No surprise that the NBA fined Stephen Jackson $50,000 for his actions (failing to leave the court in a timely manner and verbally abusing the refs) following his ejection in Game 2. A note for those who questioned (or read about the questions) the way Jackson was escorted off the court for his ejection at the AAC: it is common that when a player is volatile after an ejection at the AAC that the security takes him out through the center tunnel - the quickest way to get him off the court - instead of the longer walk across the court and next to the Mavs bench to the visitor's tunnel [Bonzi Wells almost always goes the short way]. (Also it looked like a Warriors official stopped Jackson and another Warriors rep, who was starting to take Jackson down the court for the long way, and directed them to go the short way.) Monta Ellis was presented with the Most Improved Player award prior to Game 3. Game 3: Dallas at Golden State (April 27) This time it was Don Nelson who made a starting lineup change as Andris Biedrins started in place of the struggling Al Harrington. The game stayed close early on with Dallas holding small leads and Dirk Nowitzki scored Dallas' first 8 points to give the Mavs an 8-6 lead with 8:35 to go. A 3-point play by Baron Davis gave Golden State a 12-8 lead with 7:25 left and the Warriors would hold a small lead over the next few minutes. Golden State led 20-16 with 2:40 remaining (as Josh Howard had scored Dallas' next 8 points) and the Warriors went on a 9-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer by Jason Richardson, to go up 29-18 with 15 seconds left. Devin Harris found Jerry Stackhouse for the alley-oop with .4 seconds to go. Golden State led 29-20 after 1. Richardson had 10 points in the quarter. Golden State shot 13-23 FG and Dallas shot 9-24 FG in the quarter. Stephen Jackson opened the 2nd quarter with a layup and then Richardson scored the Warriors' next 7 points, capped by a 3-pointer, as Golden State went on a 9-3 run to open the quarter and take a 38-23 lead with 9:50 remaining. The Warriors continued to hold a double-digit lead and a 3-pointer by Matt Barnes gave them a 47-29 lead with 6:50 left. The teams traded jumpers and Dallas scored the next 9 points, capped by a 3-pointer by Jason Terry, to pull within 40-49 with 3:30 to go. The teams traded 2 points and Golden State scored the next 4 points and the Warriors would hold a low double-digit lead the rest of the quarter. Davis converted a 3-point play near the quarter's end to give Golden State a 61-48 lead at the half. Golden State shot 53% FG and Dallas shot 37% FG in the half. Devin Harris opened the 3rd quarter with a layup, but Golden State then scored the next 7 points, capped by a 3-point play by Richardson, to go up 68-50 with 9:30 left. The Mavs struggles continued in the quarter as they were unable to get closer than 14 points. Golden State went on a 7-1 run to take their first 20 point lead at 82-61 with 3:25 remaining. Dallas did score the last 4 points of the quarter. Golden State led 89-71 after 3. Dallas actually shot near 50% FG in the 3rd quarter, but Golden State also shot 50% FG and made 9 free throws. Jackson scored the first 4 points of the 4th quarter and Dallas did not have a rally in them in this game as they would get no closer than 17 points in the quarter. Golden State won easily 109-91. This was the type of game that I had feared from the Warriors - a hot shooting Golden State team and a cold Mavs team. It was a recipe for disaster. The Mavs let their offensive struggles carry over to lackadaisical defensive play, as seen clearly in that the Warriors scored 52 points in the paint including 34 in the 1st half. It was basically a terrible performance from all the Mavs and a great performance by the Warriors - they were definitely the better team this night. The Mavs' frustrations also showed in that they were the ones who lost their cool in this game as they picked up 3 frustration technicals in the 3rd quarter. Golden State shot 52% FG through 3 quarters (they only shot 5-16 FG in the garbage time to reduce their final percentage to 48.1% (39-81) FG) and Dallas shot poor throughout (6-16 FG in the 4th) for a total percentage of just 38.8% (31-80) FG. Though better in this game, neither team still hasn't really found their 3-point touch as Golden State shot 6-23 3-pointers and Dallas shot 4-15 3-pointers. Golden State shot 25-34 FT and Dallas shot 25-37 FT. Golden State out-rebounded Dallas 46-44 and Dallas had the edge on the offensive boards (with all their misses) at 17-12. And it really was shooting that determined this game as the assists were even at 16 and the turnovers were near even as Golden State had 15 turnovers and Dallas had 16 turnovers. Golden State leads the series 2-1 and Game 4 is Sunday