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Andrei Kirilenko had his best game of the series with 14 points and five blocks to lead the Jazz to a 94-82 victory Thursday night, forcing a deciding game back in Houston.
Mehmet Okur added 19 points, including four 3-pointers, as the Jazz finally started hitting from beyond the arc.
McGrady finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds for Houston. Yao Ming scored 25, but he also had eight turnovers - two more than his rebound total - as Okur and rookie Paul Millsap constantly pressured the 7-foot-6 center.
The home team has won every game in the series, which bodes well for the Rockets, who haven't played well in Utah this season or postseason. Game 7 is Saturday night.
Carlos Boozer added 22 points for Utah, and he and Okur both pulled down nine rebounds. Deron Williams had 15 points and eight assists, Millsap scored all of his eight points in the second quarter, as the Jazz took control and then held off several rallies by the Rockets down the stretch.
After falling behind by 11 late in the third quarter, Houston twice got within a point but never quite completed the comeback.
Kirilenko scored six points and blocked three shots in the fourth quarter. McGrady tried to drive on him once with the Rockets down three, but Kirilenko stayed on him and swatted the ball away during a 13-4 run that sealed it for the Jazz.
"We had a game we had to win or we were going home,'' Kirilenko said. "That's hard to play with this kind of intensity on both ends of the court, but we had to win.''
Kirilenko got a layup to roll over the front of the rim and in and added a 21-foot jumper during Utah's late run. Yao dunked to get the Rockets within 81-76, then the Jazz answered with a jumper by Williams, two free throws by Boozer and a 3-pointer from Okur, who went 4-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Okur had made just four of 25 3-pointers in the first five games.
Okur was intense all night and it showed in the second quarter, when he took a hard foul from Juwan Howard. Okur got Howard in the air, then went up for a shot as Howard was coming down with a forearm.
Okur crashed hard to the floor and came up almost swinging. Instead he nudged Howard and got in his face before the two players were separated. Howard was called for a technical and was livid. He got right in referee Dick Bavetta's face and was yelling, but he was pulled away in time to avoid a second technical.
Okur made all three free throws to put Utah up 36-35. Utah led 46-43 at halftime.
Notes: Yao scored the Rockets' first six points and also had a tip-in waived off for goaltending. ... McGrady and Yao were the only Rockets to attempt free throws through the first three quarters. ... Kirilenko hadn't scored more than eight in any of the first five games and his five blocks tied his playoff career high. ... McGrady's teams are 28-28 in the playoffs.
Davis and Jackson shot the ragtag Warriors right into the second round, capping perhaps the NBA's biggest playoff upset with yet one more memorable performance on their home floor.
Davis willed his team on one good leg, shaking off a strained hamstring to score 20 points, Jackson made a franchise playoff-record seven 3-pointers, and Golden State became the first No. 8 seed to capture a best-of-seven playoff series with a 111-86 victory over the NBA-best Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 on Thursday night.
Whoa, Nellie, what a shocker!
"We made NBA history tonight and that's the best thing about it. We did it as a team,'' Davis said. "I'm so proud of my teammates and proud to be a part of this franchise.''
Coach Don Nelson's emotional bunch of castoffs beat his old organization by holding likely league MVP Dirk Nowitzki to eight points and 2-for-13 shooting, after he saved the Mavs with 30 points in their six-point Game 5 win Tuesday. The Warriors, making their first playoff appearance in 13 years, will open the second round Monday night at either Houston or Utah.
"This is a pretty special place to be right now,'' Nelson said.
Jackson - who avoided a suspension for Game 6 after two ejections in the series - hit four 3-pointers during a decisive 24-3 third-quarter run and finished with a playoff career-high 33 points.
"I wanted to be aggressive,'' Jackson said. "Baron came out and told me he wasn't feeling as good as he had in previous games, and he wanted me to carry us. I wanted to stay focused, not worry about calls, not get too emotional, just bring my energy with my play.''
Davis also added 10 rebounds and six assists. He sat down with 2:19 to play, throwing his arms in the air to the fans who chanted "MVP!'' When the final buzzer sounded, the Warriors hugged as confetti streamed onto the court.
Andris Biedrins had 12 points and 12 rebounds, not to mention a handful of key hustle plays, Matt Barnes took advantage of his first start of the series with 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, and Jason Richardson added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists.
"It feels great, that's the only words I can say,'' Richardson said. "I don't know when I have to pinch myself or wake up from this dream. This is everything I wanted. I wanted this for our fans, for our organization, for ourselves. We work hard and we deserve it.''
