Sports Talk with MC

 by MC

We’re on the cusp of Game 5 of the Mavericks-Warriors series. Logically, we might be in the midst of the most tremendous upset in NBA Playoff history.

I’ve been reading a lot of sports articles over the last day or two. A lot of the said pieces have focused on what Dallas has been doing wrong, and what the Warriors have been doing correctly. Quite a few have been purely about Dirk bashing. A number have questioned the Mavs’ poise during crunch time.

Do I think the league’s number one team record wise still has a shot at rallying back and squeaking out an improbable series win? The answer would be a resounding, “No.”

Honestly, saying that Dallas will still win this series despite being down 3-1 at this point is exactly what Nellie and co. would like to hear from the media at this stage. The Warriors have never really touted themselves as favorites since the start of the postseason, so, hyping up the fact that they’re the underdogs would only work in allowing their confidence to skyrocket even further. Baron Davis is playing, arguably, the best playoff basketball of his career, and expected league MVP Dirk Nowitzki is wilting under the pressure of having been under the microscope for 86 games in 2006-2007 up until now.

What do the defending Western Conference champions need to do to make this look more than an NBA vs. High School varsity team tiff? First off, they could play a little looser, and perhaps, they could be more assertive on offense, with regards to getting to the rim. Nowitzki needs to get himself close to the goal so that he can work off chip shots in and around the paint. No need to be jump shot happy. Josh Howard, at this point, needs to help set the tone for Dallas by digging the knife into the Warriors’ suddenly tight defense. Dampier and Diop need to make it hellishly difficult for people like Baron Davis to cut into the lane, and need to control the boards off misses. A lot of the onus for Game 5 will also rest on the shoulders of Mavs’ coach Avery Johnson, with regards to whether he can motivate his men to make enough of an effort to play solild defense from the outside going in. You cannot outscore the Warriors when the air in their world is this thin, so, the only way to win is for you to grab them by the neck and make sure there isn’t any oxygen to ingest to begin with. No fastbreaks, no easy baskets. More of a killer instinct, less lucky and game breaking shots.  

Actually, I think that the time for talking strategy is done. Is damn if you do, and damn if you don’t. Dallas and Golden State, in my view, each know what they have to do to win big. For me, any NBA playoff series remains up for grabs until one team notches 4 wins, no matter how uneven the win-loss ratios between two clubs may be. For Avery Johnson and his Mavs, it’s time to face up to being the “hunted” and quit crying over spilled milk and “fitting in”. For the Warriors, it’s a question of whether they can make enough of a push towards making their date with destiny occur now and not a second later, lest they lose steam and remember that they’re number 8, and not number 1.

Whatever happens later today, we should all be in for a game of epic proportions…

…and in all likelihood, a whole lot of shouting, courtesy of Mark Cuban, regardless of how the 48 on-court minutes pan out.

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