After a heartbreaking end the the 2005-06 season, the Mavericks are back at it early in the off-season getting ready for the 2006-07 season. They’ve reportedly come to terms with Jason Terry, which was by far the most important business to take care of. They are set to offer Mbenga a multi-year deal, and it looks like they’re going to trade Marquis Daniels to the Pacers for Austin Croshere. I like the moves I’ve seen so far. I’d be surprised if Mbenga, Dampier, and Diop are all back next year. I’m waiting to see if someone will take a chance on trading for Dampier (not likely) or Diop. As far as Daniels goes, he’s been buried on the bench since Avery has been coach and he seems to think he’s more of a playmaker than he’s proven to be so far in his career.

The final piece of business that needs to happen before the season is extending Dirk’s contract. Once that happens, their off-season will be complete. The way things have gone since Cuban’s been owner, though, means that there may be some more deals in the works that will shock us all.

We’re looking good to make another run at the NBA Finals.

I’m so tired of ABC showing Shaq’s wife, dad, kids, coach, uncle, and everyone else who has ever met Shaq every time he touches the ball. We get it.  He has a family and they go to the games. Every other player has family at the game too. Stop showing them. Please.

The Mavericks played fairly well last night. They did a good job of not letting the Suns destroy them on fast break points, but they did let them score 21 in transition. That needs to get a little better. The Mavs did well in rebounding, and were great at getting to the free throw line. They need to make more of their free throw attempts in game 3 and they also need to stop settling for jump shots so much. There were a few stretches where it seemed like Phoenix drew them into a jump shooting contest, which opened up the Suns fast break game.

Bottom line, Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse need to show up in Phoenix. They played awful in game 2. If the Mavericks can get better produciton from both of them, they should be able to win at least one of the two games in Phoenix.

The other day, I wrote that there were three key things that Dallas had to do to beat Phoenix. Let’s see how it worked out:

1. Don’t let the Suns attempt more than 20 three point shots or shoot better than 35% from behind the line.

Dallas did well in the category. Phoenix was 5-15 (.333). They were somewhat offset in this category from their own poor 3-point shooting (3-16, .188) and by letting Phoenix score 32 fast break points.

2. Don’t let Steve Nash score 20 points and/or have 10 assists.

Steve Nash ended up with 27 points and 16 rebounds. Dallas has to slow him down in both of these categories for them to win this series. If he puts up these numbers every night, then Dallas should start thinking about where they want to spend their summer vacation.

3. Outrebound the Suns

Dallas won the battle of the boards 48-38. They need to maintain this edge throughout the series.

So why did Dallas lose? Two things stick out to me. First off, they let Phoenix have WAY TOO MANY fast break points. Being outscores 32-12 in this category is terrible. Dallas was settling for too many jump shots. When they missed, Phoenix would chunk the ball up the court for an easy layup or dunk. Dallas has to keep Phoenix’s fast break points down around 15 or else they can expect the same result as game 1.

The other category that jumped out at me was free throws. Phoenix was 22-29 from the line. During the regular season they averaged 23.9 free throw attempts. Dallas has to keep them off the line. They are too good of a shooting team to allow them to take that many free throws.

Other keys. Dallas has to stop settling for three pointers. They weren’t falling in game 1, which kept Dallas from getting to the free throw line and opened up Phoenix’s fast break offense. Dallas also has to take care of the ball. During the regular season, Dallas averaged 12.2 turnovers per game. They can’t give Phoenix the ball 16 times again and expect to win.

Overall, I still think Dallas will win this series. They should win game 2 at home and then take back home court by winning either game 3 or 4. My previous prediction remains the same: Dallas in 6.

I thought it was kind of funny and ironic that TNT decided to have Steve Kerr be an analyst fot the Mavericks vs Spurs series. Anyone who has followed the team for at least a couple of years remembers what happened in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals in 2003. The game will forever be known as the “Steve Kerr Game.”

This, however, is not funny:

Take a close look at the picture. It’s supposed to have the star player from the four teams the conference finals. Notice anyone missing? Exactly. NO MAVERICKS PLAYER!!! What a joke. I thought it was appropriate for me to add a little commentary to the photo. You can check if they’ve updated the picture here. Thanks for the link, Cuban.

