3 Cheers: Spurs 102, Mavs 88

When I was in the seventh grade, I made the Wilson Middle School basketball team in Plano, Texas.  I was the backup point guard on the B team, so it wasn’t anything special.  I was just one notch above the kid that didn’t make the cut but agreed to be the “equipment manager” and mop the gym floor before practice just so he could get a patch for his letter jacket.  Of course at the time, I didn’t think it wasn’t anything special.  I thought I was on top of the world.  I had made it.  I was basketball immortality.  More importantly, I thought that since I was already on the team that I would automatically make the team in the eighth grade.  When tryouts that year were all said and done, I was that kid that the coach was offering the “equipment manager” position to.  Last night, the Mavs were asked to mop the gym floor before the game, the Spurs mopped the floor with them during the game, and it is all because they fell prey to the same thing I did my eighth grade year at Wilson Middle School: unsubtantiated, unbridled, and ungrateful overconfidence.  You know what happens when you look a gift horse in the mouth?  I don’t either, but I imagine it just means that you are staring at a horse, and when did that get anyone anywhere?

3 Cheers:

1. Tim Duncan – In spite of the donky dung flops he kept using, it’s hard to scoff at a game like this.  People like to tear Duncan down as being on the decline.  As a Mavs fan, I have seen far too often what this guy is capable of.  I don’t have to like a player to respect his abilities.  And I don’t like Tim Duncan.  But if he’s not one of the best I’ve ever seen.  He’s boring.  He’s dirtier than he gets credited for.  He whines like a infant with a poopy diaper.  And the dumbface.  Oh God, the dumbface.  But he’s really, really good.  25 points on 11 of 19 shooting and 17 rebounds.

2. Richard Jefferson – If I’m going to bag on the guy for his performance in the first game, then I have to credit him when he actually shows up.  While the numbers aren’t overwhelming, Jefferson was the difference maker.  Over the long history of this rivalry, the Mavs have grown accustomed to accounting for a Duncan/Parker/Ginobili performance.  A fourth scorer is unexpected and in a way, unaccounted for.  Jefferson did what he was brought here for on this night.  19 points on 7 of 12 shooting and 7 boards.

3. Jason Terry – It’s too bad that he was the only offense in the first three quarters, because it was nice to see him break out of his slump.  The problem was that he was the only offense in the first three quarters, so Carlisle kept him out there.  JET isn’t prepared to play 40 minutes a game at this point in his career, and you could tell in the fourth quarter that his legs were no longer beneath him.  His shot went cold and any hope of a comeback froze with them.  All that said, JET has been in a bit of a funk ever since that cracked orbital bone he receieved when he fouled Corey Brewer’s elbow with his face (and I’m only half joking because JET was called for a foul when Corey Brewer elbowed him in the eye socket).  It was nice to see JET break out.  In a way, he’s like Jefferson to us.  If he can be a 20+ point scorer off the bench, this is a much different team.  27 points on 9 of 19 shooting.

3 Jeers:

1. Shawn Marion – The antithesis of Jefferson.  Marion was a pure catalyst in Game 1, while Jefferson was a “dog” by Coach Popovich’s words.  In Game 2, Jefferson was the key to a Spurs victory, while Marion was nonexistent.  I do not think the two were necessarily related, but it proves a point.  These teams have played each other many times for many years.  Dirk and Duncan are constants.  Even on an awful shooting night, Dirk still gets 24 and 10.  Duncan still had a good stat line in Game 1 though largely ineffective.  The difference is and always will be in the supporting cast.  Marion didn’t do much supporting in this one, and it led to this result.

2. Erick Dampier – A gutter is defined as the state or abode of those who live in degradation, squalor, etc.  It is not a nice place to be because it is usually lined with filth or some degree of repugnance.  I hereby declare that we rename gutters, and begin calling them Dampiers.  That is all.

3. Dick Stockton – My only complaint, and it’s a big one, is that he totally jinxed Dirk’s free throw streak.  Any announcer worth his salt knows that the worst possible time to mention that a field goal kicker hasn’t missed all season is right before said field goal kicker is lining up the game winning kick that will send the team to the championship game.  Dirk had hit 88 free throws in a row, a team record, and not far off an NBA record.  And right before he puts up the shot that he makes to look as easy as Shaq makes it look hard, Stockton opens his big yapper and declares that Dirk has hasn’t missed in . . . oh, scratch that.  He just missed.  I guess I am just as guilty.  The other day I was complimenting my dog, Nelson, on how he hasn’t been crapping or pissing during the day like he used to.  The next day I came home to what used to be my kitchen.

