2006 Western Conference Finals: Mavericks vs. Suns

Dwayne Wade better kick the **** out of Dallas in the Finals.

 

wow as much as i hate it is game over, the sun's offense is falling apart while the mav's offense cant be stopped.
lets just hope that shaq can find the fountain of youth.

 

Seriously? Shaq is looking like he's 27 years old. Wade is looking like he's Kobe. Heat could sweep.

 

i see Shaq getting into alot of foul trouble against the Mavs. as a matter of fact, Dallas is too quick all around for Miami. this is making me sick just thinking about it.

DAMN YOU GINOBILI! you just had to foul Dirk, didn't you?

 

Phoenix should change their logo to a big phallus.

 

Dirk got slapped in the hands and ended up on the floor.

I hate Dallas...

 

The better team is going to the Finals. Seems like the Mavs have scored on 25 consecutive possessions. Phoenix could not defend if their lives depended on it.

The Suns & fans should be proud of their season. Hard luck, once again, hits one of the NBA's most snakebitten franchises.

 

whats up with Adrian Griffin adding insult to injury there at the end? lol

 

Im rooting for the Heat.

Besides the obvious dislike any Houston fan has for Dallas,
the Heat have more ex-Rockets.

 

What a choke job by Nash and Marion, blowing An 18pt lead...what else is new?

 

word. where the hell was Marion this whole series. i can't remember a single big shot or rebound from him.

 

Great season by the Suns, but the better team did win this series, the cream eventually rose to the top.

I have a new-found respect for this young Suns team, they've proved to be very resilient and stubborn, but eventually they ran out of gas in this game and just couldn't keep it going anymore, but I will fondly remember the playoffs this season thanks in no small part to the great games they've given us this season.

Dallas and Miami should be fun, although it's somewhat of a weird matchup...more like a missmatch. Not sure who has the advantage there, but both teams do seem to be playing their best at just the right team.

Still, I say Dallas wins this series, they're a very deep and consistent squad.

 

anybody catch what adrian griffin said or did at the end?

a brief recap if it's possible...?

 

i think codell just was talking about griffin dunking the ball as time was running out. luckily he did it late enough that the buzzer went off so phoenix didn't have to come down and inbound the ball, which would've been bad considering they probably weren't too happy after losing. but basically no harm no foul the way it worked out.

or maybe i'm wrong and something else happened.

 

I didn't think it was any big deal, but I guess Griffin did run up the score by dunking the ball as time ran out when he could have just held the ball to run out the clock.

 

Big choke job. they were up by 18 early. When Dallas got it down to like 8, I knew Phoenix's season was done. This should be reason #2 (reason #1 was last year's loss to the Spurs) why their style of play does not work.

-You make Phoenix keep the ball on their possession for more than 10 seconds and they pretty much fall apart

-Steve Nash's decision making inside the paint is subpar. Dallas lets him have the lane to drive in. Once he gets there, they collapse on him. All he does is try to kick it out to the player behind him so all you need to do is block that line of pass. It's happened so many times over the course of the playoffs I can almost call for the turnover every time.

Some things I've pondered over the course of this series:

When will Marion pack his bags?

The way he's folded over the past few years in the playoffs and the way Boris Diaw basically outplayed him, this has to be the last time he's in a Phoenix Sun uniform. He puts up stellar season numbers but there's just something about the playoffs that makes him nonexistent. I can honestly see a frontline of Kurt Thomas/ Amare / Diaw working a lot better than one w/ Marion. It's time to trade Marion for draft picks or some key players.

When will Nash's back just implode?

This season has got to put a lot of strain on his back. The Suns rely so heavily on him being on the floor that I think next season Nash will miss X amount of games. They need a back up point guard bad. Maybe they can get one if they trade Marion away....

 

Phoenix was very impressive in the playoffs and this year.

They were basically playing with 6 guys for the latter part of this series and they put a great fight. This is after two seven game series too. I really think they could've beat Dallas if Raja Bell was healthy or if they even could've had one more guy in their rotation.

 

Phoenix put up a great fight but in the end it was the superior depth of Dallas that finally did them in. You can just see them wear down last night as the game wore on while Dallas kept coming at them in waves. With their "style" of ball, no lead is ever really safe - even a 20-point lead and the Mavs came back from an 18 point hole last night to nab the win. I was in a room of MAFFLs and I kept telling them in the first half that Phoenix would start to tire and they did.

Dallas is an interesting team in that their strength is in their small forwards and guards while, with the exception of Dirk, their front line players are very pedestrian. If Miami can make this into a low-post game, half-court game, the Mavs will be in trouble because that will be playing right into Miami's strength. I really don't expect the Mavs to have an answer for Shaq but it's important to note that Shaq (like Yao) is dependent on the play of his guards and if the Miami guards are getting torched by Terry, Harris & Co., then his effectiveness will be diminished greatly in much the same way as Yao's on the Rockets.