J.K. Rolling Golden State Warriors' upset

Author: Jeff Klein

There was confetti streaming from the rafters. There were hugs and high fives amongst players. A crowd clad in yellow "We believe" shirts was screaming its lungs out. A fan held a poster declaring a simple and direct message: "WE'RE GONNA SHOCK THE WORLD!"

Seems like an upset to me.

In front of a raucous crowd, witnessing their team's first playoff series since 1994, the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors defeated the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in six intense, emotional games ending last Thursday. In so doing, the Warriors became the first eight-seed to win a playoff series since the Knicks defeated the Heat in the lockout-shortened season of 1999. More impressively, Golden State became the first eight-seed to knock off a number one seed since the NBA switched to a best-of-seven first-round format in 2003.

"This is a pretty special place to be right now," said Warriors Coach Don Nelson, who has completely turned around this once-moribund franchise.

The Warriors won by playing a draining run-and-gun style that has always been Nelson's trademark. "Nellie ball" features an up-tempo offense heavily reliant on the three-pointer rather than set plays. Critics disparage this style of play as non-fundamental basketball that ignores the defensive aspect of the game. To an extent, this is true - the Warriors didn't play much defense in the series - but hey, you can't argue with the end result.

This series was a fan's dream to watch, particularly an underdog-loving fan like me. The Warriors thrived off of the three-point shot. In the series clincher, they jacked up 30 threes and hit 14 of them.

The highlight of the night occurred late in the second quarter, when Baron Davis dribbled to the left side of the court, created space between himself and Dirk Nowitzki, tripped and began to fall, yet launched a three-point prayer that was answered.

Now the Warriors move to the second round of the playoffs, where they will face the Utah Jazz. The Warriors are as hot as anybody right now, but Utah presents problems for Golden State. First, the Jazz are a much better defensive team than the Mavericks. The Warriors will be hard-pressed to get off shots that came easily in the Dallas series. Meanwhile, Golden State will have to step up its own defense, as Utah features a dominant one-two punch in Deron Williams and sharp-shooting Memhet Okur.

Dallas, meanwhile, heads into the offseason wondering what went wrong. A team that wins 67 games during the regular season is not supposed to lose in the first round.

Dallas owner Mark Cuban provided us with some entertainment (and puzzlement) when he said, "This is not like last year was. Losing in the finals was really painful. This is just the first round." Huh? How is this not painful, being on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets in NBA history? The volatile billionaire never fails to spark controversy.

No matter. The Warriors head to the second round for the first time since 1991 and have presumably become America's underdog darling for the rest of the playoffs. If they keep up their torrid shooting and no-fear attitude, they have a legitimate shot of going all the way.