NBA Playoffs Batches!!!!

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  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Congrats to the Warriors.....good luck the rest of the way.

    Biggest collapse in Dallas sports history.

  • marumaru 1,450 Posts
    i don't think it's out of the question for the warriors to beat houston or utah. i think steve kerr was saying utah has a better chance of knocking them out which i agree with because of their youth, athleticism, speed, kirilenko blocking the lane, etc. i don't think houston can keep up. yao is slow, and with the full throttle offense that the warriors run, he could be a non-factor.

    that was a great fucking series though.

  • G_BalliandoG_Balliando 3,916 Posts
    Bay Area Stand Up! Nice work. Dirk is on suicide watch. I know I shouldn't play like that about people but dude was beyond sad at the press conference, I feel bad for him. At least he knows #1 priority for next season is to work on his low post game.

    As far as Utah/Houston, make no mistake, they will both be tough. Especially with Baron injured 2 different ways right now. I hope he can recover before the next series. But don't discredit Houston because of Yao, worry about them because of McGrady. That guy is clutch. Utah is also very tough and I think both teams can give the Warriors trouble. We'll see though, I surely would love to see the Warriors go all the way to the WCF with the Suns. The Spurs are tough but I think Phoenix wants it more than any team in the league right now. GO SUNS! GO WARRIORS!

  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts





    matt barnes & baron davis = ucla represent!

    looks like it was pretty crazy in there.

    enjoy it while you can warriors fans, don't think they'll be getting past utah/houston or san antonie.

    They will be facing Utah or Houston and I think are probably capable of beating either of those teams.

    hmmm, maybe utah but houston plays d, unlike big d (dirk and dallas). actually utah plays d too. shit i haven't watched a utah jazz game since the 98 finals so i'm not sure if they do but i know kirilenko is in the top ten in steals and blocks every year.

    defense wins championships. not run and gun offense.

    i think their run is over.

    although i'm rooting for them.

    Dave, the Warriors are playing very good defense right now as well. We did very well against both teams in the regular season as well. We went 2-2 against the Jazz and 2-1 vs the Rockets. Plus we're the hottest team in the NBA right now. We finished 9-1 in the regular season and just went 4-2 against Dallas. We can beat either team.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    Gene - thank you and Dallas for a great series. It was a lot of fun. You won't hear me talking down. There is a level of respect over here.

    but I am just saying


    I for one have ALWAYS questioned if the Mavs were the real deal. I can't put my finger on it but I know how Dirk backs down under pressure and that's the dude that's supposed to be leading the team. JET and Josh can't do it alone, as nasty as they are.

    I wonder what the Mavs will do with this next year.

    I think the Warriors have a good chance against Houston... maybe Utah less so but either one could go... Davis has to get back into shape quickfast and hopefully Ellis will lose some of his nerves in the meantime.

    Fuck man that was exhilarating... had me jumping up and down yelling late night like a damn soccer fan.

    Barring last year's Finals, the Mavs were awesome in last year's playoff run. Winning Game 7s at the home of the Spurs in OT. Dirk throwing up 50 point games in the face of massive thuggery by Tim Thomas. Making mincemeat of their first round opponent who never even recovered.

    Barring their games against the Warriors, the Mavs were awesome in the regular season. There's is no questioning that. They put up record-breaking numbers.

    It's just when they go bad or cold, they do it w/ a flair and aplomb that few could match.

    Good looks Paycheck. I was expecting more like "GENE? GEEEEEENNNNEEEEEEEE!!!!!".

    Dirk deserves all the criticism coming his way, but the Playoffs right now are littered w/ "superstars" who aren't performing up to snuff and "role players" who are rising up to play out of their minds.

    These are the storylines that compel us and it leaves a lot of fans broke down in the end.

    Honestly though, this blitzkrieg of crappiness is better than grinding it out for 20+ games in two months to ultimately be disappointed. At least I get my life back now.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts


    its pretty ironic that maru started this thread with a warriors video and got some flack for it.

    If you're into that, you should go back to both NBA threads and start reading. You'll find so much irony your head will explode.

    So now I'm rooting for a Bulls/Warriors Finals.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Don Nelson basically built the current Mavs team so he's obviously in the best position to dismantle them on the court.

    The Mavs lost 19 games this entire season......more than 1/3rd(7) were to the Warriors.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    The Warriors did it as much on D as they did w/ lights-out offense.

    Maybe Nellie finally got the right kind of athletic but not wussified ballers he needed to make Nellie Ball work.

