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Back on the last day of February, if Don Nelson had been approached with one of the "We Believe'' T-shirts that have become required fan-wear during the Golden State Warriors' improbable playoff run, the 66-year-old coach likely would have laughed in the bearer's face.
His words certainly didn't project any sense of belief. Not after the Warriors dressed nine players and lost by 30 points on the road to the Chicago Bulls, falling seven games below .500 and seemingly dooming them to a 13th straight season of missing the playoffs.
"I thought I could get this team in the playoffs and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do it,'' Nelson said that night, with the Warriors still two more losses from officially bottoming out. "I feel like I've failed, really, in a lot of ways.
"I think I've done some good things, and I think it's going to turn out just fine, but it doesn't look like it's going to work out this year, so I'm pretty disappointed."
Barely two months later, the Warriors are the toast of the NBA, having set a new standard for playoff upsets in Nelson's return engagement as the team's coach. After finishing 42-40 in the regular season, Golden State dismissed the 67-win Dallas Mavericks in the first round to advance to play the Jazz.
The Warriors became just the third No. 8 seed ever to knock off a top-seeded team and the first to do so in a best-of-seven series. Whether a second act awaits in the Western Conference semifinals beginning tonight at EnergySolutions Arena is anyone's guess.
"Everything's sweet when you win,'' Nelson said in a conference call Sunday. "We've been playing real well for a long time, almost two months now. There hasn't been any let-up."
Counting their 4-2 series victory over Dallas, the Warriors have won 20 of their last 27 games, giving credence to Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's claim that they are the NBA's hottest team, even if they did qualify for the playoffs on the final day of the regular season.
They play the ultimate free-wheeling style, otherwise known as "Nellieball,'' in which the Warriors averaged 106.5 points and launched 24 three-pointers per game, while employing lineup combinations that would make a basketball purist cringe.
Forget the tried and true equation of two guards, two forwards and a center. Nelson goes small and smaller, putting as many as four guards (Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson) on the floor together.
The Warriors' resurgence coincided with Davis' return from arthroscopic knee surgery in March. Davis averaged 25 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists against Dallas and has found harmony with Nelson after clashing with previous coaches.
Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said: "I think it will be kind of 'catch a rabbit.' Golden State will be the rabbit and we'll be catching. They play a very explosive running game. There will be lots of spark. We need to slow them down, watch out for fast break and close the perimeter shooters."
Are the Warriors really built for the playoffs if they're going to take 25, 30 or even 35 three-pointers a game? "It's not like we're looking to overdo that,'' Nelson said, "but it's part of our attack and we feel comfortable taking most of them if we're in rhythm."
As difficult as it is for Sloan's Jazz to turn around 48 hours after outlasting Houston in a seven-game series and play the Warriors, Nelson acknowledged the problems Utah brings in terms of their depth, their quality big men and their grind-it-out offense.
The Warriors will put their hopes of containing Carlos Boozer in the hands of Al Harrington, who was acquired along with Jackson as part of Golden State's eight-player deal with Indiana in January. The only problem is Harrington was benched in favor of Andris Biedrins in Game 3 of the Dallas series.
"I need him, that's for sure,'' Nelson said of Harrington. "I need all the big bodies I can get."
There also is the question of whether the Warriors want to put in the effort defensively with the Jazz setting back screens from every direction in search of layups. For all its offensive firepower, Golden State ranked 30th and last in the league in points allowed (106.9 per game) during the regular season.
One thing Nelson knows is that the Warriors are going to have a home-court advantage once they do return to Oracle Arena. They won all three games from the Mavericks before manic crowds at home, with the team giving away tens of thousands of its now-trademark shirts. Even Nelson has been made into a believer.
"It's just kind of one of those wonderful things that happen in sports every once in awhile in an area when you get hot,'' Nelson said. "That's kind of what's happening to us right now. The place is on fire."
Andrew Aragon and Lya Woodraska contributed to this report.