Mavs VS Rockets

[Zanchief]

Great series, the best going on so far.

I don't know who to root for, I like the Mavs but Yao is impressing me so much.

[Gidan]

I dont follow basketball much but I feel a need to root for the mavs being from dallas and all.

[xaoshaen]

After Van Gundy took on the Godfather of the NBA, I kinda have to root for the Rockets. I would strongly recommend that he not stop at any tollbooths, though.

As a Spurs fan, I would rather see Dallas advance. McGrady's terrifying in the closing minutes of a close game, and if San Antonio goes on a 6 minute field goal drought, McGrady can make it far more painful than the Nuggets have managed to do.

[LostCause]

Agreed with XaoShaen

[Zanchief]

If the Rockets ever got a reliable PG they could be a nasty dynasty in the making.

I see the spurs and the rockets going after each other for the next half decade.

[xaoshaen]

I've been thrilled to see the Sonics resurgence too. I was a huge Mac 10 fan during his playing days, and was initially a Kemp fan before his immaturity wore on me. It's good to see the green and gold making some noise for Nate. Here's hoping James' epiphany continues and he doesn't relapse into the person who responded to accusations of selfishness by saying "I don't know about all that. I just worry about Jerome". By all accounts, he's turned his attitude, in the words of Jason Kidd, around "360 degrees", and become someone who's much more receptive to teaching.

[Zanchief]

I don't think Allen is sticking around, and if thats the case they'll be lottery bound next year.

[xaoshaen]

I'm not convinced that they're lottery bound even without Allen. I'd argue that Lewis, not Allen, is the lynchpin of their offense. They still have a young, potentially brilliant point guard in Ridnour (did you see his pass to Evans last night?). I like Collison, who's been very effective in essentially his rookie season, and Evans who both bring a toughness to the team that wasn't there in the last few seasons. I like Fortson on the court, but I think his mental issues will drive him out of Seattle in the next few years. His antics get old in a hurry as his history will attest. A lot will depend on how James and Swift develop if Allen leaves.

Also, if Allen leaves, that'll leave Seattle with some significant cap room to help ease the sting of his departure.

[Zanchief]

Lewis hasn't done much in the playoffs, which does worry me, but you are right about ridnour.

We shall see.

[xaoshaen]

Yeah, Lewis has had a pretty miserable series. Well, miserable games 2 through 4, bookended by better showings. Over the course of the year though, he was huge for the Sonics. A tall, versatile small forward, equally comfortable posting up or launching from the arc, his game is better rounded than Allen's. He's still young, and I'd attribute his subpar performance thus far at least in part to his inexperience in the postseason.

Don't get me wrong though, I wouldn't be happy to see Allen leave. He's an incredibly cerebral player and someone who's emerged as a definite, if quiet, leader for the team. I do think that someone will woefully overpay for him though, and I hope the Sonics don't Isaiah the situation and lock themselves into a bad contract for the foreseeable future.

[Zanchief]

I think allen could help a team like Cleveland a lot more than the sonics, personally. They have a number of great 3 pts shooters. I could see Cleveland justifying a big long term contract, but I'm not sure if Allen is as needed in Seattle in the long term. Still would be a pick hit if they los him.

Has Seattle extended Nates contract yet? Could be coach of the year and he still doesn't have an extension, very odd.

[xaoshaen]

Last I heard was that both sides had tabled negotiations until after the season. That would dovetail with McMillan's game-first mentality.

[Zanchief]

That would dovetail with McMillan's game-first mentality.

Enlighten me. I haven't had the chance to follow the series much more than box-scores.

I did catch half of last nights game though.

[xaoshaen]

Back when he was playing, and from what I've seen it's rolled over into his coaching days, Mac had a very low tolerance for drama if it affected the game. I was a little surprised to see that the Sonics had picked up Fortson, and figured he'd run afoul of Nate at some point, which he wound up doing towards the end of the season when he was essentially benched for not having his head in the game. It would be in character for McMillan to simply tell the Sonics' front office that he'll talk to them about contracts after the season, but right now he has a team to coach.

