Sports: 2006 NBA Play-Off Pool

[Soulstation1]

HEAT UP BY 1 @HALFTIME

[Big Al]

The Mavs are playing chickenshit ball to end the half! Unfuckingbelievable that they let Miami go on a 13-2 run to close out the half! Heat just flat out hustled, and the Mavs played timid.

WAKE UP, MFs!!! THE SEASON IS ON THE LINE!!! GET OUT THERE AND KICK SOME ASS!!! :angry: :angry:

[Big Al]

Another stat just handed out by ABC: the Heat are 25-0 when they lead at the half.

Heat 49

Mavs 48

Hoo boy.......

[JSngry]

It's obvious to everybody but the "men" playing the game that the way to keep a lead in a situation like this is to continue to play the style of offense that got you one in the first place. No excuse for this bullshit.

This team is mentally weak and deserves to have their little baby asses handed to them on a tupperware platter.

So long pussies.

[Bright Moments]

heat looking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Soulstation1]

I'm goin' ALL IN

[Big Al]

I'm going to bed. I can't take this anymore.....

Evan, PM the link to me and I'll order your CD tomorrow.....

'twas nice while it lasted.....

[connoisseur series500]

I'm going to bed. I can't take this anymore.....

Evan, PM the link to me and I'll order your CD tomorrow.....

'twas nice while it lasted.....

How can you leave a game that's tied?

Either team can win this game; and the winner will win the series.

[Bright Moments]

big al dont go to sleep yet! 79- 79!

[connoisseur series500]

Nevermind, stay in bed Al!

[Bright Moments]

HEAT WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh yeah!!!!!

[connoisseur series500]

Shaq has four rings now. One more ring next year then with a full hand the slogan in 2008 becomes: "One more ring for the corn!"

Edited June 21, 2006 by connoisseur series500

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Congratulations Heat. The Mavs got whipped, plain and simple.

I can't and won't blame the loss of the series on officiating, but there were some sad ass calls tonight too. Did anyone notice the foul called on Dirk late in the 4th? Wade drives around him and as he passes by, he sticks his hand in Dirk's face, and Dirk gets called for the foul? Unbelievable.

And the one on the other end when Mourning knocks the driving Mav on his ass. No foul? WTF is that?

The league needs to address the officiating bullshit seriously, and soon.

[Quincy]

Congratulations Heat. The Mavs got whipped, plain and simple.

I can't and won't blame the loss of the series on officiating, but there were some sad ass calls tonight too. Did anyone notice the foul called on Dirk late in the 4th? Wade drives around him and as he passes by, he sticks his hand in Dirk's face, and Dirk gets called for the foul? Unbelievable...

Sure did.

It's a shame that this wasn't game 5, because it'd be interesting to see these teams play each other with better officials.

I like Wade a lot, it's great to see a guy who can score, dish, rebound & block, but before we bronze the guy can we remember:

1) He missed 2 free throws with the game on the line.

2) He threw up a few wild assed stupid shots in game 5 (to go along with his amazing clutch shots.)

3) He gets quite a few phantom calls go his way.

This is one of those championships that will have an asterisk next to it. Not the Heat's fault but the damn league's.

Gawd, now we're going to get more management books from Riley. Son of a bitch, I could practically see him calculating the fees he'll get from motivational speeches he'll line up in July & August. "250k, no 300k. Let's see, we've got '15 strong' trademarked..." Back to the "warrior" "manager as coach" bullshit for the best seller/business bookshelves again. Ugh, I hate that shit.

The league needs to address the officiating bullshit seriously, and soon.

Yup. Of all the U.S. sports there is more talk of the NBA being rigged than any other sport. Hell, I don't know about "rigged" (though past years I've certainly wondered), but I feel like I'm watching women's figure skating from 2 Olympics ago.

[Big Al]

Congratulations Heat. The Mavs got whipped, plain and simple.

Yup. I got no gripes with the officiating in this game, but what do I know? All I know is that the Mavs had a 14-point lead at one point and let it slip away with sloppy air-shots and impatience on the floor. I guess the most frustrating thing was the fact that they did this in every single loss, without changing a thing!

Ah well, the Heat won, and the simple fact is they played better than the Mavs. I'll gladly accept the comparisons of D-Wade to MJ, and now that the series is over I can finally say "WAY TO GO, SHAQ!!!" cuz y'all know how much I love the Big Guy.

Persective also allows me not to judge the Mavs too harshly as well. Back in November, who would've EVER thought that the Mavs, under first-full-year coach Avery Johnson, would've made it all the way to the Finals? Certainly not me, and I think in all the hoopla (pun unintentional) a lot of us Mavs fan forgot what it was that got us this far (for that matter, I think the Mavs may have forgotten that as well): enjoying the ride! Lesson for next year, I s'pose; this team is still young and still hungry, and I don't believe for a seconf that this is their last trip to the Finals.

