Warriors @ Mavs: The Aftermath

Phase one of the Mavs's Worldwide Revenge Tour: Complete.

The Mavericks laid a beatdown on the Warriors last night to the tune of 117-93. They outscored the Warriors in three quarters, and tied them in the 3rd.

Now, a win over a bad team isn't necessarily something to crow about, except for a few things.

What's more important is that they held the high-flying Warriors to under 100 points, which is a step in the right direction. This is despite Stephen Jackson turning into Michael Jordan for the first part of the first quarter.

Also, Josh Howard (30) and J-Kidd (33) were the only starters to crack the 30-minute mark.

While this saves wear-and-tear on the starting five, this also gives the reserves some much needed minuted, minutes in which they didn't blow a lead.

Bass had 16 and 11 in 24 minutes, and he also got to the line eight times, hitting all eight free throws.

Good stuff.

Here's the bad: This just shows how tragic the loss to the Warriors in 2007 was.

If Avery hadn't sat out his starters against the Warriors the Mavs could have abused the Clippers in the first round.

That year, the Spurs, Mavs, Suns triumvirate was a veritable game of paper, scissor, rock, with the Mavs beating the Spurs, the Spurs beating the Suns, and the Suns beating the Mavs.

A win over G-State would have pitted the Mavs against a Jazz team that was coming off of a 7-game series with the Rockets, and the Spurs could have taken care of the Suns.

Then you have a Mavs-Spurs Western Conference Final, which could have been an epic series, which I think the Mavs could have one.

And if you don't think that Mavs would attack a team with a 2003 draft superstar in the Finals, then you're crazy.

And now I'm depressed again. Pardon me while I wander into incoming traffic.

Ah, that was better. Back to the game.

The bigs played very well. Dampier put up 10 and 11 in 26 minutes, and Bass abused them in the low post.

In fact, Bass is the perfect player to go small with. He's small in size, but he's got the physicality to overwhelm a small center like Biedrins and Jacko playing at the 4.

Dirk, while Stephen Jackson contained him a little bit, abused Azubuike on offense.

Howard did struggle to guard Jacko, but Ellis at the two solved their undersized two-problem for them.

The Mavs' size was able to lock down the interior, although that's not usually where the Warriors burn you.

In the end, it was the kind of win the Mavs needed, 20+ points, short minutes for the starters. If this was early to mid-December, I'd be happy. End of Janurary? Not so much.