As you might have realized, I like many people have become a very devoted Warriors fan in the last week or so. I stayed up to watch the whole game last night and thoroughly exhilirated. A few things:
- I mentioned this earlier, but I haven't loved another team this much since the '97 Rockets (Olajuwon, Barkley, Drexler and, of course, Sedale Threatt). I was actually on the edge of my seat, tugging on my hair at the end of the game last night.
- Even though the Mavs won, how about that game? Every single supposed "dagger" shot got a response from the other side. It was like having 100 mini-heart attacks in a 3 hour span.
- Two plays that made me exclaim aloud: Baron's halfcourt alley-oop to Jason Richardson (who was looking down into the basket when he dunked it), and Matt Barnes' total facial of a Maverick (Diop maybe?) that gave the Warriors the lead.
- Stephen Jackson is a very solid spot-up shooter, but by no means should he ever handle the ball. Ever.
- Dick and Reggie kept ripping the Dallas crowd for not being vocal enough, but I think that's unfair. They sounded pretty hyped up to me.
- I hope the Mavs don't keep doubling Baron (This is ridiculous! I'm using first names!) like they were in crunchtime last night. Golden State didn't respond so well to that.
- This has been said before but, while they're both fast, I'm not sure Phoenix and Golden State are comparable. The Suns have one guy who brings the ball up and does the distributing, while the Warriors essentially have 4-5 distributors on the floor at all times. I don't know if it could be proven with stats, but that's how I see it.
- Actually, it was kinda funny to see all of Dallas screaming and rejoicing when they barely eked out a win at home against a 42-40 team.
- I get the feeling that Stephen Jackson and Baron Davis are the kind of guys who might use disqualifications as motivation in the next game (see game 3). I hope so, anyway.
- I haven't been as excited for a non-Knicks basketball game as I am for game 6.