So...what's your predictions? - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Murphy3 · 05-06-2006, 10:11 PM

...anything you'd like to predict going into this game?

chumdawg · 05-06-2006, 10:21 PM

Mavs miss their first free throw and then hit 49 straight.

AxdemxO · 05-06-2006, 10:33 PM

Dirk 32 pts 12 boards
Daniels big game if he is playin

Mavs by 13

DubOverdose · 05-06-2006, 10:38 PM

Mavs win, that's all I care about

Locked_Up_Tonight · 05-06-2006, 10:57 PM

It will go 6 games. (The winner is still a little fuzzy however. But my prediction is 6.

jayC · 05-06-2006, 11:04 PM

Mavs in six in a hard fought series. The time is know for the Mavericks. The Spurs are hurt, Manu is hurt, Duncan is not even close to 100 percent. Dirk is playing the best basketball of his young career. Devin has a big game tommorrow with 15 points and 8 assists.

DirkGoesNuclear · 05-06-2006, 11:48 PM

Whoever takes game 1 takes the series.

bernardos70 · 05-06-2006, 11:50 PM

Mavs win by the third, scrubs come in and make the scoreboard look a lot closer than it actually was.

ddh33 · 05-07-2006, 12:02 AM

Mavs in six. Dallas steals game one.

MavsFanFinley · 05-07-2006, 12:07 AM

I'll be surprised if it doesn't go 7 games.

Murphy3 · 05-07-2006, 12:11 AM

Mavs in 5.

Tokey41 · 05-07-2006, 12:13 AM

Mavs in 6 games, and if they are going to steal one they won't get a better chance than Sunday.

rabbitproof · 05-07-2006, 12:15 AM

Mavs erase Spurs from planet Earth.

chumdawg · 05-07-2006, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Mavs in 5.

This is what I am thinking. If the Mavs win Game One (like I think they are supposed to), it's downhill from there.

ames7 · 05-07-2006, 12:33 AM

Give me Mavs in 7. They won't go down easy...but I think they'll go down.

Stranger · 05-07-2006, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MavsFanFinley

I'll be surprised if it doesn't go 7 games.

If it goes seven I expect the Spurs will take it. But I'll predict Mavs in six.

rakesh.s · 05-07-2006, 12:37 AM

I'm thinking mavs in 6..

If the mavs lose this year, I will be pissed off...that's for sure. Everything has been set up for a mavs win this year - spurs having to play on a quick turnaround, parker beaten up in previous round, bowen's ass torched in previous round.

It doesn't get any better than this. Let's get 'em.

chumdawg · 05-07-2006, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stranger

If it goes seven I expect the Spurs will take it. But I'll predict Mavs in six.

I think I agree with you here. If the Mavs can't dispatch the Spurs in six games, they probably aren't the better team.

I don't think it's going seven, no matter who wins. In fact, as I said earlier tonight in another thread, I think it is likely that NONE of the remaining series go seven.

raefformvp · 05-07-2006, 12:38 AM

I predict the first team to win 4 games, wins the series. I know I'm going out on a limb here, but that's what I truly feel.

Oh, and that team will be the Mavs. And it will take 6 games for them to get there.

Dtownsfinest · 05-07-2006, 01:21 AM

Yea this is going to sound crazy but honestly I think its Mavs in 7. I think both teams protect their homecourt until the last game of the series and the Mavs take it in a game decided by one shot.

dude1394 · 05-07-2006, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dtownsfinest

Yea this is going to sound crazy but honestly I think its Mavs in 7. I think both teams protect their homecourt until the last game of the series and the Mavs take it in a game decided by one shot.

That's sort of my thinking as well dtown.

bernardos70 · 05-07-2006, 01:29 AM

That's my idea of me discovering an unknown heart condition I've had forever. You wanna kill me? Lats shot on gaem seveN?

chumdawg · 05-07-2006, 01:30 AM

God, I hope you're both wrong. 'Cause I've seen that series before, and it didn't work out well for the good guys.

nashtymavsfan13 · 05-07-2006, 01:37 AM

I'm thinking Mavs in 6.

