Alright, the phony season is over and it’s time for the real games to begin.

Let’s get a few things straight in regards to what can be expected from the Cowboys. Half of the teams that make the playoffs each year in the NFL changes from one year to the next (so, the chances of the Cowboys making the playoffs is something that should be expected), they get the return of their starting QB Tony Romo (another positive), and a new defensive coordinator in Rob Ryan to get them back to being a top level defense.

See, I don’t see all of the minuses everyone else sees from looking only at the final record for the Cowboys for last season. They finished the second half of the season 5-3 and averaging over 25 points a game, after the 1-7 start, losing the starting QB, and dismissing a head coach that should have been gone after week 3 of the season.

If you want to say there are plenty of question marks about this year’s team, then I can agree with that. How will Romo do in his return? Is the defense more like the 31st ranked defense of last season or the 2nd ranked defense from two seasons ago? Will letting go of starters at the RB, OL, and WR positions mean a better offense? How will Garrett and Ryan impact the offensive and defensive sides of the ball?

These are all questions that I find myself answering positively in the Cowboys favor. Now it’s time for the proof to be displayed on the field in the form of wins….

The Dallas Mavericks are on a road winning streak of historic proportions in this year’s playoffs and take a commanding 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.

This run by the Mavs has been fueled by the one thing that has always been lacking for this team in this millennium and that’s a commitment to focusing on defense first. The game 4 win in OKC on Monday night is what I term a “mortal kombat” win for them over the Thunder. They ripped the opponent’s heart out and held it up in the air for all to see like the character Scorpion.

So, what’s left? A lot. The Mavs shouldn’t take much time to celebrate because it’s not over. Those were two good wins on the visitors floor, but the goal is to win 16 games and a championship, not just 2 on the road in the Western Conference finals.

To quote the singing group Guy from the 90′s, it ain’t over….

I remember the beating Avery Johnson took years ago here in Dallas/Ft Worth from the media and fans when the Dallas Mavericks lost to the Golden State Warriors as a 1 seed and the Warriors were an 8 seed. It happened on the heels of the Mavericks finals meltdown. It seemed to be the final straw that Avery’s career here as the Mavericks head coach couldn’t recover from. I have always hated that move being made by Mark Cuban and the Mavs organization because Avery Johnson was the one person of all the parties involved that had the first hand experience of winning a championship, as he did with the Spurs in 1999 as its’ starting point guard, and everyone else was making their decisions based on theory that still hasn’t brought a title to the Mavericks.

The Mavs are taking on the two time defending champion Lakers and the Memphis Grizzilies are meeting the Oklahoma City Thunder in round 2 of the NBA playoffs with their 4-2 series win over the number 1 seeded, 4 time champion San Antonio Spurs. As disappointed as Spurs fans may want to be, I hope they are not going to be as idiotic as the Mavs organization, with losing to an 8 seed as a 1 seed, and let go of a good thing with Coach Popovic. The Spurs have their deficiencies, just as the Mavs did when they became the first team to be a 1 losing to an 8 in a best of 7 series, and the coach can only put his players in the best position to be successful. I believe Pop tried to do that this year for the Spurs and that Avery tried as well as the coach of the Mavs.

I wonder what my fellow Dallas/Ft Worth fans have to say now that the same fate has fallen upon a team that everyone knows and respects in the Spurs with them losing as a 1 seed to an 8 seed????

Don’t come up with excuses, but get a better understanding of how NBA basketball and basketball here in the U.S. is played. It’s physical and not for the faint of heart. Pop and Avery understand that about the game. I don’t think the leadership of the Mavs, starting at the top, has ever believed in basketball being played that way and we see the results. The Spurs may have, indeed, joined the Mavs in a dubious stat that no one would want to be a part of, but they can point to rings as a consistent regular season winning team. We’re still waiting for the championships to go with all of those 50 game winning seasons here in Dallas/Ft Worth….

The Mavs have the homecourt advantage in this first round series with the Portland Trailblazers.

I was shocked to hear all of the locals here in Dallas/Ft Worth that were declaring the Mavs were ready for the finals after, simply, keeping the homecourt advantage after winning games 1 and 2. It pointed to the lack of understanding of how NBA basketball works, but that’s par for the course for many here and it starts with the team’s owner.

The ultimate loser’s cry was made after the game 3 loss to Portland and I am sure it will be mentioned by someone on the weekday sports radio broadcasts after the Mavs allowed the Blazers to come back from being down 18 points in the 4th quarter of game 4; “the refs cheated us.” Funny, you never hear the winning team mentioning the refs helping them win a game, but you can sure find plenty of people blaming the refs from the losing side though, AMAZING!

Homecourt advantage is homecourt advantage, especially in the NBA. There shouldn’t even be an expectation on any coach, player, or fans part of the visiting team that the refs are going to help you beat the home team. As a matter of fact, the visiting team shouldn’t put themselves in a position for the refs to affect the outcome of the game. That means any team and its’ fans must go into a game on the road with a mentality that they’re going to knockout the home team. The Mavs, indeed, did that for 3 quarters. The problem is that there are 4 quarters in an NBA.

Remember though, the Mavs still have the homecourt advantage for the remainder of this series….

Now, who was that team that won game 1 of the opening playoff series with the Portland Trailblazers 89-81, lead by Dirk’s double-double of 28 pts and 10 rebs. The key to the game 1 win was Jason Kidd though, who was 6 of 10 from 3 pt range and had 24 pts in the game to go along with 5 rebs, 4 assts, and 2 stls. That’s a great game from Kidd.