night in Oakland. As I feared, Jason Richardson finally showed up. He had a stellar game with 30 points including 12-19 FG and 4-10 3-pointers. He also had 8 rebounds. Baron Davis had 24 points and 5 assists. Stephen Jackson was the only Warrior starter to struggle with his shot as he shot 4-12 FG, but also shot 8-10 FT. He had 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Monta Ellis had 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 5 turnovers. Andris Biedrins had a double-double in his start with 10 points including 4-5 FG and 10 rebounds. All 5 starters were in double-digits scoring. Going to the bench didn't help Al Harrington as he remains MIA. He had just 7 points on 1-3 FG and 5-9 FT in 14 minutes, but did have 8 rebounds. Matt Barnes had 7 points and 4 rebounds before fouling out in 23 minutes. Mickael Pietrus was the only other Warrior to see significant minutes and had 1 point on 0-5 FG and 1-2 FT and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes. It's tempting to just skip writing about the Mavs performances as my disgust extends to all of them, but it's the playoffs so I'll grind my teeth through it. Dirk Nowitzki started strong and it finally looked to be a true Dirk performance, but he did almost nothing in the 2nd half. 18 of his 20 points came in the 1st half. He did have 12 rebounds including 6 offensive and 3 steals. Josh Howard also started strong but was quiet in the 2nd half where he scored just 6 points. He had 20 points and 9 rebounds. And everything gets worse from those 2 on - no surprise it was a blowout when no Mav had a good game. Jason Terry had 14 points including 4-11 FG, no rebounds, and 5 assists. Devin Harris had 8 points on 4-11 FG and 5 assists. Jerry Stackhouse had 10 points including 3-9 FG, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in 24 minutes. That's 11-31 FG from 3 key offensive players. And the centers were ineffective in this game. Erick Dampier had 3 points, 8 rebounds including 5 offensive, and no blocks in 13 minutes. DeSagana Diop missed his only shot and had 1 rebound and 1 block in 17 minutes. Devean George had 5 points including 1-4 FG and 3 rebounds. Austin Croshere saw his first minutes of the playoffs in the 1st half as Avery Johnson was looking for something that would work (didn't make a difference). Croshere had 6 points on 1-3 FG and 4-4 FT and 2 rebounds in 11 1/2 minutes. Maurice Ager also saw some non-4th quarter minutes (as well as playing at the end of garbage time) and had 5 points and 3 rebounds in 11 minutes. J.J. Barea got in for the last 2 minutes of the game and missed 2 free throws for his only stats. Quotes Don Nelson: "Well, the first thing, we feel that we are very lucky, very fortunate to get this win. Again, I didn't think they shot the ball very well, had some shots they missed that they normally make. We feel that we did play a very good basketball game, our best game of the series, and I feel real good about that. The one problem that we were having was the rebound game, and we ended up somehow out-rebounding them. I thought that really hurt us in the 1st half - they were getting 2nd shots - and so we all tried to do a better job rebounding and we did. So we moved the ball well. We played a good game on both ends of the floor, so Coach is very happy." Nelson on starting Biedrins: "I thought it was a move that was necessary. And I'm trying to free Al [Harrington] up where he can just go and play and do the things that he's been doing all year for us. I thought he was playing a little tight and so I thought that might ease that burden a little bit and help our rebound game. The way they've been playing us, we were able to counter that a little bit better with the lineup change." Nelson on Richardson: "Well, there are games where when he rises up and makes shots, you know, it's like the defense just isn't there. He kind of had one of those games going for us tonight. But I thought with the exception of about 3 or 4 minutes, he was very active on the other end of the floor, very alert. He was a really good player tonight." Nelson: "I was hoping for a game like tonight, kind of a break-out game, and we got it, and we had support from our fans, and couldn't have had a better night. However, there is another night coming and we can enjoy this for a very short period of time." Baron Davis: "They did a great job in game 2. And you just have to make adjustments. And I think they are a very good defensive team. And, you know, our style of play is very difficult to defend because we have 5 guys that can penetrate the basketball and make plays. They're a tough defensive team and we have to continue to move the ball and get our mismatches and get angles at the basket. And you know, tonight was one of those nights where we were just