San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks

The much anticipated west semifinal is finally upon us!  Avery Johnson and company will make their way to the AT&T Center for the series opener tomorrow at high noon.  This matchup promises to be an extremely exciting one. 

Dallas of course comes into the second round after taking out Memphis in four straight.  The Spurs, on the other hand, had a little bit more trouble with Sacramento.  Given the regular season split of two games a piece this series could very well stretch to seven games.  There will be some key factors in this series that play into who is moving on to the next round and who is getting their fishing gear ready.  These are a couple of questions that might hold the answer as to who wins the series.

Who will set the tone in Game 1? 

Unfortunately the Spurs head into game 1 only 36 hours after playing the Kings in Sacramento.  Parker's right thigh contusion and other ailments on his right side will definitely be hurting him.   Duncan has looked solid over the the last few games and showed signs that the plantar fascilitis isn't bothering him as much as it had during the regular season.  Ginobili also looks to be back close to 100% again.  Still, the limited rest has many Spurs fans concerned.  The Spurs have played less than .500 basketball on back to backs this year.  The Mavs come in with plenty of time off, in fact maybe a little bit too much.  They haven't played a game since Monday so the key for Dallas will be how rusty they are and how quickly they can shake that off.  However, the pressure lies more squarely on San Antonio being that they must come out and protect their homecourt.  The Spurs will have to set the tone by matching Dallas' intensity on both ends of the floor to have a chance of beating the Mavs in game 1.

Whose bench will step up?

Both of these teams possess a lot of depth off the bench.  No doubt that the edge of the bench play will be pretty even on paper.  San Antonio has enjoyed solid production from Finley, Barry, and Horry thus far in the playoffs.   Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier gave Dallas a spark off the bench is the opening round, while Marquis Daniels has the ability to give the Mavs a solid contribution as well.  Pop made a change and started Robert Horry in games 5 and 6 of the first round against Sacramento, similar to switching out Ginobili with Brent Barry in the first round last year against Denver.  Nazr Mohammed or Rasho Nesterovic will probably slip back into the starting spot for the beginning of this series unless Pop feels that he would rather keep the change with Horry starting and Rasho giving energy off the bench.  Regardless, a big key for San Antonio is winning the rebounding battle, meaning Mohammed and Nesterovic will have to give Duncan as much help as possible on the glass inside.

Who will win the battle of the big men?

For Dallas on offense Dirk Nowitzki can create mismatch problems for the Spurs.  He is not a prototypical seven-footer in that hes not a low post player.  Duncan, who is not an excellent perimeter defender, will hurt the Spurs if hes sucked out of the post.  Duncan is a dominant rebounding force and he must remain inside to prevent the Mavs from crashing the offensive glass.  Its no secret that the team that wins the rebounding battle usually puts themself in a better position to win the game.  Pop, who used Bowen at times during the regular season to guard Nowitzki, will probably give him the assignment along with Robert Horry.  Keeping Duncan inside will force Nowitzki to take more jump shots and leave the Spurs a dominant rebounder and shot blocker inside.

Will the student become the teacher?

Avery Johnson will match wits with his former coach Gregg Popovich for the first time in playoff competition.  Johnson knows the Spurs better than any head coach in the league.  Using his knowledge to exploit the weaknesses of his former team will be crucial if the Mavs want to win the series.  The problem: the Spurs don't have a lot of weaknesses.  They are the most well-rounded ball club this side of Detroit.  Still, Avery has his guys playing great basketball right now and he will bring the defensive mentality that Pop instilled in him during his playing days in silver and black.   

Fans should be happy that they get an early preview of the Western Conference Finals.  San Antonio and Dallas might be the two best teams in the league.  The winner of this series is going to win the West and has a good chance of winning it all.  So get ready for some action-packed-hard-nosed-ratings-producing basketball!

Call me crazy, but I had absolutely no desire to see four Pistons playing at once in the All Star Game.  This has nothing to do with my thoughts on whether they deserved the spot; it was simply boring.  If I wanted to watch "Pistons basketball" I would watch a DET game.  Do people really want to watch Rip running off staggered screens?  And was anyone really surprised that four Pistons plus Pierce outplayed the West?  Hell, four Raptors plus Pierce would likely beat the West, too.  Virtually any NBA team playing team basketball would beat an All-Star team featuring guys trying lobs from half court.  And yeah, I would feel the same way about four Spurs.  I know how the Spurs play.  I don't know how Manu would play with Nash, Marion, Dirk and Brand.  That's what I would want to see.

