Spirited Warriors push Mavericks to the edge

One finalist down, one to go.

The defending champion Miami Heat bit the dust Sunday, and the Dallas Mavericks have looked better themselves, trailing upstart Golden State, 3-1, in a Western Conference first-round playoff series after the Warriors came from eight points behind in the last 6 minutes 22 seconds to rock the Mavericks’ world again.

Playing their team-of-destiny role to the hilt, the Warriors, a 26-35 also-ran as recently as March, finished with a 23-11 run to slay the 67-win Mavericks, 103-99.

“The force was with us tonight,” Coach Don Nelson said. “We needed every ounce of the force tonight to win this game....

“I know what a lot of you guys [reporters] are thinking. You’re thinking we’re in control now. We don’t think that way.”

Someone does, however, the Mavericks’ struggling star, Dirk Nowitzki, who said before Game 4, “If we don’t win [Sunday], it’s pretty much over.”

Playing his role as their leader to the hilt, Baron Davis led all scorers with 33 points, including a half-court three-point basket to end the first half and a dunk after stealing an inbounds pass and taking it coast to coast to end the third quarter.

“Baron’s the man,” Nelson said. “He’s proving he’s as great as I told you he was.”

Said Davis: “Coach kept telling us to run, run, run. It didn’t seem like we were able to get that kick-started until about after three minutes left in the ballgame.”

The Mavericks, who led by nine points in the first half, saw the Warriors wipe that out before the Western Conference champions started to pull away in the fourth quarter.

A 9-2 run led by reserve Jerry Stackhouse put Dallas ahead, 88-80, before Stephen Jackson made two free throws with 6:22 left.

Inconspicuous as it was, it started a blazing rally with Jackson’s three-pointer cutting it to 90-88 with 3:14 left and Davis’ fastbreak layup tying it, 90-90, with 2:32 left.

The next time down, Davis hit Andris Biedrins under the basket with a pass from the top of the floor. Biedrins’ dunk with 1:59 left put the Warriors ahead to stay

It was an awful end to an awful weekend for the Mavericks, trapped in the middle of pent-up Warriors hysteria after 13 years out of the playoffs.

“I know as a player when I’ve been in that situation, I wasn’t tight,” said Coach Avery Johnson, who bristles with intensity under ordinary circumstances, before Sunday’s game.

“That wasn’t the word. Was I peeved about some stuff? Was I ready to knock somebody and crack somebody upside the head? Yeah. And hit them in some other spots? Yeah.

“But I don’t know if tight is the word.”

OK, how about “lame”?

Meanwhile, Nelson, who had been praising the Mavericks before the series and during it, kept it up even as the team handed out 20,000 “We Believe” T-shirts at the gate.

“I believe in nothing,” Nelson said. “Yesterday’s history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. What are you doing today?”

The Mavericks played better Sunday. It just didn’t matter.

Dallas took an early nine-point lead but the Warriors came back and tied it at halftime on Davis’ half-court heave.

The Mavericks led by nine in the third quarter but the Warriors tied it when Davis stole Stackhouse’s inbounds pass with five seconds left, outraced Jason Terry to the other end of the court and dunked.

The Mavericks led by eight points in the fourth quarter but that didn’t turn out so well, either.

“Our guys played with fire in their eyes tonight,” Johnson said. “We just didn’t have a good finish....

“We trapped Davis five times and he just got away from our traps. That’s not a good sign.”

mark.heisler@latimes.com