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Don't normally do "whoa I'm excited" posts, but ... whoa, I'm excited!

Just for the record, it's Houston vs. Utah at 8 p.m. ET. Then it's the Oakland main event at 10:30. I have no plans to blog about the games in progress, but who am I kidding? I'll probably get all amped up about something and add to this here post anyway. Immediately after the late game, look for the conversation attached to the game story. I'll be the guy with the big photo of a head next to his comments.

UPDATE: Houston Utah is good, and has been close most of the night (although it looks like it's going to game seven now) and Andrei Kirilenko has been amazing, which is terrible for two reasons:

• The worse Kirilenko plays, the more Utah might give up on him and trade him somewhere where he can run free like a deer again.
• If Kirilenko plays really well, somebody is going to write a story about how brilliant Jerry Sloan was in preparing him for this moment by destroying his confidence for ages.

Utah wins. Now it's time for the varsity game.

(Actually, that's a total joke. The quality of play in this series is extremely high, and whoever wins has a fair shot at the Western Conference Finals. But for sheer thrills, this series is the JV compared to the cardiac Mavericks vs. Warriors.)

SI.com's Kelly Dwyer emails with something he wants to get off his chest:

The Don Nelson/Avery Johnson thing. Nellie signed and started Avery back in 1993 with the Warriors, and his assistant coach was Gregg Popovich. But he didn't find him. Search for Avery Johnson at this page.

Avery had played with the Sonics, Nuggets, Spurs and Rockets before even touching base with Nellie. He stays with Nellie (and Pop) for a year before moving, with Pop, to the San Antonio Spurs. He then stays with San Antonio from 1994 to 2001 when Dan Issel made Avery a ridiculous contract offer. From early 1996 until 2001, he plays for Coach Pop. Nellie's off doing Nellie Stuff, letting 7-footers hit towards the opposite field or run the option or whatever you want to call it, but Avery is starting and learning under Coach Pop.

As a salary cap throw-in, Avery ends up with the Mavs in 2002-03, stays for a year, and then gets traded (by Nellie, the same guy who let him go to the Spurs in 1994) to the Warriors before 2003-04. He works for a year in Golden State before being signed, by Nellie, to play his last season with the Mavs. He doesn't play, retires, becomes an assistant coach, then takes over when Nellie doesn't have the heart (and who could blame Nellie?) to run things without Steve Nash.

Avery immediately slows the tempo, encourages defense and more orthodox play-calling, a la ... Coach Pop.

Avery spent the bulk of his career around Coach Pop, coaches like him; so why do we keep hearing stories about Avery being Nellie's protege? He's Coach Pop's protege. If Avery learned anything from Nellie, it would be that life sucks when you essentially trade Steve Nash for Erick Dampier.

This may seem like a non-sequitur, but the game update is that Golden State is whipping the crowd into an extraordinary frenzy -- if they were unlimited, Avery Johnson would have called eight timeouts already -- but Jerry Stackhouse is an hombre.

BARON DAVIS IN THE LOCKER ROOM GETTING TREATMENT. Looks like his hammie. This, too, is part of what he brings to a team, which is very sad for everyone involved. Tick, tick, tick, Dallas better build a lead now, with ice cold Monta Ellis on the floor, if they want to win this game, because things are tough for them when Davis is lively.

He's back in the game, and looking gimpy, which you know if you're watching. Here's what this reminds me of: I'm pretty positive that in game six of the Western Conference Finals in 1990, the Phoenix Suns were putting a scare into the Portland Trail Blazers. But then Kevin Johnson, the Suns' emotional leader and spark plug, injured his hamstring and Portland won the deciding game to go on the NBA Finals.

Between now and the end of the game, wonder how many points Dirk Nowitzki will score. And I wonder if that number will be more or less than the number of times we will see that pickup commercial where they re-do the barbershop. I swear I have seen that 85 times this week.

Moving right along: I think I'm going to start boycotting the phrase "garbage points" which I just heard someone use. Contant effort around the basket wins games all the time, even if it's not high-degree of difficulty. Constant effort around the basket, (and the putbacks, layups, and dunks that come with it) is something 80% of players can't achieve for some reason. It's something you need. It's a talent. It's not garbage.

I hope everyone noticed that earlier this name TNT mentioned Gundars Vetra. That's like a made-up Hollywood Eastern European stud name. Buring the cold war, guys with that name could get work wrestling against Mister T. Not often you see that guy's name on TV anymore. He was the first Latvian in the NBA, Andris Biedrins is the second. Most importantly Vetra, who is now a coach in Latvia, gave Andrei Kirilenko the nickname Joker.

TNT has no competition this year for the "slowest scoreboard in professional sports" award.

The Warriors are doing their part to make this exciting. Can't say the same for the Mavericks.

If I were Avery Johnson, I'd ask my entire 12-man roster to bite the head off a live chicken or something. The first five to do it I'd play. They don't need more talent on the floor. They need audacious urgency. Maurice Ager and Austin Croshere are the only two Mavericks who look willing to lay it all on the line. Everyone else is too careful.

Dallas fans, you can start crying now.

I'll tell you what, this is WILD. Golden State had pretty much a dream game. You see them play like this for five minutes, and you think -- well, they'll cool off and Dallas will come back. But they have pretty much done this for the last couple of months. Hat's off to them. And Steve Kerr is totally right. FAST teams are winning these days. People used to think Dallas was fast, but I don't think they think that anymore.

It's a sad ending for Dallas. I feel bad for them. Nowitzki will be blamed, but everyone except maybe Josh Howard underperformed. They're going to have a big challenge of an off-season emotionally. They could really use some long, quick defender/shooters. They could use a Matt Barnes or two.

And I feel bad for us! I wanted a tense end of the game, with a buzzer beater, and while I'm happy to see Golden State win, it would have been so much cooler for this to have ended in seven. I'll miss this series now that it's done.

Did you see Mark Cuban walking off the floor? Scowled and said something nasty to the camera. Reminded me of this.