"To be frank, nothing is ever over until it's over."

-MrCHUPON, blog post below (also, Juradai quoting Rocky ;))

Not surprising: Dallas coming out and putting the clamps on Golden State in the first quarter - scoring boatloads of points

Surprising: Dallas almost giving this game up, letting the Warriors lead.

Not surprising: Dirk Nowitzki finally decides to show us that he knows what a clutch performer is.

Surprising - er, actually, knowing NBA refs, not surprising: Baron Davis getting called for a phantom call coming from a rebound attempt and subsequently fouling out. I guess Mark Cuban got his payback from the phantom call on Nowitzki last year as Dwyane Wade blew by him.

Surprising: Jason Richardson decided to show up today.

Bottom line? The fact that Golden State could mount such a comeback and then fail in the end showed me two things:

1) They are still reckless and need to improve basketball IQ. You SLOW DOWN when you're up by 6 with two minutes to go. Milk the clock. What the [censor party] were you guys thinking!?

2) They ain't scared. They walked into an incredibly loud Dallas arena, fell behind by nearly 20 points in the first half, and then silenced that very same crowd in the second half. They're not winning in Oakland. And if they do, well then I'll eat crow*.

Golden State, don't let me down. The Mavericks need to be exposed, as does Dirk Nowitzki.

*Crow, in MrCHUPON's native dialect of Trigamese, is actually the colloquial term for "grilled chicken".