The Spurs had nothing to lose, and their fate was essentially out of their own hands. Come this weekend, they’d be playing either Utah or Dallas, and their choice was clear: bring on the Mavs. Which is exactly the same way the Mavs felt about the Spurs. But Spurs’ Coach Gregg Popovich took matters a step further, resting Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan and playing Tony Parker sparingly. According to most basketball geniuses, Popovich was simply trying to spare his key players from injury in a “meaningless” game, as far as the Spurs were concerned. But being the conspiracy theorist I can sometimes be, I disagreed.
To me, by playing primarily only his second string players, Popovich had decided before the game ever tipped off to “forfeit” the victory. It was a slap in the face not only to the Mavericks as a team, but to their fans as well. Basically, Popovich wanted to throw his B team on the court, so that if the Mavs should struggle at all to win the game, a seed of doubt would be planted in their collective mind moving into the opening round of the playoffs. It was reminiscent of the mind games and maneuvers that often took place when Nellie was at the Mavericks’ helm, and he and Popovich would continually toy with lineups, compliment their opponent, and pretend their team was the underdog in any matchup.
But this time, mind games be damned, Popovich's plan didn't work. The Mavs came out ready to play from the opening tip, because to them at least, this game still meant something. The Mavs were still playing for pride, playing to win, and playing to ensure their position as the #2 seed out West heading into the playoffs. No one wanted to finish the season on a losing note, especially not this group of guys, who had already seen their share of ups and downs over the last half of the season, with a 13 game winning streak followed by a string of poor performances and inconsistency. On this, the final night of the regular season, the Dallas Mavericks definitely came to play.
And play they did, from early on. Jason Kidd was phenomenal in the first half, scoring 16 of his 18 points while knocking down multiple shots from behind the arc. Unlike the Mavs, the Spurs were godawful from three point territory. They were so bad, in fact, that when I caught a glimpse of their three point shooting percentage late in the game, I did a double take: it was at 5%!! The Spurs finished the game just 2-of-22 on threes, for 9.1%.
One positive for the Spurs, however, was the play of rookie DaJuan Blair, whom the Mavericks couldn't seem to stop from anywhere at either end of the court. Blair was a beast on the boards, pulling down 23 rebounds, to go along with his 27 points. Blair was the biggest factor in the rebounding race, which the Spurs won, 52-47, despite a 15 rebound performance by Mavs' backup center Brendan Haywood. Haywood also scored eight points and was credited with five blocked shots, where the Spurs as a team had only three blocks.
It was an interesting...albeit strange..game all around. The team leader in assists? Automatically, one would assume J-Kidd. But no, it was the Big German, Dirk, who had a team high five assists. Dirk also hit two more free throws, to extend his current streak of consecutive made free throws to 74 to end the regular season. (The record does not carry over into the playoffs, but it will pick back up where he left off at the start of the 2010-2011 regular season). Caron Butler led the team with 20 points, Dirk added 19, Kidd finished with 18, and the Jet added 10 points to help push the Mavs to their eventual 96-89 victory. Butler and Jet also garnered team-high honors with three steals apiece.
"We took care of business and now we'll see Duncan and Ginobili for sure," said Jason Kidd, alluding to the fact that Spurs' Coach Popovich chose not to play his starters. Former Mavs' head coach Avery Johnson once employed a similar strategy to end the 2006-2007 season against the Golden State Warriors, choosing to rest some of his star players and start his bench. The Warriors won that game, thereby moving into the 8th seed in the Western conference playoff picture and matching up with the Mavericks in the opening round. I'm sure we can remember what happened next as the Mavs made the worst kind of history, becoming the first ever #1 seed to lose to an #8 seed in a seven game playoff series. Here's hoping history repeats itself, and Popovich's decision to rest his key players comes back to bite him in the butt!
With this victory, the Mavericks regular season record finished at 55-27, marking the 10th consecutive season of 50 or more Mavs' wins. Dallas was 28-13 here at the AAC and ended the year with the league's best road record, an unbelievable 27-14. Dallas clinched the #2 seed and will face the Spurs in the opening round of the playoffs, beginning on Sunday night at 8:30. Once again, this will be a series for the ages, so be sure and tune in to TXA 21 for all your Mavs needs!
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