I’ve taken the liberty to add what I think Tim Duncan might be thinking now:

I couldn’t resist this one:

In what could be one of the best series in NBA playoffs history, the Mavericks edged out the Spurs 119-111 in overtime. There were a lot of chances for both teams to put the other away. Spurs fans will argue that Duncan was fouled at the end of regulation. Maybe he was, but like I’ve said before, you can’t blame officials for losses. If you let the refs decide the game for you, you deserve to lose.

Looking ahead, I see three keys defensively for the Mavericks.

1. Don’t let the Suns attempt more than 20 three point shots or shoot better than 35% from behind the line.

In the four games that Dallas and Phoenix played this year, Phoenix was 10-22 (45.5%) and 16-24 (66.7%) on their three pointers in the games they won. When the Mavericks won, the Suns shot 7-21 (33.3%) and 6-21 (28.6%) in games they lost. Phoenix loves to drive to the basket then kick the ball out to an open player for an easy three pointer. If the Mavericks are able slow them down from the perimeter, it will be much easier to win.

2. Don’t let Steve Nash score 20 points and/or have 10 assists.

You have to pick your poison with Nash. He will torch you one way or another. If you let him score, you’ve got to limit his passes. If you’re going to double team him, don’t let him find the open man.

Looking back to the regular season matchups, Nash’s numbers in the two Phoenix wins were 25 pts, 11 assists on March 5, and 6 pts, 13 assists on April 13. In the Dallas wins, he had 30 pts, 9 assists on November 1, and 20 pts, 5 assists on December 14.

3. Outrebound the Suns

This one is plain and simple. The Mavericks won two of the three regular season games against Phoenix when they outrebounded them (55-51 and 54-44). In the one game the Suns pulled down more boards the Mavs lost. With Phoenix being one of the best shooting teams we’ve seen in a long time, you can’t let them get 2nd chances. They will burn you almost every time you let that happen.

There are some offensive keys for Dallas. I’ll talk more about that before tipoff Wednesday night.

Series prediction: Mavs in 6.

I’m putting this out for the world to see. It’s 3:06 PM on Monday, May 22. The Mavericks will win game 7 in San Antonio. Here’s why. In a seven game series, the best team almost always wins. We saw it happen yesterday in Detroit. We saw it happen last year when Dallas edged Houston in the first round of the playoffs. And I believe we’ll see it happen again tonight.

Even though San Antonio is the defending champion and they won three more games than the Mavericks this year, I still believe the Mavericks are better. They have more depth, more athleticism, and more talent top to bottom. The best team should win game 7. I believe that team is Dallas.

May the best team win.

Oh, and this is my 99th post to my blog. Seems like destiny that my 100th would be talking about the Mavericks advancing to the Western Conference finals.

I don’t think that you can blame officiating for losses in the NBA. There are missed calls and wrong calls that happen all the time, every game. Sometimes a player gets called for a foul when he didn’t even touch the other player, and other times a player will knock someone to the ground and won’t draw a whistle. Usually the fouls balance out, and the referees don’t dictate the outcome of a game.

If the Spurs end up winning the series against the Mavericks, I won’t blame Stu Jackson for suspending Jason Terry. It looked like Terry made a punching motion toward Michael Finley, so the suspension could be deemed as deserved.

However, I think that the NBA has proven, once again, that favortism exists. There are certain players who get away with almost everything (Tim Duncan’s traveling) and other players who have to make sure they don’t breate on another player wrong (Ron Artest). Jason Terry was another victim in this preferential, star treatment, biased league. He’s not well known by the fans throughout the league, so the league decided to use him to make a statement.

If Tony Parker, who is the Spurs starting point guard, had done the exact same thing there is NO WAY that he would have been suspended for ANY game, let alone game 6 in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. There would have been weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth in the streets of San Antonio if he were in Terry’s position. The tears from the fans would have made the riverwalk overflow all the way up to Austin. The league would have fined him, but they would conclude that he was making a shoving motion while trying to stand up or something along those lines.

What Terry did wasn’t smart, but I don’t think he was trying to punch Finley. He was frustrated that there were two Spurs players laying on top of him without a foul being called. He didn’t deserve a suspension.

That said, I return to my first thought. The Mavericks fate does not rest in the office of Stu Jackson. It rests on the court at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. If the rest of the team can’t get it done on the court without Terry, the only people to blame are the players and coaching staff. No one else really matters.

One more thing. I wish Duncan and Ginnobli would stop acting like they’ve never commited a foul in their lives. Every time a call goes against them, their eyes shoot wide open and they stick their hands in front of their bodies. Play the game and stop whining.