The Monk is rooting for (that's "cheering on" for Aussies) the Mavs and makes no secret about it, but he had a deja vu feeling last night when listening to a local TV talking head.
In 1997, the Dallas Stars faced Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs. The Stars were a 104-point team, #2 seed in the West and had won all four meetings against the Oilers that year. After the Stars won game 1 of their series 5-3, a local radio chatterer said he didn't know how the Stars could lose because Edmonton had played a very good game the night before, "about as well as they can play" and the Stars had won. I said to myself in the car that morning -- that's a dangerous and dumb proclamation.
Final Result = Oilers in 7 and they won the remaining three games in Dallas.
Yesterday's nimrod said "the Mavs played about as badly as they can but they still won by 10" -- so if the Mavs improve, they should wipe out the Heat, right? After all, Howard and Nowitzki combined for a mere 26 points (less than Dirk's average) and shot horribly (combined 7-28), Stackhouse was pedestrian (13 points), Harris provided nothing (1 point), etc.
Wrong.
Consider how the Heat ran circles around the Mavs in the first quarter and looked like they'd shoot the Mavs out of the building. Consider the struggles Dirk had scoring on Heat forward Udonis Haslem. Consider how Dw(ay)ne Wade easily cut through the Dallas defense the whole night.
The Mavs should play better, and they should win.
Not over yet.
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