It's about time Mavs caught Spurs

[Jimcs50]

It's about time Mavs caught Spurs

10:56 PM CDT on Saturday, May 6, 2006


SAN ANTONIO – The matchup was inevitable.

It's the outcome that keeps you guessing.

"It was bound to happen," Mavericks guard Jason Terry said of the team's second-round matchup with San Antonio. "We knew we were on a crash course since the season started.

"Now that it's here, we're just excited and ready for the challenge."

The Faux Conference Final is set to begin. It comes one round earlier than it should, but guess what? History shows the best time to take down the defending champions is early.

This is the Spurs' third title defense. The previous two ended before the team could advance past the second round. San Antonio's inability to win back-to-back is part of the reason it's not viewed with shock and awe.

An unexpected challenge from Sacramento in the first round fuels the perception that this Spurs team isn't as good as last season's. That doesn't mean they're ready to grant the Mavericks safe passage.

Tim Duncan started slow against the Kings but finished by averaging 21.2 points and shooting 66.7 percent from the field in the final four games. San Antonio doesn't run as much of its offense through him as it has in the past, but he still demands the occasional double-team and can get the Mavericks' two-headed center of DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier in foul trouble.

Bonzi Wells overpowered Bruce Bowen during the first round, prompting the Sacramento guard to deride Bowen as a finesse defender. Bowen responded by fighting back on offense, averaging 16 points while going 13-of-19 from the field (68.4 percent) in the final two games. If he continues to hit his outside shot, it will compromise what the Mavericks want to do defensively.

Tony Parker? He will get his baseline-to-baseline layups and score in the pick-and-roll, because it's difficult to keep him from getting to the rim. Manu Ginobili will get his isolation plays, and that could be the key.

San Antonio feeds Ginobili the ball when he gets hot. But when he struggles, he's pushed into the background because Parker has come on strong and Duncan remains solid in the post. Ginobili scored 32 points in one game and 27 in another against the Kings. But in the other four games, he was held to 10 points or less.

Ginobili's inconsistency is the reason the Spurs aren't as good on offense as they were last season. Sacramento also showed that San Antonio's interior defense might not be as strong as opponents thought. But part of that's because the Spurs went small in an attempt to match up with the Kings.

Nazr Mohammed should be back in the rotation to start the series. Don't be surprised if San Antonio puts him on Dirk Nowitzki at first, leaving Bowen for Josh Howard and Duncan on Diop.

"We'll start big and then see how the game goes," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We have a lot of confidence in our small lineup, too. It's kind of developed over the year. But I would think staying big is what we do to start."

The Mavericks believe they are in the midst of a special season.

This is their chance to do something special.

"If you want to be a champion, you want to beat the best," Nowitzki said. "They have been the best in the West for so many years.

"We'll see if we're ready to beat them."

The Mavericks had better do it in six or less. Beating the defending world champions on the road in a Game 7 isn't special.

It's unrealistic.

"They want us," Spurs guard Nick Van Exel said, "so let's see what happens."

E-mail [email protected]

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[Smackie Chan]

Someone please erase this topic :lmao

[Jimcs50]

"We'll start big and then see how the game goes," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We have a lot of confidence in our small lineup, too. It's kind of developed over the year. But I would think staying big is what we do to start."


*AHF just killed himself*


I would rather have Rasho on Dirk to start the game, btw.

[Jimcs50]

Someone please erase this topic :lmao


I'm affraid I do not have license to do so....copyright laws and such.

[Jimcs50]

Dampier back on his feet
After last year's playoff flop, center giving Mavs just what they need



09:29 PM CDT on Friday, May 5, 2006


It was about this time last year that the townsfolk gathered in Lots C and D with their pitchforks, ready to storm American Airlines Center and chase him out of Dallas.

Erick Dampier survived. And while it's a stretch to say he's flourished, the Mavericks center has been a solid, consistent contributor for the last three months.

Lowered expectations and an altered role have helped. The coaching staff once feared a move to the bench would cause Dampier to retreat into his shell. The opposite has been true. Dampier has embraced his role as DeSagana Diop's backup, playing with an enthusiasm that was too often lacking in last year's playoff run.

Dampier has averaged 2.25 blocked shots in the playoffs to rank fourth, one spot ahead of one of his most frequent critics, Shaquille O'Neal. His average of 8.8 rebounds leads the Mavericks. His defense on Pau Gasol was a big part of the team's first-round sweep of Memphis.

Dampier appears much more at ease this time around. He's even spending extra time in the gym with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, something that didn't happen last year.

"I think it's his focus, accepting his role," Terry said. "Now he knows what we need from him off the bench, and he's bringing that every night consistently.

"There was a lot of pressure on him last year, me and him, it being our first time in the playoffs. I think he's handling it a lot better this year."

There were some positive moments last year. But the pattern became frustratingly familiar for teammates and fans. Dampier would follow every good game with a bad one. Or two. Maybe even three. He would take himself out of games by picking up two quick fouls and earning a spot on the bench.

