[外電] Mavericks looking for a miracle in regular-season stretc

看板Mavericks (達拉斯小牛)作者Paraguay (巴拉圭)時間17年前 (2009/03/20 11:24)推噓0(0推 0噓 0→)

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Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/287/story/1266552.html ********************************************************************* Dallas Mavericks looking for a miracle in regular-season stretch run Posted on Wed, Mar. 18, 2009 / By JIM REEVES ********************************************************************* DALLAS — It’s hard to forget 2006 and Miami, isn’t it? That’s why we still get mad at the Dallas Mavericks so easily. Face it, we’re still hot about the Heat. Or at least some of us are. We keep thinking that one day the Mavs will get out of bed, snap their fingers and it’ll be the 2006 NBA Finals all over again, the Mavs up 2-0, halfway to the championship, and this time they won’ t blow it. Two first-round disappointments later and we’re still thinking the Mavs should be an NBA Finals-type of team. Get over it. This ain’t those Mavs, and it’s time we faced that fact. They’re not bad, but they’re not that good anymore either. So get used to it. All of our perspectives on this Dallas team, which faces the Hawks in Atlanta tonight in the first of back-to-back road games, should have changed by now. Instead, 68 games into the season, we’re still disappointed when the 2006 Mavs don’t show up on the court each night. This team is certainly aggravating. It seems to have a sense of exactly how much effort is needed to beat even badly depleted, under-talented teams such as Detroit on Tuesday night at the AAC, and yes, sometimes, it even badly misjudges that. Nobody shows any love to a lazy team that only gives the effort it thinks is just enough to win. Yet, with 14 games left to play, eight at home where they haven’t lost since before the All-Star break, and three of those six road games against nonwinning teams, the Mavs need to go a makeable 10-4 to finish with 51 victories, which is exactly how many last season’s team won. And didn’t former coach Avery Johnson tell us that it was "a miracle" that last season’s team won that many games? Get ready for Miracle II. Get ready for the Mavs, over these final 14 games, to move up from the No. 8 seed and a first-round playoff matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers to at least seventh, maybe even sixth. Obviously the Mavs, ousted the last two years in the first round by Golden State and then New Orleans, don’t want the Lakers in the first round. But we’ve seen them play with the Spurs, and they could beat either Portland or a Tracy McGrady-less Houston in a first-round matchup. So as infuriating as the Mavs have been, as ragged as they’ve seemed at times in losing to inferior teams, in failing to show up against teams with two or three key players missing, this team might have a surprise or two left for us yet. Of course, it’s just as capable of sending us into a hair-pulling frenzy out of frustration. "It must give you gray hair," coach Rick Carlisle cracked (he obviously peeked) after I asked him about his team almost blowing a 14-point fourth-quarter lead against the Pistons. "I like that we can build leads, but in this league, teams are going to make runs. You’d like to close games better than we did [Tuesday] night, but sometimes you have to hang on for dear life and take the win and run. "You have to be careful about going too crazy with your team about it, because sometimes you’re trying and you’re just not as quick and you’re just not as able. But, listen, we’ve won a lot of close games and we’ve done better in the last month and a half of building leads and being able to finish games. Both parts of that equation are going to have to be better, no question." Still, how many teams win games in which their starting guards — in this case, Jason Kidd and J.J. Barea — combine for a total of seven points and shoot zero free throws? Not many, I suspect. As Dirk Nowitzki pointed out, the lack of a killer instinct has been a seasonlong problem for the Mavs. "Those are the kinds of nights where the starters should be icing down with five minutes to go," Dirk said. "I don’t know if we’re relaxing too early or if we’re losing our focus for a couple of minutes, but teams in this league are too dangerous. A couple of 3-pointers, a couple of mistakes on defense, and a team is right back in it. We just have to keep our focus defensively. "[Detroit] was one of those nights where we should have been able to get some rest going into this back-to-back, but we’re trying to move up, so we just have to take the win however we can get it at this point." Granted, the win was the most important thing. And the Mavs can also take heart that they’re 15-3 this season in games decided by five points or less. "That’s a nice stat, especially going down to the playoffs, knowing a lot of games come down to the wire, executing in the fourth, getting big stops," Nowitzki said. This a complete reversal of last year’s team, which was 7-11 in games decided by five points or fewer. "It was one of the areas we needed to improve on from last year," Carlisle agreed. "The year before last, when they won 67, they won almost every close game. Last year, it kind of flip-flopped. We knew that to be successful, we had to win a lot of close games. "Thirty percent of your games during the season are going to be one-possession games during crunch time, so you have to be able to close. We have a veteran team that knows how to win. Winning the close games is huge." Winning any tough games for this Mavs’ team is huge, in fact, just another reminder that it’s definitely not 2006 any more. ********************************************************************* -- Only the strong survive- Iverson ⊕ ═█┘ ⊕ ●╱ 　　　Ｗ ● ●︵ ● ●)) ３╯ <３\ /３⊕ ／３﹚ ３ \\ />⊕ >/ ⊕ ╲> >> ========= http://www.wretch.cc/blog/AWEI3 ========= -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 58.114.81.64