    We used to call him "Pimp Juice" or "Drunk Nellie". He cracks me up.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    Last night could've gone either way honestly. The Mavs just couldn't get their shots to fall, and even though they were settling for outside jumpers... some days they shoot the lights out, and that opens up the lanes. It just wasn't happening for them. That third quarter was the stake through the heart though and they just deflated after that. I think they had given up at that point.

    Steven A. Smith was brutal this morning, tawlmbout Dirk "has no heart" and has "tin man syndrome".

    I can't see the whole "focus on the post game in the offseason" theory... isn't that what he was supposed to be doing the last three offseasons? Sometimes you just gotta call it what it is. Dirk has a great game but he is soft in the lane. You can watch this series and see how he'd get amped off a few good drives, get knocked around a bit, get doubled and maybe turn the ball over, and from then on he's heaving up jumpers.

  • DJ_PhillieDJ_Phillie 199 Posts
    So now I'm rooting for a Bulls/Warriors Finals.



  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts


    I can't see the whole "focus on the post game in the offseason" theory... isn't that what he was supposed to be doing the last three offseasons? Sometimes you just gotta call it what it is. Dirk has a great game but he is soft in the lane. You can watch this series and see how he'd get amped off a few good drives, get knocked around a bit, get doubled and maybe turn the ball over, and from then on he's heaving up jumpers.

    Gawd. Thank you. The dood is 9 years in now. His game is pretty defined. He's not going to develop some whole new facet this close to 30. If the Mavs had a center w/ hands and offensive presence, this wouldn't be an issue.

    I think getting routinely abused on defense by smaller, quicker guys is what killed Dirk's confidence in this series from the jump.

    Maybe the Mavs should go all out and trade for KG so they can have two playoff bums.

  • bthavbthav 1,538 Posts
    So now I'm rooting for a Pistons[/b]/Warriors Finals.



    eff you guys

  • motown67motown67 4,513 Posts
    This is what the Warriors did when they met the Rockets last towards the end of the season.

    Warriors drop hammer on Yao
    Game plan to stop center works to perfection

    Janny Hu, Chronicle Staff Writer

    Thursday, April 5, 2007

    What began as the "biggest challenge ever," according to Al Harrington, turned into the Warriors' biggest win of the season. With the 6-foot-9 Harrington leading the lockdown of 7-5 Yao Ming, Golden State came up huge by going small in stopping the Rockets 110-99 at the Toyota Center on Wednesday night.

    "One of the best wins we've had all year," coach Don Nelson said. "It sets up our next game and keeps us competitive in the race.

    "And besides that," he added slyly, "we followed a heck of a good game plan."

    That they did.

    The undersized Warriors did a phenomenal job on Yao, fronting him on every possession and wreaking havoc with their hands. The Rockets committed three turnovers in the opening two minutes trying to feed him the ball in the post, racked up nine turnovers in both the first and third periods, and 24 for the game.

    Yao had only four field-goal attempts, hitting two, and finished with nine points and 11 rebounds in 31 minutes.

    Harrington and Stephen Jackson did most of the grunt work, but they had help from their teammates. On one of the few times the Rockets found Yao with a lob, Jason Richardson came from the weakside to block his shot. On another, Baron Davis was there to knock the ball away.

    "That was a team effort," Harrington said. "I was in front of him, but I needed someone behind me to make sure they wouldn't throw it over to him. Everybody was locked in."

    "By the first timeout, we had fronted him so much, he was breathing hard," Jackson said. "He was hurting."

    "The whole time he was behind me, he was sucking his teeth, so I knew he was pissed," Harrington added. "He knew what we were trying to do, and he knew it was going to be a long night for him."

    Golden State simply dictated the pace of game against the half-court-loving Rockets. The Warriors forced Houston to call timeout after taking a 9-6 lead at the start, then at 16-8 less than three minutes later.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts


    I can't see the whole "focus on the post game in the offseason" theory... isn't that what he was supposed to be doing the last three offseasons? Sometimes you just gotta call it what it is. Dirk has a great game but he is soft in the lane. You can watch this series and see how he'd get amped off a few good drives, get knocked around a bit, get doubled and maybe turn the ball over, and from then on he's heaving up jumpers.

    Gawd. Thank you. The dood is 9 years in now. His game is pretty defined. He's not going to develop some whole new facet this close to 30. If the Mavs had a center w/ hands and offensive presence, this wouldn't be an issue.

    I think getting routinely abused on defense by smaller, quicker guys is what killed Dirk's confidence in this series from the jump.

    Maybe the Mavs should go all out and trade for KG so they can have two playoff bums.

    haha. But yeah you're right. I think he's a great forward with agility and a sick jumper. He's not a post player though.