"Some of the fans are fair weather," Dampier said. "When you're rolling and playing good, they're on your bandwagon. When you're having a bad game, or two or three bad games, everybody says, 'Who is that guy? We don't like him any more.'

"You take the good with the good and the bad with the bad."

The worst came in Game 1 of the second round against Phoenix. O'Neal and Washington coach Eddie Jordan had already taken swipes at Dampier from afar. He then went out and was humiliated by Amare Stoudemire. The Suns' big man outscored Dampier, 40-0, in that game, a performance that prompted Nowitzki to yell at the Mavs' center on the court.

Dampier played better the remainder of the series but was still erratic as the Mavericks were eliminated in six games.

"I got a chance to experience it, see what it is like, see what the level of play is like, see how consistent you have to play and how hard you have to play," Dampier said. "With that behind me, I know what I have to do for this year's playoffs. I have to come out and leave it all on the floor."

Avery Johnson stuck with Dampier for the first two months of this season. But the Mavericks' coach is big on reading body language, and Dampier's wasn't good. He moved Diop into the starting lineup Jan. 14.

Diop has played well. But Dampier is usually on the floor to close out games. Johnson said "Damp has taken our center position to another level" with how he's responded to the move.

It's not about scoring. It's about rebounding, defense, setting screens and playing with energy.

"I think this is the probably the most appreciated he's ever felt," assistant coach Del Harris said. "He views himself as a necessary part of a system that demands that type of player."

A player the Mavericks need to move forward.

"If people are talking about me, that makes me think they're thinking about me," Dampier said. "They can keep on talking about me if they want."

So far, that's been a good thing.

E-mail [email protected]

[mouse]

I'm affraid I do not have license to do so....copyright laws and such.


I just want to see you have another meltdown :lmao

[Jimcs50]

I just want to see you have another meltdown :lmao


Erase my thread, then.

[Jimcs50]

For Mavs, now's the time
In this season's series to see, Dallas has its best shot at the Spurs



01:55 AM CDT on Sunday, May 7, 2006
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News


SAN ANTONIO – The slug-out that everybody wants to see in the NBA playoffs comes with plenty of bonus intrigue.

It brings a favored son of San Antonio back, as Avery Johnson hopes to play the villain in the town to which he delivered its first championship trophy.

It features a presumably drained Spurs team that needed six games to dispatch Sacramento in the first round, a series that ended less than 36 hours before this one will start.

And, more than anything, it has a Mavericks team ready to find out if it can finally overcome its longtime nemesis.

The Spurs have always been the pit bulls, the Mavericks the little yip-yap dogs nipping at their heels.

The Mavericks are not the first to have to answer this question. For decades, NBA "kid-brothers" have been trying to prove they can handle the bigger sibling. The most memorable such situation was Michael Jordan, whose Bulls were sent on vacation by the Detroit Pistons in three playoff series before they finally got past the beasts of the east.

After that, Jordan and the Bulls went on to six NBA titles.

Nobody knows for sure if the Mavericks are on a course that will get them past the Spurs this time.

"In sports, there's always ups and downs, and if you're a real competitor, you got to learn from the downs in your life and in sports," Dirk Nowitzki said. "Ultimately, those guys are the winners that learn the most from downs and come back and compete even harder the next time."

If that's the case, Nowitzki has paid his dues twice. The first time the Mavericks and Spurs met in the playoffs was 2001. The Mavericks had just picked themselves up from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Utah in five games in the first round.

"We partied like we'd just won the championship," Nowitzki remembered. "We knew the Spurs were a hurdle we couldn't climb back then."

The Mavs lost that best-of-7 series, 4-1, to the Spurs.

Then came the memorable Western Conference finals in 2003, when the Mavericks won Game 1 in San Antonio by making 49 of 50 free throws, then lost four of the next five, including all three at home, to drop the series, 4-2. Nowitzki suffered a knee injury and missed the final three games.

"We haven't been successful against them in the playoffs," said Johnson, who was on the 2003 Dallas team, four years after making the championship-winning shot for the Spurs against New York in 1999. "And we're hoping that can change this year."

And while the rivalry resumes and the Mavericks feel they are the up-and-comers against a team that is not as dominant as in past seasons, there are no guarantees that rising teams eventually will surpass falling teams.

"Obviously, the more times you play somebody, the more your percentages increase that you're going to get them," assistant coach Del Harris said. "Then again, I kept saying that in the '80s [when he coached Milwaukee] against the Celtics, and it never happened. I played four seven-game series against the Celtics and lost them all. They had [Larry] Bird in every one of them."

And the Spurs will have Tim Duncan again. They have been one of the best teams in the league since Duncan's arrival in 1996. They have won three titles, although they have never repeated and have never gotten past the second round in the season after they won it all.

"It's a matchup the league has been looking forward to, and probably both teams as well," said Michael Finley, who chased the Spurs with the Mavericks for all those years but now is on the San Antonio side.