Josh Howard scored 20 points and Jerry Stackhouse had 14 of his 20 points in the first quarter for the 67-win Mavericks, who along with Dallas owner Mark Cuban had high hopes of going deep in the postseason after their remarkable regular-season showing.
The Warriors became only the third eighth seed to upset the No. 1 and the first since the opening round went from best-of-five to the current format. The Denver Nuggets (1994) and the New York Knicks (1999) are the only other teams to win a series.
After years of failure and its share of unsuccessful personnel moves, Golden State is suddenly as big in the Bay Area as Barry Bonds' home run chase across the water in San Francisco.
"Baron toughed it out,'' Barnes said. "He's our leader and nothing's going to stop him right now. We've got a lot of talent and a lot of heart and we're looking to do a lot more damage.''
The Warriors lured Nelson out of retirement to turn around a franchise that hadn't been to the postseason since he took them there in 1994 during his first stint as coach, dropping former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery in late August after two losing seasons.
Back home, Golden State won again behind its deafening, towel-waving crowd that Mavs coach and former Warrior Avery Johnson described this way: "If you haven't been to the playoffs in 13 years, your fans are going to be pretty crazy.''
And the "We Believe'' mantra that now rocks Oakland - Mickael Pietrus led the team out of the locker room holding one of the bright yellow T-shirts sporting the logo - has even caught the attention of celebrities like rapper Snoop Dogg, popular guitarist Carlos Santana, actors Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson, and golfer Fred Couples. They were all in the stands for the clincher - and a few even headed to the celebratory locker room afterward. Ron Artest stopped by to offer his best, too.
"The fans gave us so much energy,'' Richardson said. "It felt great that we actually put them away like that. We played great defense tonight.''
Nowitzki missed his first eight shots, bricking consecutive 3-point tries late in the second quarter before hitting a 16-footer for his first basket of the game with 38 seconds left in the period. Dallas trailed 50-48 at the break but couldn't match the Warriors' energy in the third. The Mavs went 5:07 without scoring as Golden State turned it into a rout, leading 86-63 going into the final 12 minutes.
"We were there at halftime,'' Johnson said. "We were only down two. We just came out and had one of our worst third quarters this year. ... This is a very disappointing end to the season.''
The Warriors traded for Jackson in January in an eight-player swap with the Indiana Pacers to pair him with a healthy Davis as this playoff-starved franchise tried - and ultimately succeeded - to end the NBA's longest postseason drought.
Johnson, groomed by Nellie to be a head coach, said the Warriors had 10,000 pounds on their right arms up there in Oakland'' to close out a series Golden State led 3-1, but 20,677 screaming fans from every corner of Oracle Arena put all the pressure on the cold-shooting Mavs.
The Warriors hadn't won a best-of-seven series in 31 years, since beating Detroit in a first-round series in 1975-76 - the year after winning their only NBA championship in California. Golden State had lost its last five best-of-sevens and hadn't won any playoff series since beating San Antonio 3-1 in the first round in 1990-91.
Johnson brought his team back to California immediately after Game 5 so the Mavs could get more comfortable in the Warriors' raucous confines, while Golden State spent the night in Dallas.
Dallas' first seven made field goals were 3s, 4-of-6 from Stackhouse in the opening period, and the Mavs were 0-for-14 from 2-point range before Jason Terry's jumper at the 11:22 mark of the second quarter.
"Great regular season, but a disappointing finish in the playoffs,'' Terry said. "We all take fault in our mistakes, but you have to give credit where credit is due. That's a hot team.''
Barnes earned his first start of the series over Monta Ellis and played through a pulled right hamstring, just like Davis.
The Mavs, who lost in last year's NBA finals, became the first time to win 65 games and fail to win at least one playoff series. Even worse, it came against Nelson, who spent 10 seasons helping taking Dallas from among the league's worst teams to one of the best.
"This is not like last year was,'' Cuban said. "Losing the finals was really painful. This is just the first round.''
Notes: The NBA fined Richardson $35,000 for improper interaction with a fan during Game 5 in Dallas. Richardson had a heated verbal exchange with the fan after missing a shot and falling out of bounds with 21.9 seconds left in the Warriors' 118-112 loss. The fan reportedly filed a complaint with NBA security. ... The fans booed Cuban when he came out before tipoff.
Labels: Playoffs 2007
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