in this game. Don Nelson didn't start subbing his stars out of the game until about 2 minutes left (to well deserved ovations), so the reserves didn't get much garbage time minutes. Again, no Mav played well - it is again tempting to just skip going over their numbers, but it's the playoffs... Josh Howard had 20 points and 6 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki was pathetic and never attacked the basket. Yes, the Mavs did a terrible job of getting him the ball and helping him get good looks, but that happened all series and, at his level, he should have also figured out a way to help himself in attacking the basket on those occasions when he did get the ball. He had just 8 points on 2-13 FG, 0-6 3-pointers, and 4-4 FT. He also had 10 rebounds. Jason Terry made a 3-pointer to open the game and then picked up 2 early fouls and was hardly heard from again. He had 13 points including 1-6 3-pointers, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers. Even Devin Harris fell for outside shooting as he hardly drove to the basket in this game (some due to Golden State being alert for his drives). He had 13 points and 9 assists. Jerry Stackhouse kept the Mavs alive early in the game where he scored 14 points including all 4 of his 3-pointers made. He finished with 20 points including 4-9 3-pointers (missing his last 4 3-pointers attempted) and had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 turnovers in 27 minutes. DeSagana Diop was the only center who played and he had 2 points on 1-2 FG and 8 rebounds in 29 minutes. Devean George again wasn't effective defensively (why he's in there) and he missed all 3 shots he attempted (including 2 3-pointers) and had 4 rebounds in 11 minutes. Austin Croshere was inserted in the 3rd and 4th quarters as the Mavs tried to get some shots inside, but he was bricking shots and it seemed he was forcing some bad shots in trying to help the Mavs get going. Croshere missed all 3 shots he attempted and had 2 rebounds in 10 minutes. Maurice Ager was also inserted into the game in the 3rd quarter as Avery Johnson was trying to find something to stem the tide. He didn't play bad and had 10 points including 3-4 FG and 2-2 3-pointers (but no rebounds or assists) in 10 minutes. Greg Buckner was the only other Mav to play as he came in for the last 3 minutes of the game. Erick Dampier again did not play, coach's decision. As for the future for Dallas, who knows. I'd vote for no drastic changes as the team has a solid foundation. Jerry Stackhouse is a free agent and whether he will return will most like depend the most on how much money he asks for and how much the Mavs are willing to pay. He has been a key part of the past few years and the team would have to do something to replace him if they did not re-sign him. All of the other key Mavs players are signed through next season and beyond. Most likely minor tweaking and summer work for current players (I want to see Devin Harris develop a consistent floater, something all point guards need) is what will occur in what is going to be a very long summer [not singling Harris out as I'm a big fan of his and others also need to work on things, but (to me) it is the key component that his game is lacking and I've mentioned it during games a number of times that is what he needs to work on this summer]. Quotes Don Nelson: "This is a pretty special place to be right now. I didn't even know if I would have Matt Barnes. He ended up playing 40 minutes. I put him on the bike in the 1st half and just kept him loose. Hard to believe we got such a big lead. Stephen is a heck of a player and you hope nobody holds his past against him. He's a very emotional player, the only one who can stop him on the court is himself. He's just a marvelous player on both ends of the court. He is proving that this series and he isn't done yet. We ended up having to go to our zone because they were attacking Baron and he pulled his hamstring and he couldn't guard very well. I told my team we were going to have to get better in the zone because we were going to have to stay in it the remainder of the game." Nelson: "I was expecting to have to go to Game 7 and that is just the way I coach. When things are working, I just let it roll. I didn't expect to get Baron back in the game. I just figured I would play him as long as I could and go after the win today and not worry about tomorrow. I wanted to give him every opportunity to win the game." Baron Davis on Jackson: "I told him I'll give it all I got and I didn't want to be the hardest worker out there. He had to carry me. He is the leader of this team and if you ask anyone on this team, he is the heart and soul of this team. He is a big game performer and he knew just how important this game was. He is the only one on our team to have won a championship, so we had to feed off of him." Davis on his injury: "I was a little nervous about my return, but I got some great therapy from our trainers. I was able to come back and just give what I could. I wasn't as explosive as I was earlier in the series, but I knew I could go out there and play a good floor game." Davis: "There is nothing better than to have the whole arena behind you. Whether there were Dallas fans there or not, you couldn't hear them because we have the loudest fans in the NBA." Davis: "Our confidence was there the whole series. Game 1 gave us a lot of confidence. Game 2 was a learning process for us. Game 3 and Game 4 we came back and won on our own floor and put ourselves in great position to when Game 5." Davis: "We had no doubt in our mind that we didn't want to go back to Dallas being that they are a great team, a well coached team, and very well prepared. We knew we had to lay it all on the line tonight and we did." Davis: "I'm happy. I'm happy because we closed out. We did what