My favorite part of the latest Isiah trade isn't that the Knicks will be paying $60+ million a year (including luxury tax) for Marbury and Francis.  It's not that these two players are incompatible due to both of them being undersized for a shooting guard (not that they play much defense anyway).  Nor is it that the combination will drive the lying, sniveling Larry Brown to a premature demise.  The best part about this deal is that multiple media outlets are reporting that Isiah is stockpiling assets in order to go after Garnett in the summer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  I can see only one high-quality asset the Knicks have that MIN could possibly want.  And that's Channing Frye.  They have don't have any premium draft picks over the next two years.  Meanwhile a team like CHI could offer some combination of Deng, Gordon, Duhon, Nocioni, Hinrich and Chandler plus multiple premium first round picks.

I didn't get to watch the SA-SEA game because the NBA League Pass channel was blacked out and I didn't notice until the game was already over.  I'm beginning to see the early signs of Spurs withdrawal.

Here are my quick midseason player reviews; based on minutes of careful consideration and preseason expectations.

Coach Pop, B

Clearly trying to establish a rotation ASAP but stuck with Finley in the starting lineup way too long.  Has successfully kept Manu's minutes down but needs to do the same for Timmeh; props for loosening the reins on Parker.

Mike Budenholzer, A+

I just like saying his name.  Boo-din-hol-zer.

Sean Marks, B+

He's played well when given the opportunity and helped spawn a new catch phrase:  AND SEAN MARKS FINISHES THE JOB!!!

Beno Udrih, B

Yeah, Van Exel is a better ball-handler, but that's the end of the list in my book.

Fabricio Oberto, C+

He looks less lost every time he plays and always brings the effort.

Brent Barry, D

40.3% from the field and 33.7% from 3 isn't good enough for a guy that's getting $5 million a year to shoot the ball.

Robert Horry, NA

The regular season?  We're talking about the regular season?

Nick Van Exel, D

Why do I have the feeling that Spurs fans will blame a key playoff loss on his poor shot selection and total inability to guard anyone with legs?

Nazr Mohammed, B-

I'm seeing improvement, but he needs to up his blocks and cut down on turnovers and the ubiquitous mental errors.

Rasho Nesterovic, B

As solid as ever, but he needs to cut down on his ubiquitous lack of athleticism.

Michael Finley, D-

How bad has Finley played?  The lineup of TP/BB/MF/TD/RS has outscored its opponents by a whopping 13 points in 286 minutes.  That amounts to 2.2 points per game.  For a team with a 6.5 point differential.

The Sickness, B-

Swap Manu for Finley in the above lineup and you have a squad that has outscored its opponents  by 113 points in 335 minutes; 16.2 points per game.  Certainly not the same guy we saw in the playoffs, but, well, this isn't the playoffs.  His regular season numbers from last year are similar and his grade would be higher if not for the injuries.

Bruce Bowen, A-

He's added to his offensive game without adding FGA, but I'll be damned if he hasn't lost a quarter-step on defense.  Yeah, I said it.

Tim Duncan, B

Lowest, PPG, FG% and BPG of his career.  59% of his FGA are outside of the lane which is higher than Parker and Ginobili.  Still an incredible defensive anchor but, like last year, not capable of offensively carrying this team to a title.  His plantar fascia cost him a half-grade or so.

Tony Parker, A

Better shot selection this year and maybe the best guard finisher in the NBA (his eFG% inside is 71.1% compared to 55.3% for Wade, 52.3% for Bryant and 63.7% for LeBron).  Still has the undeniable Achilles heel to his game that will be exploited without mercy during the playoffs.

In the wake of the Stro’/Rafer acquisitions and the Suns’ demise, the Rockets were the only team that appeared capable of threatening the Spurs. But the truth is that my hope for the Rockets had more to do with their city than their actual talent. Houston was having a breakthrough year, and it only seemed natural that the Rockets would participate. The city’s long-simmering rap scene finally exploded beyond the Texas and Louisiana borders, the Astros made their first World Series, and even Hurricane Rita knew enough not to fuck with Clutch City. Surely, this would be the year that T-Mac and Yao put it all together.

It has been said that the law is in the region and the region is in the law, but I like it best when this principle applies to sports. To some degree we all identify teams with the cities they represent, and it’s always more interesting when the makeup of a team says something about the city. Whether it’s the blue-collar play of the team from the Motor City, the glamour of the Hollywood Lakers, or the way the state of Utah seems to insist on the Jazz roster matching the complexion of the Alta snow. Houston 2005 offered such a tidy package of regionalism that it was impossible not to ponder things like, “What came first, the slow humid culture or the drank?” Or, “Is the success of TV Jewelry somehow related to a skyline of mirrored buildings?” I’m not sure about these questions, but I do know that Mike Jones is the rap equivalent of Enron, relentlessly hawking a product that never really existed in the first place. The Houston Hustle. An H-Town thang.