Still, it was a helluva ride. Thanks Mavs! And enjoy the LP, Evan!

NOW I'm gonna get me a Mavs shirt. Wonder if anyone will still be wearing them around here?

(Alright, one big gripe: you just KNOW Stern was juicing his undies getting to present the Walker Trophy to the Heat on Mark Cuban's playground. THAT reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally sucks!)

[Big Al]

Man, who'd ever have thought that my first order placed with The Bastards would be a losing bet?

[JSngry]

Congratulations to the Heat (except for Antoine Walker, who is one of the most irritating players I've ever watched. Him having a ring makes me sicker than the Mavs choke job), Shaq got one w/o Kobe (and that makes me very happy), D-Wade put in a reputation-solidifying/career-defining performance (forget about the sometimes questionable calls he got - the MF shot like a MF), and the old dawgs like Payton & Mourning, hey, sunset glory is always sweet.

The Mavericks? Well, fuck the Mavericks. A team that does what they did/didn't do has some serious mental & character flaws that go far beyond skills and a truly great coach. If they had played hard and well and still got beat, I'd be more than happy to join the Wait Until Next Year crowd. But a team that repeatedly reverts to proven losing behavior in the most serious of situations is a team that deep down inside doesn't want to win, all protestations to the contrary. Teams like that are more content with forever being the perpetual "outsiders" than with stepping up and getting it done. Teams like that can't be taken seriously as anything other than a pleasant diversion.

This team pretended to be of championship caliber. They fooled a lot of people, including me, and including themselves. They had more than enough skills to get it done. But in the end, when it came time to claim the prize, they proved themselves to be little more than skills in search of a heart and a mind. Avery gave them his, and it worked for quite a long while, but when the ultimate test came, they threw it away. Guess it wasn't really that important to win after all...

And that, I think, is the ultimate lesson here - no matter how much inspiration you, as a team or as an individual, take from without, there inevitably comes a time, often an unlikely and seemingly irrational time, when you will be called upon, no, forced, to throw all that aside and function solely on whatever inspiration you do or do not have inside yourself.

The Mavericks did not answer that call, and one has to wonder if they will ever be able to.

I am not optimistic that they will.

[Big Al]

Gotta seriously disagree with ya there, Jim. While I agree that the proven strategy (as in "proven it didn't work") was a highly questionable thing, I don't think this loss had anything to do with lack of heart or inspiration. I mean, D-Wade is a serious MF!!! He had a magical run, and in those situations you can throw everything you've got at him, and the cat will still be teflon! I think the Mavs did everything they could, and I think in the end, reality finally caught up with them. Or they let it catch up to them. But either way, I don't think this makes them any less of a team. Yeah, they've got a lot to learn, and I think that their youth benefits them in this aspect. Let's face it, where does Miami go from here? A lot of those guys are riding off into the sunset. Had the Heat not won this series, Lord only knows when their next shot would've been. Whereas the Mavs, I truly believe, will be revisiting this situation in years to come. Hell, I'd even bet a Mosaic Select on them making NEXT year's Finals!

Remember, no one, NO ONE, expected the Mavs to come this far. What happened here, IMHO, is akin to taking that 4-year-old trumpet prodigy and placing him on the Carnegie Hall stage, and then being disappointed when the reality of the situation hits the kid! These guys are young; let's enjoy watching them grow!

But I TOTALLY agree with you re: Antoine Walker. Irritating MF indeed!

Edited June 21, 2006 by Big Al

[Joe]

If they had played hard and well and still got beat, I'd be more than happy to join the Wait Until Next Year crowd. But a team that repeatedly reverts to proven losing behavior in the most serious of situations is a team that deep down inside doesn't want to win, all protestations to the contrary.

Ditto.

6 - 5 minutes to go, score tied at 79, Mavs have the penalty, both Zo and Shaq are out of the game, and what do Dirk, Jet et al. do? Settle for jump shots.

Vomit.

[Noj]

Congratulations Heat. I didn't watch the game, I've just finished redecorating my room (yanked out carpet, refinished wood floors, new paint for the walls, new computer desk), and I was moving back in. Dwyane Wade deserved the MVP award, his clutchitude outweighed the favoritism.

[ghost of miles]

And that, I think, is the ultimate lesson here - no matter how much inspiration you, as a team or as an individual, take from without, there inevitably comes a time, often an unlikely and seemingly irrational time, when you will be called upon, no, forced, to throw all that aside and function solely on whatever inspiration you do or do not have inside yourself.

Jim,

Sounds like a good lesson for a jazz musician--or any other artist--or simply a human being. Thanks, as always, for your words, even in the context of an NBA thread.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Last night I could sense the old self doubt creeping back into the Mavs psyche. What was with all those missed shots in clutch time? They were obviously tensing up.

