PGT: 4-1, Your Dallas Mavericks advance to the NBA Finals!!!

[clements23]

Originally Posted by 41creepingdeath

cool

[iella]

Originally Posted by Nowitzness81

Bitter Beer face from OKC writer:

Mentally tough? This is a joke, right? Everyone's already forgotten that the Heat were the team with the crying locker room after they lost to Chicago in March? IN MARCH????!!!!

How did they magically get this "tough" label, and why have the Mavs not been able to get it even after dispatching a solid Trailblazers team? After sweeping (SWEEPING!) the defending champs? After coming up clutch two huge games in a row to clinch as Western Conference champs?

Yeah, the Heat are too tough.

[SMC0007]

Thank you Haywood for hitting some free throws!

[MascisMan]

Originally Posted by iella

why have the Mavs not been able to get it even after dispatching a solid Trailblazers team? After sweeping (SWEEPING!) the defending champs? After coming up clutch two huge games in a row to clinch as Western Conference champs?

Not too mention their incredible 5-1 road record in the playoffs.

[MascisMan]

Originally Posted by SMC0007

Thank you Haywood for hitting some free throws!

co-mvp from game 5 with Marion

[nikeball]

Went to the game yesterday... since I live in Suckston (Houston) Texas now.. it is hard for me to go to home games but I picked an awesome game to go to. The AAC was rocking.

I also bought this awesome shirt from a guy as I was exiting the arena.





Go mavs.

[SMC0007]

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/p...526/daily-dime


DALLAS -- Teammates got the limpest, fastest hugs and saw the faintest of smiles from Dirk Nowitzki. He couldn't wait to pawn that trophy off to a teammate, filter to the back of a jubilant pack of Dallas Mavericks huddled at midcourt, and then scamper back to the locker room when no one was looking.

Western Conference champions?

With the cameras still rolling, Nowitzki didn't even stick around for the end of Wednesday night's trophy presentation.

He quietly took his congratulations and some high praise from a pretty fair scoring forward in his day named Rick Barry, slipped out of view while Mavs owner Mark Cuban handled interview duty with ESPN's Doris Burke … and then high-stepped over the scorer's table to get the heck out of there. Like it was 2001 all over again.

Like he had to get off the floor as fast as possible because Karl Malone had just knocked his tooth out.

"All that celebration stuff," Nowitzki said, shaking his head at his locker as his voice trailed off.

"This is not what we play for, bro."

Not yet.

There will be a time to step back and marvel at what's happened during the best six weeks of Nowitzki's basketball life, but this wasn't it. You couldn't find a soul at American Airlines Center who looked less impressed by the KO administered in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals than Nowitzki, who knows better than anyone what -- and most likely whom -- awaits Dallas in the next round.

The Mavericks, for the first time since the worst collapse in NBA Finals history, are going back to the championship round, almost certainly for a rematch with their old friends from Miami. They predictably booked that trip with Nowitzki draining the decisive dagger in the latest late comeback from his Mavs -- this particular 3-ball and Shawn Marion's best game as a Mav leading to a 100-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder -- but Nowitzki just as predictably scoffed at the mere concept of an on-court ceremony just for getting out of the West.

"I was already thinking about the Finals," Nowitzki said once he made it to the interview room, explaining his hurry to ditch that ceremony.

You bet he is.

After they watched Marion match Nowitzki's 26 points in his highest-scoring playoff game since 2007 -- when Marion wasn't combining with Jason Kidd to take Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the rest of OKC's kiddies to night school one last time with veteran defensive know-how -- there was a lot of political talk coming from the Mavs suggesting that the opponent is immaterial. Hogwash. The truth is that most of them have been sucked into thinking about Miami more and more with each win over the young, mistake-prone Thunder, tantalized by the chance to avenge a Finals unraveling that hangs over this franchise -- and its fans -- to this day.