[LostCause]

Well most interesting game i saw so far was bulls and Wizards the last game when bulls went on that run in the 4th quarter only to come up a little short

[Zanchief]

Well most interesting game i saw so far was bulls and Wizards the last game when bulls went on that run in the 4th quarter only to come up a little short

That was a great game.

Funny side note: The ratpors signed Pargo to a 10 day two years ago and my dad always talks about how good he was. "How can they not see how good he is and I can!?"

Was funny watching him hit all those threes. Although I still don't think he's that great.

[Lyion]

Houston would be tougher against San Antonio. I'm somewhat hoping they pull it out as I'd like to see them Match up.

Dallas hasn't really impressed me in this series. If they do manage to survive, I predict their gone in 5 in the next series.

[Beelz]

wow, all I have to say is wow right now. If Dallas drops their like 30 point lead in the middle of the 4th they deserve to lose. I'm not one to watch a lot of basketball, but this game is just sickening.... well awesome if you are a Mavs fan.

[Rotj]

VIVA LA VONKAAR!

[vonkaar]

Basically... I didn't want to post on this thread, or any NBA thread concerning the Mavs because I am a supersticious mofaka. Seriously... this was the most stressed out series in my sports-watching HISTORY.

First... some of ya'll might have heard them mention this a few times, but I'll go ahead and repeate it for conversation's sake: there has never been a PLAYOFF matchup - in the history of the NBA where the two teams combined for more regular season wins, than the 2004-2005 Mavs/Rockets series. We had a combined 109 regular season victories. Since 1945, the next highest combo (almost always between the 4 and 5 seeds) was 104. We split the 4 games for various reasons and the Dirk53 / T-Mac 48 game 'might' be the best regular season game for any team this year... NBA.com certainly trumped it up all over the place.

Second, we played 6 shitty games and 1 good one. Dirk never ONCE showed up. If I was in Houston, I would have been PROUD of the way my team played for EVERY ONE of the first 6 games. That was seriously at the TOP of their abilities. The fact that we were able to HANG IN for 6 games despite playing at such a shitty level was amazing. Even games 3 and 4, which clearly turned things around for us, were played at really lousy levels for the Mavs. Go back and watch the 2nd game against the Pistons or the 4th game against the Spurs if you want to see the Mavs play at 100%. We demolished both of those finals-favorite teams. THAT is what I expected out of the Mavs when we were entering the post-season. THAT is why I was in COMPLETELY SERIOUS when I said that we were finals-bound. THAT is why Avery was coach of the month for April.

Third: The unknowns did their job. Dampier did FINE, despite his constant foul trouble. Yao has done that to centers all year long, so our centers did the best they could all series long and we finally had it click for game 7. I shouldn't have to mention Jason Terry's answer to the, "can he perform in the playoffs?" question. He was our best player all series long. People questioned our point-guards, and we destroyed Houston in that matchup. Each of Devin Harris' limited minutes were all important... Darrel Armstrong played 11 minutes combined through the first 6, but he had the single most important play in game 7 when he blocked James' so beautifully he got ejected. James was a good answer to what Stackhouse was bringing off the bench for us. Armstrong played him all night and totally shut him down.
here, I'll quote the Dallas Morning News:

It very well could've been the home-court advantage combined with a stay-or-go-home game that shocked the Mavericks into high gear. But the rookie coach, Avery Johnson, shouldn't be underestimated. He made a final strategic move against veteran Jeff Van Gundy, his nemesis now after this series, which tripped the Rockets early and appeared to trump them in the end. Johnson tapped veteran point guard Darrell Armstrong off the bench to counter Rockets sub Mike James, who burned other Mavericks reserve guards for 22 in Game 6 to force Saturday night's elimination tussle.

