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Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Mavs and Spurs get their first round playoff series underway this evening marking the fifth time in ten years that Dallas and San Antonio have battled in the NBA’s postseason. The Mavericks took down the Spurs last year in five games, but I don’t imagine it will be that easy for the Mavs this time around.
I expect this series to be a typical Dallas/San Antonio slug fest, and the team that plays better defense will most likely be left standing. Both the Mavs and Spurs had a strong second half to the season, Dallas closed out winning eight of their last ten.
- Keep your eyes on the Caron Butler/Richard Jefferson matchup. Jefferson really hasn’t played great for San Antonio this season, averaging only 12 points and 4 rebounds per game. If you remember last year, the Spurs put a lot of their focus on Dirk and JET which opened things up for Josh Howard. I could see the same thing happening in this series with Caron Butler. Jefferson clearly hasn’t been the same player for the Spurs as he was for New Jersey and Milwaukee and I think “Tough Juice” will be able to take advantage.
The biggest factor I see in this series will be Manu Ginobili and whoever is guarding him. Obi Wan Ginobili is averaging 21 points per game in his last seven outings and is one of the biggest reasons why San Antonio was able to avoid the eighth seed and a first round matchup with the Lakers. I imagine that the Mavs will put Shawn Marion on Ginobili and hope he is able to contain him. Marion has been matched up with opposition’s number one scorer all season, so I don’t know why it would change now. Manu has the ability to put up big numbers and the Mavs will have to slow him down if they hope to have a chance.
The Mavs are the two seed for a reason and the Spurs are the seven seed for a reason. Dallas has played better over the course of the season, and since they acquired Butler, Haywood, and Stevenson from Washington, they now have pieces to make a deep run into the playoffs. I am picking the Mavs to wrap this one up in 6 games.
Game 1- Sun April 18: San Antonio at Dallas- 7:00PM (TXA21/TNT)
Game 2- Wed April 21: San Antonio at Dallas- 8:30PM (TXA/21TNT)
Game 3- Fri April 23: Dallas at San Antonio- 8:30PM (TXA21/ESPN)
Game 4- Sun April 25: Dallas at San Antonio- 6:00PM (TXA/21TNT)
Game 5*- Tue April 27: San Antonio at Dallas- TBD (TXA21/TBD)
Game 6 *- Thu April 29: Dallas at San Antonio- TBD (TXA21/TBD)
Game 7 *- Sat May 1: San Antonio at Dallas- TBD (TXA21/TNT)
*if needed (All times are CT)
- Nov 11, 2009: Mavs- 83 @ Spurs- 92
- Nov 18, 2009: Spurs- 94 @ Mavs- 99
- Jan 8, 2010: Mavs- 112 @ Spurs- 103
- April 14, 2010: Spurs- 89 @ Mavs- 96
| | SPURS | MAVS |
| PPG | 101.4 | 102.0 |
| RPG | 42.8 | 41.7 |
| APG | 22.3 | 23.4 |
| FG % | .473 | .465 |
| FT % | .740 | .816 |
| 3 pt. % | .358 | .372 |
| | SPURS | MAVS |
| Championships | 4 | 0 |
| Last Championship | 2007 | Never won title |
| Last Season | Lost in Western Conference first round | Lost in Western Conference semifinals |
The Mavs and Spurs get their first round playoff series underway this evening marking the fifth time in ten years that Dallas and San Antonio have battled in the NBA’s postseason. The Mavericks took down the Spurs last year in five games, but I don’t imagine it will be that easy for the Mavs this time around.
I expect this series to be a typical Dallas/San Antonio slug fest, and the team that plays better defense will most likely be left standing. Both the Mavs and Spurs had a strong second half to the season, Dallas closed out winning eight of their last ten.