Doesn't matter that Nowitzki and Mavs guard Jason Terry are the only on-court holdovers from the heartbreak of 2006. Doesn't matter that this team, with a backbone of Kidd and Tyson Chandler flanking Dirk, is so much smarter and tougher than the one Pat Riley's Heat vanquished. Edging to the brink of a 3-0 lead and then cratering to four straight defeats on the game's biggest stage, as one team insider puts it, still "lingers in the air every year" around here.

So ...

"Everyone," Terry said, "knows what this next step means."

He continued, "Everybody knows when you wear a Dallas Mavericks uniform, certain things come along with it. … As long as you keep talking about [the last Miami series], it's going to hang over us. Me, Dirk, Mark Cuban, [assistant coach] Darrell Armstrong, we sleep with it every night."

Now, though, comes a chance to banish a half-decade of nightmares, made worse by those three first-round exits that followed their Finals failure. Now comes a first trip to the Finals for Marion, Chandler, Peja Stojakovic and Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, as well as Kidd's long-awaited third shot at a ring. The Mavs always expected to beat OKC, given their huge experience edge over a team that has never gone this far and has no big men who can score. Still, some of Wednesday's scenes at the AAC were nonetheless surreal, because so many familiar faces who've endured postseason torment -- with Dallas or elsewhere -- now have an unexpected title shot that didn't seem possible back on New Year's Day, when Caron Butler was lost to a season-ending knee injury.

"You don't understand how hard it is to get to this point," Stojakovic said. "These opportunities don't come up in your career as much as you want."

Said Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, exasperated by the manner in which the Mavs teased them again for 40-something minutes before turning it all around in crunch time: "They didn't sweep the Lakers for no reason. They're a good team."

Good enough for Terry and Chandler to get the ball back to Nowitzki for the go-ahead 3 with 74 seconds left after Dirk had missed a 3 seconds earlier. Good enough to outscore the Thunder by 24 points in the final five minutes of regulation in Games 4 and 5 combined. Good enough to earn another crucial week of rest for Kidd's 38-year-old bones, similar to the helpfully long break Dallas had before this round. Good enough to rank as the only team in these playoffs to never trail at any point in any round. Good enough to stay on the short list with the mighty Lakers and San Antonio as the only three teams to represent the West in the Finals for the past 13 postseasons … while nine teams in the East have made it to the Finals in the same span.

"If you look, to a man, this team is better than it was in 2006," Terry said. "To a man. The whole makeup. The chemistry, just all together. … Just look at the point guard on that team. It was me. Look at the point guard on this team: Jason Kidd. Big difference.

"All the stars have to line up for you to win it all. They're in place right now. It's just on us now to go out and finish the job."

The Heat (OK, OK, or Chicago) won't make it as easy as the Thunder did, short-circuiting this courageous effort in the aftermath of their own 2006-esque Game 4 meltdown with another dose of malfunctioning execution in the fourth quarter. There's also the very legitimate possibility that Nowitzki has played so well in this transformative postseason -- shredding OKC for an average of nearly 12 points in fourth quarters alone -- that he might be able to dodge the heavy shrapnel this time even if the Mavs lose to the East champ.

Not that you can convince Nowitzki that anything less than a "better ending" at the last hurdle, as the 32-year-old calls it, will ever allow him to gloat about his systematic destruction of the Portland Trail Blazers, Lakers and Thunder.

Since the Mavs clinched their only other Finals berth on the road in Phoenix back in 2006, winning the West in 2011 is the biggest party they've ever had in front of their own fans, in a sporting community that reveled in the World Series last fall and then hosted the Super Bowl in February. Carlisle insisted that Nowitzki "is excited," but that looked like a serious stretch by the time Nowitzki made it to his latest ho-hum appointment at the postgame podium, during which he naturally dislodged the microphone from its stand before consenting to break down Dallas' 10th win in 11 games since it blew a 23-point lead at Portland in Game 4 in the first round.

"We talked about it, obviously, after the game, that this is a great moment," Nowitzki said. "We can enjoy it for a day. But we got one of those [conference championship] trophies already. And it didn't mean anything at the end."

