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Dallas Mavericks headed for a date on the River Walk
By Jim Reeves
DALLAS — It had to be the fastest trip ever from Denver to San Antonio. The Dallas Mavericks made it Wednesday night in just a tick over 5 minutes.
One moment, with New Orleans holding a four-point lead over the Spurs with 13 seconds to play, the Mavs were heading for the Rockies to face the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. One 25-foot Michael Finley jumper at the buzzer and a five-minute Tim Duncan-dominated overtime later, and the Mavs were River Walk bound.
How do you feel about your old friend Finley now, Mark Cuban?
Of course, the Mavs had to do their part to make all this happen, too, and they did, rallying from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to shock the Houston Rockets 95-84 at the AAC.
The dramatic confluence of events sets up a rematch between old playoff rivals, Dallas and San Antonio.
Privately, this is what the Mavs had hoped would happen. Of the three playoffs scenarios they faced going into the game, sticking around to mess with Texas was easily a more attractive alternative than traveling to Denver. And between the Rockets and the Spurs, nobody really wanted to spend seven games swapping elbows in the paint with Houston monster Yao Ming.
Not that Duncan is any day at the beach, mind you, but the Mavs have been there, done that. It’s obvious they feel confident they can do it again.
So do I, strangely enough. I sense another one of those seven-game slugfests coming on, and I’m giddy enough over the Mavs’ gritty performance Wednesday night to even pick them to win it.
Of course, this is the same guy who’d started a column midway in the third quarter ripping the Mavs for letting the Rockets, who led by 14 at the time, hammer them into submission on their own court in a game that meant so much to both teams. I was in the process of describing in detail why Dallas had no chance of winning a first-round series against anybody, especially the athletic Nuggets.
Fortunately, this laptop has a nifty little delete button that I’ve learned to use quite handily.
Wishy-washy? Absolutely.
But that’s what the Mavs have done to us all season. They’ve turned our emotions into a yo-yo, up and down, up and down, until we’re so dizzy, we don’t know what to think any more.
For all their inconsistency, Wednesday night’s victory was the Mavs’ 50th of the season, their ninth straight season with 50 wins. Only one other NBA team has a streak of 50-win seasons that long.
The San Antonio Spurs, of course.
"We’re going down to the River Walk, a place we’ve been many times before," said Jason Terry, who finished with 23 points, 14 in the fourth quarter. "A lot of memories there. This will be history in the making."
Why do the Mavs have such confidence against the Spurs?
Well, Manu Ginobili won’t be playing, and that will certainly make a difference, but the Mavs would have a little swagger going into this series even if he was healthy.
The Mavs realized they could play with the Spurs when they beat them in that heavyweight playoff series three years ago, en route to the NBA Finals. Only the Mavs and Lakers own a postseason series victory over a Duncan-led Spurs team in this century (Duncan was out when the Spurs lost to the Suns in 2000).
"Getting past them was a stepping stone," Terry agreed. "It gave us confidence that we can take down a powerhouse, and that’s what they are."
The Mavs, losers in the first round in each of their last two playoff appearances, appear to be peaking, playing their best basketball at the right time. They’re finding energy from their bench and not just from sixth-man Terry.
Head coach Rick Carlisle turned to Brandon Bass and Ryan Hollins in desperation midway in the third quarter against the Rockets, trying to find some way to slow Yao Ming, who had scored 19 points in the first half and whose presence in the paint on the defensive end was clearly intimidating the Mavs.
"Bass and Hollins got us going defensively and got the crowd into it," Carlisle said. "[Bass] is a foot shorter than Yao, but he did it with his legs, his body and his heart. He really, really worked out there and he made Yao work and our defense took a quantum leap when you’ve got a guy working like that."
By the fourth quarter, Yao was obviously out of gas, and the Mavs were putting the pedal to the metal. Josh Howard, who didn’t score in the first half, hit 13 in the third quarter and then Terry took over in the fourth. And Dirk, of course, poured in 30.
The key was the Mavs’ defense, though. They held the Rockets to 14 points in the final quarter.
"The fourth quarter pretty much summed it up," said Houston forward Shane Battier.
It was a microcosm of the Mavs’ season, really. When they had to, when they really wanted to, they usually played like a playoff team. When they showed no interest or heart, when they thought they could mail it in, they played like a really lousy lottery team.
They just made the quickest trip of their lives Wednesday night and now they’re right where they want to be.
Let a fresh, new season begin and the yo-yoing stop.
