Why are you surprised?

[dav4463]

It just seemed like the Spurs were slumping heading into the playoffs for the first time in a long time. Losing Ginobili was huge and a banged-up Duncan didn't help, but the subs weren't exactly playing at playoff level basketball lately. It's like a mid-season slump hit the Spurs at the end of the season. Conversely, the Mavs were playing their best ball at the end of the season.

We still have the Mav choke factor though. If any team can choke away a 3-1 lead, it would be the Mavs! So we have the best possible matchup now!

GO SPURS GO !!!

Let's see what they're made of!

[J.T.]

...all of which entirely misses the point of this thread, which was in response to the irrational anger being thrown around.

Oh, okay, the predictions thread. WGAF about the predictions thread. I'm hardly going to go for the other team now, am I? I never tip against the Spurs because it feels wrong to me (if I tip the Mavs and they win, how am I meant to feel about that?) - support the team until the end, regardless of whether you feel that losing is inevitable.

The point is, long before that thread (as I have linked you to above, and I could find another 5 threads where I say the same thing), I realised that we were done and mentally prepared for the fact that we weren't likely to go anywhere this season. It is no great surprise to me, or a number of other posters, that this is not our year, and we were all criticised for spelling out why back in the last two weeks of the season.

Whose troll are you anyway?

I doubt it's a troll, just some jackass who wants to earn some ST cred by making you look bad. It will disappear back into ST nothingness if you stop giving it attention.

[DubMcDub]

Talent wise (with or without Manu) the series should probably be 2-2.

Gotta disagree here. Without Manu, the Mavs are considerably more talented. It's even at the top, but the 4th-9th guys are much, much better on the Mavs.

[Brickhouse]

What I'm saying is he needs to be more aggressive and force a 2nd and 3rd defender to step up more often before he gives it up. That should set up some wide open shots or cuts.

Dirk still gets flustered by double teams. He can still make a quick move before the double, can still drive the ball more instead of being passive as and then throwing awkward passes out of the double/triple teams.

He played very well towards the end of the regular season, but both him and Terry should give all the credit to the other players because they have both yet to show the up.

[Kori Ellis]

Gotta disagree here. Without Manu, the Mavs are considerably more talented. It's even at the top, but the 4th-9th guys are much, much better on the Mavs.

I know the Mavs team is more skilled. I also think (thought?) the Spurs team was more poised and experienced. My point was that I thought the series would be compe ive (and tied at this point) whether Manu was on the floor or not.

[pjjrfan]

I'm not surprised we're down 3-1, I have thought the Mavs bench was clearly better than ours, but what is depressing is how inefficient Tim has been. He is struggling out there. Our team is relies on Tim to gaurd the rim and since he hurt his knee that has a been a tough job for him and none of our other bigs has stepped up. Our inside game is almost nonexistent without Tim and our 2nd unit has had 3 out 4 bad games, and the scoring is a struggle when Tony isn't on the floor.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

I doubt it's a troll, just some jackass who wants to earn some ST cred by making you look bad. It will disappear back into ST nothingness if you stop giving it attention.

Indeed.

On tipping against your team - a mate of mine has an ingenious system for tipping against his team when he thinks they will lose. Like me, he lives and dies by his team (the Geelong Cats, Aussie Rules Football), but occasionally he thinks they'll lose, so what he does is tip his team but put money on the other team - that way if his guys win he feels good, but if they lose at least he gets a wad of cash for it!

[dbestpro]

Pop, the team, the fans, everyone is just tired. This season has worn everyone out. I feel like everyone is on injured reserve. Pop looks like he can't wait for the season to end and go drink his wine. No fire in the team and no fire in the coach. Maybe they do nor believe they can win the whole thing so why the keep trying. I give Duncan and Parker their due and Hill gets a rookie pass. Everyone else should be fined for impersonating an NBA player.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

I'm not surprised we're down 3-1, I have thought the Mavs bench was clearly better than ours, but what is depressing is how inefficient Tim has been. He is struggling out there. Our team is relies on Tim to gaurd the rim and since he hurt his knee that has a been a tough job for him and none of our other bigs has stepped up. Our inside game is almost nonexistent without Tim and our 2nd unit has had 3 out 4 bad games, and the scoring is a struggle when Tony isn't on the floor.

Forget the media releases, he's still only at about 70%, you can see it in his play. His knees are a real worry for the future. He's just about to play his 900th game, so he's getting into the territory where physical decline will start to limit him, especially if tis condition persists into next season (and from what I've read, it's likely to as it is degenerative). Poor Tim.

[Findog]

Dirk still gets flustered by double teams. He can still make a quick move before the double, can still drive the ball more instead of being passive as and then throwing awkward passes out of the double/triple teams.

He played very well towards the end of the regular season, but both him and Terry should give all the credit to the other players because they have both yet to show the up.

This is how the Spurs wanted it - they wanted the Mavs role players to step up and beat them because they were going to take away Dirk and Jet. Well, it's worked out for them to the tune of 1-3. Dirk does not always make great decisions with the double - but what I saw today was the Spurs overplaying him with triple teams. I thought he did a good job of giving the ball up when he was supposed to, and it led to ball movement and good shot attempts. That last drive on Bonner he was aggressive in going to the hoop, since that was one of the few times they didn't have a second help defender to crowd him.

[ElNono]

No excuses.

Game 1 was a winnable game. We let JJ Barea and Bradon Bass do whatever they wanted. That's their 6th and 7th scorer on their team. At some point you have to take some pride and step up to the challenge. We didn't do it.

Game 3 was a complete NO SHOW. I mean, when was the last time you saw a complete and absolute no show? Even the Mavs tried to reel Game 2 when they were down 20. We didn't even try.

Today's game was completely winnable. Dampier was in foul trouble, Tony balled out of his mind, Timmy gave it all it could, Bowen was hounding everybody he was assigned to. But we made piss poor decisions all around. No intensity on defense. We knew how important was to rebound, and we got murdered on the boards. That's a hustle stat. Another game we handed away.

And that's how our season is ending... Bonner is the go to guy in the crunch. Our veterans, that are supposed to be the ones experienced, end up firing ill advised treys wit the game within reach. Some of our guys decided that playing defense was boring, so they won't do it. Piss poor effort and bad decisions all around.

Again, no excuses. This should have been a favorable series. They can't control Tony, and we've seen that to be the case, but we can't capitalize because we refuse to hustle and play defense. It starts with the coach and some of his silly decisions. And it goes from there to the rest of the roster.