Lonestar Showdown Begins, Saturday
By mrehome
(Fansided) — This is the time of year, whether your team is in the playoffs or not, all NBA fans look forward too. For my case, I love seeing that my home town team, the team that I mirror this blog after the San Antoino Spurs have made another trip back into the playoffs and what better way to kick it off with then our “I-35” Rivals the Dallas Mavericks.
Now many Spurs fans know that their is also heat not just with the Mavericks team but with the owner for the comments he made years ago about our Riverwalk and the “DIRTY WATER”. We here in San Antonio take the Riverwalk with pride as it is, outside of the Alamo the other staple of our beautiful city. But to Marc Cuban he can’t stay to take site of it, but thank god he does have some guys on their that respect what we provide.
Won wins this series? ( polls)
“We’re going down to the River Walk, a place we’ve been many times before,” Mavs guard Jason Terry said.
Though there will be stuff for the Mavericks to do while here there is still business at hand and come Saturday night when game one tips off on ESPN at 8:00 PM EST, all the off-court stuff gets thrown out and hard noise basketball is played.
There are a few questions that come to mind when looking not only in this series but also in the Spurs run in general.
First off, my matchup to watch for and could be key in this game is the point guard position. It all starts with our leader Tony Parker whom in fact has not been in MVP talks but still is having a great year for the team. He goes up against a veteran guard in Jason Kidd. Though Kidd is a bit stronger than Parker, Tony has shown since coming into the league that no matter how small he is, he will still find a way in getting into the lane and I see him doing just that and more.
He is going to be key. He will need to take care of the ball for us as well as get everyone involved, as he has been doing. Parker could give Kidd a hard time in the transition game. Could Kidd keep up with Parker or will Parker run Kidd down?
Other points:
- Tim Duncan is not as healthy as many expected. But in the teams last game of the season against the New Orleans Hornets, Duncan looked fine. If you ask him he would tell you that he feels fine. His health is a big key for the success of the team in their run back to the finals. Grabbing 19 rebounds against the Hornets has got to tell you he is feeling pretty darn good.
- What could possibly be our heartache for the playoffs is having to do it without our sixth man, Manu Ginobili. We have proven that we could win down the stretch without him but his energy and scoring ability will be missed. I see Roger Mason Jr, and Michael Finley to step up big for the team. Finley has been doing so with his outside shooting and so has Mason.
- Bench play will also be a key factor in this series. The Mavericks have three key guys that come off of their bench and make an impact. One of which is Jason Terry. Terry whom is known as the “JET” can change the course of a game with a blink of an eye. He has great court vision and knows how flat out score. Also, J.J. Barea comes off to give Jason Kidd a rest and that too could be a factor. Barea is as quick as a strike of lighting and can also put the ball in the hole. For San Antonio, Ginobili is down, okay, Ime Udoka, George Hill, Kurt Thomas and Drew Gooden are going to have to play as good as they have all year. Udoka has come on in scoring and defense, Hill’s defense will always be there but he will need to score more. Thomas will grab the boards and hit side shots from the perimeter and Gooden will give everything he has. Could come down to the bench. Should be fun to watch.
- We can’t forget about Dirk. He still is the teams leader and can score a bunch of points if he gets hot. He will get his fair share of different Spurs players on him. We will have to contain Dirk and let the others shoot us down.
Everywhere I see and hear on television or radio has the Mavericks defeating the Spurs. Though this is my blog and everything it is not that I am going for San Antonio just becuase of they are my home town team. Putting this and everything else aside. San Antonio is always, always a different team come playoff time. Pop does a remarkable job getting his team ready for the big show. I see no different this year.
The team will be more focused then they have been and will prove to everyone that with their ‘old’ age they still have some great players.