rocking. And I felt good and I wanted to be aggressive in getting to the hole. And hopefully we'll continue that in Game 4." Davis on Richardson: "It was awesome. JRich was awesome for us tonight. I knew it was coming, I knew it was coming. Just told him to stay active, stay active and stay in that zone and we'll feed off of you and feed off your energy and the big shots that you make. And for him, you know, this is his first playoff series. And on the road, I thought he played well. Well enough for us to win Game 1 and well enough for us to win Game 2. And he was due to break out and what better game for him to break out than this one, his first home game." Davis: "I think we caught them off guard tonight. We just played with an unbelievable confidence, a tenacity on defense." Jason Richardson: "It just felt good to get out there and feed off of our home crowd. I think the first 2 games I was just trying to do too much and today I just relaxed and played basketball." Richardson on Nowitzki: "We're just playing tough defense on him. Just trying to do what ever we can to try to stop him. You know, the guys that are guarding him are just doing a great job on him." Richardson: "I just think they just had a bad game tonight. I don't think we have them shocked. We can't get overconfident about this game. We played pretty well tonight, but we still have a couple of more games we got to win." Richardson: "We just love playing them. We get up for them. They're the best team in the NBA. You know, Dirk, you know, MVP candidate, probably going to win MVP. We just love playing against those guys." Stephen Jackson: "We wanted to defend our home court. We didn't want to have that win in Dallas go to waste. So we wanted to come out here and get the win, and I think we did a great job of that tonight." Jackson on defending Nowitzki: "I just try and make Dirk work. I know I can make him work and I know I have a good chance of guarding him. So I'm going to go out there and do my best every night and hopefully continue to do to well against him." Jackson: "We have a lot of confidence in ourselves, but the good thing about this team is we stay humble. We don't want to get too high because we felt good about winning Game 1 and we came out Game 2 too cocky. I think we are going to stay humble and enjoy this win and hopefully come out next game with the same hunger and same attitude - focused to win the next game." Matt Barnes: "We got 2 wins, but we need 2 more. So we are on a mission right now." Barnes: "They are still the best team in the league, they still have to be beat. So every night we have to come in with the mindset that we are playing a monster - David and Goliath. And right now we are getting the upper hand on them." Barnes: "We respect them very much, but we don't fear them. They are a good team but we don't fear them. We are very confident in what we can do. We have a great coach and a great team, so you know we are going out there every night with the mindset that we can beat them." Avery Johnson on Golden State's play: "Nothing really surprised us. They just play how they play. They get up and down the floor. They try to cause a bunch of turnovers - we accommodated them in that area. They got out and ran and made their shots." Johnson: "We just started off slow - we actually started of slow the last 2 games against this team, but we were able to get it back together in the 2nd quarter of the last game, but just couldn't get it under control in this game. Just didn't have the passion and the fire and the intensity and physicality to win this game." Johnson: "Well it's tough to defend the backcourt especially when we're not putting pressure on them on the offensive end. You know, this is a game of offense and defense and even though we're a team that hangs our hat on defense - and we weren't great defensively - I'm just as disappointed in our offense." Johnson: "We just didn't do a lot of the detail things that we did in Game 2 and what we've been doing all year tonight. We just didn't keep our cool. We're normally a team that keeps our cool - we looked like they did in Game 2, which I'm really disappointed with more than anything how we lost our composure." Johnson on Davis getting open: "Yeah, we just didn't get up on him. We got to pick him up earlier, make him work more. And, again, we were just a step slow tonight. I just didn't see that look in our guys eyes during the game. It's hard to explain at this point in the season. But we have to consistently, consistently get our swagger back and we better get it quickly and it better be consistent because it's hard to sit through a game like that and watch them get 52 points in the paint, driving to the basket, layups, dunks. It's hard for me to just sit there and watch that because I know