[dirt_dobber]

Originally Posted by iella

Mentally tough? This is a joke, right? Everyone's already forgotten that the Heat were the team with the crying locker room after they lost to Chicago in March? IN MARCH????!!!!

How did they magically get this "tough" label, and why have the Mavs not been able to get it even after dispatching a solid Trailblazers team? After sweeping (SWEEPING!) the defending champs? After coming up clutch two huge games in a row to clinch as Western Conference champs?

Yeah, the Heat are too tough.

Preach on brother'

[Fragism]

Originally Posted by Dirkadirkastan

This video after Game 4 shows it. Not the old Haywood worrying about minutes; he wasn't even on the floor during the comeback.

Haywood is really well spoken. I think he would be good as a TV/radio commentator when he retires, he'd do a way better job than morons like Mark Jackson.

[Nowitzness81]

Norm is laughing about Maynor waving everyone off and iso'ing against Dirk last night on the pivotal play at the end. I didn't even realize at the time how ridiculous that moment was. Can you imagine being a Thunder fan and watching that?

It would be like Barea waving off Dirk and Terry for a shot in the final seconds. Ugh.

[kchan4487]

Originally Posted by 41creepingdeath

EPIC!

[Murphy3]

One thing's for sure..the Mavs need to play better ball next round than they did against the Thunder. They've got to get more out of Terry and Peja. I have a feeling that Barea will be able to get to the rim more in the next series.. I also believe that the Mavs will have better looks from beyond the arc.

[LetsGoMavs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qREe_...&feature=feedu

Definitely one of the more underrated plays of the game - you gotta love Tyson's reaction!

[alexamenos]

-l loved the early taking-care-of-business exit by Dirk. That was an all-time classic now-is-not-the-time-to-celebrate statement. Contrast that with Heat's premature emotional ejaculation ater the Boston series and even after their win in game 4;

-the extent to which Dallas has outplayed their opposition in the latter part of the 4th quarter has reached epic proportions. Someone, maybe me, needs to recap the 4th q domination beginning with game one v. Portland;

-re small ball -- not a big fan of that move. I don't think you want turn the game into a track meet and an open lane to the rim against OKC. The 8-0 run to go ahead began when Chandler returned, perhaps not altogether coincidentally;

-Peja sucked and that was kinda disappointing. We were leading 66-63 when Peja missed a wide-open three. That was right after the stupid Westbrook T and the building was ready to explode. Instead of kicking OKC hard in the crotch, KD comes down and nails a 3....unfortunate turn of events;

-I wouldn't want to see Doris Burk nekkid if she was in a three way with the girl in that t-mobile gif and polevault girl (before she got fat);

-If only to draw the ire of jthig, lhd and underdog.....jesus h christ kidd's unwillingness to take virtually uncontested 8 footers drives me crazy. I swear there were at least two times when Kidd was not guarded, no further than 10' from the rim, and the OKC's help defense backed off of him even further. In both cases he was desperately looking for somewhere to throw the ball;

-we need a coordinated plan for dealing with heat trolls. I suggest that we only respond to heat trolls with ticket schtick, dallas-mavs.com inside jokes, and references to 1990's era texas rangers (so....are you going to get something to eat or go to the range?);

-oh yeah....phew. That okc team kinda scared the piss out of me;

-best team in the nba by a million miles. bring on the emmeffing heat.

[Blackspider]

Originally Posted by SMC0007

Thank you Haywood for hitting some free throws!

Hell yeah!!! And we needed every one of those in retrospect. He hit 4 in a row basically. I thought the world was about to end.

[Flacolaco]

So...I have been to the AAC, conservatively....I don't know... let's call it three hundred times. I have NEVER seen it like that. Just...the scene, and the vibe. It was just amazing. And it went on and on after the ceremony. In the bathroom, in the halls, down the escalators, out in the plaza, the streets, the parking lot...hell, I could see people partying and cheering on the freeway. What a joy to take part in it.