In this day and age the NBA and hip-hop are inextricably intertwined, so hopefully you’ll forgive me for heavy-handedly lumping together the city’s roundball team and rap scene. In all likelihood the city’s music and economics bear no real resemblance to the style of the Rockets (although Van Gundy slows more shit down than Michael Watts, and if Rafer, Stro, and T-Mac ain’t a screwed-up click I don’t know what is), but what’s important here is that the city has a strong identity. People at least have something they can attach to the Rockets. The same cannot be said for Houston’s I-10 rival, the San Antonio Spurs, and I’d like to submit that San Antonio’s lack of civic identity contributes at least as much to the Spurs=Boring perception as Tim Duncan’s game. What you know about the Alamo? What you know about the Riverwalk?

All of this leads me to a confession: even I’m bored with the Spurs. Sure, I still watch most of their games, but at this point it has more to do with duty and a desire to watch basketball than unbridled enthusiasm. Oberto is a bust and Finley can only contribute if he’s given 30 minutes a night. Ginobili has yet to get going, and it’s beginning to appear that his style is too reckless to ever keep him off the IR for long periods of time. What’s worse, they’ve become everything I said they weren’t when Shoals brought up the notion of “inevitability.” They open up 11 point leads only to squander them and hang on for the most uninspiring of wins. Sure, they’re 19-5, but if you’re going to be an elite team at least have the decency to dominate. They are now the oldest team in the league, and are capable of losing to anyone on the second game of a back-to-back, as evidenced by losses to the Hawks and Hornets. And while I’ll never be able to root against them, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me hoping for something new.

I wanted so badly for the Rockets to play that role. After watching them score consecutive road wins against the Warriors and Sonics I was even prepared to herald their resurgence in this post. But now Yao is out for the foreseeable future, joining Rafer, Bob Sura, Derrick Anderson, Jon Barry and everyone else on the Rockets’ injured list, leaving T-Mac and his bad back to keep the team afloat. Oh, well, I guess the West is going to suck this year. There is an upside to this, however. Doesn’t an awful West set the stage for a certain someone to rise from the microfracture ashes?

-The official Spurs site has a nice wallpaper available for download.  It depicts Manu's backdoor reverse layup alley-oop from the Lakers game.

Starting lineups:

SA (11-3, 5-2 away)
PG Tony Parker
SG Manu Ginobili (questionable)
SF Bruce Bowen
PF Tim Duncan
C Rasho Nesterovic

DAL (10-4, 5-1 home)
PG Jason Terry
SG Marquis Daniels
SF Josh Powell
PF Dirk Nowitzki
C Erick Dampier

DAL will be without the services of their best perimeter defender Josh Howard who's out three weeks with a sprained ankle.  (Three weeks?)  Unfortunately the Spurs may not be able to take full advantage because The Sickness may sit as well.  He has a "jammed ankle" of unknown cause.  Stackhouse is still out due to his trick knee.

The injuries have taken the luster off what could have been a big game (for this time of year anyway).  DAL pounded the Spurs earlier this season as Finley went 1-6 in his return.  The Mavericks also pummeled SA in a meaningless game at the end of last season.  I am going to repost what I had to say back then (when I could actually write worth a damn):

tion that is apparently necessary for them to play at their best.

Tonight's line:  SA -3
Tonight's total:  187.5
My pick:  SA
Matty da Blade's plays:  SA | Over
The Spurs are 6-8 ATS this year.  I am 3-11.  Da Blade is 8-5-1 ATS | 3-3 TOT.

This is an open thread.  I don't know why I keep writing that.  They're all open threads.

Starting lineups:

LA (5-7, 2-3 away)
PG Smush Parker
SG Kobe Bryant
SF Lamar Odom
PF Kwame Brown
C Chris Mihm

SA (10-3, 5-1 home)
PG Tony Parker
SG Manu Ginobili
SF Bruce Bowen
PF Tim Duncan
C Rasho Nesterovic

The effing Lakers come to town tonight.  As you probably know, Kobe is hoisting 29.1 FGA per game which accounts for 36% of the team's total.  That's outrageous.  But, then again, who the hell else is going to shoot the ball?  In fact, take a look at their roster... how many of those guys would even get into the Spurs rotation?  Kobe and Odom.  That's the list.

Phil Jackson, apparently choosing money over the preservation of his partially-deserved legacy, is back coaching the Lakers.  I hate that Zen-talking sunuvabitch.  You may have noticed I tend to dislike players who I deem overrated; well the same goes for coaches.  I'm an equal-opportunity hater.  I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said countless times, but DAMN, a loosely coagulated lump of whale sperm could have led those Bulls teams to titles.

