The Association

Quick Question for the Golden State Bandwagoners

By Craig Kwasniewski

While you're busy wearing the $72 We Believe tee-shirts (which is now on ebay for $20), I have a quick question:

Outside of the RUN-TMC era, do you know anything about "Tha Dubs" history before April '07?

Does Sleepy, Mr. Mean, Purvis or Karl mean anything to you? What about 51 in Game 4? Or Al Attles, Silk Wilkes or Phil Smith? Without looking up at the banner, what year did you win an NBA title? Does Joe Barry Carroll ring a bell? How about Ralph Sampson? Can you name at least two coaches between Nellie's reigns? Who finally broke up the the great RUN-TMC era?

Okay the last one was a trick question depending on who you ask. Your beloved Don Nelson traded away Mitch Richmond for Billy Owens so the judges will accept either one of those two.

Just admit it, before the Golden State Warriors morphed into "Tha Dubs" last spring, you knew nothing about them. They're like Von Dutch or Cross Colors... the trendy pick for suburbanites to cling to hoping for a little street cred.

Let me expain... I've been going to almost every Warriors-Lakers games at Staples Center since 1999-2000 and last night was the first time *EVER* that GSW fans showed up. They came out in force, decked out in brand new Baron Davis jerseys or the overplayed "We Believe" tees and cheered throughout the game (even down 16 with seconds left). Big ups to the newly found life-long fans for gearing up and representing the mighty Oaktown. Tha Dubs needed every bit of that energy, especially in their 9th loss in a row to the Lakers.

Warrior Nation has officially become the most annoying trend in sports today. Detective David Mills from my one of my favorite movies, Seven, best describes the movement:

You're a movie of the week. You're a t-shirt, at best.

A $72 one at that... but of course Mills' wife eventually lost her head in the movie, which best explains what Stephen Jackson was trying to do to Lamar Odom in the closing minutes. With the Lakers up 14 with 5 minutes left, Jackson goes head-hunting on Odom. But unlike Dallas (especially Nowitzki), Odom has that New York edge where the Warriors bullshit tactics don't get to him. Anyway, on the next possession, Baron Davis gets a technical foul on defense. You know, it's kinda refreshing to see that tha Dubs are still the sore losers/cheap shot artists we knew and loved from the Jazz series last spring.

Here's my last question, after losing to a team with 5 regulars nursing injuries, who's not intimidated by thug antics and who dominated you with a 20-year old center: Do you still believe?

Baron Davis Tells OJ Mayo to 'Respect the Call,' Pickup Players Everywhere Need to Do the Same

by Brett Edwards

It's always great to get a glimpse of what players are really like on the court, when no one but their peers and a few members of the media are watching. Mark Spears of the Denver Post tells us about a little argument that broke out between Baron Davis and OJ Mayo during a pickup game at UCLA this week:

Word is pickup basketball at UCLA got heated Monday when Golden State star point guard Baron Davis engaged in some trash-talking with heralded Southern Cal freshman point guard O.J. Mayo. Davis got upset with Mayo after he didn’t respect one of Davis’ calls. Word is Davis, a native of Los Angeles, told Mayo that he doesn’t know who he is other than the fact that he wasn’t from Los Angeles and he also needed to respect a veteran’s call. Word is Mayo more than held his own in the games. NBA star LeBron James was in attendance but didn’t play.

First of all, as my FanHouse colleague Bethlehem Shoals noted, it's awesome that LeBron was there "looming," but didn't play. The reason I love this story though is that it's very timely for me personally. I've been playing a lot of pickup basketball this summer, and recently I've had incidents where the games have grinded to a complete halt because of people arguing calls. Here's an idea of what's gone on in games I've been involved in, which I hope will illustrate the importance of simply respecting your opponent's call.

This story comes from a game at my local gym. To give you an idea of the level of competition, I was playing with some starters from the local high school team, a couple of college level players, and some large gentlemen that could definitely play but were a bit older. Pretty good games, that were physical in a good way, meaning for two games there was a lot of contact but only a couple of fouls called when someone was decked on a shot attempt. Then one ridiculous call sent the entire afternoon into an irreversible downward spiral.

