Do we love Mark Cuban for taking Erika Dampier off our hands, yes, we do still love you Mark. We also loved going into Dallas and completely owning the billionares toy that is the Dallas Mavericks. 

Even on an off night by Jason Richardson, Mikael Pietrus, Monta Ellis and Al Harrington the W's still weather the storm and roll the Mavericks 97-85. Baron Davis dominated the game, clearly the best player on the floor all night. Anytime the Warriors needed a basket Baron drove to the hoop and got them one, even driving into 3 Maverick players. When the Mavs closed in, Baron drained the clutch 3. An all-star performance. Baron dropped 33, pulled 14 rebounds, shot 50% from the floor and 4-7 on 3's. Baron was poked in the eye on a drive to the hoop and had blurred vision. After the game you could see his right eye was completely bloodshot, which makes his second half performance even more impressive. Baron is a true Warrior and he demonstrated to the rest of the league that he is an all star and a force to be reckoned with in the post season.

Stephen Jackson was the other Warriors to really deliver tonight, dropping 23, combining with Baron to provide more than half of all the Warriors scoring. Jackson also shot 50%, driving into the lane and getting lay ups, and hitting clutch shots. He also contributed 4 assists and 2 steals to complete his performance.

The unheralded hero of this game is probably Matt Barnes who came off the bench and played scrappy defense, went after loose balls, and helped when Ellis, Richardson, Pietrus and Harrington faltered. Matt had 10 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot. A solid all around game in 24 minutes.

Nellie said he is going 8 deep for the series with Barnes, Biedrins and Pietrus coming off the bench.

Dallas had almost no bench production with Diop's 4 points, 6 rebounds being the only thing they would get. With Diop on the floor, and Dirk on the bench the Mavs played some of their best minutes. The Warriors defense on Dirk, he had a horrible shooting night going 4-16, losing the ball on a few occasions and being forced to make bad passes when the Warriors weak side help put pressure on him.

After 13 years of waiting, the Warriors Nation has a reason to hold our heads up, stand up a little straighter, and look forward to rocking the arena on Friday. We have one of the best home court records in the league. No reason why the Warriors can't be up 3-1 a week from today.