Loosely Coagulated Lump of Whale Sperm:  "Alright Mike.  Here's what I need you to do.  Wait a second... You're the most skilled player of all time and also one of the most motivated.  Just do what you do."

Jordan:  "You're nothing without me.  I made you."

Loosely Coagulated Lump of Whale Sperm:  "Actually Mike a large whale penis made me, but I get your point.  Scottie, I need you to stay out of Mike's way, play killer defense, run the break and grab some boards.  And slap some people around with those amazing hands of yours."

Pippen:  "They are a sight to behold, aren't they?  You know what they say about a man wi-"

Loosely Coagulated Lump of Whale Sperm:  "Pip.  I CAME FROM A WHALE.  It was, like, bigger than your whole body.  Rodman:  show up, rebound and don't kill anybody on our off days.  Well, maybe off the occasional crack whore, but that's IT.  Everybody else:  play defense and make the open shots and layups that MJ and Pip create for you.  And visualize success or something.  Zen.  Buddha.  Nepal.  I chi.  Whatever.  Now somebody get me a moist towelette."

Phil Jackson's career record is 832-316, a 72.5% winning percentage.  Pop's is 396-210, a 65.3% WP.  Let's assume SA wins 60 games this year; that leaves Pop at 66.3%.  The Lakers are currently 5-7.  So if the Lakers lose 104 consecutive games Pop will have a better WP% than Phil!  Damn.  I thought it would be closer than that.

Here's what Matty da Blade has to say about tonight's matchup:

-13
Tonight's total:  186
My pick:  SA
Matty da Blade's plays:  SA | Under
The Spurs are 6-7 ATS this year.  I am a 3-10.  Da Blade is 8-4-1 ATS | 2-3 TOT.

This is an open thread.  Commenters will receive a free spoon.  Wait!  There's more.  If you promise to tell a friend about my blog I will send you another spoon free of charge.  Two spoons people!  One for each hand!

Speaking of suits, here are my extended thoughts about Monday's game:

• I vomited in the second quarter, and it wasn't due to the Kings performance. It was the performance of the Comcast technicians: For about 10 minutes, the feed was shaky and fuzzy and dim. I had a Blair Witch flashback. Couldn't get Dramamine fast enough.

• I know this was said a lot in the 2004 playoffs when Tony Parker was running circles around the Lakers, but would it kill someone to just lay the lumber on him when he drives to the baseline and floats there, looking for a open man? He's French - he'll seriously think twice about it once pummelled (unless he knows he has big, powerful allies coming over). I might be more annoyed by TeePee than I am by Balki. Good grief, what an annoying team.

• Gregg Popovich: The mullet will not get you extra Coach of the Year votes. There's a reason the NHL in the #5 major league.

• Not sure I understand why Shareef got a technical. But he didn't seem to mind. I did understand why Bonzi got a technical, and he did seem to mind. Shows how much I know.

• Either Kenny Thomas has a really good relationship with Francisco Garcia where he feels comfortable enough to yell at him about coming to double Tim Duncan (and fouling him), or Kenny Thomas is a very self-assured defender.

• Of all the disappointments on this team so far, Brian Skinner has been the biggest. He's not doing anything but taking up space when on the floor. Truly discouraging after a mammoth preseason filled with jumpers, blocks and putbacks. We need that Brian Skinner.

• Fabricio Oberto: Funny-looking from a distance, rockstar lookalike from up close.

• It's amazing that Pop took Duncan out when he got his fifth foul. Pop knows as well as everyone that no ref is going to a sixth foul against Tim Duncan in a close game.

• The league is going to figure out Manu Ginobili one of these days, as if he was Barry Zito. He's flashy, but he can be stopped.

• Peja can do better on the suit. Remember, P, you're an upcoming free agent! You gotta look money, all the time.

f the Monday night Packers-Vikings game. Also, I really have no idea what to make of Simmons' shoes in said segment. Especially after seeing him rocking shell-toe Adidas in the NY Times piece.

Last Simmons item: The controversy over Renee Herlocker is stupid, and the Intern is a jerk for not giving a link to YAYsports!, even after admitting someone had already made her (semi-)famous. It shows a certain out-of-touchness.

Another sign fantasy sports are inherently evil: I've been openly rooting for Kobe to score 40 a night. Yes, that Kobe. I'm going to hell.

Nice shootout between Gonzaga and Michigan State last night. Adam Morrison is like Kyle Korver with driving ability. I turned it on near the end of regulation. Tom Izzo really takes the fun out of Hawaiian shirts, no?

Back later with an awesomely robust game preview.