I think they'll win by a comfortable 8-10 point margain tomorrow.

Dtownsfinest · 05-07-2006, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bernardos70

That's my idea of me discovering an unknown heart condition I've had forever. You wanna kill me? Lats shot on gaem seveN?

LOL. I never thought of the consequences of the prediction. I may never live to see the Mavs play in the Western Conference finals lol. It would be stressful but well worth it. I hope the Mavs can end this in 4 but I have a strong feeling this series is gonna be long and stressful.

nashtymavsfan13 · 05-07-2006, 02:23 AM

Steve Kerr predicts Spurs in 7, but he's entitled to his own WRONG opinion.

kriD · 05-07-2006, 03:06 AM

It's going to be the Mavs in six

[By Tim Cowlishaw / The Dallas Morning News]

High Noon. It couldn't start any other way.

Mavericks in six. It can't finish any other way.

This is the Mavericks' year to unseat the Spurs, to get to the NBA Finals for the first time ever.

I know this because I have seen it written and heard it said many times on TV. Sometimes the words even came out of my mouth.

You don't believe me. You have your doubts.

That's why I have searched high and low for empirical data that will prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Dallas is superior to San Antonio and will advance to the conference finals.

So many reasons, so little space. Let's proceed.

• Dirk over Duncan: This one would have sounded a little crazy a year ago. No, scratch that. It would have been ludicrous.

Dirk Nowitzki delivered his worst playoff performance ever in 2005. Tim Duncan delivered a championship to San Antonio.

But bothered by a foot injury almost all season, Duncan hasn't been the same player. Even in the playoffs, even after a strong Game 6 to put away Sacramento, Duncan's not in the top 25 in scoring.

He's still a threat, but he's not going to be going for 30 game after game.

Nowitzki is doing exactly that.

He scored at least 30 points in each game of the Memphis series until settling for 27 in Game 4, when Dallas blew away the Grizzlies in the third quarter.

For the first time in his career, he is a force inside and out. The Spurs used to have success putting their stopper, Bruce Bowen, on Nowitzki. That didn't work as well this season after Dirk developed a post-up game. Bowen is five inches shorter.

In the big April 7 game in San Antonio when the No. 1 seed appeared to be on the line, Dallas won with Nowitzki scoring 30 points. Duncan had 13.

• Rise of Howard: A year ago, there was a way to defend the Dallas offense. Help out on Nowitzki. Sag off on Josh Howard. Although the second-year player from Wake Forest had become a solid all-around forward, Howard could not shoot 3s.

He hit 29.6 percent from 3-point range last season. He hit 23.8 percent in the playoffs. Those percentages get you beat.

This year, Howard is more selective and far more accurate. He shot 42.9 from behind the line during the season. He hit half his 3-point tries against Memphis, taking over Game 4 early with 15 first-half points.

With Nowitzki, Howard and Terry all being 40 percent shooters from long range, this is a tougher team to defend.

• Fall of Ginobili: Oh, how it hurts to type those words. We won't even get into whether someone using this space last summer suggested that it would be better to build a team around Manu Ginobili than Nowitzki (it may have happened, I don't see any proof).

But Ginobili, such a key player in the Spurs' championship run a year ago, hasn't been the same player this year. We have seen the greatness of Ginobili only in spurts. Maybe fatigue from a draining Olympic gold-medal run to a long NBA season, followed by 23 playoff games, took its toll.

Ginobili is still capable, no doubt about that. But he's not shooting or scoring as well as he did a year ago, averaging 15 points in the first round, down from 21 in last year's playoffs.

I don't see him staying down. I see him getting better. But the growth of Howard neutralizes the advantage Ginobili gave the Spurs.

• A "D' in Dallas: Lots of doubters out there, especially on that TNT roundtable (still the best pregame, halftime and postgame show in all of sports). But the Mavericks really do play defense.

The Spurs, known for their commitment to defense, held opponents to 43.3 shooting this season. Mavs opponents shot 44.3.