Armstrong made Johnson look like a genius. He hounded James into 2-of-7 shooting and outscored him, 9-4. In fact, he so frustrated James that, when he blocked James' layup attempt late in the game, James drew an ejection for complaining too vociferously with the refs.

I walked out of game 3... I couldn't take it. Sure, we won... but it was fucking ugly. I get soooo stressed over the Mavs, it's way past the 'silly' point. This game was FINALLY what we needed. Van Gundy (a coach that I HIGHLY respect) came into the series with 2 goals: Shut Dirk down and run the FUCK out of the Yao/McGrady screen-and-roll. Through 6 games, both ideas worked beautifully for them, even if we won half of them. It took us 6 games to figure out what to do about the screen, and they could only contain Dirk.

And that brings me to my next point - Dirk never showed up. I don't blame him in any way for this... Houston is a highly defensive team (2nd in opp-ppg) and they focused on Dirk more than I have EVER seen. I've watched Dirk since the scouting-report days... and I've never seen that. They did everything they could to contest his shots. Fortunately, Phoenix is possibly the worst defensive team in the league, easily said for the remaining playoff contenders.

Another brilliant segue...

I can't make any predictions on Phoenix. If we played like we did last night, we'll win the finals. THAT is my prediction. However, 1 out of 7 is clearly insufficient to count on. Phoenix gets 7 days to prepare and rest for the Mavs. We get one. I think that Dirk will explode in Phoenix and Damp will do a fair job shutting down Amare. Jason Terry did a 'good-enough' job on Nash... but most importantly, we are playing ourselves. It's no secret that the Suns are playing Don Nelson basketball... and the Mavs have become the peculiar hybrid between Nellie small ball and typical big-5 center-anchored defensive ball. I think we match up quite well, an even better comparison than Dallas / Houston.

The two main positives for the Mavs in this next series:
Dirk only has to deal with Marion. There is nobody else on the team that can guard him, and it takes a double team to stop the German.
Momentum. We are now only the THIRD team in league history to come back from losing both home games at the start of a 7-game series and our 40-point victory is the highest game-7 margin EVER. That's a great motivational help.
Our bench is still #1 in the playoffs. I predict that both Stackhouse and Henderson will have great success in the series.


The biggest negatives I can see are...
We still haven't seen consistency. Will we play like last night or will we play like we did in game one?
Rest. The Suns have had it, we haven't.
Van Horn. The Suns have absolutely no answer for a PRODUCTIVE bench 4. Marion and Dirk play at the same time - always. Shawn sits when Dirk sits. If Van Horn doesn't heal up in time, that's a huge loss. He's absolutely critical (IMO) to our 'good' chances in Phoenix.
I won't make any predictions simply because the first 'negative point' is too strong to ignore.

Finally... I had a fucking blast last night. I went to my favorite bar with 2 of my best friends and we had the absolutely BEST seats in the house. It was fucking packed with probably 200 die-hard Mavs fans, and one guy COMPLETELY decked out in rocket-red. We were chearing along with the stadium crowd... we booed the bad calls. There was streamers and balloons... the whole she-bang. Fucking brilliant time. After-party at my place... it was simply .

Oh... and... I had my camera phone out and grabbed a couple of pics to remember the night by.

My seat at the end of the game:
<img src="http://www.namelesstavern.org/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=579">


The 21 y/o that had the seat next to me all game:
(hi there)
<img src="http://www.namelesstavern.org/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=580">

[vonkaar]

One more quote (still reading all of the articles from around the globe)

How good was Terry in this series?

He made more than 50 percent of his shots from the field, more than 60 percent from 3-point range and a Nash-like 94 percent from the foul line.

"Terry had obviously a huge series," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said.

Huge series for Terry, huge night for Armstrong.

A veteran point guard turned young head coach couldn't have done a better job in his first Game 7.

The Mavericks are moving on and, like the Suns, their point guard is leading them.