Empty the Bench

Believe. Believe in Baron Davis’ beard. Believe in Don Nelson’s half nauseating, half brilliant commentary about how the series has gone so far. And most of all, believe that the Warriors are going to knock off the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, derailing the Mavs’ championship ambitions before they even got started.

You just knew how last night’s game was going to end after the unflappable Davis banked in a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer from midcourt. This was the Warriors’ night, this was a long-overdue weekend for the long-suffering Warriors fans, and this time next week, we’ll see that this was the Warriors series, period. To think that they’ve done this with little to no contributions from Al Harrington is almost astounding. Now, after their gutsy 103-99 win before a record crowd that was going bonkers for most of the game, the Warriors have three chances to get just one more win and close out the series. Considering their track record against the Mavericks, we like their chances.

We read a lot–A LOT–of predictions for this series that had the Mavericks sweeping the Warriors. For shame, for shame. Hey, but ETB had the Mavericks in six! Yeah, yeah, we know, but we did make it clear this was going to be a tough proposition for Dallas, and we did list the Warriors as the lowest seed most likely to make some noise over at Hoops Addict. Outside of the Warriors fan base, I don’t think anyone could have seen the series going down like this.

If Dallas is indeed eliminated in the first round, that would take care of both teams from last year’s NBA Finals. Wow. It’s not totally surprising that the Bulls advanced, but in a sweep? Madness. The Western Conference would be fine open in the absence of the Mavs; can you say Golden State and San Antonio in the conference finals? How thrilling would a Golden State and Phoenix conference finals be? First things first: Baron, Stephen, Monta, Al, Jason, Andris, Mickael, Matt, Don–take care of business Tuesday night. Get it over with. Pull off perhaps the biggest first-round upset in NBA history. Then let’s see how much you have left moving forward. Here’s hoping this is just the first step of a long postseason run. What a fun team to watch and root for.