A Little Bit of Bad Could be Really Good

The Mavericks have been adiosed in the first round of the playoffs for the past two years. If one were to look at the previous two season's stats, players, and performances along with the same information from this season's team, one would find it unlikely that this season's team would be the one to make it to the second round while the others did not, yet here we are. Maybe that is what going out and hiring a playoff-tested coach will get for a team.

However, the stay in the second round will be short-lived if this team doesn't figure out how to, well, grow a pair. Yesterday's start of the second-round series between Dallas and Denver began with Dirk picking himself up from the floor after a forearm from Kenyon Martin in the opening seconds of the game. The Nuggets or Thuggets as they have come to be called this season wasted no time in setting the tone for the series. It was a cheap shot, of course; and Martin did receive a technical foul but the Nuggets did not care. They were testing the Mavericks by seeing how Dallas would respond to the foul and they failed that test miserably.

No one answered for the foul on Dallas' best player. Jason Terry came to defend Dirk by mouthing something but someone on this Dallas team has got to decide that they will be the heavy. When another team puts a dirty player out on the floor - the Mavs have to counter with someone. It is probably too late for that to happen this season but it is something that should be addressed this off-season.

Denver had their way physically with the Mavericks all afternoon. The Mavericks had chances to answer. Late in the first half, Jason Kidd committed a foul on Anthony Carter as AC was streaking uncontested to the basket. Such fouls, should be hard and memorable. This one was tantamount to a tickle at a teenage-girl's pillow fight.

Watching the game, I was reminded of the 1988 NBA finals which featured the finesse of the LA Lakers' Showtime versus the grind it out style of the Detroit Piston's "Bad Boys." In that series, finesse won out but the Mavericks don't have the star power that Lakers squad did and Kenyon Martin and this current Nuggets team may be meaner than that Bill Laimbeer Piston unit. Those facts do not bode well for Mavericks and their fans.

This Mavericks team appeared to be peaking at just the right time. Can they rise above Sunday's disappointing loss or will they get bullied right out of the playoffs? We'll know soon enough.