2006 Western Conference Finals: Mavericks vs. Suns

You are contridicting yourself too much. Just to point out a few. You said you hate Spurs more than you hate Dallas, but they are still two evils to you. YOu also said you liked Suns pretty much. But all of a sudden you are rooting for the Dallas to win? Simply you are sour about Nash won the MVP title over Shaq last year, even Shaq wasn't MVP in his own team?

Why is a big deal if they beat the Mavs? They beat Dallas last year, remember? What's wrong with NBA? Dirk scored 21 points of his 27 points against the Spurs, without even playing in the post. That's what goes wrong with NBA now.

 

So you hate Nash because he took the MVP award from your boy, Kobe, and now you express your hatred for Shaq...

No, you're definitely not a Kobe/Lakers fan

 

i didn't want shaq to win last year. i thought nash should have it over shaq. i was glad it went to him. however, that was supposed to be an anomaly. a freak occurrence that nash somehow had an mvp caused by big time players either being injured or on really bad teams. a mistake that wasn't to be repeated, especially with so many worthy candidates. he was already the worst mvp ever, he didn't need 2.

and i was rooting for phx. i wanted them to win it all last year. but just like too much of a good thing can become bad, i reached a breaking point and don't like them.

i guess i'll break my rules about being nice and just say "damn you're ****ing dense." i didn't pick kobe.

oh no, i don't like a player . no one cannot like a player apparently. you hate amare, i think he's ok, boy you really suck. i haven't liked shaq for as long as i can remember. probably since the orlando series.

and i never said i didn't root for the lakers/kobe in this day and age. when did i give the impression otherwise. i used to hate them when they were winning rings, now i kinda like them. you apparently can't figure that out. as i said, ****ing dense.

but then you think steve nash was the best and most valuable player this year so i should expect nothing less.

 

franics for prez, I don't understand, if you are a Kobe fan would not the next best to the Lakers winning a title would be one by the ex-Laker personally responsible for Kobe rings (oh nevermind, not sure if you are a Kobe fan after the last post)

The Suns are not as talented as the rest of the teams, but they are getting the most out of what they got due to grit and playing team ball. They are not going to beat Det or Miami, but I'd sure like them to beat Dallas. I don't think they will though (Dallas still wins in 7), for sure Dallas wins in 6 or 7 if Bell is out, Phx needs his dead eye shooting over the long haul.

Really any of Nash, Lebron, Kobe or Dirk had a fine MVP case, with Wade not that far behind either. Nash definetly belongs in the discussion and no-one can say he didn't have a good case this year. Also, without Nash the Suns are way below a 500, he does make role players much better than they would be on other teams.

 

I don't know about that. The Phoenix offense is clicking like crazy right now. What is Shaq going to do on defense except get exploited. And on the other side of the court, you have two guys sandwiching the Big Fella at all times. It'll take a Herculean effort from Wade and the a bunch of role players stepping up. certainly possible, and maybe even probable, but definitely not certain.

And regarding Detroit, their offense is pretty dreadful right now. I don't know what happened, but if they don't sit Ben Wallace, the Suns would run them right over. And it's not as if the rest of Pistons are lighting it up either.

Phoenix still has a big task in defeating Dallas, but projecting ahead, I don't like how the Eastern teams matchup with the Suns at all (or Dallas for that matter. My hunch says the champs come out of the West this year.).

 

like i said, i hated the lakers with a passion when they were winning rings. i guess i'm just like that. i tend to develop hatred for the teams on top. i don't even force it, it just happens. somewhere around the 3rd title, i did start to like kobe's game, how smooth it was. so i sorta became a grudging kobe fan who still wanted the lakers to lose at all costs. then when kobe started getting hated on more and more it seemed i started to like him more. now i'm a kobe fan. that more than anything is why i root for the lakers (though obviously a distant 2nd to the rockets), to make kobe look good and help his legacy. subconsciously, that's probably partially to lessen shaq's legacy, who i have always hated. i don't like lakers fans and all the success they've enjoyed over the years, and i really don't want them to get any more joy, but i root for them to make people stop hating kobe. and like i said, i partially root for kobe so much now just b/c people hate him so much. so it's a long, convoluted path that has led to me liking the team i hated the most for 5 or so years (read my posts from their title year, damn i hated them). if kobe could get traded somewhere else and win, that would be better, but that won't happen.