On a drive to the lane where someone on the other team *might* have taken an additional step, an idiot from my team (who was standing near half court) called a travel. Was it the right call? Maybe. But was it an unconscionable call to make given the circumstances? Absolutely. It didn't help that the call was against the best and most vocal player from the other team, made by the worst player on my team. A (literally) five minute argument ensued, resulting in members from both teams getting pissed off. The game totally deteriorated from there, with players on both teams now calling ticky-tack fouls on every possession, like "well if you're calling that, then I'm calling this."

The game culminated with the best player on my team getting fouled on the ground (raked across the arms), not calling it, then going up for a shot, getting hit on the arm, calling that foul before the shot went in (resulting in GAME POINT), and the other team saying "NO, NO, that was on the floor, take it out!" Total garbage, and another 10-minute argument before the player that was fouled literally took his ball and went home.

Now it's true all of this started just because of a bullshit traveling call made by someone on my team. But had the player on the other team simply said "whatever" and moved on, there would have been no arguments, and we could have continued the afternoon of competitive basketball. The bottom line here is this. We're not out there playing for money, stats, or to be on SportsCenter. We're playing because we love the game and the competition. And although we all want to win, if we don't respect the calls made on the court (even the really bad ones), the games will just deteriorate to the point where there is a foul or two-minute argument on every possession. I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to spend my Sunday afternoons.

The Warriors Act Like Punks When They Lose

by Brett Edwards and Craig Kwasniewski

I touched on the fact that the Warriors are sore losers over at FanHouse, but it really goes beyond that. In last night's Game 4 loss to the Jazz, once the game was out of hand, the Warriors started taking cheap shots, plain and simple. That picture is of Derek Fisher writhing in pain on the ground after B-Diddy, Boom Dizzle, Bitch-ass Dick Baron Davis elbowed him in the head for no reason. Actually, there was a reason: Fisher killed the Warriors in the fourth quarter, and helped seal the game for the Jazz. So Baron decided to let him know just how much he appreciated the effort. Nice.

Jason Richardson joined the fun by laying out Mehmet Okur when he tried to dunk the ball with 30 seconds left and the Jazz up 12. Craig feels that one was justified though:

Okur should not being going for a dunk up 12 with 30 seconds left. OF COURSE the Warriors would be offended (especially at home) and do a hard foul on him. Okur should have known better and just dribbled out the clock waiting for freethrows. I would have done the exact same thing and put Okur on his ass. I completely side with J-Rich on the hard foul.

I respectfully disagree. Baron Davis' humiliating dunk on Kirilenko came with the Warriors up by 20 with under three minutes left, so I see no problem with a member of the Jazz trying to do the same thing: emphasize the win with a dunk after the game has already been decided. Here's video of both incidents from Game 4.

The bottom line is that the Warriors started acting like playground punks once they realized they were going to lose. Let's not forget they did the same thing in the Dallas series, and that Davis was ejected in one of the two losses, and Stephen Jackson was ejected in both of them. Craig sums it up best by comparing the Warriors to a bad pickup ball team, who starts acting out in frustration when they lose:

The GSW's are the typical bad Venice Beach pick-up team getting run by some white prep schoolers. They can't belive it's happening and won't believe it's happening. You know where they "forget" the score and suddenly remember it but only after giving themselves two more points (and intimidating you into accepting the new score). Then they start calling mysterious fouls after missing 5-foot jumpers and start calling carrying. And when all else fails, they start hacking the shit out of everyone.

Yep, it's all fun and games when the Warriors are winning, but when they lose, they turn into an ugly, immature bunch of babies. It will be interesting to see how many flagrant fouls and ejections the Dubs rack up when they get eliminated from the playoffs tomorrow night in Utah.

D-Fish's Big Night and Other Thoughts

By Craig Kwasniewski

First things first, big ups to Derek Fisher, one of the true good guys in the NBA. The guy spends the past few days in New York City watching over his daughter as she's getting surgery for cancer of the eye (which hurts to even think about). Then, he gets permission from the wife, flies out west to SLC for game 2, makes it just in time to play in the second half with no warm-ups, forces a huge turnover by the best player in the postseason with less than 2 minutes left in regulation and hits a clutch three point shot to seal the Jazz's 127-117 win over State. Did I mention that it was his one and only jumper in the Nuclear Waste Dump Arena all night? No time to stretch, no warm-ups, just cold off the bench with emotions flowing throughout his body.

