The Dallas Mavericks take on the San Antonio Spurs in what will be the 24th game between the two teams in the postseason, which is the most games the Mavs have played against any opponent in the teams history. The Spurs hold a 12-11 edge coming into the game. (AP Photo/Eric Gay/Don Ryan)Get your popcorn ready because this is going to be an exciting series between two teams that are all too familiar with one-another. While each team has their newcomers, the mainstays for each team have been through the many playoff battles between the two teams. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili for the Spurs and Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Erick Dampier for the Mavs all know each other very well and there isn't exactly any love-lost between the two teams.
"It feels like we play them [the Spurs] every year in the playoffs anyway," Nowitzki said, "So it seems fitting."
The Spurs, winners of four NBA Championships in the last 10 seasons, are going to be on the road as the underdog for the first time since Duncan's rookie season. The Mavericks, on the other hand, come in as the favorite against a team Terry said they still view as the "big brother," a team Dallas still tries to emulate, accomplishment-wise at least. Each team has won at least 50 games each season for the past 10 years, the only difference is what the Spurs have in their trophy cabinet.
"They still have the rings, we don't," Terry said. "That's our focus. Game one if very important. We have to come out and protect home court."
Taking care of business at home will be a major focus going into tonight's game. Dallas was in the bottom of the pack among Western Conference playoff teams in terms of home-record at 28-13 on the season. Luckily for the Mavs, the Spurs were an average road-team this season at 21-20, second-worst among Western playoff teams behind only the Denver Nuggets (19-22). Winning the first two games at home also benefits the Mavs considering their NBA-best 27-13 record away from home this season.
Dallas comes into the game winners of five straight games by an average of 14 points per contest and having won eight of their last ten overall. San Antonio has won two of the last three and six of their last nine overall, so each team comes into the playoffs playing good basketball.
"Both teams are playing well and both teams have a lot of talent," Jason Kidd said.
Mavericks' Coach Rick Carlisle knows that even though the Mavericks are the two-seed while the Spurs are seventh, this is not a team to be taken lightly.
"It will be a tough series," Carlisle said. "They've got three Hall-of-Famers with Parker, Duncan and Ginobili. We're going to have to do a solid job on their big three, and keep them from making a lot of 3's. They're extremely solid.
"But we've got a couple of Hall-of-Famers of our own."
Nowitzki and Jason Kidd are those two locks of the Hall-of-Fame and they are going to be relied on heavily to play well in this series, especially pushing the pace while still keeping composure. In terms of play-style overall for each game this series, it's reasonable to assume that it is going to be a grind-it-out affair just as it was for the four regular-season games this season. Three of those four games didn't make it to 100 for either team and for the season the Spurs allowed only 96.3 points per game, sixth-best in the NBA.
"San Antonio is a very good defensive team," Nowitzki said. "They're going to keep possessions low. It's going to be a grind-it-out series."
Kidd knows Nowitzki and Terry are going to be directly in the cross-hairs of the San Antonio defense, just as in last year's playoff series, and other guys are going to need to step-up.
"They're going to pay a lot of attention to Dirk and Jet," Kidd said, "So for that we've got to make sure other guys are ready to make shots."
The Mavericks defense hasn't been to shabby either as of late (allowing only 90.4 over the last five games) and Shawn Marion's defense on Manu Ginobili will be key for Dallas this series. Ginobili has averaged nearly 22 points per game the last two months of the season, but those who have watched the Mavs' this season know Marion's penchant for holding superstars in check that he's showed all year long.
"Ginobili is one of the hottest players in the league right now," Kidd said. "He's playing at a high level. We're going to have our hands full there, hopefully we'll be ready."
In terms of overall success, the Mavericks have won seven of the past nine games against the Spurs, including last year's playoffs. So Popovich's quote about Dallas "having their way with us [the Spurs]," holds some merit, but with both teams fully healthy you never know whats going to happen with these two teams.
"We feel if we have all our guns going in the air we feel like we can give everybody in this league a run," Tim Duncan said. "Manu being healthy. I believe I'm a bit more healthy than I was last year, too. Those two factors I think help us tremendously without even a game played."
While the guns in the air analogy seems 100 percent TEXAS inspired and equally as cheesy, Duncan does have a point. Dallas hasn't faced the Spurs at full strength in years. The only argument to that is the fact that those healthy Spurs haven't faced the new-look Mavs either.
Predictions:
Seven of 10 ESPN "Experts" pick the Mavericks to win the series.
My first instinct was that there was no way this series would go more than five games with Dallas being the victor. But, the more I think about it, the more I am realizing how dangerous this Spurs team is, at least on paper, with Ginobili, Duncan, and Parker all in the starting lineup. How these three will play together remains to be seen, however, as Duncan has looked old and slow all season, Parker seems to be out of sync, while Ginobili has turned it on the past couple of months of the season.
All things considered, I'm taking Dallas is six. There's no way the Spurs can win every game at home (considering the Mavs great road-record) and win at least one game in Dallas (considering the Spurs poor road record). Nowitzki is playing his best basketball of the season and, at this point in their careers, is substantially better than anyone the Spurs can put out on the court.
Mavericks Win In Six Games.
Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. and can be seen either locally on KTXA 21 or nationally on shitty TNT.
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