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oops, my bad....did not see this.
Here are some other articles:
Stern admits mistake in Spurs' schedule
5/9/2006, 2:18 a.m. ET
By BOB BAUM
The Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — NBA commissioner David Stern acknowledged one scheduling mistake — and may address another quirk in the playoff format.
The commissioner said Monday night that the NBA will "probably" change the way it seeds the playoffs.
"I think we're just talking about taking the four teams in each conference with the best records and seeding them one through four," he said.
Under the current format, the three division champions earn the top three seeds, followed by the remaining teams in order of their records. That's why San Antonio and Dallas are meeting in the second round, even though they have the two best records in the West.
Stern also said it was wrong to schedule the Spurs to open the Western Conference semifinals with an early game Sunday.
"If we had it to do over again, we wouldn't have acceded to the network's request on that one," he said Monday night.
San Antonio wrapped up its first-round series in Sacramento so late on Friday night that it was after midnight in Texas. The Spurs spent the night in Sacramento and didn't arrive back in San Antonio until about 3 p.m. on Saturday.
They tipped off their series with Dallas at noon, local time, on Sunday because ABC wanted to show the Cleveland-Detroit game in the more attractive later time slot.
"We could lay it off on the network, but that's our responsibility and we have the ability to say no," Stern said. "And we should have."
Despite the short turnaround, San Antonio won the game 87-85.
Stern was in Phoenix to present Steve Nash with the Most Valuable Player trophy before the Suns opened their second-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
The long-suffering Clippers had been the butt of jokes in the league for years.
"Over the years I used to say to our broadcasting department that this is the year we should put the Clippers on the TV schedule," Stern said, "and they would say `David, go back into your office,' and I did. So wishing didn't make it so."
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Props to Stern to admit a mistake.
oops, my bad....did not see this.
Here are some other articles:
There's no telling what Mavs will do
Coach reveals little about his Mavericks' Game 2 repair work
08:23 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 9, 2006
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO – It's a sure sign that Avery Johnson has reached full-blown playoff mode when he starts with the cloak-and-dagger stuff.
There was plenty of clever deception going on Monday. Mind games were front and center.
Johnson kiddingly said the potential game-winning play in Game 1 was doomed to be a game-loser because it was the first time his team had ever run it.
At least, it seemed he was kidding.
And he certainly didn't want his team double-teaming Tim Duncan, who had 31 points in the opener.
Sure. Whatever you say, Coach.
And Bruce Bowen's defense was completely legal, too, right?
Oh, wait. He said that, too.
While the world must decide what to believe, the only sure thing is that the locker room was not a disaster area after Game 1, a two-point loss to the Spurs. No need to call FEMA, which probably wouldn't make it to the scene until Game 6 anyway.
Instead, Johnson and his troops are entrenched, engaged and ready to see this thing through.
"More psychological wreckage would be if we'd have lost by 22," Johnson said. "We made a ton of mistakes. Don't get me wrong. But [if Game 1 had been a blowout] then you would feel probably this mountain is really, really hard to climb.
"But I think with the way we played – and didn't execute in a lot of situations – on the road in one of the most hostile environments in all of the NBA, I think we feel that we can get something done."
That was about the only certainty that came from the Mavericks between Games 1 and 2. As for the rest, it was hard to tell whether Johnson was being serious about anything or merely skirting the truth, yanking a few chains and giving no clues about what San Antonio can expect tonight.
But rest assured, adjustments of some sort are certainly forthcoming, such as guarding Duncan differently.
"I told our team: Never double-team Tim," Johnson joked. "We didn't want to ever double-team Tim Duncan. So again, I'll have to try to change some of my coaching mistakes."
Clearly, Johnson was taking a hit for his players. There were specific times when they were supposed to double-team Duncan. It just rarely got executed the right way.
And about that last-ditch play? Johnson swore it was a play – or at least a wrinkle – that his team had not run all season.
"That's a rookie coach," he said, again blurring the line between fact and fiction. "It wasn't the players' fault. I messed that one up. Pin that one on me. That's the first time we ran that play all year. So that was my fault. I'm not facetious. We have a way we want to attack. We'll just keep spelling it out."
GAME PLAN FOR THE MAVERICKS
Staff Writer Eddie Sefko on what the Mavericks need to do to level the series with the Spurs:
1. Stick to Bruce Bowen. All he can do on offense is shoot 3-pointers. Don't let him do it.
2. Share the ball. Eight assists in Game 1? Some teams get that in one quarter. Spread it around.
3. Dog Tim Duncan. Double-team him only when he dribbles. It worked in the second half of Game 1, until Bowen got loose.
4. Did we mention sticking to Bruce Bowen? And Robert Horry, too, while you're at it.
Last edited by Jimcs50; 05-09-2006 at 08:32 AM.
Can Dirk's doctor give him a shot?
Shot doctor visits Dirk, but what ails him is aggressiveness
01:19 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 9, 2006
SAN ANTONIO – Not until the Mavericks broke their huddle at midcourt, signaling the end to their high noon practice Monday at the site of Sunday's setback, did a gray-haired fellow slumped alone in one of the bleacher seats begin to stir.
He clambered down an aisle to the end of the floor where Dirk Nowitzki had started firing away, removed his dark jacket, rolled up his sleeves and began to pass the ball to the Mavericks' superstar, one after another after another.
He was Holger Geschwindner, Dirk's lifelong shooting consultant from home. He'd gone back to Germany after the Memphis series, in which Dirk averaged 31 points, and was just getting back – a day late, it would appear.
For of all the reasons the Mavericks are down one win to none headed into tonight's second installment of the Western Conference semifinals against the Spurs, it is because Dirk couldn't find his shot, and didn't take the last one, as Avery Johnson's plan designed.
