Grit

That will be the difference in this series, a hockey term for heart basically. That is what it comes down to this time of year, outside of the two main obvious points. Those being special teams and goaltending. In no uncertain terms the sharks are the most physically talented team, top to bottom, in the NHL. Not the best but the most talented, the team with the most potential. Just look at their line up tonight. They’re first two lines are all big, they are all extremely fast, they are physical, and they all have a scoring touch. The Thornton line and the Marleau line, those two are just filled with talent. But the stars have three lines with talent though the Stars can not match the size of the sharks, they couldn’t match the size of the Ducks either.

The Sharks are much like the Ducks, insofar as they play the game physically and attempt to intimidate. However they are not stupid like the Ducks, the Sharks do not normally take stupid penalties. The Sharks’ main weakness lies inside their chest and their heads.(Like the mavericks) They often do not do the little things that wins in the post season, that is why they keep losing in the second round every year.

So lets go down the line and break down the series.

Defense: The stars have this with or without Zubov in my opinion. The sharks defense is not as strong as the stars top to bottom, Campbell is a good offensive player, Vlasic is very young and not as calm as our rookies, as far as the rest they are much like the rest of the team, full of potential but have not put it together yet.

Offense: Sharks, even though the stars have three scoring lines, the bottom two lines are not proven scoring threats in the long run. The sharks have two big time lines who can score at any moment. Pavelski, Marleau, and Clowe have been dominant in the post season. And who ever they put with Thornton, Cheechoo( a fifty goal scorer a couple years ago) and Michalek (insane tools but has not put it together yet) will be given all types of opportunities because Thornton is the best forward in the western conference.

Special Teams: Stars, its close but the stars have a great powerplay going right now, and if they get back zubov both the powerplay and the penalty kill get better.

Goaltending: Stars, Nabokov has the best glove hand in the league in my opinion but much like Marty will give up the soft goal on occasion. I give Marty the nod because he is the best puck playing goalie in the league and it will neutralize the dump and chase game the sharks would like to play

Grit: Come on, our captain is Morrow, all Stars.

Prediction: Stars in 6.

Crunch Time

Its what the NBA is about. The NBA is a league decided in the fourth quarter and is where you find out about people. Not in the fourth quarter of blowouts against lesser teams, Josh Howard, tight games in the fourth quarter, sometimes late in the third quarter, against good teams. So there is the game, late in the third quarter the Nuggets have successfully eradicated the half-time lead the Mavericks built, and the Nuggets are playing good defense and the Mavericks are settling for jumpers. The team needs someone to make a play, get a big rebound, or a string of baskets. Jason Kidd is not going to do that, but that is not his game, so it falls to Josh Howard. Howard had 20 points in the first half and if you look back at the box score you might think he had a good game. Josh had 30 points tonight. You might say that is stepping up. But it isn’t.

Anyone can score meaningless points in the NBA there are a slew of players that have gotten big contracts, and reputations, on scoring a bunch of points in the times when teams are not playing at their hardest. Those times being the first quarters the beginning of the third quarter and in blowouts. That very long list includes: Michael Finley, Rashard Lewis, Lamar Odom until this season, Ricky Davis, Shawn Marion, Al Harrington, and of course our beloved J-Ho. The list is MUCH MUCH longer than that but I, I hope you, don’t have the kind of time to make a comprehensive list of all those players. Now this list is comprised into two categories, the first group is the talented ones who just don’t have the ability to score in the tight situations as much as they would like to. The other is the group who does have the talent but somewhere between their ears its just not there to be “the guy.” I am not sure which group Howard falls in to but I am becoming more and more convinced that it is the latter. Tonight he was our best offensive option and he was not making plays to stem the tide. No one else was either to his credit but that is where you make your name as a great player. The nights where your team is hitting shots you let them do that but when they need you, when they look to you, you need to deliver. He did not and repeatedly does not.

That was the difference tonight, they had two guys we had none stepping up in the fourth quarter. Now Carmelo I am not convinced could do it on his own but as the second fiddle to Iverson he is very comfortable and is able to flourish. Jerry Stackhouse disappeared as well but he is too old for us to expect him to carry us for a whole game, he did a good job in the first half with 16 points but he also disappeared, JT was there and wanted the shots tonight, as he does every night, but they just did not fall. And thats too bad because if they did Josh Howard might get more credit for scoring meaningless points.

A win tonight would have put The Mavericks four games ahead of Denver and relatively safe because it would have been a 3 game lead with the tie breaker but now its a one game lead and Denver has the tie breaker so we have to finish ahead of them not tied. So, basically, it is a half game lead. There cannot be any confidence in the minds of any Mavs fans currently, especially when they scored 70 points in the first half and just 35 in the second against an average defensive team at best. Now we go to Golden State, a team we haven’t shown we can beat WITH Dirk. Yeesh, we play them twice in the next three games. A split would be a miracle, just like a Josh Howard sighting when we actually need him.

Well That is Not How This Week Was Supposed To Go

Oh good god how did we get here? It was not supposed to be like this, we were told that Jason Kidd was supposed to solve all our problems. Problems I am not sure we even had. Well he is here and we have more problems, real problems. However none of that matters now because our superstar is injured.

When I decided to start my blog on this day, it was because I wanted to start it on a big day in the Dallas sports scene. Nothing like a Mavericks Spurs tilt to bring out playoff type drama. Well I got what I asked for, I got a 7 foot tall German pile of drama. It was laying on the floor in the middle of the third quarter, in front of a sold out crowd creating about as much noise as a teenager trying to sneak in the house at 4 in the morning. And the crowd was silent with good reason because they knew, whether they admit it or not, this team is Dirk. This team is constructed as a bunch of good pieces around one superstar. We saw what it looked like without him against Houston and it was not pretty.

There is no time to mourn because in the next two weeks the Mavericks play the Nuggets, the Warriors twice, the Lakers, and the Suns. There are two games against the Clippers and those are must win games. The Mavericks are in seventh place in the absurdly talented Western Conference. One half game ahead of Golden State and two games ahead of Denver who is in ninth. One aside the last game Devin Harris played with the Mavericks they were 30 -13 and in first place, but I am sure this trade will make sense some day.

So who needs to step up? More importantly, who do I actually think is going to step up? The first question is easy to answer and its not everybody (that is the obvious cop out answer). Everyone needs to step up but the games will be close in the fourth quarter and thats when Nowitzki’s immense presence will be missed. Josh Howard and Jason Kidd need to step up to fill Dirk’s void, they are the most talented, they are the all-stars(allegedly) and the responsibility will fall to them. Jason Kidd might step up, he already has on the defensive end. Josh Howard must step up, he has to change into the same player in the fourth quarter as he is in the first. He has spent his whole career getting ten points in the first quarter and none in the fourth. It has gotten so bad that I have not wanted him on the court in the fourth quarter because clearly does not want the ball. He now has his opportunity if he wants to take it. Now that we know who should step up I will tell you who will. Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse will carry this team to the best of their abilities because they want the ball and they take and make big shots. However Terry and Stack already have roles to play in the fourth and their contributions might not be enough. For the Mavericks to make the playoffs it has to be. Even though they have the superior talent and accolades depending on Kidd and Howard really does not seem like a reliable option at the moment.

We did have another player who routinely made plays in the fourth quarter and took the pressure off of Dirk and Terry, too bad we traded him away for someone who was supposed to…. routinely make plays in the fourth quarter. As far as I am concerned Kidd and Howard not only need to step up for this team, they need to step up for themselves if they want to survive the summer, Mr. Cuban runs this team, no matter what his shirt said, and he does not like losing.