we had to do on our home floor. What better feeling than nobody to believe in you, nobody to give you a chance. To make history. We made NBA history tonight and that's the best thing about it and we did it as a team. We moved the ball as a team and we played team basketball and it wasn't about my performance. It's about Matt Barnes hitting those big shots. Stephen Jackson hitting those big 3s tonight. It was a just total team victory and I'm so proud of my teammates and proud to be a part of this franchise." Stephen Jackson: "I wanted to be aggressive and Baron came out and told me he wasn't feeling that well and he wanted me to carry him. I wanted to stay focused and not worry about calls. It's a blessing in the skies to play with Baron. Me and Baron have been friends for years. We are just each other's backbones, so when he told me tonight he didn't have it, I knew I had to bring my focus and stay in the game. He told me that in the mid-2nd quarter." Jackson: "'I wanted to be aggressive. Baron came out and told me he wasn't feeling as good as he had in previous games and he wanted me to carry us. I wanted to stay focused, not worry about calls, not get too emotional, just bring my energy with my play." Jackson: "I love challenges like this. We respected them during the whole series, and we still have a lot of work to do. This is good for the city, great for the organization, and great for the team. As a team, being together from halfway through the season to now and what we accomplished is great but we still have work to do." Jackson: "That's what I said at the beginning of the playoffs - that we were going to shock the world. We did that, but it's only one step, and we have a lot talent and a lot of heart and we're looking to do a little bit more damage before we are done." Jason Richardson: "It feels great, that's the only thing I can say. I don't know if I have to pinch myself or wake up from this dream, but this is everything I wanted. I wanted this for our fans, for this organization, for ourselves. We worked hard and we deserve this." Richardson: "We silenced our critics a while ago, but people are still counting us out and we took care of business tonight. We definitely shocked the world tonight." Richardson: "The fans gave us so much energy. It felt great that we actually put them away like that. We played great defense tonight." Matt Barnes: "It feels good. It's been a long season. It's been a roller coaster for me, from barely making the team to really helping out in the playoffs, this is a good feeling right now." Barnes on Jackson: "Incredible. I think at one point he was 7-7 from the 3-point line. But we have a lot of weapons on this team and if somebody is not hitting, somebody else is going to step up, and that's what makes it so good." Barnes: "Baron toughed it out. He's our leader and nothing's going to stop him right now. We've got a lot of talent and a lot of heart and we're looking to do a lot more damage." Avery Johnson on the 3rd quarter: "Man, they got on a huge run there making all of their shots. We got jump shot happy during that stretch. We didn't penetrate as much as we should have. And we couldn't get any stops. They were hurting us on their pick-and-rolls and they just did a good job of having good offense and good defense." Johnson: "And we were there at halftime. We were only down 2. And we just came out and had one of the worst 3rd quarters we've had this year." Johnson on the loss: "This is probably, this is my 19th year in the NBA and had another tough situation in '95 that was pretty tough when we were the best team in the league and lost to Houston, but this is probably the toughest situations I've been involved in my 19 years, one of the more disappointing ones. But again, you have to take your hats off to the Warriors, take your hats off to Nellie and his staff. They really had their guys ready to play and geared up. And, boy, you really have to take your hats off to Baron Davis. How special was he in this playoffs. And, you know, Mullie [GM Chris Mullin] for going out and getting Stephen Jackson and Harrington, added a lot of toughness to their program. So, Nellie and Mullie and the Warriors and Baron Davis, they all did a nice job." Johnson on Davis: "He showed a lot. I've seen him before, I've played against him. And, you know, you're talking about a guy who refused to lose. You know, you get a player like that that refuses to lose, has big heart. Even when we trying to make a run, he was out there encouraging his team. He hurt his leg in the 1st half and we tried to isolate him and go at him, but he just wasn't giving in. He has a lot of heart, strong will power, really strong will power. I had that type of will power, but I just wasn't that good." Johnson on Nowitzki: "Well, you know, he just struggled, struggled to get free, struggled to get open. When he did get the ball, they did a good job double-teaming him and collapsing on him. You know, the 5 or 6 open looks that he got, they just didn't fall." Johnson on Dallas in the series: "Yeah, it just didn't click, man. Even from Game 1. You know, in Game 1 we missed 11 layups and we missed free throws. So layups and free throws, if your giving 11 layups and at the free throw line and missing free throws, that's not a good thing for us. And we did something that we normally don't do: we turned the ball over a lot. You know, poor decisions. So again, I love this team, I've been telling you guys that all year. We probably played a little bit over our heads. I saw a lot of different signs during the season that I tried to talk about and that's why I wasn't overly excited about where we were, because I saw some warning signs. But again, like I've been telling you guys, I love coaching these guys this year. They gave it to me, they were very coachable, they were on