Sunday underscored why Dirk was once again an MVP candidate. His production, or lack of it, is that critical to his team. Just like Steve Nash's production is to the Suns, for whom he just won the MVP for a second season in a row. Like LeBron James' is to Cleveland, where he should've won the award this season.
As Dirk goes, so do the Mavs. There's no way around it, especially when the opponent is as stout as the defending champs.
Indeed, the bottom line to what success these Mavericks found against the defending champions this season came when Dirk paved the way. In the two wins the Mavericks managed over the Spurs during the regular season, Dirk scored 30 and 34 points. In the two games the Mavericks lost, he scored 23 and 14.
"We need him to score when there are opportunities to score," Avery Johnson explained simply Monday, "and we need to get his teammates open when his opportunities aren't there."
In this series' opener Sunday, Dirk missed eight of his 11 shots in the second half and finished with 20 points. And some of those shots that went astray were not contested. They were clean looks from the baseline or the elbow, that corner at the foul line, where Dirk has been known to be as accurate as an atomic clock.
That won't get his team to the promised land. Hence, the visit from the shot doctor and the extra target practice Monday afternoon.
Dirk said he just never found his rhythm Sunday. He said he allowed the Spurs, principally defensive specialist Bruce Bowen, to force him out of his comfort zone.
That shouldn't happen.
As Johnson said: "It's not like we've awakened on planet Mars and now we got this new defensive philosophy that we had no idea about. We've seen it before."
Bowen is roughly half a foot shorter than 7-foot Dirk. But Dirk rarely appeared to impose his size on Bowen, or anyone else for that matter. As a result, he was rewarded with but six free throws, missing two.
"Some nights, Dirk has torched us," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Monday. "Other nights, it's a little bit tougher for him. That can go either way. It just matters that you make him work for what he gets."
You wouldn't think after the regular season Dirk just completed, a career best by most measurements, that he'd hit such a bump in the road to the NBA Finals, that he'd have to remind himself to be on the attack and to concede nothing.
You'd think he would've been aware of that after the dud of a postseason – an anomaly – he had last spring against Houston and Phoenix. But that's where he is again.
"I gotta be aggressive and make things happen," Dirk said Monday.
"I don't think I'm gonna score 30, 35 points a game in this series. But I still gotta be efficient for the team."
For Dirk and these Mavericks, that means being assertive, too. After all, he averaged a career high in points this season on a team that scored fewer points on average than it has since he's been in Dallas. That makes his offense even more critical now.
That means that when the last shot is set up for you with a lifetime of 13 ticks on the clock and a much smaller man on you, you take the shot – like LeBron did last week – or you set up a capable teammate like Jordan did Steve Kerr and John Paxson way back when.
Dirk knows as much. The Mavericks, as always, just need him to do it.
What a cop-out...that little worm.
F Stern...having the Mavs / Spurs play at noon was rediculous...
The Cavs / Pistons are primetime again tonight...and AGAIN on Saturday...
F'in idiots...
No, he then admitted that he could have told the network that they can not have it their way:
Stern admitted his mistake."We could lay it off on the network, but that's our responsibility and we have the ability to say no," Stern said. "And we should have."
6pm is not primetime for SA.
8:30 is much better.
Give me a break, Jim. Stern is a worm seven ways to Sunday. This is a cop-out, he plainly said he let the network have what they wanted. If he was any kind of a man, in the first place, he'd have said , no, not the Champs.
Well, Stern is by far the best commish in sports, so you have to give him some slack. Besides, it worked out fantastic, yes?
lebron brings the viewers.
No, I most certainly do NOT think he's " by far the best commish in sports". He's a jackass and I will not cut him any slack. When he gets over his hard-on for the Lakers and the Heat, get back with me and we'll talk again.
This league is more dependant on the "stars" than any sport, that is just a fact.Therefore all teams and players benefit with the increase in publicity and popularity.
All boats in the harbor rise with the tide, not just the yachts.*
*That is pretty profound, even if I do say so myself.
Stern is the best. You are too young to remember all that he has done to make the NBA what it is today.
Jim, I'm 53 years old. I may be too old to remember, but I'm not too young to remember much. That is your opinion and you are en led to it. I happen to disagree with you. That does not mean I'm automatically wrong.
Sorry, my bad, I am just used to being old compared to all these youngsters in here....but you are ancient compared to me.
Nice. Sticking to Bruce Bowen makes double teaming Tim that much harder. You gonna double off Manu? Tony? Horry? Barry? Finley?GAME PLAN FOR THE MAVERICKS
Staff Writer Eddie Sefko on what the Mavericks need to do to level the series with the Spurs:
1. Stick to Bruce Bowen. All he can do on offense is shoot 3-pointers. Don't let him do it.
2. Share the ball. Eight assists in Game 1? Some teams get that in one quarter. Spread it around.
3. Dog Tim Duncan. Double-team him only when he dribbles. It worked in the second half of Game 1, until Bowen got loose.
4. Did we mention sticking to Bruce Bowen? And Robert Horry, too, while you're at it.
What is so freaking funny, young lady???
Sorry I am not privy to everyone's ages in here , like you people who get to go to all the GTGs.
Speaking of old farts......
I wonder if our winning had a factor in Stern's decision to make this announcement. Smmething tells me he would not have made this public had the Spurs lost.
Sorry, my bad, I am just used to being old compared to all these youngsters in here....but you are ancient compared to me.
Jim, I have never had the good fortune to attend a GTG. I have, however, mentioned my "ancientness" here several times.Sorry I am not privy to everyone's ages in here , like you people who get to go to all the GTGs.
Sorry, my ADHD just kicks in every now and again.
How's it going, 90-Meter Man?Speaking of old farts......
Pretty well, 4" Man.
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