There's almost too much to take away from that game.  Here's what will be said about Game 5 until Thursday night in Oakland -- 45 long, long hours away.  Bdid and his Beard were nearly perfect in the second-half tonight, and Dirk's final 3-minutes will live on forever if Dallas pulls this series out.  But this won't go into detail about individual performances, just The Flow and Feel of the Game.  



1.  Dallas came out like a real 1-seed, GS started like a real 8-seed.  These were the Mavs that ran through every (non Warrior) team through 82, that didn't worry about matchups, Smallball, and Don Nelson.  They were THE team from November to April, and for the first time that team came to play in the playoffs.  The Warriors were finally burning early timeouts to regroup, and by the Under-6 TV stoppage in the first Dallas had scored 27 and was up 14.  It wasn't that GS was playing terrible (4 of 9, 2 turnovers).  Dallas was just phenomenal (10 of 12 shooting, no turnovers).  During this break,  I'm positive the writers sitting courtside were thrilled to get a jump on the next day's opening paragraph.  It would have had the words "Dallas rout" and "statement game" peppered throughout.  Reasonable Prediction of Final Score at this point: Dallas 125; GSW 90.

2. Golden State weathered the early storm.  They were still down 10 at the end of the first, but it could have been a LOT worse.   Up 31-15 with 3 minutes left, Dallas missed 6 straight lightly contested shots from the floor and GS closed the quarter on a little 13-7 sput.  Dallas was still going to win easily, but now the writers had to at least take a second look at their half-written game story.  Reasonable Prediction of Final Score at this point: Dallas 120; GSW 100.

3. Dallas pulls away then gives a lot of it back (see First Quarter).  This was the first quarter all over again. 14-4 Mav run to start, Warriors rattled, timeouts taken, etc.  With a 10-point lead to start, that 14-point Dallas lead midway through Q1 had grown to 21 midway through Q2.  But the GS run cut a little deeper this time: they hit 10 of their final 12 to finish the final 5 minutes of the half on a 23-9 run.  The Dallas lead was 7: 62-55.  They had given two-thirds of a 21-point lead in 5 minutes.  A second-half Mav meltdown seemed possible but not likely.  Dallas was still at home with a semi-comfortable lead.  Even if they lost by 25 now, GS had taken the Mavs off their 67-win throne once again.  As if they needed another reminder of how vulnerable they were.    Reasonable Prediction of Final at this Point: Dallas 115; GSW 102. 

4. The Mavs don't pull away.  I'm just repeating what Doug Collins has drilled into my head during his TNT broadcasts, but it still is true.  The opening minutes of the third quarter are the most important in any 5-10 point game.  It sets the tone for both teams and usually answers the Blowout question pretty definitively.  If the Mavs pulled another First/Second quarter-like run to open the 2nd Half, this was a 15-20 point win.  I know the Warriors already proved that a 20-point lead isn't entirely safe.  But a second-half 20-point lead is a different story.  Regardless, the Warriors showed up from the beginning of Q3 -- this wouldn't be a blowout.  9-3 GS run to start the quarter and suddnely the Mavs were up 1.  It was back and forth for the rest of the quarter, with Dallas clinging to 1-3 point leads for the final 9 minutes.  If you only looked at the box-score through three, it would tell far more routine story than the Insanity that had gone down.  It said that the Mavs led by 10 through 1, 7, through 2, and 3 through 3.  That's all true I guess, but this definitely wasn't an orderly march forward by Golden State.  So don't read box-scores.  End of 3 Score: Dal: 82; GSW 79.   Reasonable Prediction of Final Score: ????

5.  The Warriors control the 4th (for 8 minutes and 40 seconds).  A quick 4-0 spurt for the W's turned the flow and the feel of the game.  For most of the next 6 minutes, GS now had the the 1-3 point cushion that Dallas had played with for much of the third.  Nobody could break through, but that was fine with the 8-seed.  They had the lead.  For Dallas, each passing possession without the lead meant that a loss was now a possibility.  Finally, they cracked: down 3 with 4 minutes to go, a Stephen Jackson steal led to a step back three from a scowling JRich.  GS 112; Dallas 106.  The whole GS team was scowling as they headed to the huddle after the Dallas timeout.  This was theirs.  If it was a victory before the timeout, then B-Did's lunging three as the shotclock expired on their next offensive possession should have been the dagger.  It suddenly, shockingly was a 9-point lead with 3 minutes left. 

6.  15-0.  But there was a problem: the dagger came 2 minutes too early.  If the Mavs go on to win Games 6 and 7, then the next 14-seconds are the reason.  9-points in 3 minutes meant that even if the W's didn't score for the rest of the game, they could have had a realistic change to win.  It meant that the Mavs would have to score 10.  That's the equivalent of a 40-point quarter.  In crunch time.  The next 14 seconds changed that little equation.  Before Golden State even finished subtracting 103 from 112, Dirk came down and drilled a three from the right arc.  Barkley said it on the post-game and it's true.  If that shot misses, the Game is over.  It fell through and the lead was 6.    They Warriors did their best to try to run a half-court offense for the next two minutes, but they couldn't pull it off.  Two Matt Barnes misses later, Dirk hit another three, this time from the left side.  The Mavs were still down 3, but this game was in their hands.  A Devin Harris driving layup pulled Dallas within 1.  A Stephen Jackson miss on the other end led to two Dirk free throws.  Dallas up 1.  More misses from GS and a BD foul-out.  Dallas up 2.  Dallas up 4.  Game Over. 

Wow.