    I still kind of see this as a coaching/morale related collapse... Avery messed up from jump with the line-up changes... Nellie took him to school and as was said a few times in the series the Mavs were playing like the 8 seed and the Warriors like the 1. Someone had to step up and motivate the team and it just didn't happen.

    That having been said, I got shook every single time Howard took a shot. That dude is money.

    That crowd felt like a college game last night. Bananananas.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    The Warriors have been in the playoffs since late March. The Mavs were locked in by early April. Avery made a big mistake in hindsight w/ all the resting. These two starters rest a game. Then these other two the next game. All the rhythm went away and they couldn't regenerate it, whereas the Warriors rolled right into the playoffs like a house on fire. Right when they were clinching seeding, Dirk and Josh rolled their ankles a few times. I think he got nervous and shut everything down and they couldn't get it back. Shoulda just went full bore the whole season and let what happens happen.

    The early lineup concession was huge as well, I agree. Avery is young, but I guess despite his statistical success, he has things to learn.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Congrats Golden State Warriors. That was argueably one of the most entertaining NBA playoff series I have ever witnessed. I turned down an open bar VIP party and a Trans Am concert to watch this game 6.

    THAT SHIT WAS DOPE!!!!.......


    Dallas didnt get one dunk in the second half. Y'all need a low post threat. Shit was despicable.

    The Dubs vs Utah is what i wanna see.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts



    Dallas didnt get one dunk in the second half. Y'all need a low post threat. Shit was despicable.


    Jeez, wasn't it?

    Honest question: was this series characterized by great play or great stories? I know my team didn't represent much at all w/ "solid play". I think the series was so exciting to fans cos of the broader storyline and the fact that the winning team essentially plays streetball. Oh and cos of Oracle and the scene therein.

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    The talking heads are saying that the Mavs are going to disassemble the current roster. Is it sounding like that down in Dallas?

    And are you guys tired of Cuban yet? All up in the huddles and shit... ass-betting in the media... I swear he makes your opponents better just by being so easy to hate.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    The talking heads are saying that the Mavs are going to disassemble the current roster. Is it sounding like that down in Dallas?

    And are you guys tired of Cuban yet? All up in the huddles and shit... ass-betting in the media... I swear he makes your opponents better just by being so easy to hate.

    Not at all. Cuban is a phenomenal owner either way. I can't blame him and Avery for thinking we'd be close after last year. Let's see how he orchestrates this first hiccup of the Avery era and how they recover.

    They just re-upped Josh, JET and Dirk. Stack is free to test free agent waters and I don't doubt that he will. Damps is locked in. They have to make a decision on Harris who is about to be up.

    They're going to have to land another true STAR. It might cost them Josh. How much lower on the star totem pole is Josh than Dirk though? They're in a weird place. Wasn't expecting to have to answer questions like this so soon.

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    This is what Mavs fans are dealing with. David Moore, Dallas Morning News:



    Mavericks exposed as pretenders

    Dallas lacks mental toughness to be considered elite team


    01:16 AM CDT on Friday, May 4, 2007

    OAKLAND, Calif. ??? Never have I been this wrong.

    Sure, there was the vote for John Anderson in my first presidential election. And who in the world thought putting water in a bottle and selling it for a premium price would ever work?

    But have I ever been this wrong about a sports team?

    Never. Not even close


    I thought the Mavericks were special.

    It turns out they were tragically flawed.

    I thought this team had what it took to win the title.

    It turns out they couldn't even hang with a No. 8 seed when its best player was hopping around on one leg.

    The Mavericks have been exposed as pretenders. The ramifications of this will stretch into what should be an active off-season.

    This is not a knee-jerk reaction. Go back to the NBA Finals, when the Mavericks held a 13-point fourth quarter lead and were minutes away from a 3-0 lead Miami would not have been able to overcome.

    The Mavericks have lost eight of 10 playoff games since that moment. They weren't competitive in three of them.

    How do you keep that nucleus together going forward? How do you sell yourself ??? and your fans ??? that next season will be different?

    You can't. That's why owner Mark Cuban and coach Avery Johnson have some difficult decisions ahead.

    This is not an elite team. Elite teams aren't humiliated in the first round. A team that has touted its mental toughness all season doesn't crack at the first sign of adversity.

    The Mavericks entered these playoffs as if a return to the Finals was their inalienable right. Sure, they worked hard. But there is more to winning a title than hard work.

    Golden State did the Mavericks a favor. Say this team had advanced to the Western Conference finals as everyone expected it to do. If the Mavericks had lost in the conference finals, Cuban and Johnson could have rationalized the defeat. Losing to San Antonio or Phoenix is no disgrace.