what would be even better is if the rockets got good again and i could have someone to actually root for in the playoffs, and not just teams that i hate less than other teams.

it's not that nash sucks or isn't valuable, i just think he's an obvious level below lebron, kobe, and dirk and that's my main problem. i think people love his style and the suns' system so much that they buy into the fact that it must be all nash. he's a good guy in the nba who plays uptempo and makes flashy plays, it's fun. but i just don't see him up there with the others, and the fact he has two makes me mad from a historical perspective. it's kinda the opposite of kobe. so many people like him now that i almost can't stand someone who i have rooted for for a long time and now i'm freaking rooting for the mavs to beat him. it makes me feel dirty, but i can't deny i want phoenix to lose and, thus, dallas to win.


but as long as shaq doesn't win i can take most any other result this year now that duncan won't win.

 

this year was hard to decide the MVP.

steve nash definetly deserves it.
Kobe,
Dirk,
LeBron
deserve it too.

But SAM CASSELL brought the Clippers to the freaking playoffs and should have advanced to the Western Conference Finals!

He should have some won something like Miracle Worker Award

 

you mean sit the 2nd team all-nba center, a guy obviously better than yao? man i can't believe they voted him over yao.

does anyone know what the hell happened to them? it's not like cleveland almost beat them with lebron running a great offense, detroit just stopped scoring after running through cleveland like a hot knife through butter for 2 games. i swear they almost look scared or like the pressure to live up their hype is getting to them. billups has stopped freelancing and seems hesitant all the time. wallace suddenly doesn't seem that great at rebounding and they are relying on prince like crazy. rasheed seems to be stepping up though. but why a team with so much confidence suddenly lost it and reverted to their terrible offense of yesteryear instead of the efficient one of this season is beyond me.

i hope the 9 point lead with 3 minutes to go is more indicative of how this series will play out than the collapse at the end. but i'm not optimistic. phx is just on a roll.

 

My musings...

1. Avery Johnson got outcoached. People have been kissing his ass a little too hard lately. If they didn't have Del Harris I have no doubt he would be exposed as an amateur. His play-calling is becoming too repetitive, and when Jason Terry or Devin Harris can't improvise and make him look good, this becomes painfully apparent.

2. Adrian Griffin? ADRIAN GRIFFIN? You lost this game because you started him Avery. Marquis Daniels should have been in the game from the start. He played half a season in Boston where he was decent, is completely overrated on defense, and is the poster-child for non-impact journeymen- I don't get it. Nice job going to him in the post in crunch time though....everybody knows teams just HAVE to double that guy. I know he had the advantage on Nash , but let's be real- I wouldn't go to Griffin in the post if he had Early Boykins on him...he's that bad.

3. Thank god for Keith Van Horn. He's like that small town high school basketball star that gets to the state playoffs, away from the weak competition, and gets scared sh*tless. He's that guy with the sweet jumper at the rec center stuck in an NBA body...we should empathize with him.

4. Jerry Stackhouse is one of the most self-absorbed players in the NBA. I went to a basketball camp in North Carolina attended by Stack and Jeff McGinnis when I was younger....now Jeff knew who and what he was as a player, but Jerry....Jerry's never realized that he's not the guy in the NBA that he was at UNC, and it's that kind of completely unjustified attitude that makes him a good player....but please only take shots from the top of the key from now on. It saddens me to see you try and turn the corner at this point in your career.

5. Tim Thomas and Shawn Marion are just horrible, horrible matchups for the Mavericks, but if they can stop Thomas- which I believe they can- then they will win this series.

6. I have a man-crush on Boris Diaw. How he does it, I'm still not sure...he's like Tony Parker in a 6'8 frame.

7. Let's all take a minute and feel good for Darrell Armstrong. The nation got a chance to realize he was still in the league, and the little half-block he had made it seem like he was having an impact. Him and the Van Horn substitutions were two of the worst moves by Avery.

8. The Mavs win this game if Josh Howard plays the entire game.

9. The Mavs are still in trouble in this series.

10. Either team that comes out of this WILL beat whoever the East has to offer. Dallas beats either on talent, Phoenix on matchups...in the latter's case, it all hinges on Tim Thomas. Prince negates Marion enough to diminish his overall impact, Billups will put more pressure on Nash because of his size and outside shot, which Harris lacks...I think Diaw's use of the pivot and headfake are good enough to be effective on Ben Wallace. If it's Miami, they're arrogant enough to be baited into a running game, Shaq will be exposed, and before they get the chance to play "their" game, Phoenix will kill have killed them off in 5.

