Warriors: you guys are the big dudes, huh?
One of the many positives to come out of Golden State’s postseason success is that it inspired TrueHoop to post a link the other day to the original trailer for The Warriors.
Much like the Coney Island street gang that faced long odds, the basketball team of the same name prevailed tonight, defeating the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
I initially pegged this as a competitive series, but I still expected Dallas to prevail in six games (and eventually win the championship — so much for that prognostication). Rather than being the “Road Warriors” I thought they might have to be, it proved to be enough for Golden State to steal game one on the road and then rely on their raucous home crowd to get the three additional victories.
There were so many subplots that have already been pretty well discussed everywhere during the course of the six games: a 67-win Dallas team losing in round one, the first time a #1 has ever dropped a best-of-seven to a #8 and only the third such loss ever; Golden State thrilling its fans by advancing in its first playoff appearance since 1994; the bitterness between Mark Cuban and Don Nelson; Dirk Nowitzki’s disappearing act; and on and on.
This is one of those playoff series I’ll remember watching ten years from now.