I've heard similar decibel levels after playoff OT wins for the Stars, but that's 18,000 people vs 21,000 people, so obviously the basketball crowd can get louder.

The pure, unmitigated, unbridled joy of the moment where Marion got that and one...television could never do it justice. It was just a raw, primal outpouring of emotion. I sit there 41 times a year and am pretty analytical about the Stars for defendingbigd but I was completely out of that element last night. I had to watch it again when I got home just to piece the journey together in my head and figure out how that went from a 46 minute kick in the balls to the embodiment of joy.

I was so fortunate that a friend of mine, who is really reckless with his money, bought those tickets. I wonder how stupid I can get him to be on Saturday morning at 10am when tickets go on sale for the Finals.

[kingmalaki]

Congrats on making the Finals. It should be a good and exciting series vs Miami )I'm expectng them to close).

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

-we need a coordinated plan for dealing with heat trolls. I suggest that we only respond to heat trolls with ticket schtick, dallas-mavs.com inside jokes, and references to 1990's era texas rangers (so....are you going to get something to eat or go to the range?);

Still think we should ban every single one of them. The chance we box out someone who is legitimately here just to talk basketball and not throw around thinly veiled passive-aggressive trash talk is about .0001%.

[Flacolaco]

I have a feeling the ban bazooka will have a pretty sensitive trigger.

And if I research anyone's IP and find they are a "Heat fan" that lives in DFW...we're not going to ban them. We're going to pile on them and bring the very fires of hell down upon them.

[iella]

Originally Posted by dirt_dobber

Preach on brother'

Sister, actually.

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

-If only to draw the ire of jthig, lhd and underdog.....jesus h christ kidd's unwillingness to take virtually uncontested 8 footers drives me crazy. I swear there were at least two times when Kidd was not guarded, no further than 10' from the rim, and the OKC's help defense backed off of him even further. In both cases he was desperately looking for somewhere to throw the ball

That sh!t drives me crazy too - I honestly think Kidd is afraid of getting blocked, doesn't want to be on the wrong end of a SportsCenter highlight.


But I'd still take his downside over Devin Harris's downside 10-out-of-10 times...

[clements23]

do you guys have the video links on game 5? I haven't seen it until its over . if someone give me the link, I'll pray for Dallas Mavericks to win their trophy ! #promise

[SMC0007]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

-l loved the early taking-care-of-business exit by Dirk. That was an all-time classic now-is-not-the-time-to-celebrate statement. Contrast that with Heat's premature emotional ejaculation ater the Boston series and even after their win in game 4;

-the extent to which Dallas has outplayed their opposition in the latter part of the 4th quarter has reached epic proportions. Someone, maybe me, needs to recap the 4th q domination beginning with game one v. Portland;

-re small ball -- not a big fan of that move. I don't think you want turn the game into a track meet and an open lane to the rim against OKC. The 8-0 run to go ahead began when Chandler returned, perhaps not altogether coincidentally;

-Peja sucked and that was kinda disappointing. We were leading 66-63 when Peja missed a wide-open three. That was right after the stupid Westbrook T and the building was ready to explode. Instead of kicking OKC hard in the crotch, KD comes down and nails a 3....unfortunate turn of events;

-I wouldn't want to see Doris Burk nekkid if she was in a three way with the girl in that t-mobile gif and polevault girl (before she got fat);

-If only to draw the ire of jthig, lhd and underdog.....jesus h christ kidd's unwillingness to take virtually uncontested 8 footers drives me crazy. I swear there were at least two times when Kidd was not guarded, no further than 10' from the rim, and the OKC's help defense backed off of him even further. In both cases he was desperately looking for somewhere to throw the ball;

-we need a coordinated plan for dealing with heat trolls. I suggest that we only respond to heat trolls with ticket schtick, dallas-mavs.com inside jokes, and references to 1990's era texas rangers (so....are you going to get something to eat or go to the range?);

-oh yeah....phew. That okc team kinda scared the piss out of me;

-best team in the nba by a million miles. bring on the emmeffing heat.

