Hello Celebritys

As soon as the horn blew on the Mavs season after game six against the Spurs, the “San Antonio isn’t a normal 7^th seed” or “the Spurs are really better than a 7^th seed” statements started flying through the media and blogs. Well, those statements and excuses are no longer true.

Take away all the nonsense in those quotes and you are left with “7^th seed” and that’s exactly what the Spurs were. San Antonio exhibited every characteristic of a 7^th seed in their second round series against Phoenix. The Suns showed the NBA world why the Spurs finished the season in the second to last playoff spot and why the Suns finished the season in third.

As a Mavs fan, it feels like someone just twisted the knife in my back a little deeper. The Spurs team I saw in the Phoenix series was the Spurs team I thought the Mavs could beat in the first round when I said that would be the best matchup for Dallas. Obviously I was wrong, and now the four game sweep of San Antonio makes me question the Mavs even more.

We all know the Mavs weren’t as good as we thought they were since they are already on vacation, but are they worse than we thought? Dallas seemed to struggle against a Spurs team that was just swept by the Suns. Are the Suns really that much better than the Mavs? I’m not ready to say that, but it looked apparent in this series. Did the Spurs expend too much energy in the Dallas series which lead to them playing poorly against Phoenix? Possibly, but it’s only the second round.

I don’t have the answers, but what I saw in the Phoenix-San Antonio series doesn’t make me feel any better about the Mavericks.

After 24 hours of digesting the Mavs 97-87 game 6 loss to the Spurs in San Antonio, I feel like I can finally talk about. I am writing this a lot earlier than expected, but after three first round exits in the last four years, I have come to expect that.

I guess I will start with coaching. I hate blaming things on the coach, but Rick Carlisle was out coached by Greg Popovich in every aspect of the game. From rotations to strategy to anything you want to throw out there. The idea to bench Caron Butler for the 2^nd half of game 3, and not going to Roddy Beaubois earlier in the series will continue to baffle me.

Which brings me to my next point… I was one of those people who have been hesitant on Roddy B. I didn’t think he should get a ton of minutes and I didn’t expect Carlisle to play him, but when you go down 3-1 in the series, you have to change things up. Also, once Coach Carlisle became desperate and did decide to go with Roddy B, why did he sit him for the majority of the 4^th quarter of game 6?

Outside of Dirk, the so called “leaders” and “veterans” of this team were nonexistent. Jason Kidd and Jason Terry were horrendous. I usually defend Jason Kidd all I can, but I can’t say anything good about his performance in this series. This is back to back years where JET has been bad in the postseason.

Erick Dampier…I don’t expect much from you, but you failed to score one single basket the entire series and you are 7 feet tall. Not one! Not an offensive rebound for a put back, you didn’t luckily get open for a pass, you didn’t make one shot from the field. That is terrible.

Dirk was a beast and does what he does. I don’t have anything else to say about him. I hope he doesn’t opt of his contract, and I don’t think he will, but we will have to wait and see.

This was obviously another disappointing season for the Mavs. I thought this team was finally assembled to make a deep post season run, but I was wrong. I’m not really sure what to expect from next season, but it should be a long and interesting offseason.

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.

What to Watch For:

- 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.

- How will Rodrigue Beaubois be used? I personally don’t expect Roddy to get much playing time, but if Dallas suffers an injury or someone gets in foul trouble, then the rookie could get thrown into the mix. I wouldn’t mind seeing Rowdy Roddy get a few minutes, but he is prone to those rookie mistakes, so Coach Carlisle has to be careful. If Tony Parker goes off like he did in last season’s matchup, Carlisle might have to try Beaubois on him at some point.

- Will DeShawn Stevenson continue to get minutes? While Shawn Marion was out recovering from an oblique injury, Stevenson stepped in and contributed hugely on the defensive end. I know Stevenson can be non-existent on the offensive end, but he brings a defensive toughness that is needed on this team. I think playing DeShawn Stevenson 5-10 minutes a game would benefit the Mavs tremendously.

- The Mavs now have a two headed monster combo at center in Brendan Haywood and Erick Dampier. How will these guys handle Tim Duncan? This isn’t the same Tim Duncan, but he still has the ability to fill up the stat sheet. Damp has had success against Duncan in the past, but how will Haywood fair?

X-Factor:

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.

Prediction:

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.

I will leave you with some other key info you can check out for this series…

Series Schedule

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)

2010 Season Series: Dallas leads 3-1

- 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

2010 Team Stats

	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

Playoff History

	SPURS	MAVS
Championships	4	0
Last Championship	2007	Never won title
Last Season	Lost in Western Conference first round	Lost in Western Conference semifinals