malvasia bianca

Game 5 was in Dallas; the Mavs went up twenty, I decided that it just wasn’t the Warriors’ night. I wasn’t worried about them not winning the series or anything, but the Mavs were a good team on their home court, and the Warriors were obviously having an off night.

And then the Warriors started coming back. And came all the way back, and were up by (I believe) 9 points, and I was lamenting my faithlessness. (This happens to newly converted fans.) But they let it slip away at the end; oops.

Still, game 6 was in Oakland; I had high hopes for a victory there. Which were quickly dashed when Baron Davis strained his hamstring. The Warriors hung in while he was out, but when he came back, he could barely move, and you could just tell that the Mavs would take advantage of him.

Which they tried to do, but the Warriors kept it close, and were even up by 2 at the half. And then, all of a sudden, it was the third quarter, Stephen Jackson rained down threes like manna from the heavens, and in the blink of an eye, the Warriors were up by 23 points.

Which lead, unlike the Mavs’, they managed to hold on to. I still am having a hard time understanding what happened: winning the series at all was a huge upset, but winning the final game 111-86? I have no context for that.

So what’s going to happen next? We’ll find out soon if they’re going to face Utah or Houston in the next round. Am I supposed to expect the same thing to happen in the next round? I have to think that, somehow, the Mavs were a particularly good matchup for the Warriors, that the Warriors aren’t really as good as they’ve looked, and that they’ll be lucky to make it through the next round. But given what I’ve seen of them, given the way they closed out the season, I can’t say that with conviction.