I never thought The 0.4 would ever be surpassed, but given the emotions of the moment, this was Derek Fisher's defining moment. Typical D-Fish, putting Family first, team second, people third (right after the game while speaking to Pam Oliver, he asks for people to test their children for eye cancer) and then finally himself.

Now you know why (unlike Shaquille O'Neal) the Laker faithful always give D-Fish an ovation whenever he returns to Staples Center. (As I'm writing this I'm looking at a 24 X 36 framed and autographed photo of The 0.4... suck it San Antonio!)

Anyway, here's some other thoughts on the best playoff game in 2007:

Smush Pietrus? I know it's hard to shoot freethrows with both hands wrapped around your neck, but come on! All Mickael Pietrus had to do was hit one freakin' freethrow in the last few seconds and this series is tied at 1-1. Instead he shot-putted two bricks and Utah rallies. (Hell, even Chris Dudley's illegitimate son, Andris Biedrins went 2-2 from the line!)

Utah Jazz fans are the most myopic fans in all of sports! Hey Utah, not every single Jazz missed shot, turnover or defensive letdown is the refs fault. Every foul called on a Jazz player... again EVERY FOUL CALLED ON A FUCKING UTAH FUCKING JAZZ PLAYER is not the refs fault. Stop booing every call against your team! You come off as a bunch of know-nothing jackasses! Mix in a caffeinated cup of espresso and fucking chill out! Seriously, they should change the name from the Nuclear Waste Dump Arena to the AWWWWWW BOOOOOOOO Arena!

Neck Injury. Dee Brown, replacing Deron Williams after two quick fouls, gets landed on by Mr. Big causing a very scary neck injury. It was reported that "neurological tests on Brown were normal." In my book, any time you leave in an ambulance with your neck immobilized... well that's not really normal is it?

Back spasms for BD? Baron Davis continued his stellar play, flying all over the floor on his way to 36 points (many times ending Jazz runs with key jumpers). During a timeout he's seen wincing while getting his notoriously bad back stretched out by Strength-and-Conditioning Coach John Murray. What makes the Warriors so fun to watch is their leave-it-all-out-on-the-floor attitude. BD did just that and more tonight.

Stephen Jackson is not Nowitzki: Tuesday I incorrectly pointed out how AK-47 with his length and athleticism is turning Stephen Jackson into Dirk Nowitzki. Granted, Kry-ilenko is doing an exceptional job defending, but playoff Jackson is better than playoff Dirk. Despite shooing 4-18 from the field, Jackson never backed down and started attacking the bucket from the post. He finished with 18 points going 8-10 from the freethrow line along the way.

Everything's Oak(town)-kay. Normally a loss like that would devastate a team. But much like the Dallas series after game 4, I see Tha Dubs coming through in game 3. They have to... this series NEEDS to go seven. David Stern, if necessary, you have my permission to make the call for Dick Bavetta.

Utah v. State: Game 1 Thoughts

By Craig Kwasniewski

Utah pulled out a nice win last night, beating red hot Golden State 116-112. Here's some quick thoughts on the game:

AK-47 is making Stephen Jackson look like Nowitzki. In the same way Jackson held "the MVP" in check with size, length and athleticism, Kirilenko had the same effect and neutralized Jackson last night. What'd he have like 237 blocks on Jackson? Stephen, you're one of the baddest/scariest ballers in the NBA and you're being shut down by Kry-ilenko? Actually, Kirilenko's defense was key for Utah last night. The Jazz will need more of the same if they hope to advance.

Boozer needs more offensive touches in the paint. 20 rebounds are very impressive, but the Jazz need to go to Carlos Boozer even more for game 2. All I know is every time he had the ball, I kept seeing random Warriors bounce off Boozer with every pivot. He's too strong for the smallish Warriors. Sloan needs to call his number more and wear down GSW.

Monta Ellis, turn in your M.I.P. award! Nowitzki's disappearing act overshadows what Ellis has done (or not done) this post season. Through 7 playoff games he's putting up 7.1 points 1.0 assists and 23.0 minutes of hiding per game. With clutchness like that, I'm laying even odds that Mitch Kupchak is texting Mullin with an offer.

