The Mavericks will need Caron Butler to step-up yet again if they want to bring this series back to Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)The best road team in the regular season is going to have to play like it tonight against the San Antonio Spurs. Unfortunately, in terms of postseason success, history has not been on the Dallas Mavericks' side as of late. Dallas is has lost five straight playoff games on the road and are 2-15 in the last 17 games away from home. But the reality is these Mavs are still alive and, if Game 5 is any indication, they've got a lot more fight in them.
"We not dead yet," Jason Terry said.
"That's the motto."
Being on the road in San Antonio and having to win or go home is a good-news-bad-news situation for Dallas. The bad news is the fact that San Antonio hasn't lost an elimination game at the AT&T Center (with them in the driver' seat) since 2006. The good news is that the Dallas Mavericks were that team in 2006.
But what I believe to be the greatest asset on the Mavericks' side is that they are the better team. Dallas held double-digit leads in back-to-back games in San Antonio to start the series and then the Mavericks finally put together a strong all-around game in Game 5. If the Mavericks play like they should, and I know that's a big "if" considering how helter-skelter they were all season, but if they play the way they are supposed to, they have a great shot at winning the next two games. Dallas just has to put up a consistent effort for 48 minutes and they can beat this San Antonio team that really hasn't blown me away all-series long.
"They're up 3-2 and we did it to ourselves," recently promoted starter Brendan Haywood said. "Right now we have to fight and put a lot of pressure on them."
"If we win this game, then it becomes anybody's series."
Haywood's and Caron Butler's contributions in Game 6 will be huge in determining if this series comes back to Dallas. Haywood's eight points, eight boards, and four blocks in his first start of the series; and Butler's career-high 35 points in the playoffs is exactly what Dallas hoped to see from these two after the blockbuster trade. With Haywood anchoring the defense and Butler taking the pressure off Dirk Nowitzki on the offensive it, this Mavericks' team is tough to beat.
Prediction:
Even though Dallas showed they still have life in them at home in Game 5, I still don't think this team has enough to pull this out tonight in San Antonio. Say what you want about the Spurs (and I don't believe any of that bullshit about being "built for the playoffs", what team wants to get the seventh seed and be on the road all playoffs?), but they are a team that can tune it up for one game and beat you - especially at home. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili have each struggled in the past two games, but there's no way they all go cold again tonight.
It'll be close throughout, with Nowitzki leading the way with a big night for Dallas. But the Mavericks will have to go into the offseason banging their collective head's against the wall about two huge blown opportunities in Games 3 and 4.
Spurs 99 - Mavs 95
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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