Golden State Warriors Came Out To Play-ee-ay

At the end of the day Thursday, the 2007 Fiesta Bowl came to mind. The chance for redemption. For me.

See, I turned off this year's Fiesta Bowl after the disastrous Jared Zabransky interception-for-touchdown in the waning minutes, thinking that no way Boise State would tie Oklahoma and go on to win. And, well, I was slightly wrong.

The first round of the NBA playoffs, just about unknown to anyone -- including the coach -- became the stage for the next giant upset. The eighth seeded Golden State Warriors rocked the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA's opening round, capping off the historic upset with a Game 6 victory last night, 111-86.

Eight-seeds have beaten No. 1s before in The Association's playoffs, but only in best-of-five series, never in a more grueling best-of-seven. At one time, nobody had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a major league baseball playoff series, and the Red Sox did that back in '04. So it was bound to happen in the NBA that a No. 8 would beat a No. 1.

And it was the perfect matchup for such history. Golden State had beaten Dallas in all three games with them this regular season, which translates into an overall 7-2 record against the league's top regular-season team.

While Dallas has the league's MVP in 7'0" Dirk Nowitzki, he was not able to keep up with Golden State's, to channel Chazz Michael Michaels, "mind-bottling" athleticism and speed. In the final game, Nowitzki only scored 8 points - sixth best on his own team that night, and as many points as Golden State forward Mickeal Pietrus, known more fondly as "Who The Hell Is" Mickeal Pietrus.

But here's the oddest trend of the series. The Warriors were 4-0 when guard Stephen Jackson didn't get ejected from the game, and 0-2 when he was. In Game 6 Jackson played out of his mind, racking up 33 points and making seven of eight -- I'll type it again, he deserves it: seven of eight -- 3-point field goals.

Now Golden State awaits the winner of the Utah Jazz-Houston Rockets series. They do not have a losing record against either team. This lightning-quick 8-seed may still have enough I-Beams left in the junkyard to build another illustrious bridge to the Western Conference Finals.

But more importantly, I found redemption in never saying "die" to a true underdog. I never quit on the Warriors and turned off the TV, even after Dallas took a single-digit lead in the second quarter.

Article Author: Matthew T. Sussman

Sussman is the sports editor of BC Magazine. He also writes for Deadspin and Toledo Free Press. He and Tuffy can be heard hosting the Treehouse Fort, Sundays at 12 noon ET. Plus, he Twitters. Feed the feedback back to matt.sussman@blogcritics.org.

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