Don't Believe the Hype - Games are Rarely Decided by Single Plays

Please don't get me wrong. No one was more upset about the outcome of the Dallas-Denver playoff game last Saturday than I was. The way the game ended was a travesty but not for the reasons you may expect me to list. I thought the non-call of the now infamous phantom foul was malarkey. Those officials knew the situation - they knew Dallas would be using their last foul.

The NBA is usually quick to give out fines and suspensions for fouls they deem to be too hard which makes it even more confusing why no foul was called. Next time a team is in the same situation, they'll make sure they get their money's worth with their foul no matter what the league may decide to do as punishment. HOWEVER, there are some things that must not be forgotten when examining this game.

The Mavs lost by one point - they missed seven free throws in the game. Some may say, "So what, all teams miss free throws." The Mavericks are one of the best free throw shooting team in the league. Their performance Saturday from the charity strip was uncharacteristically choke-worthy. If they had made half of their misses they would have won the game.

One reason the Mavericks played so much better in game three than in the previous two games was because the Mavs posted up Nowitzki and Kidd in one-on-one situations. This strategy worked well all night. Then for whatever reason, in the last three minutes and thirty seconds, Dallas started jacking up the jumpers and at one point missed seven shots in a row from the field. It's hard to win any game missing shots in that manner much less a playoff game.

That brings us to the play everyone has been mulling over on talk radio for the past two days - the attempted foul. When the foul was "committed" it appeared as though the Mavericks and even some of the Nuggets stopped playing. The problem, of course, was that no whistle blew to stop the game. That is a central lesson we teach to young basketball players all over the country - play until you hear a whistle. Apparently, the Mavericks need a refresher course in this area. Fans could blame the officials but coaches and players aren't. They know better than to make such statements. If the Mavericks are the kind of team we hope they are, they are claiming responsibilty for that loss and making up their mind that they will do whatever it takes to never again trust the outcome of the game to anyone other than themselves.

The good news is the Mavericks won tonight and what a gutsy performance by Nowitzky. The bad news - the series is now 3-1 in the Nuggets favor going back to Denver rather than tied at two as it should be. Anything is possible, of course, but I'm afraid by winning, the Mavs have simply delayed the inevitable.

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.