Thank you Dallas Mavericks...

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

for allowing the Spurs to reach game seven of their first round series against you, and allowing them to find the mettle and determination that would carry them for the rest of the post season.






Lost in the Spurs domination of the Heat in the NBA Finals, and their destruction of the Thunder and Blazers in the two playoff rounds previous, was the incredible seven game series against Dallas to open the post season. San Antonio very nearly had their championship dreams dashed way before anyone even thought of river parades, 22 year old Spurs players as Finals MVPs, or tracking the Larry around the the world. Dallas had the Spurs down by 10 points in game one with 7:45 to play. They crushed the Spurs in game 2, had them down 2 games to 1, and led game 4 with 19 seconds to play - very nearly putting San Antonio in a 3 games to 1 series hole. Other than two blowout victories, one by each team, the other 5 games were a bounce or two from going to either squad.

Had Dallas won that series most everyone would have called out Pop and RC, questioned the players, accused the Spurs system of being merely a regular season gimmick for generating wins at a time when they don't count for much. The Big 3 would have been written off as too old to compete when the real games begin. The role players would have been second-guessed and the team's future would have been in doubt. Worst case, Duncan would have been so discouraged he may have hung up the laces for good, Manu to soon follow, and the Spurs reign as we know it might well have ended forever.




Who'd of thought after games one through six against Dallas that we would be able to fast forward a month and a half and see that the Spurs are the champs, Lebron is likely moving to Cleveland, the Miami Big 3 is broken up, and every other team in the NBA is hoping to someday emulate the system that the Spurs have instilled in San Antonio.

So thank you Dallas...thank you for being the loveable losers to the Spurs that you have been on many previous occassions. This one, however, held special value. Thank you. :tu

[FireMicoHalili]

Also thank you Dallas for signing Parsons to an offer sheet and setting the offseason in motion. To breaking up the Heatles!!! :toast

[lowdown]

Very well written and exposes the absurdity of the sports media. The Spurs definitely earned the accolades thats currently being given but this fickle sports world is now disavowing their allegiance to Miami, OKC, the Lakers et. al, the same teams that they so eagerly fawned at. Thanks to Dallas for waking up the sleeping giant that was the 2014 Spurs and maybe the free agent landscape might be helpful in them repeating.

[Walton Buys Off Me]

Are you sure Dallas was up in game 4 with 19 seconds left?

Diaw's 3 put us up by 3 with 32 seconds left....

Great post though....)

[Bartleby]

:toast

[DJR210]

Sticky requested

[cd021]

Are you sure Dallas was up in game 4 with 19 seconds left?

Diaw's 3 put us up by 3 with 32 seconds left....

Great post though....)

Yeah that's not correct , It was tied prior to Diaw's 3.

but still if that shot rattles out...

things could have ended before they really started.

[Cane]

Thank you Blair for getting fatter and dumber. Fuck those goons

[Kool Bob Love]

That was biggest fear this year. The mavs knocking out the spurs in the 1st round. After that I knew nothing was gonna stop the spurs.

[pgardn]

The Mavericks played the best team basketball (especially on D) and had the best coach of any team we played.

[J.T.]

I watched Game 7 of that series with some of my co-workers. There was a female co-worker in our party who was rooting for Dallas and before the game started we had a few drinks and since I was the only one there owning up to being a Spurs fan (ton of people at work hopped on the bandwagon as the postseason went on) she asked me how I thought the game would go.

I told her the Spurs would win 100% and even bet her the full value of our next paycheck. She asked how I could be that confident, and I said it was just simple math. The home team wins Game 7 of a series 80% of the time. Spurs-Mavs was the 5th Game 7 of Round 1. In the previous four, the home team had gone W-W-W-L. Dallas never had a chance.

[Twisted_Dawg]

Very well written article by a veteran fan.

[TE]

What sucks is now teams will try to emulate Dallas' strategy.

[Jdspur20]

Spurs should give them a banner for almost winning. That's the stupid mavs fans talk about up here.

[Arcadian]

I said at the time that the Mavs taking them to 7 games "could be a good thing."

People didn't believe me.

[lurker]

You're not welcome.

[spursparker9]

To Mavs, Mark Cuban and Rick Carlise...

http://media.giphy.com/media/nU704Y2jeFOHm/giphy.gif

[FromWayDowntown]

Now they've gone and inflated the market on Leonard with the contract they offered to Parsons.

Thanks, Cuban.

[spurraider21]

I watched Game 7 of that series with some of my co-workers. There was a female co-worker in our party who was rooting for Dallas and before the game started we had a few drinks and since I was the only one there owning up to being a Spurs fan (ton of people at work hopped on the bandwagon as the postseason went on) she asked me how I thought the game would go.