Random Crap:

• I watched the national feed for this game, but not by choice.  I couldn’t find the local broadcast.  I blame Bob-O.
• Can we stop with the “Texas Two-Step” thing everytime two teams from Texas play each other?  It’s overdone.  Not all Texans two step, and plenty of non-Texans two step.  I’ve never heard of a Minnesota Mashed Potato or a Washington Watusi.  When the 49ers and the Chargers play, do they call it the “California Gold Rush”?  When the Giants and Jets play, do they call it “The Summer of Sam”?  Okay, that last example was not a good one.
• In Game 1, the Spurs were looking for someone who could take Dirk out of the game.  In Game 2, they found him.  In fact it was three men.  Their names were Ken Mauer, Mike Callahan, and James Capers.  This is the officiating crew.  They literally took Dirk out of the game in the first quarter, and they fell victim to same thing all bad refs fall victim to: reading the paper and hearing coaches’ comments about the officiating.
• They didn’t just take Dirk out of the game.  They took the Mavs out of the game.  It’s hard to establish a rhythm when you are getting whistled for 5 fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game.  It’s especially disheartening when only 2 of those whistles were actually fouls.  It’s even more frustrating when those same “fouls” are not being called on the other end.
• I can’t put the start of this game entirely on the refs.  The Mavs are not being aggressive like they were to start Game 1.  It’s hard to get the Spurs into foul trouble if you aren’t attacking the basket and settling for off balance jumpers that won’t go down.
• Wait, I will put it on the refs.  George Hill just summoned the spirits of Vlade Divacs and flopped.  The refs fell for it.  Basically what that means is that the refs were not paying any attention to the situation.  All they saw out of the corner of their eyes was a dude in a black jersey acting like he just stepped off a mortar shell.  I understand a little flop now and then when you are trying to draw a charge in the paint, but to try to break through a screen and roll, realize that you can’t do it, and then decide to reinact a Cirque du Soleil routine to bail yourself out is dirty pool.  But I guess whatever works.  Kind of like resorting to intentionally fouling Dampier.
• Later, in the second quarter, Duncan does the same thing.  Then Duncan does it again in the third.  He’s better than that, but who’s to blame?  Duncan and the Spurs for resorting to bush league tactics?  The refs for falling for it over and over?  Or the Mavs for not realizing that they should start flopping, too?
• Kentucky Fried Chicken started calling themselves KFC to distance themselves from the word “fried”.  Hard to do that when you introduce a sandwich where you tell the bread to go screw itself and just pack some bacon and cheese between two pieces of fried chicken.  It’s called the Double Down, which is ironic since you are gambling with your life if you eat it.
• My daughter asked my wife to go to the doctor so he can put a baby brother or sister in her tummy.  Note to self: Start attending wife’s doctor appointments.
• Whoever the writers are behind the Dos Equis: The Most Interesting Man in the World campaign, kudos to them.  Those are some of the best commercials I have seen in a long time.
• This loss falls solely on the Mavs.  I can blame the refs all I want, and they were horrible, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Mavs had no fire, no energy, and when the refs were calling quick fouls from the start and Dirk wasn’t being superhuman, the rest of the team just folded.  That can’t happen and lessons need to be learned from this.
• For all of those who want Carlisle to unleash Roddy B, I give you this analogy.  Remember in the movie Braveheart, when the angry, evil Brits are charging on Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and he keeps yelling, “Hold”?  They get closer and closer, but he keeps yelling, “Hold!”  Then, finally at the last minute, he breaks into an anti semitic tirade? My details are sketchy, but you get the point.  Carlisle played JJ Barea perfectly last year against the Spurs, and I trust he will do the same with Roddy B.  For those who do not know, Roddy B is actually Rodrigue Beaubois, a 22-year-old rookie French point guard for the Mavs, and not one of the guys from Color Me Badd.
• There are two things I like to jerk, and one of them is my knee.  So I have overreacted a bit on the positive swing after Game 1, and I have overreacted a bit on the negative swing after Game 2.  Knee jerking at its best.  The fact of the matter is that given the decade-long history between these two teams, a 1-1 tie sounds quite fitting, if not predictable.  There are 5 games left to play, and the Mavs are the best road team in the league this season.  For those of you with dirty minds, the other thing I like to jerk are tears.  I can spin a rather sad yarn from time to time, and I find comfort in a good cry.  Get your minds out of the Dampier.

Looking back, I know I was wrong to feel the way I felt or act the way I acted when I was the backup point guard on the middle school B team.  I learned that life is humbling and that you find the most lasting lessons when you feel your lowest.  I also learned to say Mothersratch you if you think I’m going to mop your friggin’ gym floors.  Maybe the Mavs will learn a lesson from this game, and maybe they can teach the Spurs a thing or two about mopping floors.  Go Mavs!

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