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Warriors win series over Dallas

The Dallas Mavericks' Jerry Stackhouse, center, shoots against the Golden State Warriors' Andris Biedrins in the second quarter of their NBA Western Conference first-round playoff game in Oakland, California, on Thursday. The Warriors won 111-86 and will move on to the second round. PHOTO: AP

The Golden State Warriors completed a stunning first-round upset of Western Conference top seeds Dallas on Thursday with a 111-86 Game 6 win in the NBA playoffs.

The Warriors, who had scrapped to gain a playoff berth on the last night of the regular season, completed a four-games-to-two series victory over a Mavericks team that won a league-leading 67 regular season games and had their sights set on returning to the NBA finals for the second straight year.

"It's so disappointing you can't even describe it," said Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki, a top contender for Most Valuable Player honors for his regular-season exploits.

"We played our heart out for six, seven months," he said. "We won 67 games and it really means nothing at this point."

The departure of Dallas means that neither of last year's NBA finalists made it out of the first round. The Miami Heat, who defeated the Mavericks for the championship last season, fell to the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference first round.

Stephen Jackson scored 33 points, including a career-high seven 3-pointers, while Baron Davis ignored a sore hamstring to collect 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists as the Warriors became the first eighth seed to oust a No. 1 seed in a best-of-seven series.

Matt Barnes had 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for Golden State, who are making their first playoff appearance since 1994.

The Warriors, who led by two points at the half, broke open the game in the third period, when they outscored the Mavericks 36-15.

"We just had one of the worst third quarters we had all year," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said.

"Man they got on a huge run there," he said. "They got all of their shots, we got jump-shot happy during that stretch," he said.

"We didn't penetrate as much as we should have," he said. "We couldn't get any stops. They were hurting us on the pick and rolls. They just did a good job of playing offense and defense."

Davis, the star of the playoffs to this point, hurt his hamstring early in the game.

But after receiving treatment, he came back to shoot 7-of-17 from the field.

Jackson, who had been ejected twice in the series, including at the end of Game 5, shot 10-of-19 from the field, including making 7-of-8 from 3-point range.

Meanwhile Nowitzki endured a nightmare game, scoring just eight points on 2-of-13 shooting.

"This series I couldn't really put my stamp on it the way I wanted to and that's why I'm very disappointed," Nowitzki said.

The Warriors had not won a playoff series since 1991, when Don Nelson guided that squad to a 3-1 series victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Despite an impressive record against Dallas, the Warriors weren't expected to be able to go the distance against the Mavericks in a best-of-seven series.

Dallas' 67 victories were a franchise record -- tied for sixth-best in NBA history -- earned them home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

In the second round, the Warriors will face the winner of the first-round series between Houston and Utah.

Jazz 94, Rockets 82

The Jazz staved off elimination on Thursday with a 94-82 victory over the Rockets that evened their series at three games apiece.

Carlos Boozer scored 22 points and Mehmet Okur added 14 of his 19 in the second half.

That series heads to Houston for game seven today. Each team has won three games on its home court.

"I was pleased with the effort that our guys put in to try and win the game," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I know we had our backs against the wall and I thought the club did a fine job."

Utah led the entire second half and took a 68-62 advantage into the final period, but two free throws by Tracy McGrady capped a 12-5 run by Houston that narrowed the deficit to 77-76 with 4:45 left, but that one-point margin was as close as the Rockets could get.
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