Maverick Thought

I'll post my thoughts about the Raptors season some other time. Right now, I'm tuned into the playoffs, and other than of course going for the Lakers to win the ring, my favourite player, Dirk Nowitzki, just got a big road win in San Antonio in what I think is the most underrated series in the opening round. That's because my other favourite baller, Manu Ginobili, is injured - otherwise, the Spurs would easily take this series - but because of his absence, it's made it a compelling matchup.

It's anybody's game. Hell, I'm even betting the Mavs take it, but am afraid to get too ahead of myself because poor Dirk and his Mavs have crumbled since that Finals run. Plus, you can never underestimate the Spurs. So, with Ginobili out, the way I see it, its a pretty balancing act which is what makes this series so fun - it could stretch to seven games, which I'm hoping it doesn't, because it'll be in San Antonio, but then again, the last time this happened between these two teams, Dirk made one of the biggest plays, driving down the lane, scoring and getting fouled to eventually win the game/series.

So I was extremely hyped up to see this game tonight. The way I see it, Tony Parker can run circles around anybody, so hopefully Kidd+Terry can somewhat counter him, Duncan and Nowitzki cancel each other out (not in a head to head matchup, just great-players wise), and all of a sudden we're left with anything goes. So, thoughts from Game 1

• Tony Parker, not surprisingly, was penetrating the Mavs to death, why the hell did he stop? The Dallas defense did step it up, but not to the point where Tony Parker-Longoria couldn't keep driving it at will.
  
• Even down 13 when it looked BAD for Dallas, I had hope the Mavs could come back, and did, the best part of it being with Nowitzki on the bench due to foul trouble.
• Jose Calderon? NO, Jose (Juan) Barea! Who the hell saw him having such a strong impact. Tenacious little player, how annoyed was Tony Parker whom Pop had to talk to during a timeout to tell him not to start going one on one and making it personal (I'm assuming he was referring to JJ Barea's scoring)
• Brandon Bass - his body is scary, that crunch time fadeaway on Michael Finley even scarier if you're a Spurs fan
• Matt Bonner's reactions are still hilarious when he gets called for a foul or makes a bad play - looks over at Gregg Popovich scared to death.
  
• Michael Finley's corpse is still deadly - guy still hits threes like its nothing.
  
• Erick Dampier played HARD - props to him. Duncan still had a good game, but the defense of Damp was solid - about as well as you could play TD.
  
• Speaking of Duncan - no one uses the glass like him. Those two jumpers in Dampier's face were a thing of beauty, he almost willed it in, hitting the rim and in.
  
• Really sad to see Manu on the bench, must be killing him not being on the court. Although like I said, I don't it'd be much of a series if he were playing.
• Glad to see Kidd start to post up Parker all the way to the paint - gives me horrendous flashbacks of when he did that to TJ Ford in the playoffs and just killed us.
• Josh Howard always surprises me. He's one of those players that you know is really good, but still surprises you :s
• How healthy is Duncan? We know he's not 100%.
  
• I know Dirk was in foul trouble, so next game he has to go at Bonner, Gooden, or whoever the hell is trying to check him, just as Hubie Brown said.
• Speaking of whom, Hubie Brown adds so much to the games - I hope he lives 20 more years so we can hear his break-em-down-to-the-tee style analysis.
  
• Rick Carlisle, for some reason, looks to me like he could star as an older Patrick Bateman in a future version of American Psycho. Don't ask me why.
• Quote: "We're a humble team, but we're hungry." - Rick Carlisle
  
• Lookin' forward to Game 2.