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This almost seems like a bit you're doing now. You kept going at it over the course of the game, and you're still doing it now. I thought they were meaningless games? I told you stuff is going to happen to make things interesting for everyone.
The fact that they might not survive isn't because they don't take advantage of the situation. It's simply because they don't have the weapons to stay afloat. This was a game they could've easily lost, but they bounced back...I'll take it.
They struggled for multiple reasons: Dirk was struggling early, Josh got in foul trouble and Jet got hurt. It's not like you can account for those things in your pregame strategy. They had to be adjusted on the fly and they were able to do so.
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But the whole point of the talking about the Utah game is for the reason last night. Had the Mavs taken advantage of that game in Utah, they would be sitting in 4th place right now. Sure Terry is hurt and they would probably drop out of 4th. Now they are 7th and Terry is hurt and they will drop, perhaps even out of the race for 4th (like Utah and Phx). And was it only 1 game? Absolutely. But the 1 game had wide implications in the standings.
Not all 82 games are equal in the standings, because there are not the chances to leapfrog teams. So now that Terry is out, the Mavs have to look in the rearview mirror not to see if they'll get homecourt, but to see if they are going to to make the playoffs. And yeah 1 game is that difference in the West, and even at this early stage.