    But no one can rationalize a loss to the Warriors in the first round. No one can say all this team needs is a little more time together.

    This team has had time together. We've seen what it can do. It's not enough for a championship.

    In the hours leading up to Thursday's colossal flop, Johnson used the word weird to describe his team.

    Weird is not the word that leaps to mind in the wake of this 25-point loss.

    Dismal. That's one word. Dreadful is another.

    You can go down the alphabet from there.

    The loss isn't a mortal blow to Dirk Nowitzki's stature in this league but it's close. He deserves the blame and criticism that will be hurled his way. But he wasn't alone in this epic meltdown.

    Jason Terry didn't distinguish himself. Josh Howard played well in the first five games but not in Game 6.

    The Mavericks three best players combined to shoot 34.7 percent from the field and turned the ball over 10 times in the most important game of the season.

    Nowitzki had one good game in the series. Terry had one good game. Otherwise, the two players the Mavericks rely on to step up night in and night out didn't.

    Is it a case or bad timing, or a case of the team's top players not having the temperament or mentality to handle the pressure that goes with being No. 1?

    Remember how much excitement and good will the Mavericks generated with their playoff run last season? That makes what they did this season all the more crushing. A city gave its trust, its hopes to the Mavericks and this is how they repaid them.

    Fans don't get over that sort of abuse quickly.

    I'm not wrong about that.

  • DCarfagnaDCarfagna 983 Posts
    So now I'm rooting for a Bulls/Warriors Finals.

    This would be the most incredible shit ever.

  • rkwparkrkwpark 915 Posts

    Gene - thank you and Dallas for a great series. It was a lot of fun. You won't hear me talking down. There is a level of respect over here.


    regardless of the outcome that series was beyond facemelting! Just good basketball to be had. A fan could not ask for anything more really.

  • How funny was it to see Snoop and all kinds of other hollywood(aka Laker fans) fools courtside in Oakland rockin warriors garb..But what a great series..I love this game!

  • DJ_EnkiDJ_Enki 6,471 Posts
    Man, what a fuckin' game. What a great series overall...but man, what a fuckin' game. That was an ass-kicking. OAKLAND STAND UP!

    (BTW, Baron Davis on one leg > MJ with the flu?)

    Now, this Spurs/Suns series should be pretty damn good, too.

  • marumaru 1,450 Posts
    dub fans stand up










  • JimBeamJimBeam Seattle. 2,012 Posts


    there's a lot of good press out there for the warriors right now. TrueHoop and HoopsAddict are full of one on one interviews and the likes... A theme that runs through all of them is the player's appreciation of playing for a coach like Don Nelson. Considering what I've read about Matt Barnes, and how Mo Cheeks demoralized the guy, it's interesting to see that an old, boozing and sardonic guy like Nelson can make players feel comfortable. He's really a unique coach.

    Warriors!

    So really, I haven't checked back as much as I should have... Did we ever come to the consensus that once a team is out, no more talk of their stars? (So really- No more Dirk and Kobe talk? If that is the consensus- can we add Cuban to the list?)

  • GenePontecorvoGenePontecorvo 5,612 Posts
    Dog, give us a day to analyze the series. Who in their right mind is going to be bringing up Dirk again in a few days?

    We'll have the attendant backlash when they give him his trophy but after that i don't think you'll have anything to worry about, mmmmkay?


  • faux_rillzfaux_rillz 14,343 Posts
    Dog, give us a day to analyze the series. Who in their right mind is going to be bringing up Dirk again in a few days?

    We'll have the attendant backlash when they give him his trophy but after that i don't think you'll have anything to worry about, mmmmkay?


    What is the timeline for that? Usually it's been awarded by this point in the playoffs, right?

    It occurred to me that maybe it was being held back when the possibility that Dirk's team would make a first-round exit emerged as very real. Is it still possible it goes to someone else, or are the votes in and have just yet to be announced?

    Despite being a committed Mavs-hater, I have to admit I feel a little bad for Dirk and Avery today.

  • white_teawhite_tea 3,262 Posts
    Dog, give us a day to analyze the series. Who in their right mind is going to be bringing up Dirk again in a few days?

    We'll have the attendant backlash when they give him his trophy but after that i don't think you'll have anything to worry about, mmmmkay?


    I give you a lot of credit for coming into this thread and actually saying something. After the Bears lost the Superbowl earlier this year, I didn't pick up a paper, watch TV or want to even remotely discuss the game whatsoever. That funk lasted for several days, and it wasn't even really that heartbreaking of a loss -- I kinda figured the Bears were going to lose.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    The
    Regular
    Season
    Dont
    Mean
    Shit
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