Warriors Shock Dallas

Golden State players staged one of the biggest sensations in NBA history by knocking out Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

In the sixth game played in Oakland, the Warriors defeated the team that accomplished the best ratio in the regular part of the season (67-15) with the score as high as 111-86, and consequently became only the third eight seeded team in the history of the NBA to defeat the top seed and the first team to do this since the first round of the playoffs requires four wins.

At half time, the Warriors only had a two-point advantage (50-48), but they resolved the third quarter to their benefit with the score 36-15 and practically determined the winner. Stephen Jackson played the key role. He scored four three-pointers in the third quarter and scored 33 points in the entire match. Jackson's playing in the sixth game came into question in the fifth one, when he was sent away for the second time in the series. Instead of sitting a game out, NBA disciplined Jackson with a 35,000 dollar fine. 

Baron Davis played with a pulled hamstring, but still gave his team momentum by scoring 20 points and adding 10 rebounds and six assists for the Warriors' first passage into the second round of playoffs since 1991. 

The most efficient players in the Mavs' team were Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse with 20 points each, while Dirk Nowitzki only scored eight points and shot 2-13. 

The Utah Jazz used the advantage of playing at home and evened the win score against the Houston Rockets to 3-3 by winning 94-82. The decisive seventh game will be played in Houston on Saturday. In all six games played so far, the home teams were victorious. The winner of this duel will play against Golden State in the second round.  

Utah was led to victory by Carlos Boozer with 22 points and Mehmet Okur with 19 points. Croatian player Gordan Giricek scored eight points in 13 minutes (he shot 0-3, three-pointers 2-2, free throws 2-2) and had three rebounds. As usual, Tracy McGrady (26, 10 rebounds) and Yao Ming (25) were the best on the Rockets' side.