In a Historic Upset, Warriors Stun Mavs

He stifled some of that talk with his clutch playmaking at the end of Game 5 but a loss Thursday night effectively nullified everything accomplished during a season when Nowitzki averaged 24.6 points and 8.9 rebounds, while leading the Mavericks to the best record in the league. The problem for Nowitzki against the Warriors was his inability to exploit a height advantage over defenders like Jackson, Matt Barnes and Al Harrington and his failure to attack the basket and earn free throw attempts.

"We started this year off saying we wanted to win the championship," Nowitzki said. "I feel terribly disappointed for our players and our fans. It's just a tough way to end a season."

While Nowitzki and his team struggled, the Warriors thrived by playing a fast and loose style that is both ideal for their personnel and thrilling for their fans, many of whom filled the arena back in the days when Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway played for Nelson in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The Warriors made 62 three-pointers in the series and rarely required the entire shot clock before getting a shot up to the rim.

"We did not want to go back to Dallas (for Game 7)," said Davis, who averaged 25 points in the series. "We know Dallas is a great team and we have a lot of guys who are injured. I'm injured, Matt Barnes is injured, Stephen Jackson is injured . . . so, we wanted to end here at home tonight."

Golden State has shaken off adversity all season, starting with one of the most bizarre losses in franchise history, a 107-106 defeat at Washington in which a shaky foul call on Mickael Pietrus and a technical foul on Nelson allowed Gilbert Arenas to make three free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining. It was the sixth-straight loss for the Warriors, who dropped to 26-35 and appeared to be out of the playoff race.

However, the Warrriors won at Detroit the following night and kept rolling when Davis returned from injury two nights later in a win over Denver. The Warriors finished an NBA-best 16-5 and broke a 13-season playoff drought by clinching the eighth seed with a win over Portland on the final night of the regular season.

Apart from Nelson, Davis and the Warriors themselves, the Oracle Arena crowd is one of the most compelling stories of these playoffs. Thursday's audience of 20,677 was the largest ever to witness a basketball game in the state of California and there were times when it sounded as if twice as many gold-shirt wearing fans had packed into the 40-year old building.

"You can't help but feed off of that energy they've been giving us," said Jackson, who became a Warrior in January after he and forward Al Harrington arrived in a trade that sent Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr. to Indiana. "They made a difference in this series."

Notes: Golden State guard Jason Richardson was fined $35,00 by the NBA for an incident that happened at the end of Game 5 in Dallas. Richardson got tangled up with a fan after falling into the front row after missing a three-pointer and the fan complained to the NBA, saying Richardson pushed him . . . Golden State's Matt Barnes, who played on a sore hamstring, just missed a triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.