Bulls, Pistons, Cavs, Nets, Suns... Warriors?

San Antone and Denver is an interesting series. The Spurs are clearly superior, but Denver is an excellent team and they're playing their asses off. Houston and Utah is damn sure turning into a 7 game duke-fest for supremacy. So none of them can be lumped into the group of teams whooping serious ass in the first round.
The Bulls and Pistons successfully completed sweeps, humiliating their respective opponents. The Cavs should join that club by finishing their sweep of the Wizards tonight. Despite all the shit being talked all over the league about how great the Raptors are, they will likely be shown the door tomorrow night on their own home court. The Nets have pretty much wrapped up a very convincing argument that they are not only better than the Raps, but so much better it's not really even a contest. The Suns gave me a scare losing that one game to the Lakers, but as I expected, Kobe's heroics are really only good for 1, maybe 2 games in a series. Unless a miracle occurs, Suns should take it in 5.
Which leaves only one series. I certainly expected that I'd group that series in with the other slaughterhouses. But I expected to be talking about a Mavs sweep. I never thought in a million years I'd be writing about the Warriors with a 3-1 lead. I was at Oracle arena in Oakland last night to watch Baron Davis wash away years of bad memories of shoddy work ethic, poor conditioning, injury, disappointment, lack of leadership, bad breath and dandruff, with a legendary performance in a blemish-free Game 4 take down of the Mavericks.
It was a glory to behold.
The Warriors played defense. For real, no-shit, man-up, lock down defense. Dirk had a good game, but he looked tamed out there. Mikael Pietrus is a defensive whirlwind who can drain 3s. Matt Barnes may be the most energetic, level headed, fundamentally sound 6th man in the business. Biedrins is a spry 7 ft rebound machine, and he's faster than the dickens. Monta Ellis is a breath of fresh air in a sea of disappointing prep-to-pro air heads. Jason Richardson? How about one of the most versatile, athletic, high energy guards in the league. Al Harrington has been cold on the offensive end, but never out of energy. Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson are writing their names into playoff legend. They're hitting shots, creating shots, playing D, and hyping up the home crowd like you can't imagine.
When Baron hit a nearly half-court 3 pointer at the buzzer before half time there was a palpable feeling in Oakland. A foreign emotion for Bay Area basketball fans that's as tangible as the 20,000 "We Believe," towels being twirled by the Warriors faithful:

We can win this.

And not just one game, or one series. The Warriors are a threat. A scrappy, energetic threat to the NBA's Southwest power elite. Dallas is soiling their pants wondering what to do next. That's for sure. But you have to start wondering if Houston, San Antonio or Phoenix can have much more luck against this rowdy bunch from Oakland. Buckle up Bay Area fans. The Warriors mean business.

Good to Be a Cavs/Warriors Fan

For Cleveland transplants to the Bay Area, such as myself, there hasn't been a playoff this exciting in a looooooong time. In fact, the Cavs and Warriors haven't won playoff games in the same year since the 1991-92 season. So for 415/216 hybrids like myself, yesterday was a foreign emotion. I couldn't believe my eyes; both the Cavs and Warriors won, and pretty handily at that. Neither team looks like a title contender, but they both look interesting, and they both have a good time in store.
The Warriors barely squeaked into the post season, and being their first time in 12 seasons, they could've gone out 4-0 in thirty point poundings, and you still couldn't wipe the grin off Bay Area faces. We don't care how bad they lose, and neither do they. The result is that they're playing loose, comfortable, scrappy and chaotic. In short; they're playing Nellie Ball. As Dallas fans can attest, it'll never get you to the big show, but it makes for enjoyable and exciting games, lots of three pointers, and just maybe a prayer. With an impressive game 1 steal, the Warriors, once again control their own destiny. All they need to do, however unlikely a feat, is defend Oracle Arena. As long as they can run the board in Oakland, there's a growing possibility we'll get to see Mark Cuban have an aneurysm on national TV.
The Cavs certainly didn't look as punishing and controlling as I may have hoped. And the announcers/pundits/bloggers/assholes have been making them pay. Despite winning by the largest margin of any of the opening games, the Cavs have been roundly panned as the least persuasive winner so far. But I honestly don't mind. Charles Barkley insists the Wizards should be heartened that they can win games, possibly the series. I don't know what game he was watching. The Cavs should still sweep the Wizards, and I don't care if they they win the rest of the games by 1 point each. Getting to the next round in as few games as possible is the priority. The Cavs'll do fine. Pacing themselves in the first round against a sorely over matched opponent is no different from pacing themselves in the regular season. When the Cavs see the Pistons/Bulls/Heat in the conference finals, I want them to be as rested and hard to read as possible. Wish granted.

Smoketown Beat Down

I just got back from the Warriors Wolves game tonight, to which I had 11th row tickets. Golden State looked better tonight than I've seen 'em all year. They exhibited something I haven't seen from them... ever: defense. They held the Wolves to 36% from the field tonight, including an embarrassing 16% from downtown. I can't imagine what a quiet plane ride the Wolves are gonna have tonight. KG looked scary. It wasn't that he was pissed, or fired up, or disappointed. KG looked like he didn't give a shit anymore. After all the years he's put into this team, it was just heartbreaking to see the warrior, KG, broken. He's checked out, and I for one can't wait to see him in LA next year. He and Kobe will be flat out unstoppable.
For the Wolves, there were few bright spots. Foye had maybe his best game of the year, but it was mostly garbage numbers. KG was the only pulse on the court, save for rookie Craig Smith, who I was very impressed with. Even though his numbers don't show it, he far outplayed Foye. Mike James barely made it off the bench, logging 11 minutes that didn't start until late in the 3rd quarter. It's clear that honeymoon is long over. But the worst performance award has to go to Wrong Rim Ricky Davis, who had a humiliatingly awful night, exacerbated by my non stop heckling. If this game was televised anywhere, I bet I made it on TV. I was yelling for RD to screw up so hard I lost my voice.
For the Warriors, J Rich, BDiddy and SteJax all had nice outings, but Monta Ellis stole the show. I've seen him before, but until you see him in person, you just don't understand. This kid is the future of the NBA. And the future looks bright. He hit jump shots, cut through the TWolves defenses, passed, dunked, he did it all tonight. Some of his drives to the hoop looked like LeBron moves, being done by a guy half his size. He had no trouble dropping soft kisses off the glass against everyone on Minnesota, from KG to RD and he even played a little defense. But the run of the night goes to Mikael Pietrus, another dude with an extremely bright future. In the middle of the second quarter, he hit back to back threes and then got an alley-oop from Jason Richardson that brought the house down. Then he came right back 2 plays later and drained another 3.
I also had a good night, as I cavorted with 2 of the sexier Golden State cheerleaders. I didn't catch their names, so I'll just refer to them as my first and second wives.