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Baron, luck and (maybe) subconscious racism propel Warriors
by Dennis Hans / May 4, 2007

Baron Davis’ outstanding and inspirational play at both ends of the court is the primary reason the Golden State Warriors stunned the Dallas Mavericks, winning four of six playoff games despite giving one (Game 5) away.

But a host of other factors contributed as well.

Don Nelson doesn’t coach scared. When Davis picked up two fouls in the opening minutes of the pivotal fourth game, Nelson left him on the court. Davis proceeded to light up the Mavs with 33 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block as the Warriors won a 103-99 squeaker. He made one big play after another in his 44 minutes, and he picked up just two additional fouls after the early two.

It’s a good thing Larry Brown wasn’t his coach. Or Sam Mitchell, for that matter, who may have blown the Raptors best hope to advance by sticking his star, Chris Bosh, on the bench for long stretches with mild foul trouble in a Game 1 homecourt loss. Yes, it’s just as easy to lose a series with bonehead decisions in the early games as in the later ones.

Nelson’s pet dog is named Lucky, and that’s just what Nellie has been this season. He nearly wrecked the Warriors chances in the first two months, when he and management allowed Jason Richardson to start the season with a half-rehabbed, surgically repaired knee. Richardson was a shell of himself. The lucky break came when Richardson broke his hand at the end of December. This forced him out of action for nearly two months, which allowed him the knee-rehab time the Warriors had earlier denied him. Richardson’s season and even his career could have been jeopardized if he had tried to “tough it out” over 82 games on a balky knee. Who knows what damage he might have done to the bad knee or even the good one by trying to go full speed for six months on a knee that isn’t close to ready. That’s one way to transform a treatable injury into a chronic one.

The other bit of good luck went hand-in-hand with Nellie’s sound judgment. It didn’t take him long to conclude that Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy were dedicated, solid professionals – and dramatically overrated and overpaid. Dunleavy was a “jack of all trades, master of none,” while Murphy was a fine shooter and rebounder but woefully slow on the defensive end. Neither fit with Nellie’s pressing, trapping, uptempo vision for the Warriors. Getting out from underneath two long-term, bloated contracts would not be easy. Or would it?

The past few days the big story has been an academic study alleging “subconscious racism” among NBA referees. While I have my doubts about the study and the effect of the supposed bias, there’s no question in my mind that subtle and/or subconscious racism exists elsewhere in the league, particularly in front offices. It may have helped Dunleavy be drafted so highly and for him and Murphy to sign such fat extensions (though to be fair to Chris Mullin, he’s the same dummy that gave an even worse black player, Adonal Foyle, a big pile of dough). It also may have helped Mullin – who now had Nellie imparting player-evaluation wisdom into his head – unload the duo on Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh.

Were the Pacers looking to get whiter, or merely slower and duller, as befitting a Rick Carlisle-coached team? Given the extenuating circumstances – the fallout and hangover from Stephen Jackson’s occasional poor behavior – and their long track record, I would certainly absolve Bird and Walsh of even a hint of overt racism, though there may have been a touch of the subconscious stuff at play.

In any event, Indiana’s headache became Golden State’s missing link. Just as Phoenix became special a few seasons ago when Shawn Marion moved to power forward, so did the Warriors when Nellie switched the 2/3 Jackson to the 4 spot. Al Harrington proved effective as an undersized but defense-stretching, three-point-shooting center in the Warriors closing rush to make the playoffs, though he’s struggled mightily in the playoffs. But Jackson has been sensational as a hot-shooting, playmaking, quick-and-shifty offensive player, and as one of several very quick defenders who made life difficult for Dirk Nowitizki. Toss in the leadership intangibles that more than make up for the occasional loss of oncourt composure and you’ve got a very special player. At least in the short term!

If viewers didn’t know each team’s regular-season record, most would have quickly concluded that the Warriors were a far better team than the Mavs, based on their playoff play. Could the Mavs have done enough things differently to alter the outcome? Hard to say.

I would have liked Avery Johnson to have stuck with his center tandem, playing Erick Dampier at least all the minutes when non-shooter Andris Biedrins was on the floor and DeSagana Diop when Harrington or someone else was the nominal center. The Mavs would have been a better defensive team and might have been able to bury the Warriors on the boards.

Another flaw dates to the regular season, when Johnson didn’t help lightning-quick Devin Harris develop a style of play that would have greatly reduced his never-ending foul trouble. That’s what happens when you let Darrell Armstrong mentor a potential All-Star: Harris picks up lots of extra fouls and pine time by trying to create a bunch of block/charge collisions each game. Dumb. Really dumb. He averaged just 27 minutes in the playoffs.

The other regular-season waste was Nowitizki’s failure to develop a low-post game. The Mavs would have been better off winning fewer regular season games while helping Nowitzki add to his repertoire to better deal with the quick defenders he’ll be facing every postseason for the rest of his career if he doesn’t address this hole in his game.

The Mavs take player development seriously and generally do a very good job, but they could have done better with Nowitzki and Harris. Then again, if they had the Mavs might have won and we hoop fans would have missed out on the Warriors amazing and inspiring triumph.

Dennis Hans’s essays on basketball – including the styles, rhythms and fundamentals of free-throw shooting – have appeared online at the Sporting News and Slate. His writings on other topics have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald, among other outlets.

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