Playoffs GDT: Blazers @ Mavs, Game 2, 4/19/2011, 8:30pm central (TNT)

[LonghornDub]

Get it. Again.

[Flacolaco]

I am effing excited to be attending my first playoff game tonight in a few years. Not sure why, things just fall like that sometimes.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

I am effing excited to be attending my first playoff game tonight in a few years. Not sure why, things just fall like that sometimes.

Bring us fortune and glory.

[Mavsfan4ever]

Let us pray.

Oh mighty Chuck we ask that you watch over our Mavericks as they take to war on the hardwood this night leading them to victory. Please grant them the strength and power of your roundhouse kick so that they might smite down the blasphemous Portland Trailblazers this night. In Chucks name we pray.

Amen.


(Hey it worked for game 1.)

[Underdog]

Stomp them bitches (again...)

[sefant77]

Just kick the crap out of them so they have a real reason to cry because they simply suck, without any lame ref blaming.

Portland Fail Blazers

[Mavsfan4ever]

I'm not sure what to make of Charles Barkley predicting us to win this series.

[xavier]

pssssst, hey rick, give brewer a shot!

[fluid.forty.one]

GO MAVS!

[LSMF]

Hopefully the Mavs get a win. I'm sure they'll come out strong we all know what we're capable of doing. I hope Brewer gets a few minutes because I'm sure he can wreck havoc on those fxcksticks. The kid is probably itching to play his first playoff minutes. Anyway Good Luck to our guys. I hope the crowd is rocking like it was in Game 1.

PS- Hey Portland, the Refs CAN'T save you.

[left texas]

Cannot let this one get away from us. Go Mavs!!!

[Dirkadirkastan]

Kick 'em while they're down.

[JeffViggiano]

destroy them!!!!

LaMarcus will have 20FTs but we can win anyway!go mavsssssssssss

[rabbitproof]

BREAK MORE TEETH.

[Sportstudi]

A win would be so sweet. Some of those Portland fans are the most blinded homers I haver ever seen in my life. Thinking the treatment of Dirk during the first three quarters was fair and square... what a bunch of retarded idiots.

[Bayliss]

I bet the Mavs draw Dan Crawford tonight.

[Rick41]

I want Dirk to destroy them.

[FromDownTown!]

Who's going to be our Robbin tonight, Jet, Kidd, Stevenson, Paja, JJ, maybe even Brew??? We may need two Robbin's because because of the double D on Dirk.

[j0Shi]

Picks that will go down tonight:

Blazers in 5

[kg_veteran]

Having tasted blood, it will be impossible for these Mavericks to turn away until the Blazers from Portland have been devoured. Once more bones will be crushed, flesh will be torn, and the blood of our foes will run freely in the streets around the AAC.

Chuck has spoken. Resistance is futile.

[sefant77]

Originally Posted by Bayliss

I bet the Mavs draw Dan Crawford tonight.

Bingo.

Portland @ Dallas Dan Crawford Pat Fraher Ed Malloy

http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html

I thought Stern saves him for Game 5 but i guess he will do game 5 too.

[j0Shi]

[Funkman]

Eff Dan Crawford. Eff the Blazers. Just bring it!

[jthig32]

I think the winner of this game wins the series.

Do it.

[rabbitproof]

Another sunset night! Bring it onnnnnnnnnnn.....

[kenny_817]

Crawford...SMH

[jleefilled]

Need more momentum. It will be tough, but I will reiterate the wisdom of others -- win this game, win the series.

[kenny_817]

This from mdug on twitter
"@mdug: Not a reliable source, but also remember that, in his book, Donaghy claimed Crawford bragged about Mavs record when he officiated."
Thoughts?

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by Bayliss

I bet the Mavs draw Dan Crawford tonight.

Originally Posted by sefant77

Bingo.

Portland @ Dallas Dan Crawford Pat Fraher Ed Malloy

http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html

I thought Stern saves him for Game 5 but i guess he will do game 5 too.

Saw it coming before I even scrolled down the page...

[DMOC]

Dan Crawford...

Mavs 1-16 in last 17 playoff games he's officiated.

[OSUmavsfan]

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/maver...d-is-in-dallas

I guess Dirk will just have to go for 50 tonight

[bernardos70]

F*ck Dan Crawford. F*ck the Blazers.

Let's whoop them.

