As he was walking toward the exit at American Airlines Center, Golden State coach Don Nelson bumped into Dirk Nowitzki.

"Dirkster," Nelson bellowed. "I think we got your attention."

And them some.

Nowitzki and the Mavericks did just about everything wrong in the playoff opener and got drop-kicked, 97-85, by the Warriors on Sunday night. They didn't shoot it, didn't defend, didn't finish quarters and, in the end, didn't bear any resemblance to the No. 1-seeded team that won 67 games in the regular season.

And so, it's Schmoes 1, Mavs 0.

Nellie so affectionately calls his team "a bunch of Schmoes" because they barely snuck into the playoffs and were mostly anonymous throughout the season.

Now, they have the once-mighty Mavericks in a 1-0 hole, stealing away the home-court advantage in the best-of-7 first round.

The Mavs' playoff losing streak is at five games after dropping the last four in the NBA Finals last season.

"They were jumping around like madmen," said Nowitzki, who had a horrible start to the playoffs, shooting 4-of-16 and scoring just 14 points, 10 below his regular-season average. "They're a confident bunch and they've played us well over the years.

"We got to fight to take that confidence away."

They have two full days to decipher what went wrong, and it may take every waking moment. Of all the problems, finishing quarters was the most glaring for a team that has based its entire existence this season on finishing.

The Mavericks missed their last eight shots of the first quarter and their last 10 of the second. In the fourth quarter, after they had drawn within 80-78, they were outscored 17-7 the rest of the way as they shot 2-for-9 in the final seven minutes.

"There was a lid on the basket tonight," said Josh Howard. "Hopefully, it will pop off before next game."

Other things will have to change, too. The Mavericks went with a starting lineup that they never used in the regular season, sitting both of their centers. While Erick Dampier made a cameo appearance, DeSagana Diop played 16 minutes and was marginally effective.

But in trying to go small to match Nelson's lineup, the Mavericks may have played right into the Warriors' hands.

Baron Davis was unstoppable, finishing with 33 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. He scored 26 of his points after halftime, when the Warriors shot 54 percent and scored 59 points.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks got nothing out of their bench. Jerry Stackhouse was 0-for-6 and picked a bad time to have his worst game of the season.

In short, the Warriors looked like the team bubbling with confidence and the Mavericks looked like the one playing scared.

Nelson took no credit for devising a defense that stifled Nowitzki.

"He just had a bad shooting night," Nelson said. "It was just one of those nights."

Maybe, but the Warriors were aggressively running at Nowitzki whenever he dribbled and tried to limit his touches by fronting him with defenders.

"I was very surprised," said Avery Johnson. "I thought overall as a team we were ready to go. But his shots didn't fall. They are doing a good job of hanging all over him. And we're just going to have to make strong moves and get to the basket.

"But how many nights do you see him have like this? Not very often."

What we learned most about these two teams was that it's hard to have a good old-fashioned Wild West shootout when one team doesn't do any shooting.

LOUIS DELUCA / DMN

Mavericks guard Jason Terry has his shot blocked by Golden State's Andris Biedrins.

The Mavericks shot 29.4 percent in the first half, missing a slew of layups.

As a result, they were playing catch-up most of the way. They were down 80-78 when Devin Harris and Nowitzki each missed one of two free throws.

That's when their offense shut down and the Warriors got consecutive shots in the paint and then a Stephen Jackson 3-pointer with 3:20 left that made it 87-79.

After an exchange of baskets, Jason Richardson turned over the ball for the Warriors, but he blocked Harris' layup try, then came down hard on Harris, although no foul was called.

Harris was slow to get up, but walked off the court.

Another 3-pointer, this one by Matt Barnes, clinched things for the Warriors.