Good Mavs or Bad Spurs?

I make no secret I have been down on the Mavs since the day Mark Cuban fired Avery Johnson.

I will give credit to Rick Carlisle (the new Coach) with inconsistent play all season, the Mavs rolled into the playoffs on a high, and won over 50 games. Fans immediately begin to ponder maybe this coaching change was the right thing to do.....

I still maintain my initial argument and position that this was not a good change. The most recent defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in the 1st playoff series the Mavs have won since losing in the NBA finals in 2006.

At first glance this looks impressive, a few things must be considered:


1) This is a Mavs team with 1 1/2 years of playing with Jason Kidd not just 2-3 months. I will give credit where it is due. Jason Kidd is the type of leader that refuses to let his team lose. He gives them "the heart" that has been sorely missed the past few seasons. I believe he will make an excellent coach in this league some day.

2) The Mavs roster was constructed to beat one team in particular, the San Antonio Spurs. Similar to the match up for the Mavs in 2007 against Golden State, this was a bad match up for the Spurs.

3) Finally, what we actually witnessed in this series was BAD SPURS. The Spurs went into this series without the services of Manu Ginobli. This is equivalent to the Mavs coming in without Jason Terry and Josh Howard combined. In addition, Tim Duncan played with a an injury for most of the series. The shooting was horrendous, the Spurs lacked any consistent offensive production outside of Tony Parker. If a Spurs fan made this claim I would clown them for making excuses for that profound beat down they experienced, which NBA pundits coined, "The End of an Era."

The proof will be in the pudding, the Mavs will be just like the teams that beat them in the previous 2 years. An impressive 1st round series, only to get mauled in the next round where the best team generally wins, not the best match up! The Mavs are already off to a good start in preparation for Summer Vacation.