 

You just can't help but feel sorry for Keith Van Horn every time you see him out there - the airballs, the missed layups, getting abused in the paint, the everlasting deer-in-the-headlights look. You just can't help but feel sorry for the guy out there every time he manages to f*ck something up. He seems like such a nice guy too, but he always ends up being the whipping boy. Poor Keith - it's not his fault he was cursed with a big man's body and a sweet stroke on his jumpshot. Every time the boos rain down or the ridicule begins, I tell myself "it's not his fault." Poor Keith - he might simply be the biggest trainwreck in the NBA today. I almost felt good when he hit those two big 3's in Game 7. If someone needed SOMETHING good to happen in their career, it was him.

Miami doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against either of these two teams.

I'm absolutely shocked that the Suns were able to play with Dallas, much less beat them. I guess I totally underestimated Nash. Wow, that guy is absolutely AMAZING. I have to add a couple of thoughts:

1. Re: Nash not being worthy of MVP - I watched John Stockton through his prime. John Stockton had better numbers all across the board throughout his career. It's not even close. However, I NEVER got the feeling watching John that he was absolutely imposing his will on that game and dictating every aspect of it. Don't get me wrong, John was amazing. He was Jason Kidd before Jason Kidd was Jason Kidd. John controlled tempo - Nash controls the f*cking game. I never got the feeling that "ok they can bring whoever scrub in and he will look like a hall of famer as long as this guy is playing point."

2. Eating HUGE plate of crow. I thought Phoenix was done when they traded Q-Rich. Wow I'm an idiot. Then I thought they were lotto-bound when they traded Joe Johnson. Then I thought they would struggle to win 13 games when Stoudemire went down. Unfortunate for them that Stoudemire won't ever be the same player and that Nash only has a few years left. A lineup of Stoudemire, Marion, Diaw, Bell, and Nash would run the league over.

 

Van horn looking like the poor man's version of a-rod. The sun really looks great even if they loose this one. their team got decimated by injuries and still they win games with that style of basket ball even with their bench that has the bald dude in a playoffs roster.

 

Man, last night I turned off the game thinking Phoenix would lose.

This is great!!!!!!!!!!!!


Am I the only one who finds these games with no defense stupid?

 

I find those games are entertaining. Hell a lot better than the Pistons and Heats series.

 

It absolutely blows my mind that anybody here (except for hard-core Mavericks fans) could root against the Suns. And some of the excuses people have been using on hating the Suns are laughable, to say the least. I am hoping the Suns win it all!

 

actually, if it weren't for the high powered offenses, i wouldn't have watched a single playoff game. i don't care much for the East, but i find myself looking forward to the West Playoffs.

i don't care if PHO scores 145 pts/game as long as Dallas is scoring 144 pts/game. the fact that i detest DAL makes me even more interested in watching them get their asses kicked.

 

agreed. the only viable reason to hate the Suns is Amare but he isn't even playing. and how can anyone hate on Nash? the guy plays his heart out and doesn't show people up. when he gets knocked down on defense, he gets right up and tries to push the ball on the inbounds. Down with those Dallas ****ers!

 

I love this brand of basketball, they are playing defense, but the new rules are forcing them to do it with their feet and positioning.

You know, the WAY THE RULES WERE WRITTEN !!!

No more grabbing, clutching or tackling, you have to play good sound defense.

And I love the early offense going on in this series, and hope that the Suns and or Mavs win it all, so the rest of the league will go away from the plodding, crappy play and embrace this better brand of skilled basketball.

DD

 

LOL. Admit it or not, you are one of them. From reading your posts you actually have a lot of their attributes and I think you can get along really well with them.

 

Phoenix Sun Danny Ainge sucker-threw the basketball in Mario Elie's face as hard as he could because his team was losing and didn't even get whistled for it.

Luckiest b**** in the world that Elie had another series to play , Elie should have torn him in half and then consumed his remains.

I hate the Suns. I hate the Mavs. I hope both teams get deported.