Some say that a victory for the Warriors tonight would have been too good to be true. In all of the playoff hype (hell even after we won the first game of the series) the Warriors have still remained a Cinderella team that should be in shock and awe to be in the position that they are in right now. And after a drought like ours, we should be honored to even trade buckets in a playoff match with the Mavs, right?
Wrong.
The fact is that we are in the playoffs. The fact is we did steal away Game 1 from the Mavs right underneath their own roof. The fact remains that we had a very good chance to do the same thing tonight, and for the first half of the game, everyone watching (Mavs fans included) thought the same thing. Yet perhaps the most important fact about tonight's game is the one that will hopefully resonate in the heads of every Warriors' player as they prepare for Game 3 in the Arena on Friday.
We lost this game by ourselves. We lost control of the ball, we lost control of our shots, and most importantly, we lost control of our emotions.
I'm pretty sure this picture doesn't even need a caption.
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Okay, I should probably get this out of the way before we continue to break down the rest of the game. Let's talk about Baron and Jackson's ejections.
No. I do not agree with every whistle blown on our boys tonight. But when I look back on the whole season of officiating on Warriors basketball, I rarely do. I would be happy to credit some (not all) of our foul trouble tonight to these whistles, but in no way does that excuse Jax and Baron from their ejections tonight.
If there is one thing that these two should have learned during the regular season, it's that poor calls are part of the game! It's one thing to get the boot during a regular season game, but why would you taunt the refs when you already have one technical under your belt in a playoff game?! Calm yourself for the good of the rest of your team!!
Exactly how many points did you score from the locker room in the 4th tonight, Baron?
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
It doesn't matter that it was merely sarcastic clapping on Baron's part; anyone who was watching that game knows that he was implying a level of favoritism on the part of the refs. That being said let me pose a hypothetical question to Baron:
"While something as mild as sarcasm would probably be overlooked by many other NBA refs, isn't it reasonable to assume that a ref who has already been handing you a raw deal in calls throughout the night might make yet another extreme call and eject you from the game?"
Think about it Baron. You know I got nothing but love for you. This is for your own good. Oh and tell Jessica to call me.
Jax's ejection was the scariest of them all. Even as I write this, I have no idea if the NBA is going to react to his excessive bantering as he left the floor. If he gets suspended from Game 3, we are going to be in a world of hurt. Well, maybe not, I mean he did only score... um... 30 points... tonight...
Crap.
You BETTER be back on Friday...
(AP Photo/Donna McWilliam)
Why did it all fall apart? In the 1st quarter Monta and Jax came out like beasts, dropping 13 and 12 on the Mavs, respectively. By the end of the 1st, the teams looked identical with both the Warriors and the Mavs chalking up 10 boards, 3 dimes, and shooting 11-23 from the field.
In the 2nd, the Warriors and the Mavs seemed to be at each others throats with the score. But out of our 24 (that's right, 24) turnovers tonight, we perhaps saw the stupidest one in NBA history during this quarter as Barnes dished his inbound pass directly back to Monta who was still standing out of bounds. It all went downhill from there.
For the rest of the game, the Mavericks did not need to strategically deconstruct our squad. All they simply had to do was to sit back and watch us make terrible passes (when we weren't trying to take every possession one on one), display horrendous handles, and essentially wait for us to crumble. When the smoke cleared, Howard, Terry, Harris, and even big Dirk himself stepped over our ruins and dominated us in the second half of this game.
So here we are. One and One in a series that no one in the world except for Warriors Nation thinks that we should even be in. So let me end this with a final question for the fans, the players, and the Bay Area as a whole.
"Is this series in our hands to win?"
Everything that I have seen so far, including this loss tonight, tells me "Yes." But it's also in our hands to lose. It's time to show the rest of the world what the Bay Area has known all season.
Is it Friday yet?
Man I hate to even do it. Giving the Warrior Wonder to a player who lost control of his emotions to the point of ejection (possibly suspension) as well as giving up 8 turnovers tonight is always questionable. It needs to be recognized that what happened tonight was a huge liability. So despite your 30 points and staying in the fight tonight Jax, I'm giving it to Monta by default. He has some solid play, particularly in the first quarter, and was the most productive Warrior behind the two exiles.
I'd sure love to see JRich or TMNT wake up soon and grab a WW though! *ahem*