2 things become clear when listening and reading basketball experts; The Warriors don't get any respect, no one thinks they play defense. The first I can understand, no playoffs in 13 years, yeah, we didn't deserve respect. Going 9-1 down the stretch to get into the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.....you would think that would buy us a little street cred. The second is what really puzzles me, it probably shouldn't if there is one thing that we all know about members of the media, they don't pay attention and rarely do any research. Guaranteed that most of the talking heads out there haven't seen a Warriors game this season.

So from the mouths of these talking heads, NBA analysts and the poetic stylings of Magic 'Helter Skelter' Johnson we have the definitive statement that the Warriors don't play defense. If your definition of defense is a grind it out, boring, plodding, brutal to watch Mike Fratello 98-99 team that averages 86 points a game, then yes, the Warriors don't play defense. Looking at the stlye of play the Warriors have, 'Nellie Ball' the Warriors have a perfect defense.

The role of defense in the Warriors scheme is to generate fast breaks, and provide the Warriors with more scoring opportunities, and easier scoring opportunities. You can't do this if you play a grind it out, plodding, half court defense. The Warriors are one of the league leaders in blocked shots, and no, it isn't Biedrins averaging 10 a night. The Warriors as a team had 466 blocks for the season averaging 5.68 per game with their opponents averaging almost 1 full block less per game. They also averaged more steals and less turnovers than their opponents all season long. Consider Dunleavy and Murphy played for much of the first half of the season, throw out those games and the picture probably looks even better.

The Warriors finished second in the league to Phoenix in points scored per game at 106.5. They finished with more points scored by their opponents on average than they scored. If you throw out the brutal losses to San Antonio that stat probably looks better. Miami, Washington, New Jersey, all also finished with more points on average by opponents and last I checked Miami is the defending world champs.

The Warriors take 45% of their shots with 10 or less seconds elapsed on the shot clock. 83% of their shots take place within 15 seconds. Dallas on average takes 56% of their shots within 15 seconds . Pretty clear the W's are going to run, and keep the pressure on. In order to get those unbalanced scoring opportunities and open shots the Warriors have to generate turnovers and fast breaks. Game 1 was a text book example of how they do it, and frankly based on their play over the last 10 games of the season, they executed poorly in game 1.

Team defense, exploiting miss-matches, and forcing turnovers to generate fast break opportunities. That is the Warriors defensive strategy and it is just as valid as any other method of playing defense. Hands up, getting into the passing lanes, double teaming, help defense, forcing bad passes, turnovers and poor shots. That is what we saw in Game 1, and it was the same thing we have seen down the stretch for the Warriors.

As Chase points out in game 1, the Warriors isolated and picked apart the Mavs only star player by...

Putting a quicker defender on him so when he does face up and put the ball on the floor, the smaller defender usually has the quickness advantage.

when Dirk does back down the smaller guy, the W's bring a help defender when he turns to face up... he'll usually spin and go up for the jumper... when he spins, a defender is often coming. Sometimes the W's bring the help defender before Dirk spins, so he's dealing with a lot of defenders coming from multiple angles.

it's obviously more complicated than that and Nelson knows Dirk's tendencies from various spots on the floor.

I'd expect Nowitkzi to make a conscious effort to get the ball closer to the hoop and to get to the line more. The Mavs might incorporate more movement off the entry pass to give Dirk more options. Denver does this well with Carmelo... they dive cut a lot.

Nowitzki will be a better player because of this series... if there's a hole in Dirk's game it's that he's not a very good passer for as skilled a big as he is. I'd expect him to improve in the off-season. W's fans hope the Mavs' off-season starts earlier than expected.

-Chase

The Warriors were fairly even in blocked shots, steals, turnovers, assists with the Mavs, but held them to a brutal 35.3% shooting. They kept Dallas off balance, interrupted their flow, and forced them to take bad shots. Even with Dallas's larger front line, they only out rebounded the W's by 5. The truth of Game 1 is that if Richardson, Ellis, Pietrus and Harrington have their average night, the Warriors beat Dallas by 20.

The NBA talking heads need to catch up and respect the Warriors style of play, it's like the West Coast offense in football. It isn't the typical grind it out style that the rest of the world plays, but it is far more entertaining fan friendly, and at least in Game 1, effective.