Good. Lord.
If you missed this game, you better have been dead or in jail. Or dead in jail. Or maybe you died and for some odd reason they took your body to jail instead of the morgue, which to my understanding is where they would normally take one who just died. I don't know, maybe you dropped dead right in the middle of committing some sort of crime and they took your body to jail just in case you resurrected or something. You can never be too careful nowadays.
But I digress. If you missed tonight's game, you missed Warriors basketball at its FINEST. I'm saying this of course because we got the win. There are in fact some things that could have looked crisper out there. But regardless, one fact remains...
FIRED UP!!!
I've tried a number of theorems to prove said ownage of the Mavericks, but no matter how I crunch the numbers, it just doesn't add up. I mean, we're talking about a given playoff contender vs. a team that has defied all mathematical odds with how long their postseason drought has been. How do we keep doing this to them?! Wait, who cares... we won.
Everyone was a contributor tonight. For the most part, tonight we saw the Warriors that so many of us thought lay dormant. Our free throw shooting improved drastically. Three pointers fell when they counted most. Baron was sinking in turn-around jumpers with ease. Pietrus was both offensively and defensively in the right place at the right time on more than one occasion. And Beidrins' freakishly long wing span is slowly making him realize that there can be boards and good D without fouls.
Beidrins guarding the hole.
What if we could harness this strange power we seem to conjure up whenever we play Dallas and use it against other teams? What if we can shoot over 80% on our free throws on a consistent basis? What if Dun rode the pine every game?! (Okay okay, cheap shot.)
Oh man. I'm getting shivers thinking about it.
But we weren't perfect tonight. There was a lot of sloppy basketball played. Tonight the Warriors turned over the ball 17 times. That is a LOT of passed up possessions. In up-tempo games like tonight, the Warriors are going to have to learn to keep a cool head on their shoulders. This is one of the fundamental differences between regular and premiere teams in this league. Along with the turnovers, we saw a number of over-excited shots resulting in horrendous bricks, blown easy chances and even air balls. One needs to look no further than the waning minutes of the game to get a great sampling of bad shots and unnecessary risks that allowed Dallas to get within 3.
Then again, if it weren't for all the poor plays at the end, our GSOM game prediction would have never rung true. Take THAT Vegas!
All in all, it was a great ride. Sit back and savor this one Warriors Nation. Hopefully tonight's events prove to be less of a miracle and more of a catalyst...
Warrior Wonder: I'm going to have to give this one to Baron. Baron came out tonight with INSANE energy. Something lit a fire in him and it took 26 points, 7 boards, 8 dimes, 2 jacks, and even a swat to quench him. He was dangerously close to a triple double tonight.
Mini-props to Monta as well for taking Terry's flagrant in style. Anti-props to Mavs fans for booing after Monta got clotheslined. Intentional or not, that was a rough foul.