Baron Davis banked in a 3-pointer from midcourt at the halftime buzzer Sunday night. While his Golden State fans nearly deafened their team, absolutely nobody in either uniform seemed terribly surprised.

Davis has something in him these days that even the mighty Dallas Mavericks can't match - and now his crazy, carefree Warriors are one win away from a historic playoff upset.

Davis had five of his 33 points and two key assists in the final 3 1/2 minutes, and Golden State roared from behind for a 103-99 victory to take a 3-1 lead over the NBA's best regular-season team in their first-round playoff series.

Jason Richardson scored 22 points and Stephen Jackson added 19 for the Warriors, who could become just the third team in league history to knock off a No. 1 seed in the opening round. After the frenzied Oakland crowd's second celebration in three days, the Warriors seem primed to pull off perhaps the biggest heist in playoff history.

"Every game we play is a learning process and an adventure," Davis said. "This is a young team which has never been in this situation. ... I felt I could carry the load in the first half and open things up."

He kept carrying it late as he got the Warriors to the brink of history. Only the Denver Nuggets (1994) and the New York Knicks (1999) have won a playoff series as a No. 8 seed - and both did it in the old best-of-five format.

The Warriors are an even more unlikely candidate - a 42-40 club that didn't make the playoffs until the final day of the regular season. But Golden State streaked into the postseason - and Davis' club undeniably has a hold on Dallas, winning eight of their last nine meetings and surging to this victory after trailing by seven points with 6 1/2 minutes left.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Dallas, where the Mavericks went 36-5 in the regular season, but blew the series opener.