The Mavericks have been sitting and waiting for the Spurs since Monday, when they swept Memphis out of the first round. The Spurs have to fight the fatigue that comes with a one-day turnaround after eliminating Sacramento.

It's a scenario that would seem to give the Mavericks the advantage in Game 1.

But Adrian Griffin looked up to the rafters at AT&T Center after Saturday's practice and pointed to the hanging banners.

"You don't get three of those for nothing," Griffin said. "That team is going to come out ready to play hard. We have to do the same."

[Jimcs50]

But Adrian Griffin looked up to the rafters at AT&T Center after Saturday's practice and pointed to the hanging banners.

"You don't get three of those for nothing," Griffin said. "That team is going to come out ready to play hard. We have to do the same."


You got that right....and don't forget about it, or you will be taking out your tackle box after 4 games.


:smokin

[Eraser]

Erase my thread, then.


Are you sure?

[Jimcs50]

Buck Harvey: Finley faces his worst — just in time

Web Posted: 05/07/2006 12:16 AM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

Michael Finley knotted his tie, which he always does, and he put on his suit coat, which he always does. It's the stance of business, albeit an out-of-place one in the shabby visitors' locker room at Arco Arena.




Then he answered questions, which he always does, and he tried to stick with business.

Will playing Dallas be emotional?

No, Finley said. He's past that.

Some Spurs don't believe him, notably those who have been torn in similar ways in the past. They fear his baggage will require a bellhop.


But what saves Finley today is what bothered his teammates these past 36 hours. He didn't have time to worry. He will step off one floor and immediately onto another, needing to change nothing that he's been doing, and it's something that could save the Spurs, too.

They need Finley, after all, if they are to steal one of these first two games in San Antonio.

Steal? It's come to that. The Spurs will play a schedule that makes Tim Duncan's plantar fasciitis want to order a drink with an umbrella in it. The Spurs might as well have stayed in their warm-ups from the end of Friday to Sunday morning, and Game 2 will be similar. Having sandwiched jet lag with two playoff games, the Spurs won't fully recharge on Monday.

But that's the way it is. The NBA's travel agent, David Stern, has always cared more about television slots than competitive fairness. Any further Spurs' discussion of this now qualifies as whining, because they could have changed this itinerary themselves. They could have beaten the Kings in five games.

But being stoic won't heal a Tony Parker limp, nor will it put back the lift in a Manu Ginobili drive. The Spurs will need something else to go right, which is where Finley comes in. Still taking Mark Cuban's money, Finley now has a chance to take his heart.

It's not a stretch. Finley threw in 5 of 11 shots against Sacramento on Friday, which has become his norm. He had only one poor game in the first round, in Game 4, when nearly all of the Spurs were awful.

And had it not been for Ginobili's flub at the end of Game3? Finley's clutch 3-pointer would have been celebrated as the shot that sent the Spurs toward a sweep.

But now his past comes back at him, and he will confront familiar faces and unfamiliar sentiment. Asked about this late Friday night, with the tie knotted and the coat on, Finley downplayed the significance.

"It won't be emotional," he said. "I went through that the first two regular-season games (in Dallas). To me, it's all about business."

Brent Barry told himself the same last year when he met his former team, Seattle, also in the second round. But when he walked into his old arena and saw so many old friends, he came down with a new sensation he couldn't kick.

Already struggling, Barry played as poorly as he has in his career.

"You don't exactly know what is going to happen until you go through it," Barry said. "During the regular season you have those games where you play against each other. You say hello to your buddies, and you want to get it over with. But this is a playoff series, and that takes on a whole other life."

Robert Horry wasn't himself in 2004, either, when the Spurs played his former team, the Lakers. Barry said he talked to Horry last year to see if there was a way to work through the uneasiness.

That's why Barry says now: "As much as Robert and I could offer Michael advice, I don't think it will help. I think you have to do it."

Then Barry paused and smiled. "Maybe we shouldn't talk to him about it."

Finley might have his own reaction. Barry, after all, left Seattle by choice. Finley was bought out.

Then there's the nature of a Spurs-Mavericks series. As Ginobili said Friday night when asked about Finley, "This is special for all of us." Would Finley, who always wants to be perfect, be any less wound up against another team?

But others have thought that. Others have thought the past wouldn't matter, that the game would still be a game.

Finley's edge?

He doesn't have time to think.

[Jimcs50]

I think Michael will do great. He looks so much more comfortable in our offense than earlier in the year, and he is super confident in his shooting, especially his mid range game.

I look for him to average at least 2-3 pts more per game than his average and shoot a much better percentage.

[boutons_]

Michael shot 21/49 FG vs Kings, 43%, which a little better than his career playoff avg of 42% and better than his Spurs' season avg of 41% but still lower than his career season avg of 45%.

So he's stepped it up in the playoffs a little bit vs his season avg, and he's certainly shooting a heckuva lot better than Nick's playoff avg of 15%. :lol