Al Harrington, welcome to the playoffs. Harrington finally showed up with a nice 21 points off the bench, keeping State in the game with 12 in the first quarter. Utah opened strong, feeding on the Nuclear Waste Dump Center's emotion and opened with a huge lead until Harrington got hot from the perimeter. Despite the hot hand, why did Baron Davis pass up a wide open lay-up for a Harrington three with less than 2 minutes to go? Davis needed to take that lay-up!

As my grandfather would say, Matt Harpring is one tough S.O.B. The NBA needs to have an All-NBA Do The Little Things award and put him on it with Shane Battier, Luke Walton and Anthony Parker. The 21 points off the bench were huge, but more importantly, Harpring brought the right physical mindset last night. Unlike the Mavs, he never backed down to State's aggressive play.

Warriors Rule, Mavericks Suck

by Brett Edwards

Is that what you wanted to hear me say, Warriors fans? Well there you go. And surprisingly, it's not that hard for me to admit. After watching Golden State thoroughly outplay Dallas for five of the six games (the exception being Game 2), it's been sinking in for a while now.

The Mavericks had the unfortunate honor of being matched up in the first round with the one team in the entire league that they can't play with. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Dallas could have knocked the Warriors out of the playoffs by beating them the last week of the season, but instead conceded the game by rolling out a lineup that would have gotten killed in a D-League game. Based on the way the games have gone though, I don't know if Dallas would have had a shot even if they had tried to win.

What's most unfortunate though is the fact that the Clippers really should have made the playoffs instead of the Warriors. I mean, had they showed up in the first half of a Sunday afternoon home game against Sacramento, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Warriors fans pointed out that the Clippers lost the last game of the season so Golden State would have been in anyway, but the Clippers only lost because they saw that GSW had clinched the final playoff spot by beating the Blazers. After that the Clips had nothing left to play for.

So whoop it up, Warriors fans, you deserve it. Dallas may have been the best team during the regular season, but they simply could not handle the quickness and sharp-shooting of the Dubs. With Dirk still the likely winner of the MVP, it looks like Craig might just get his wish.

Why I’m Pulling for a W for the Dubs

By Craig Kwasniewski

I'm pulling for Golden State simply to see Nowitzki receive the MVP award in the TNT studios at halftime during a Detroit-Chicago game (they'd never think of doing it during the Warriors – Rockets series) and not in front of the home crowd. Would Dallas drop an MVP banner posthumously next season? Would Stern present the award "Live via Satelite" from the Toyota Center in Houston or would he do it on the cheap and go "Live via Videophone?" I was hoping for it last year with Nash and I’m begging for it now. That'd rank right up there as the most awkward moment of the season, easily surpassing Charles Barkley shoe-horning himself into that Nowitzki XXXXXL jersey last Sunday.

BTW – To the people of Golden State of Mind, not all of us here are Warrior haters (just the Spurs and Heat). But I agree with Brett, paying $72 dollars for a tee shirt is insane.... insane I tell you! Unless you’re some film industry loser that shops at Fred Segal hoping to end up at on Perez Hilton, there’s no reason to pay more than $45 for a tee-shirt of any kind.

Would You Pay $72 For This T-Shirt?

by Brett Edwards

Some fool did exactly that. The Golden State Warriors bandwagon is officially out of control, with the give away "WE BELIEVE" shirt from Game 3 going for $72 on eBay. So not only are Warriors fans loud, but now they're rich and stupid too?

Alright, maybe that's a little harsh, but after all I'm in bitter Mavs fan mode after the Warriors have taken three of the first four games of this series and are on the brink of eliminating Dallas from the playoffs. I guess 67 wins in the regular season doesn't mean jack when you're matched up against a team that's basically doing exactly what you do, but doing it better so far in this series.

I'm guaranteeing a Dallas win in Game 5, but the way the Warriors are pulling shots out of their ass at home, they appear to be on their way to taking this series in six.

Is Avery Johnson A Bad Playoff Coach?

by Brett Edwards

It takes 82 games to gain home court advantage throughout the playoffs, but it only takes one to lose it. Golden State played well on both ends of the court to take Game 1 from Dallas, completely obliterating my prediction in the process. As I watched the Mavs go away from the starting lineup that effectively won them 67 games in the regular season, I started to think back to the last post-season game that the Mavs played in, and the following question came to mind: Is Avery Johnson a bad playoff coach?