time. But this is a very disappointing end to a season." Johnson on the 3rd quarter: "I was just trying to calm our guys down. You know, I got a young point guard in Devin Harris, who this was first real year playing a whole season and playing into the playoffs. And just trying to get him settled down and get JET [Terry] settled down a little bit. And, you know, when there's that much noise out there on the court, you got to have different hand signals because you can't hear one another. So you got to really trust your stuff, trust your offense and trust your defense. And again, we just got broken down there and they went on a huge run." Johnson: "I'm just disappoint in our whole playoffs. You know, at the end of the season, you know, we clinch and what we were think was, 'Hey, let's play some games, let's rest so that we can be fresh for the playoffs.' And we just didn't have the energy, we just didn't have the concentration. And more than anything that bothers me, more than anything, we just didn't have the confidence and we just got rattled. And that's not good." Dirk Nowitzki: "I thought I had some great looks, especially there in the 1st half. Got open, got away from them a couple of times and, I don't know, I just never really could find my rhythm today. Just, obviously, very, very frustrating. I didn't really give my team anything in a deciding game like that. So it's tough." Nowitzki: "It's so disappointing, you can't even describe it. You play your heart out for 6, 7 months, you know. We win 67 games and it really means nothing at this point. All the hard work. I feel sorry for the whole organization, you know, the players, the coaches, all the hard work you put in for so long a time. Really if you look at it now, it really means nothing. So this is tough. Tough thing to swallow. I feel bad for our fans at home. And you know, we started this year off saying that we wanted to win a championship. We came so close last year and anything else but a championship is a disappointment and obviously the pressure was very high. And we handled it well all season long, we handled the pressure well. But just faced a team that was hot at the right moment. I think if you look at our last 2 or 3 weeks, we really had nothing to play for any more and they did, they played all the way to the end, they got hot at the end. They made shots all series long, tough shots. So it was a tough team to beat if they played like that." Jason Terry: "Great regular season, but a disappointing finish in the playoffs. We all take fault in our mistakes, but you need to give credit where credit is due. That's a hot team, Golden State, the best team in basketball after the All-Star break. They made shot after shot, played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion, and you have to give them credit. They were the better basketball team in this series. For us, we have to stay optimistic and we have to work hard, but this defiantly hurts right now. The ball just wouldn't fall for us in the 3rd quarter. They hit everything they touched. That's just the way the series went for them, you have to give them credit." Jerry Stackhouse: "You expect a team not to shoot the ball like that for an entire series. For the most part, they just beat us. Obviously being who we are, we felt that it was all about us. But really on the flip side of it, that's a hot team. You have to give their team credit. They played their butts off to get in the playoffs. They present some problems for us and we were able to figure it out a little bit during the series, but we didn't do enough. I think of all the possible teams we could have matched up with this is the toughest team. They beat us, I won't take anything away from them." Game 6: Golden State Warriors 111, Dallas Mavericks 86 at Golden State (May 3) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Golden State 28 22 36 25 - 111 .469 .467 .468 .767 Dallas 25 23 15 23 - 86 .417 .324 .376 .769 Halftime: Golden State 50-48 3rd Q: Golden State 86-63 Technicals: Dallas defensive 3 seconds 7:15 3rd, Baron Davis 4:26 3rd, Austin Croshere 4:26 3rd Flagrant Fouls: Matt Barnes 6:32 4th Refs: Ron Garretson, Steve Javie, Mark Wunderlich Attendance: 20,677 (sellout) IL: Golden State - Zarko Cabarkapa, Patrick O'Bryant Dallas - DJ Mbenga, J.J. Barea, Pops Mensah-Bonsu Golden State Warriors REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Baron Davis 38 7-17 3-10 3-4 20 2-10 6 5 3 1 0 Stephen Jackson 44 10-19 7-8 6-8 33 2-5 3 1 4 3 0 Matt Barnes 42 5-12 1-2 5-6 16 3-11 7 3 5 1 0 Jason Richardson 41 6-13 3-7 0-0 15 2-5 4 2 1 2 0 Andris Biedrins 24 4-6 0-0 4-6 12 3-12 1 1 0 0 3 Mickael Pietrus 20 2-6 0-3 4-4 8 4-8 1 1 1 1 0 Monta Ellis 16 2-5 0-0 0-0 4 0-1 1 0 0 2 0 Al Harrington 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 2 1 0 Kelenna Azubuike 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Adonal Foyle 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 Josh Powell 1 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Sarunas Jasikevicius 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 37-79 14-30 23-30 111 16-53 24 13 16 11 3 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 35 6-14 1-6 0-0 13 0-2 4 5 4 0 0 Devin Harris 33 5-11 2-4 1-3 13 0-2 9 0 5 0 0 Dirk Nowitzki 39 2-13 0-6 4-4 8 2-10 2 3 2 1 0 Josh Howard 41 8-19 3-7 1-2 20 2-6 2 2 4 1 0 DeSagana Diop 29 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 4-8 0 1 2 0 1 Jerry Stackhouse 27 7-15 4-9 2-2 20 1-4 2 3 3 1 0 Maurice Ager 12 3-4 2-2 2-2 10 0-0 0 0 2 0 0 Devean George 11 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0-4 0 0 1 1 1 Austin Croshere 10 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 1-2 0 1 3 0 0 Greg Buckner 3 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 32-85 12-37 10-13 86 10-38 20 15 26 4 2 patricia (yes, that was painful)