that's not our team. We need to do a much better job than what we did tonight." Dirk Nowitzki: "We knew they're a very explosive offense team. They're really spreading the floor with their shooters. We figured Jason Richardson would start making his shots sooner or later. We thought he didn't shoot the ball the first 2 games, but he really came out on fire. Yeah, we got to take the individual challenge, you know, keep a guy in front of you as best as you could. They had, whatever, over 50 points in the paint, so that's way too much. I mean, a lot of layups, a lot of layups in transition. Breaking down the man 1-on-1. The help-side's too late. We just got to play an all around better game. I mean, even offensively we didn't have much going on. Shot 38% again, and that's tough to win, that's not going to get it done in the playoffs." Nowitzki: "You know, we hate losing, we are all competitors. We lost one at home and this was a game that we wanted to have. And we are now down 2-1 and that's for sure not a position that wanted to be in. But, you know, this series is over when the first team gets to 4 wins. Until then, anything is possible. I think we tried everything to try to get going out there, but we just didn't have it. So, you know, Sunday is a huge game. Obviously we don't want to go home down 3-1. So we got to bring it Sunday and we got to approach it like it's a Game 7 for us, really, and just never give up and keep swinging. We know that they are going to make their runs because they're explosive offensively, but we got to keep their runs shorter and make some runs ourselves." Nowitzki: "We know the pressure is going to be on us. We won 67 games and really we said all along our goal is a championship and anything else would be a disappointment. So we know the pressure is on." Josh Howard: "We got into their game style, running up and down and trying to get the first open shot. Hats off to those guys tonight. They came out and played great in the first playoff appearance at home. We just need to get ready and prepare for Game 4. We need to take care of the ball and get back on defense. If we can win Sunday then it will be back to our advantage, if not it is going to be very hard to get back to where we need to be." Jason Terry: "It was a very disappointing loss. They out-played us on both ends of the floor. You can't let that happen. It happened in Game 1 and it happened again tonight. We will practice tomorrow, watch the film, but you can't let them out-play you and out-work you or that will be the end result every time. We focus on what we aren't doing. Why we are not playing as hard as we possibly can on both ends, why we are not executing. So we need to give them credit, they were the better team tonight." Game 3: Golden State Warriors 109, Dallas Mavericks 91 at Golden State (April 27) 1st 2nd 3rd 4th - Final 2FG 3FG FG% FT% Golden State 29 32 28 20 - 109 .569 .261 .481 .735 Dallas 20 28 23 20 - 91 .415 .267 .388 .676 Halftime: Golden State 61-48 3rd Q: Golden State 89-71 Technicals: Josh Howard 4:10 3rd, Jerry Stackhouse 3:01 3rd, Devin Harris 0:39 3rd Refs: Danny Crawford, Tim Donaghy, Joe Forte Attendance: 20,629 (sellout) IL: Golden State - Zarko Cabarkapa, Patrick O'Bryant Dallas - DJ Mbenga, Kevin Willis, 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 42 9-18 1-3 5-5 24 0-0 5 0 5 2 1 Monta Ellis 35 6-11 0-1 2-3 14 0-3 2 5 4 3 1 Stephen Jackson 39 4-12 0-3 8-10 16 0-8 6 4 3 2 1 Jason Richardson 39 12-19 4-10 2-3 30 3-8 2 2 3 0 1 Andris Biedrins 23 4-5 0-0 2-2 10 3-10 0 0 2 0 1 Matt Barnes 23 3-7 1-3 0-0 7 2-4 1 0 6 1 0 Mickael Pietrus 20 0-5 0-2 1-2 1 2-5 0 3 4 0 1 Al Harrington 14 1-3 0-1 5-9 7 2-8 0 0 3 0 1 Kelenna Azubuike 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Sarunas Jasikevicius 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 0 0 Josh Powell 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 39-81 6-23 25-34 109 12-46 16 15 31 8 7 Dallas Mavericks REB Player MIN FGM-FGA 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA PTS O-T AST TO PF STL BLK Jason Terry 34 4-11 2-6 4-4 14 0-0 5 3 1 1 1 Devin Harris 23 4-11 0-0 0-0 8 1-2 5 1 4 1 0 Dirk Nowitzki 38 7-16 0-1 6-8 20 6-12 2 4 5 3 1 Josh Howard 37 8-17 0-1 4-7 20 1-9 1 1 2 1 0 Erick Dampier 13 1-2 0-0 1-2 3 5-8 0 2 3 0 0 Jerry Stackhouse 24 3-9 2-4 2-2 10 1-3 2 1 0 1 0 Devean George 18 1-4 0-0 3-4 5 1-3 1 2 2 2 0 DeSagana Diop 17 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-1 0 1 3 0 1 Greg Buckner 12 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0-1 0 0 3 0 0 Austin Croshere 12 1-3 0-0 4-4 6 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 Maurice Ager 11 2-4 0-1 1-4 5 1-3 0 0 1 0 0 J.J. Barea 2 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 48 31-80 4-15 25-37 91 17-44 16 16 25 9 3 patricia Go Mavs!