Media Perception of Mavs

[DirktyBlue]

We get no love from the national media and are perennially labelled soft by some idiots. Does this affect the overall psyche of the team knowing that's how they are perceived on a regular basis even if they win games? This becomes more evident in games such as the one against the Nets. The media is focusing on that game waiting to see who will be the 1st sucker to lose against them. We seem to be under immense pressure to win that game although they are just a bunch of scrubs. Maybe it's the fans that feel the pressure..Maybe it's the team too.

Do our opponents buy into this media frenzy too? It feels like a lot of our opponents (esp. the scrub ones) like to think they have a chance against us. So, every once in a while they jump on us hoping to pull out a win. If they were playing the Lakers or the Celtics they would mentally give up much earlier than put up a fight because of the aura created around those teams by the media.

[Robillion]

I think that logic is definitely valid. It could be we play to our opponents level, but that wasn't the case in any of our blow out wins. In the games that were close by bad teams, those teams actually played well, not necessarily us playing poorly IMO. We have had numerous games where we have shot, rebounded, and forced turnovers well and the game was still close. Makes me think that yeah, crappy teams do come to the court against us with some level of optimism, moreso than the other teams with our record at least.. and belief that they can come back because of our history of come back losses. The Mavericks have been a dramatic win team with come back losses and wins for as long as I have watched them.

[Underdog]

It's the "Cowboys Effect" - people (read: East Coast media) who hate the Dallas Cowboys tend to hate all Dallas sports teams by extension...