- Keep your eyes on the Caron Butler/Richard Jefferson matchup. Jefferson really hasn’t played great for San Antonio this season, averaging only 12 points and 4 rebounds per game. If you remember last year, the Spurs put a lot of their focus on Dirk and JET which opened things up for Josh Howard. I could see the same thing happening in this series with Caron Butler. Jefferson clearly hasn’t been the same player for the Spurs as he was for New Jersey and Milwaukee and I think “Tough Juice” will be able to take advantage.
The biggest factor I see in this series will be Manu Ginobili and whoever is guarding him. Obi Wan Ginobili is averaging 21 points per game in his last seven outings and is one of the biggest reasons why San Antonio was able to avoid the eighth seed and a first round matchup with the Lakers. I imagine that the Mavs will put Shawn Marion on Ginobili and hope he is able to contain him. Marion has been matched up with opposition’s number one scorer all season, so I don’t know why it would change now. Manu has the ability to put up big numbers and the Mavs will have to slow him down if they hope to have a chance.
The Mavs are the two seed for a reason and the Spurs are the seven seed for a reason. Dallas has played better over the course of the season, and since they acquired Butler, Haywood, and Stevenson from Washington, they now have pieces to make a deep run into the playoffs. I am picking the Mavs to wrap this one up in 6 games.
Game 1- Sun April 18: San Antonio at Dallas- 7:00PM (TXA21/TNT)
Game 2- Wed April 21: San Antonio at Dallas- 8:30PM (TXA/21TNT)
Game 3- Fri April 23: Dallas at San Antonio- 8:30PM (TXA21/ESPN)
Game 4- Sun April 25: Dallas at San Antonio- 6:00PM (TXA/21TNT)
Game 5*- Tue April 27: San Antonio at Dallas- TBD (TXA21/TBD)
Game 6 *- Thu April 29: Dallas at San Antonio- TBD (TXA21/TBD)
Game 7 *- Sat May 1: San Antonio at Dallas- TBD (TXA21/TNT)
*if needed (All times are CT)
- Nov 11, 2009: Mavs- 83 @ Spurs- 92
- Nov 18, 2009: Spurs- 94 @ Mavs- 99
- Jan 8, 2010: Mavs- 112 @ Spurs- 103
- April 14, 2010: Spurs- 89 @ Mavs- 96
| | SPURS | MAVS |
| PPG | 101.4 | 102.0 |
| RPG | 42.8 | 41.7 |
| APG | 22.3 | 23.4 |
| FG % | .473 | .465 |
| FT % | .740 | .816 |
| 3 pt. % | .358 | .372 |
| | SPURS | MAVS |
| Championships | 4 | 0 |
| Last Championship | 2007 | Never won title |
| Last Season | Lost in Western Conference first round | Lost in Western Conference semifinals |
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
I was very underwhelmed with NBA All-Star weekend this year. It is usually one of my favorite sports weekends, but I wasn’t impressed. I don’t know if it’s because I came in with too high of expectations or because of the weather or what, but I didn’t think it was that great.
It was a nice setup, but like I said, I expected more. Obviously the event is for children, but I expected more NBA things to look at. If you wanted to shoot a basketball though, this was the perfect place for you. They had plenty of that going on.
Can you say yawn?? Going to the NBA Dunk Contest was on my list of things I wanted to attend before I died, and now I can tell my children about attending the worse dunk contest ever. The NBA has to do something to fix this. You can’t just thrown four mediocre guys out there and expect it to be entertaining. Plus, there was absolutely no creativity. The D-League dunk contest was better than this. The highlight of the night was the Texas Team winning the shooting competition. Hell, the TNT commentators were more entertaining than the events. That’s sad.
First of all, when it was announced that the All-Star game was going to be at Cowboys Stadium, and Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban said they wanted 100,000 people there, I thought there was no way. I didn’t think that many people would want to attend the game, but I was wrong. They had an immense turnout and the stadium looked great. The game itself saved the weekend somewhat. It was competitive, entertaining and overall fun to watch. I wasn’t too impressed with the musical performances and last year’s player introductions were a lot better, but overall everyone did a great job.