That means one shot out of 100 goes in against Dallas and misses against San Antonio.

In the first round, the Mavericks had a big turnover advantage on Memphis. Dallas doesn't give the ball away. The Spurs actually turned it over more often than a somewhat sloppy Kings team.

• Avery time: It's hard to give a coaching edge to a guy with two playoff series wins against a guy with three NBA titles. That's not what's being said.

But Johnson, driving the Mavericks to play his way – the Spurs' way, really – has given this club a chance. There's a reason his record after 100 games is the best in league history.

Johnson gets it done. And he's going against a team that will, for at least Game 1, be far more tired than the Mavericks. It's hard to win in back-to-back seasons. The Spurs have never done it.

That's not to say that they can't. Despite the problems Duncan and Ginobili encountered, this team won 63 games and had the best record in the West. And we've gone about 800 words here without mentioning the name of Tony Parker, who happens to be the best point guard in this series.

But the defense of Terry and especially young Devin Harris will do a better job against him than the Kings.

Simply put, they will have to. Or all those people picking Dallas will be wrong.

kriD · 05-07-2006, 03:09 AM

It's about time Mavs caught Spurs

[By David Moore / The Dallas Morning News]

SAN ANTONIO – The matchup was inevitable.

It's the outcome that keeps you guessing.

"It was bound to happen," Mavericks guard Jason Terry said of the team's second-round matchup with San Antonio. "We knew we were on a crash course since the season started.

"Now that it's here, we're just excited and ready for the challenge."

The Faux Conference Final is set to begin. It comes one round earlier than it should, but guess what? History shows the best time to take down the defending champions is early.

This is the Spurs' third title defense. The previous two ended before the team could advance past the second round. San Antonio's inability to win back-to-back is part of the reason it's not viewed with shock and awe.

An unexpected challenge from Sacramento in the first round fuels the perception that this Spurs team isn't as good as last season's. That doesn't mean they're ready to grant the Mavericks safe passage.

Tim Duncan started slow against the Kings but finished by averaging 21.2 points and shooting 66.7 percent from the field in the final four games. San Antonio doesn't run as much of its offense through him as it has in the past, but he still demands the occasional double-team and can get the Mavericks' two-headed center of DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier in foul trouble.

Bonzi Wells overpowered Bruce Bowen during the first round, prompting the Sacramento guard to deride Bowen as a finesse defender. Bowen responded by fighting back on offense, averaging 16 points while going 13-of-19 from the field (68.4 percent) in the final two games. If he continues to hit his outside shot, it will compromise what the Mavericks want to do defensively.

Tony Parker? He will get his baseline-to-baseline layups and score in the pick-and-roll, because it's difficult to keep him from getting to the rim. Manu Ginobili will get his isolation plays, and that could be the key.

San Antonio feeds Ginobili the ball when he gets hot. But when he struggles, he's pushed into the background because Parker has come on strong and Duncan remains solid in the post. Ginobili scored 32 points in one game and 27 in another against the Kings. But in the other four games, he was held to 10 points or less.

Ginobili's inconsistency is the reason the Spurs aren't as good on offense as they were last season. Sacramento also showed that San Antonio's interior defense might not be as strong as opponents thought. But part of that's because the Spurs went small in an attempt to match up with the Kings.

Nazr Mohammed should be back in the rotation to start the series. Don't be surprised if San Antonio puts him on Dirk Nowitzki at first, leaving Bowen for Josh Howard and Duncan on Diop.

"We'll start big and then see how the game goes," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "We have a lot of confidence in our small lineup, too. It's kind of developed over the year. But I would think staying big is what we do to start."

The Mavericks believe they are in the midst of a special season.

This is their chance to do something special.

"If you want to be a champion, you want to beat the best," Nowitzki said. "They have been the best in the West for so many years.

"We'll see if we're ready to beat them."

The Mavericks had better do it in six or less. Beating the defending world champions on the road in a Game 7 isn't special.

It's unrealistic.

"They want us," Spurs guard Nick Van Exel said, "so let's see what happens."