It's unbelievable to me that the team with the league's best record in the regular season would completely change what got them there to try and match up with an eight seed. Granted, the Warriors did beat Dallas in all three meetings before the playoffs, but I thought the Mavs (at least in their minds) had excuses for each one. Apparently the coaching staff wasn't buying it, as they changed their starting lineup by going with Devean George (really?) in favor of Erick Dampier or DeSagana Diop. The thinking was that the big men wouldn't be able to hang with the speed of the Warriors, and starting George would add some much needed defense to slow a Warriors team that was dropping 116 on people the last 10 games of the season.

The defensive adjustment seemed to work, but Dallas was out of sync on offense all night, largely due to the fact that they were playing with unusual lineups that they did not frequently use during the regular season. Ironically, Dallas seemed to play best with Dirk on the bench and Diop in the game, a lineup which, now I'm just guessing here, will not take you very far in the playoffs.

The last playoff game that the Mavs appeared in was Game 6 of last year's Finals, where Avery Johnson also made some very poor decisions, especially in the fourth quarter. Since I discussed this with such supremely intelligent commentary at the time, let's just go ahead and blockquote myself for the details:

Equally awful was the fourth quarter strategy in the series-ending Game 6 loss. The Heat were over the limit in team fouls with almost 8 minutes to play in the game. You would think that would lead to a constant attack on the rim, with players refusing to settle for jumpers, right? Wrong. From the time Dallas would have gotten free throws for every foul call until the end of the game, they unconscionably jacked up 9 three-pointers!! What the hell kind of strategy is that?! How about going to the hoop and drawing some fouls? Dwyane Wade certainly had no problem figuring this out, and that's a big reason why he's an NBA Champ.

Finally, with the game on the line, instead of turning to Dirk to go to the basket, you run a pick-and-roll with Eric Dampier, who has no hands and dropped the pass out of bounds. Really?!

So in the last two games, Avery played down to his competition (literally) against the Warriors, and had no concept of what was going on offensively against the Heat. Hopefully the coach can figure out that he has the best team here, and that he needs to make his opponents adjust to what his team does instead of the other way around. Otherwise this off season will seem a hell of a lot longer than the almost six months that the Mavs spent getting those 67 wins.

Playoff Preview: Western Conference

by Brett Edwards

Playoff Previews are literally everywhere right now, so this will mostly include the formality of getting our predictions down before the title run begins. Here we go, Western Conference style:

(1) DALLAS vs. (8) GOLDEN STATE: Henry at True Hoop said it best when it seems that Warriors fans are "just happy to be here." That is evidenced by the banner at the top of their site that reads:

"The playoff drought is over! We're in the PLAYOFFS!!!

Good job guys, but those three exclamation points are three more wins than the Warriors are getting in this series. Mavs SWEEP, 4-0.

Craig says: Mavs 4-1. The GS Warriors bandwagon is flying along... and I don't care. Dallas rolls after losing game 2 at home.

(2) PHOENIX vs. (7) L.A. LAKERS: I broke this one down over at The FanHouse, and it comes down to whether or not the Lakers can slow the tempo (like they did for thee games last year), and I don't think they can. Kobe is good for one Laker win, and that's it. Suns in 5.

Craig says: Suns 4-1

(3) SAN ANTONIO vs. (6) DENVER: The 'Melo/A.I. train has gathered plenty of steam towards the end of the season, just to have it crash into the proverbial mountain. The Nuggets whacked a bunch of nobodies, meanwhile the Spurs finished the season with the highest average margin of victory per game at over 8 points. What's impressive about that stat is the fact that the Spurs only average 98 points per game, so they've been doing it with defense. Spurs in 5.

Craig says: Spurs 4-2. Not really close, but AI has one monster game and the Spurs lead 3-1, but get bored.

(4) UTAH vs. (5) HOUSTON: Note to Jazz fans (are there really any of those?): Your team is a fraud. The Jazz are the only team in the West's top six with a losing road record. If you can't win on the road, you're not going very far in the playoffs. T-Mac gets his first post-season series win, in an easy six games. Rockets in 6.

Craig says: Hou 4-2. Utah's slide is telling (they're a distant 5th best in the west), but I still think they give HOU a run.