Hold your Breath - Warriors-Mavs, game 5, live blogging

I should really be at home, or preparing for teaching tomorrow, but a game like this doesn't come around all that often.

79-76 Mavs late in the 3rd. The three-pointers are just raining.

So are the hard fouls. Stackhouse and Dirk both take muggings down low. It looks like Matt Barnes is the "enforcer" for Golden State, an otherwise undersized team. Maybe they can pull Adonal Foyle out for a few thuggish fouls? Let's look in the archives for a suitable picture...


Dunking on Yao? When did that happen?

Things are going OK for his team, but boy, Don Nelson looks gassed.

Matt Barnes with another body slam. He "falls" on top of Stackhouse after Davis commits the foul. This is the playoffs in all its glory and ugliness.

Mavs by 6. Richardson pulls up for a no-conscience three and buries it. Positively Kobe-esque.

Stackhouse right back with a 3. Amazing.

And Richardson right back for 3. This is amazing. It should be a great fourth quarter.

Fourth quarter:

Great defensive stand and a Biedrins layup makes it a one point game. How can anyone not pull for the Warriors here? Nothing against the Mavs but the storyline with the Warriors is infintely better, and it saves us from one more Dallas-Phoenix series in the future.

Perfect pass by Davis to Barnes for a dunk, and the Warriors take the lead. Cue shot of a grizzled Mark Cuban looking profoundly tired and harried.

After getting dunked on, Devin Harris scores on a jumper and then on foul shots. Mavs back up by 3.

The sideline reporter tells us the plan is to "keep the ball away from Davis." So of course he gets the ball, dishes to Richardson, and he buries the 3. Tie game!

Devin Harris again. He must really be pissed from that Barnes dunk.

And Davis buries the pull up 3. Unbelievable. He looks really, really happy.

You already know this game is coming down to the last 5 possessions.

Harris again. 8 straight points from Devin Harris.

ANOTHER THREE FOR GS! Is there any strategy here but jack it up and hope you get the rebound?

Little used reserve Austin Croshere buries the three. This is out of hand. The announcers are calling it a "shootout," and that's an understatement.

Another hard foul, Croshere on Davis. Doesn't look like anything flagrant, just "playoff basketball."

Both teams are over 100 with six and a half minutes left. First to 120 wins?

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Crunch time:

Warriors by 2. Davis throws a 50 foot lob for a Richardson dunk. The crowd is about as quiet as it gets in playoff elimination games.

Diop airballs a free throw. It's amazing how you don't need a center who can shoot AT ALL. Actually, there are some drawbacks to that strategy - just ask the Heat.

Richardson buries another 3. Mark Cuban realizes the camera is on him, and suddenly cheers up and claps enthusiastically. But it's looking pretty forced.

The somewhat incoherent slogan for this year's playoffs is "will you be watching when?" This is a game that you might remember that way, though.

Dirk gets an amazing rejection on Barnes, then buries his second straight three. Wow.

Golden State should slow it down, walk it up. But it's just not their style. They'll live or die this way, regardless of what they should do.

Amazing run by the Mavs, and now Dirk is shooting free throws for the lead.

Wow. Dirk makes them, and Golden State chokes. This is disappointing. "A monumental collapse" as the announcers put it.

This is sad. This is wrong. This could change the whole series. It's like Dallas losing game 3 of the finals last year. Too bad.