Recently, we have witnessed one of the biggest travesties known to man. We were dealt a very low blow on behalf of the Golden State Warriors. They were considered the huge underdogs here, but they came through for certain believers. There were several variables contributing to the devastating blow the Mavericks took in this series. I will outline a few important things to bring you all up to speed. If you follow basketball, then you probably already know these things.
Throughout the regular season, the Mavericks could not hold a candle stick to the the Warrior experience. I will go as far as to say, Dirk Nowitzki failed to deliver. He failed to deliver on every occasion, and it safe to say at least he was consistent. We know that one man does not make a team, but if that player is an impact player, problems arise. Nowitzki is definitely an impact player and he has a lot to do with the Mavericks recent success. The Mavericks also have a team of all stars that did not play well. Josh Howard, Devon Harris, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier are the all stars that I am alluding to. They need to have a powerful performance like they have before now, then they will succeed.
The Mavericks have a recent track record of folding under pressure. The NBA Finals from the previous year corroborates my feeling for the Mavericks folding under pressure. They started out on a 2-0 run on the Miami Heat which was very promising. That promise quickly became a lie when the Heat came out of their shells. When they did come out, it was with a vengeance. The Heat took no prisoners, and executed all the Mavericks systematically. This story probably relates to the recent event we just witnessed with the Warriors. The only difference, the Warriors came out in the series totally different than the Heat. They came out and drew first blood, and let the whole world know they came to win. Low and behold, they came out and did what they set out to do.
I am very disappointed in the Mavericks for this season. Stephen Jackson (a criminal) should probably be playing prison ball somewhere. Baron Davis, is a good player, but he should not have been able to do the things that he has done to Dallas. I don’t know much about the rest of the squad, so I will call them the backup for the main two. The two aforementioned players should not have been able to do what they did. They completely dismantled a team that use to be the Mavericks.
The Warriors did have somewhat of a secret weapon in Don Nelson. Nelson is the head coach of the team, and also the former head coach of the Mavericks. Apparently, he trained his team well to defeat his old team. We will see if that is the case when the Warriors play their next opponents. If they are taken quickly in the next round, that means Nelson had the Mavericks figured out perfect.
This is a risk that a team takes when they meet up with an old head coach. The coach normally knows exactly what he is going into. Especially, if the team that he groomed happens to be the same team that he is facing. it appears that he had everything figured out prior to going in. Several people from the Mavericks will get heat about this, but that’s the way the ball bounces sometime. The only thing I can wish to the Mavericks is better luck next year.