[12 Tone Melodies]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Bingo.

Portland @ Dallas Dan Crawford Pat Fraher Ed Malloy

http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html

I thought Stern saves him for Game 5 but i guess he will do game 5 too.

Just moving up I-35; refs for Sunday's Spurs/Grizzlie game 1 were #9 Derrick Stafford, #52 Pat Fraher, #14 Ed Malloy

[Funkman]

Odd that they switch out Stafford for Crawford and noone else.

[Rick41]

Dan Crawford, the NBA sends it's top dawgs to stop any momentum the Mavs might gain.

F YOU.

[mavs777]

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=310419006

DALLAS (AP) -- As the highest-seeded Western Conference team to win its playoff opener, the Dallas Mavericks should be feeling pretty good about themselves.

They don't.

Sure, the Mavs are happy to be up 1-0 on the Portland Trail Blazers going into Game 2 on Tuesday night, and happier still to have won with their defense.

But they also remember what happened last year, when they got giddy about winning a grind-it-out opener at home against San Antonio. Dallas got smacked around in Game 2 and wound up also losing Games 3 and 4 on the way to being eliminated in six games.

"They really came out smoking in Game 2 and were all over us," Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki said Monday. "They were just more ready, I felt like, and then we had to react, and it was kind of too late. That's what the Blazers are going to do tomorrow, they're going to leave it all out there. We've got to be ready for the first hit and be aggressive also, and just go from there."

Last year's Game 2 meltdown was no isolated incident. It continued a trend that stretches back to the high point in franchise history, when Dallas took a 2-0 lead on Miami in the 2006 NBA finals.

The Mavs followed that win with a loss and eventually lost the series. Starting there, they've followed eight of their last 10 postseason victories with a loss. Both exceptions came in a 2009 first-round series against the Spurs, which happens to be the only series they've won since reaching the '06 finals.

It's a bad habit they know they have to break.

"It starts in practice," said guard Jason Terry, who along with Nowitzki are the only players left from the '06 club. "If you've watched us the last two days, we're treating this as Game 1 all over again. I mean, we came in, we prepared, we went at each other hard. Everybody was pretty in-tune about the game plan. It's all about focusing in on the task. Nothing else matters."

A lot of strange things happened in the opener of this series, from Dallas' Jason Kidd scoring 24 points -- three more than he had in any game this season -- to Portland center Marcus Camby having more assists than Kidd.

Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan found it especially curious that the Mavericks took 29 free throws while his team took only 13. The disparity was even more mind-boggling considering Dallas scored only one basket in the paint in the second half. He voiced his complaints about the officiating, and on Monday was fined $35,000 by the league office.

McMillan also was perturbed by his club's wayward 3-point shooting (2 of 16) and the poor production from Gerald Wallace (4 of 13, eight points) and Brandon Roy (1 of 7, two points).

"For the most part, we had open looks," McMillan said. "We're going to get open looks the way their defense plays. We've got to knock those shots down."

The Blazers lost out on hustle plays, too, things that don't always show up in the stat sheet but are glaring on tape. That tape was rolling before they hit the practice court Monday.

"It just looked like they wanted it more than we did," McMillan said. "Those are plays that you must make in playoff games to give yourself a chance to win."

The flip side to all this is that despite doing so many things wrong, Portland was within a basket in the final minutes and only lost 89-81. The Blazers figure that if they can clean up even only a few of these trouble spots then they can be headed home with a split.

For Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge, Dallas actually is home. He went to his mom's place for a home-cooked meal Sunday night, and has enjoyed being around friends and family. It certainly hasn't detracted from his focus because he scored 27 points in the opener. He also helped pester Nowitzki into making only 7 of 20 shots, a ratio Portland would gladly take again.

"Being at home hasn't really been an issue for LaMarcus," McMillan said. "He's focused on what he needs to do."

For a coach he sure does talk alot

[mavs777]

we are screwed

[nowhereman]

MURDER THEM

THEN "ACCIDENTALLY" BREAK CRAWFORD'S LEG

[mavs777]

espn_macmahon Tim MacMahon
by EKS_MavsNBA
"Not saying a word," Mark Cuban wrote via email when given a chance to weigh in on Danny Crawford coming to Dallas for Game 2.

[Rick41]

Twitter is going ape shit with Crawford/Mavs stuff.