NBA Playoff Impressions: Yay Area.

Warriors 111, Mavericks 86 - Sheer, utter, and complete domination of an opponent, pummeling into submission, even through injury to the driving force of the team. Stephen Jackson emptied everything in his arsenal, with 21 of his 33 points total coming from outside the arc, and Mr. Playoff Beard himself, though hurt, still chipped in 20 and made the Mavs play him seriously. Double figures from Andris Biedrins, Jason Richardson, and Matt Barnes just kept piling on. After games three and four, you had an idea that Golden State had this series, but you never imagined the clampdown looking like that, with an utterly dejected and somewhat lifeless Dallas team looking at 20+ point leads in the third quarter. Are the Warriors a championship team? Don't know. Doubt it. Can they make some serious noise in the rest of this playoff season? Fuck yes, and I'll be happy to cheer them on while they do it.

(As for Dirk, enjoy your MVP as you're awarded it somewhere besides in the middle of a playoff game. Eight points and eight points only, in a game you needed to show up for again.)

Jazz 94, Rockets 82 - Victories by the home team only remain the rule in this series. Something has to break -- either T-Mac will shake off his playoff exit streak come Saturday, or the dull, old pick-and-roll style will survive for another round, and the fear of a Jazz-Spurs series at any point down the line is absolutely devastating to even consider. Houston, please win, if only for the sake of those of us who have no particular rooting interest, yet would still like to see a Western Conference finals worth watching.

(Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

NBA Playoff Impressions: Never Say Die.

Mavericks 118, Warriors 112 - Avery's little outburst must have worked, as the Warriors had this game in the fourth quarter and up by nine, but the Mavericks decided that this game belonged to them, and acted appropriately, much like any team should when it's up against the wall. Do we call this a momentum shift? Possibly. Let's see how the Mavs come out when facing another Oakland crowd in Game Six, but for right now, you can't accuse them of not having the will to play like any 68-win team ought to. Dirk finally cracked the 30-point barrier, scoring 12 points during a 15-0 run in the last three minutes. You know, that's what MVP candidates have to do. Now let's see him do it again, and then in Game 7 after that, and we can talk MVP.

Raptors 98, Nets 96 - This series totally could have gone seven before tonight. That's how these teams are. The Nets are utterly dependent upon the play of Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson, and the Raptors need Bosh and Jose Calderon, along with T.J. Ford. Problem is, tonight's game cost the Raptors both Ford and Calderon; Ford left in the first and Calderon pumped in 25 points in his absence. Hopefully they're ready for the next game in Jersey, because if not, this series ends in East Rutherford.

(Photo: AP)

MVPs Don't Talk Like That.

Down 3-1 against the Warriors, and with their backs against the wall heading into tonight's contest, Avery Johnson will not be hearing any sort of crap from his star player or anyone else about being frustrated:

"I'm tired of hearing about how they've taken him out of his game and any lack of confidence. You're just not supposed to have that, all right," said Johnson, perhaps the team's most intense player even though he's no longer playing.

"I wasn't the best of players and didn't have the best of skills, but you were not going to shake my confidence. We need all of our players to be confident, to be resilient, to be persistent and that's what I want to see tomorrow. If I don't see it at shootaround, I'm going to be highly upset ... because I need to have it going into that game tomorrow night. We've got to be confident and really sure about what we're doing."

I gotta say this for Avery: he sounds like he never took that uniform off his back when he retired. As for Dirk, reading the quotes in that piece, it reads as if Dwyane Wade was completely, 100% correct when he called him out earlier this season as not having the drive and focus to dominate the game at his leisure.

"They really go smaller and really sit down on my legs, don't let me put the ball down on the floor the way I want to and get to my spots," Nowitzki said.

Well then, don't you MAKE them play your game? Charles Barkley has absolutely assaulted Dirk for not going in the post and making the small Warriors lineup take him there, and I get it. If you are seven feet in height, no matter what your skill with a jumper, you'd better have a solid post game and the will to dominate. Nowitzki sounds resigned to not having it, and that's fatal to a team. MVPs don't talk like that. Champions don't talk like that.

NBA Playoff Impressions: The Badass Power Of Baron's Beard.

Warriors 103, Mavericks 99 - Golden State is one win away from a massive playoff upset, and got a 3-1 lead in fantastic style. It looked bad early, as Dallas got up and Baron Davis got two quick fouls, but the Black Baron and his Magnificent Beard would not be denied, and when he hit that 40-foot 3-point shot to end the first half, you knew it was ON. The Warriors kept mounting comebacks, and when it came time in the fourth quarter, took the game over by hitting threes and making Dallas miss 10 of 11 shots late in the game. There were over 20,000 fans packing the Oracle Arena, and the best part of that telecast was when those 20K yelled "BULLSHIT!" repeatedly after Jason Richardson got whistled for a blocking foul in the third quarter. Baron finished with 33 points, Richardson threw in 22. I want to see more playoff beards in basketball.

Oh, and SUCK IT, SIR CHARLES. (Dumbass had the balls to say the only place worth living in CA was Los Angeles during the halftime report.)

Nets 102, Raptors 81 - Man, you think this team has no shot, and then Jason Kidd and Vince Carter just open two 40s of pure whoop-ass as soon as the starting whistle blows, including some damn near telepathic alley-oops and a stretch in the first half where Carter was incapable of missing a shot. Carter had 27, Richard Jefferson had 23, and Kidd was two rebounds away from another triple-double. If you are LeBron James and the Cavs, this team should scare you, despite its lack of any inside game.

(Photo: AP)

NBA Playoff Impressions: Be Cool.

Mavs 112, Warriors 99 - One of the big rules of the playoffs: DO NOT LOSE YOUR COOL. Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson both violated this (and their arguing was not necessarily unjustified, but you still gotta keep it in) as Dallas played a better game in Game 2 to tie it up. Davis got tossed before the end of the third quarter and Jackson got his walking papers with under 5 minutes left. Nowitzki still hasn't quite put it together, shooting 7 for 15. Jason Terry led the way for the Mavs, with a 15-2 run in the third quarter being the crucial difference.

Cavs 109, Wizards 102 - Cleveland is still letting this series be way too close for comfort with a depleted Wizards team. Antawn Jamison had 33 for D.C., and if the Cavs are just going to let him go off every night, they're going to lose a game when they shouldn't.

Spurs 97, Nuggets 88 - If you can get a split in San Antonio, it's still a good thing, and the Nuggets should be okay with how they played as long as they don't cough up homecourt in the next couple games. Manu Ginobili poured on 15 of his 17 points in the second half, and Tim Duncan had his usual 20+ night. Now, Denver knows the real part of the team it has to deal with. I'm still hoping they can pull it off.