Wade on the other hand was willing his shots to go in. He had the confidence that his shots were going to drop, and they did. Dirk and crew (maybe not Stack; he did his part) clearly acted like they didn't really think like champions.

The shoe was there, but they apparently didn't think that it would fit. This princess turned into a pumpkin.

[Soulstation1]

Miami in 6

[JSngry]

Gotta seriously disagree with ya there, Jim. While I agree that the proven strategy (as in "proven it didn't work") was a highly questionable thing, I don't think this loss had anything to do with lack of heart or inspiration. I mean, D-Wade is a serious MF!!! He had a magical run, and in those situations you can throw everything you've got at him, and the cat will still be teflon! I think the Mavs did everything they could, and I think in the end, reality finally caught up with them. Or they let it catch up to them. But either way, I don't think this makes them any less of a team. Yeah, they've got a lot to learn, and I think that their youth benefits them in this aspect. Let's face it, where does Miami go from here? A lot of those guys are riding off into the sunset. Had the Heat not won this series, Lord only knows when their next shot would've been. Whereas the Mavs, I truly believe, will be revisiting this situation in years to come. Hell, I'd even bet a Mosaic Select on them making NEXT year's Finals!

Remember, no one, NO ONE, expected the Mavs to come this far. What happened here, IMHO, is akin to taking that 4-year-old trumpet prodigy and placing him on the Carnegie Hall stage, and then being disappointed when the reality of the situation hits the kid! These guys are young; let's enjoy watching them grow!

But I TOTALLY agree with you re: Antoine Walker. Irritating MF indeed!

Agree that Wade is a special talent.

But...

I knew, LTB knew, hell, everybody but the Mavs themselves knew that when they started hurrying shots, being careless in their ball handling, and not capitalizing on Miami's missed baskets that they were going to blow their lead(s). It's been that way all season long, dig? And other than Games 1 & 2, that was how they played everytime they opened up a lead. Game 4, hell, they played that way from the git-go.

It was mind-boggling how they consistently opened up a lead playing one way, frittered it away by playing another, got a lot of it back by going back to the first way, and then got further behind by going back to the second way. By the time the refs came into play, it was entirely the Mav's fault that the refs had a chance to make a difference, which is why all the crybaby talk I'm hearing locally about those refs makes me sick. If the Mavs had stayed focused for an entire game, the refs wouldn't have mattered.

Hell - this team was tough enough to beat the Spurs. Wade aside, the Heat are nowhere near the team the Spurs are. Sure, you can say that they were lucky to beat the Spurs, but then you're saying that getting to the Finals was a sham. And I didn't think it was. This team played serious basketball against the Spurs, and they came out on top. Against the Heat, they played like a team who expected to win without having to hump for it.

I can excuse that as "youthful inexperience" in Game 3, but after that, no excuses. You're in the freakin' NBA Finals, for crissakes. It's serious business, and if you don't have the mental/spiritual acuity to learn your lessons the first time through, then you do not belong. Period. How many leads do you have to piss away before you learn your lessons?

Tell me that Dirk showed the heart and mind of a champion. Tell me that Devin Harris learned his lessons the first, second, or even third time through. Tell me that Damp had the fire in his belly every series that he was on the court. Tell me that anybody on this team other than Jason Terry (and not even him consistently) after Game 3 showed that they had figured out that they were going to have to fight a battle for a full 48 minutes if they were going to have a chance. Tell me that this team showed an instinct to kill and not leave until the body was dead instead of just knocking it unconscious for a little while.

And that's the problem right there - this team played great for little whiles of a little while. And if the threat of blowing your whole season isn't enough motivation to get you to stop that crap ASAP, then what is?

Miami played well, no doubt. But the reason why they won and Dallas folded is a simple one - when Miami was cold, Dallas did not adequately capitalize. And when Dallas was cold, Miami did. I can't believe that this consistenly happening for 2 1/8 games (with one forgivable - I suppose - total no-show of a game thrown in) was just "bad luck" or something like that. No - it's a sign that the minds and spirits of a team were not where they needed to be. And for that, there's only one blame, and that is within the self.

It should not have happened, but it did. If, and it's a big if, these guys use this as a painful motivator to grow a pair, then good. But I gotta ask myself this - if fear of a humiliating, collossal, historical failure isn't enough to get it done the first time, then what the hell is?

I'm waiting to be proven wrong. But excuse me if I don't get excited until the ring's on the fingers of a team that doesn't have to be hypnotized by their coach every damn step of the way. Because somebody somewhere will snap their fingers and break that trance.

And then whatcha' gonna do?

[Jim Alfredson]

From the ESPN article:

The player they call "D-Wade" and "Flash" becomes the first star member of the stellar draft class of 2003 to win a title, and his accomplishment will be held up in the year ahead as the thing everyone else from that class -- from LeBron James to Carmelo Anthony to Chris Bosh and the rest -- will be trying to match.

Um... Darko already has a ring, dude.