Yup, no doubt. I punched my hands yelling at the TV for him to take a few of those. Layups, runners, pullups etc. They are all there and he needs to take them.

[DirkFTW]

Originally Posted by LonghornDub

Still think we should ban every single one of them. The chance we box out someone who is legitimately here just to talk basketball and not throw around thinly veiled passive-aggressive trash talk is about .0001%.

Thisssssssssssssssssssssssss

[Murphy3]

Yep, it's at least once a game that Kidd passes up a layup when his defender is already beaten.

[Monstergame]

nice article btw.

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011...ks/?xid=si_nba

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by Monstergame

nice article btw.

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011...ks/?xid=si_nba

LOL, Haslem can't guard Dirk...

The difference between 2006 and now: Dirk is better, Haslem is worse.

[deamon]

Originally Posted by Mavericks Rockets Fan

Jason Kidd: Good win...4 more to go. East coast here we come.

Ok series is over:

Kidd 38.5 FG%, 36 3p%, 90 FT%
Westbrook 36 FG%, 20 3p%, 83 FT%

[Murphy3]

Again, I think JJ is going to have an absolutely huge series.

[Mav Addict]

I truly believe Kidd passes up those shots b/c he thinks once he pass to an open teammate they have a better percentage of making that shot instead

He is shooting around 35%...a teammates shooting percentage on the receiving end of one of his passes is around 60%....believe me, he knows this, even if he is 8ft from the basket

[Mav Addict]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Again, I think JJ is going to have an absolutely huge series.

I agree, and so will Peja

[Murphy3]

Originally Posted by Mav Addict

I truly believe Kidd passes up those shots b/c he thinks once he pass to an open teammate they have a better percentage of making that shot instead

He is shooting around 35%...a teammates shooting percentage on the receiving end of one of his passes is around 60%....believe me, he knows this, even if he is 8ft from the basket

I truly believe that he makes the wrong decision when he doesn't take the ball to the rim when that option is available. Almost every game he has that opportunity. When there's no one between you and the rim and you're 10 feet away, you need to go to the rim.

[SMC0007]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Again, I think JJ is going to have an absolutely huge series.

I get it!

[Mav Addict]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

I truly believe that he makes the wrong decision when he doesn't take the ball to the rim when that option is available. Almost every game he has that opportunity. When there's no one between you and the rim and you're 10 feet away, you need to go to the rim.

Oh I agree, but Jason Kidd is the most pass first player in NBA history behind John Stockton...he will always look to help give another player a better shot, despite the difficulty of his own shot....he is no longer that player from earlier in his career

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

I truly believe that he makes the wrong decision when he doesn't take the ball to the rim when that option is available. Almost every game he has that opportunity. When there's no one between you and the rim and you're 10 feet away, you need to go to the rim.

I think he has multiple opportunities every game where his defender is completely out of position -- he could waltz into the lane down to about 10' without any resistance -- but he let's it pass.

[LonghornDub]

But the Mavs have proved that their 43-10 start and championship-worthy scoring margin were fair representations of who they are as a team.

...what?

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by LetsGoMavs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qREe_...&feature=feedu

Definitely one of the more underrated plays of the game - you gotta love Tyson's reaction!

I also loved that Brendan wanted to preen a little bit and then remembered "oh crap, I better get back or the rest of the team is going to kick the stew out of me.." then big hustle..

He's really getting it now. I heard he brought an old coach up to help with free throws, Gary Boren might have some competition.

And re-watching it Tyson was a hoot.

[DirkFTW]

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/pl...m5_phantom.nba

Who in the world is that screaming at the beginning? Mahinmi?

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Is it true that Westbrook was the only Thunder who refused to shake hands with the Mavericks after being beaten?

[GhostFace]

Been reading these forums for years and finally had to register. That 3 last night was so unreal. After 5 long years, back to the biggest stage! Mavs!