I told her the Spurs would win 100% and even bet her the full value of our next paycheck. She asked how I could be that confident, and I said it was just simple math. The home team wins Game 7 of a series 80% of the time. Spurs-Mavs was the 5th Game 7 of Round 1. In the previous four, the home team had gone W-W-W-L. Dallas never had a chance.
you should flip a coin, and if it comes up heads, you should bet your life savings on tails the next time tbh

[J.T.]

you should flip a coin, and if it comes up heads, you should bet your life savings on tails the next time tbh

Is there decades worth of evidence that the 2nd flip will be the opposite side though?

[spurraider21]

Is there decades worth of evidence that the 2nd flip will be the opposite side though?
the 50-50 odds of a coin are down to a science. you thought since 3/4 of home teams have won, and 4/5 have historically won, that the 5th series was a sure thing to be won by the home team. because statisitics. by the same logic, if you toss a heads, the next one surely must be tails

[J.T.]

the 50-50 odds of a coin are down to a science. you thought since 3/4 of home teams have won, and 4/5 have historically won, that the 5th series was a sure thing to be won by the home team. because statisitics. by the same logic, if you toss a heads, the next one surely must be tails

Everyone knows the odds of a coin toss, but I'd still only have a 50% chance to win a coin toss whereas the Spurs had a 100% chance to win Game 7 against Dallas the second Brooklyn beat Toronto.

[spurraider21]

Everyone knows the odds of a coin toss, but I'd still only have a 50% chance to win a coin toss whereas the Spurs had a 100% chance to win Game 7 against Dallas the second Brooklyn beat Toronto.
:lol oh ok. glad u were correct though

[tmtcsc]

Here's the OP coming up with the idea for this thread. You guessed it, the yellow toy is his idea.

http://www.catgifpage.com/gifs/239.gif

[100%duncan]

Seriously give Carilisle and Blair a ring each.

[G-Nob]

Now they've gone and inflated the market on Leonard with the contract they offered to Parsons.

Thanks, Cuban.

Dallas didn't get the ball rolling on that front.

[KaiRMD1]

Seriously, the ol' sports deserve the credit nobody will give them.

[benstanfield]

What sucks is now teams will try to emulate Dallas' strategy.

Meh. spurs just really weren't playing well as a team til game 7. Had the series gone longer than 7 hypothetically, I think we would've steamrolled them consistently after 7.

[moisaenz]

Dallas didn't get the ball rolling on that front.

Whoever chose Kawhi as Finals MVP did that.

[therealtruth]

I called it back then. I said the Spurs would be thanking the Mavs and Carslile for challenging them.

[Spurs and Mavs fan]

I would have been happy to see either the Spurs or Mavericks win the championship.


The Spurs, of course, were more likely to win all four playoff series, though.

[DBMethos]

As ridiculous as it sounds, we quite possibly were one Blair-kick-to-Splitter's-head away from not winning the title.

[urunobili]

Blair should be given a ring tbh

[to21]

I'll give them credit because in the end they did take the Spurs the distance. However, it took a very lucky Carter shot to get them there....don't forget that. Plus, I have to admit going in with all the dominance we displayed with the last 10 games played I thought they were gonna be a cake walk, which they weren't.

[EVAY]

The Mavs series definitely woke up the coaching staff, and that is to commended.

Carlisle proved himself in that series, and the Mavs players proved they were willing to be coached. Those are huge pluses for that team heading into the next season.

They will likely be a huge obstacle for the Spurs going forward.

As much incentive as the Spurs' veterans had in this PO, they were totally motivated to 'find a way' against the Mavs.

I hope they find something as meaningful to incent them this coming year.

[Jimcs50]

The round 1 series with Dallas just matched all the other round 1 series. It was by far the best round 1 in NBA history. The OKC Memphis series with 4 straight OTs was incredible. Portland beating Houston in that 6 game series on buzzer beater miracle 3 was another reason why Spurs won the championship. Had we had t play Houston, we might still have won, but they would have taxed us like Dallas did, instead of having it easy against Portland, and we might not had enough in the tank to beat OKC.

All the stars aligned just right for us to win that 5th title.

I thank my lucky stars

[Jimcs50]

The round 1 series with Dallas just matched all the other round 1 series. It was by far the best round 1 in NBA history. The OKC Memphis series with 4 straight OTs was incredible. Portland beating Houston in that 6 game series on buzzer beater miracle 3 was another reason why Spurs won the championship. Had we had t play Houston, we might still have won, but they would have taxed us like Dallas did, instead of having it easy against Portland, and we might not had enough in the tank to beat OKC.

All the stars aligned just right for us to win that 5th title.

I thank my lucky stars

[pgardn]

The round 1 series with Dallas just matched all the other round 1 series. It was by far the best round 1 in NBA history. The OKC Memphis series with 4 straight OTs was incredible. Portland beating Houston in that 6 game series on buzzer beater miracle 3 was another reason why Spurs won the championship. Had we had t play Houston, we might still have won, but they would have taxed us like Dallas did, instead of having it easy against Portland, and we might not had enough in the tank to beat OKC.

All the stars aligned just right for us to win that 5th title.

I thank my lucky stars

The luck was not in our playoff match ups.
The luck was no serious injuries.
Injuries will be the most likely factor denying us a repeat.