Listen, Dallas Mavericks -
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Don't mean any disrespect to Golden State, they've played some excellent basketball. And they've done exactly what an upset team has got to do; steal one on the road and then win your home games.
They are 75% of the way there.
Dallas lost 15 games this year. 15. Of 82.
They started the season off cold and dropped their first 4 games. They also lost 4 of their 10 games in April, seeing as they were already in cruise control, having the West locked up. They were using their key players sparingly in these games.
In the stretch after their opening 4 losses (which can be attributed to a slow start) and before the month of April (which can be attributed to resting players), Dallas lost only 7 games... out of
68.
61 wins. 7 losses.
During that span, they had streaks of 12 wins, 13 wins, and 17 wins. Yes. Separate streaks.
There is a word for a team like the Dallas Mavericks. DOMINANT.
Mark Cuban has done an excellent job putting together the best team in the league. The fans have done an excellent job supporting it. They blew it last year in the playoffs and have waited all year for the chance to redeem themselves.
And this is how they show it.
I know that I gave Golden State no respect. Of course, I don't know basketball, so that wasn't that big of a deal. But it isn't like I was alone. Find me people that with a serious expression on their face picked this to go past 6 games.
What's pathetic, though, is that whether or not the general public respected the Warriors or not, you KNEW the Mavericks would. After all, any team that beats you all 3 times they play you, and is responsible for a whopping 20% of your total losses on the season, is going to get your best effort.
So, I'm to understand that the best team in the NBA's best effort is THIS. I've actually watched large chunks of this series, and I'll be damned if this is the best team in the NBA. This team has been flat out pathetic on defense. I can't believe this team dominated during the regular season. Any team capable of playing this poorly on the grandest stage of all should not have been the clear best in the NBA.
Is Dallas going to lose this series? All comes down to game 6. I can't see them losing game 5 (well, I certainly CAN, but I mean honestly, they'd BETTER not for the sake of everyone's sanity). Game 7 in Dallas is another game they simply don't drop.
Game 6 in Golden State? Can't say a Warriors victory would even make me raise an eyebrow.
Congratulations, Golden State. I want to reiterate that I mean them no disrespect. Even if they drop the next 3 games in the series, just what they have done already is more than enough to respect and build on over the next few years.
Shame on you, Dallas. If this is how you thank your fans for all of their support, and this is how you show them that you won't disappoint them again this season, then I'd consider them some of the unluckiest fans in America.
This coming from an Oakland Raiders and Los Angeles Kings fan.
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4 comments:
Watching the game tonight, Vegas, I gotta tell you... You can criticize the Mavs for not putting a product on the floor to make their fans proud, but Dallas fans don't typically put something in the stands to make the players proud.
Watching the two games played at Oracle Arena, I'm impressed with the fans up in Oakland. They are pumped for their team's return to the postseason, and their drive not wanting it to end may be the reason it doesn't.
The Dallas Mavericks have had a consistent presence in the postseason, but the fan presence has been anything but consistent. Only now that they have an MVP candidate and the league's best record is the reason Dallasites have made the trip down to the AAC. I went to plenty of Mavericks games at Reunion Arena when the team was more of a novelty act than a professional organization. Fan support was atrocious. I remember sitting in the half-empty arena (it was not half-full - these were pesimistic times) and watching teams like Portland and Milwaukee and Houston mow over us. But each game I cheered for my Mavs. I was - as we used to say - TRUE BLUE (AND GREEN). For those fans, the ones who went through hell to get to where they are now, supporting the league's best team, I do feel sorry for them. For us.
So while the Mavs may actually be the coldest team in these 2007 NBA playoffs, don't pitty a fan base that doesn't deserve it. Pitty Stars fans, who finally got the goalie performance they wanted out of Marty Turco, only to lose a heartbreaking Game 7 in what may have been the last chance the Stars had to do any playoff damage before the youth movement begins. Pitty Texas Rangers fans for coming to 81 games each year and getting nothing to show for it. Even Mark Teixiera's bat has been M.I.A. this season. Or, most deservingly, pitty the Dallasites that bleed blue and silver, with stars on their cars and dreams of a sixth Super Bowl title. Pitty them for that bobble on a rainy night in Seattle.
But don't pitty the Mavs fans. Pitty Mark Cuban, however. The man may just have a heart attack when this series is over.
Thank you very much for that comment Josh. I completely agree with what you are saying.
I in no way shape or form meant to insinuate that the Mavericks had the best fans around, because they most certainly do not. As you point out, the bulk of fans now are only on board because the team is so good. The true fans are the ones who stick with a team through thick and thin; and I agree with you, there are PLENTY of examples of this in all 4 of the major sports that put the quantity of true Mavericks fans to shame.
My point was simply this; whether you've been wearing your jersey proudly from day 1, or you just started recently when they developed into a force, you STILL deserve better than this.
I hate bandwagon fans more than anything, and I know you've got a lot of them. But whether bandwagon or true, you are a fan, and you devote enough time and money into your team to simply ask in return that they play with as much heart and soul as they possibly can.
And I just haven't seen it yet.
No fans deserve this. If this series was taking place 10 years ago, it'd already be over. Thank goodness it's seven games, but I can't believe this has gone the way it has.
It just breaks my heart to see a team I really want to succeed go down without a fight. I know they're trying, but I don't know what else they can do. Sure, "make shots" and "rebound" are the obvious answers, but Golden State is having a hell of a series. It's been the most entertaining series of the first round, but for me, it's also been the most painful. I just hope the Warriors don't insert the dagger and twist.
ON A RELATED NOTE:
Actually, I just checked the website of the Dallas Morning News and there's a missing persons alert out in Dallas County for the Mavericks. They are missing and if you have any information as to their whereabout, you are to contact the authorities immediately.
Let's go MAVS! Let's go MAVS! What happened, just me left? LOL. I agree with you Vegas, no one could have seen this coming, except ME. I would like to just to say even though I was 1/3 kidding, I had a bad feeling about this series from jumpstreet. No way do I think GS advances past the next round when they face San Antonio, but Nellie ball will prevail in this series. In 6 games.
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