Warriors 111, Mavericks 82

What did you expect? No Nowitzki, Howard, Stackhouse (or Dampier). Avery was resigned to lose this game, which is sad in a way. I am not so sure it's wise to take the Golden State Warriors lightly. They swept the regular season series, although this game doesn't really count. But this is the team that can give the Mavs problems. I wouldn't much want to see the Lakers in the #8 seed either, but the Warriors are scary and have lights-out shooters that when they get hot are hard to stop. The Warriors could be the #8, that's the most likely case. The Lakers could fall to #8 and the Clippers could rise to #8. We'll know soon enough.

Hard to draw much from this game, though. When the leading floor players are Buckner, George, Ager, and Barea, you know that's not the usual Mavs out there. Moe Ager actually didn't perform all that poorly and ended up with a team-high 20 points, along with 6 rebounds. He made all of his free throws, too. Harris & Barea got 13 points apiece, and little Barea got 10 rebounds somehow. Must have come right to him. Devean George had 12 points.

For the Warriors, just like the Mavs, only one guy scored 20 or more. That guy was Mickael Pietrus of all people, with 22 points. Superstars Richardson & Davis had only 14 and 12, respectively. Barnes got 19. Weird game.

What did it was the poor shooting. The Warriors were consistently better on overall shooting, 3's, and free throws. They also killed on assists and had far fewere turnovers. Nothing to get excited about here.