The issue that always plagues the Mavs is that you can’t expect that every night from Kidd throughout the playoffs. The double-double from Dirk can be relied upon, but the Blazers were in this game until the dagger 3 pt shoot from Kidd in the 4th quarter and I don’t see that changing in this series.

This has been everybody’s upset special for the first round and game 1 shows why. I would certainly like to believe that the Mavs could go all the way to a championship, but my basketball brain knows that the team still doesn’t have what’s needed. Game 1 is typical for the Mavs in that when this team is shooting well they look like world beaters, but what are they going to do on those nights when the jumpers aren’t falling for a second scorer like Kidd did in game 1. That’s what has “traditionally” been the problem for the Mavs in the playoffs leading to being put out in the first round 3 of the last 4 years and concerns me with moving on in this series.

We’ll see if they can keep it going in game 2 on Tuesday night.

82 games is a long season and the championship teams know how to handle that process. I recall the story Kareem tells about Magic Johnson being so happy on a game winning shot he made on the first game of Magic’s rookie season when he draped himself all over the center; he told Magic “calm down we’ve got 81 more of these games left”.

Well, the Mavs need to forget everything that has happened in the previous games this season against the Spurs and Lakers and just win the last matchups of the season on Friday, March 18th with the Spurs and Thursday, March 31st at the Lakers. I understand we blog and report on the teams during the season to try and make some sense of what’s going on with a team, but it really boils down to who’s playing the best down the stretch as the teams get closer to the playoffs. How many times did everyone write off the two-time defending champion Lakers before the all star break? Does anyone care to retract their comments now?

The Mavs have one thing they can prove and it’s that they understand the grind of the 82 game season and that they are ready to head into the post season playing their best ball against the two western conference favorites in the Spurs and the Lakers. I always point out to everyone that the Mavs are the ONLY team in NBA history to have 50+ wins a season for 10 consecutive seasons with ZERO NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Winning these games starting Friday night will show just what the Mavs are made of and if they are truly ready to make a legitimate run at an elusive NBA title!!!

As we get closer to the end of the regular season, I think the Mavs need to start taking a hard look at just who they may be facing in the post season.

It clearly looks like the Lakers are rounding into form and will overtake the Mavs in the Western Conference standings before the end of the season. Heck, they may catch the Spurs, considering that beat down the Lakers gave them this past Sunday.

So, I will give you two teams I believe the Mavs don’t want to see in the first round and that would be Portland or Oklahoma City. Those are two long, athletic teams that I believe would give the Mavs fits, ala the Warriors a few years back. They can put smaller guys on Dirk that would limit his effectiveness.

As far as the others go, bring on the Grizzlies, Hornets, Nuggets, Suns, Jazz, or Rockets. None of those teams have the starting fire power or supporting casts to win in a 7 game series. If the NBA still played best of 5 games in the first round, I would be more concerned about 1 or 2 of those teams, but those days are long gone.

Plenty! (same thing I said on my post about the Mavs)

The local professional teams here in DFW have no room to pack it in for any reason now, especially the Cowboys.

For all of you that want to see what the backups have to offer on the Cowboys, I am glad you are not the owner of the team. The Cowboys need to win every game they can at this point, even though they are eliminated from the playoffs.

With all of the expectations and professional predictions nationwide that this was a Super Bowl team, it’s no time to leave the dreadful taste of losing in the mouth of the fans with starting out with only 1 win before letting Phillips go. I won’t be satisfied to see them put in McGee at QB and assorted backups to get drilled by starters for other teams that are not willing to “mail it in” also. Everyone in the league is still “playing for pride”.

I know those were a couple of common cliches, but fans of the Cowboys know what’s wrong and it’s the side of the ball Wade was brought here to perfect.  What could this season have been for the Cowboys, if Wade would’ve been let go in the bye week? It appears they would’ve been a playoff team from what Garrett has done as the interim head coach, even though I hated his play calling as the OC.

So, if you want to keep the money flowing Jerry, keep the wins coming for now and do your due diligence when it comes to evaluating talent in the off-season, when it’s supposed to be done!

Plenty!

Anyone out there who wants us to get over the ’06 final loss to the Heat won’t hear me agreeing with that sentiment. Why? Because of the way the Mavs lost that series. They were trying to prove you can win a championship with offense, three point shooting and no understanding that  ”defense wins championships”.

It appears that the Mavs are now committed to winning with defense and are getting a lot of praise from the mainsteam media. Wow, it’s about time. I have been begging for the Mavs to go out and get a “true” low post player like Chandler that will prevent players from attacking the basket at will (much like Wade did both in those finals in ’06 and for many years).

So, what’s next? They are streak stoppers, winning a lot of games this season - and the ONLY team with 50+ wins in a season for more than 10 years without an NBA championship. That means there’s nothing they can do for now until the playoffs happen.  Coming through with a championship is the last hurdle. Anything less would be unacceptable!

CPR 12-21-2010

I have heard a lot of analysis about Peyton Manning’s problems with the 3-4 defense based on his most recent loss at the hands of the San Diego Chargers. Let me be clear in saying the Cowboys 3-4 defense is not the same as the Chargers 3-4 defense.

Did you see the end of the Cowboy’s Thanksgiving game against the Saints? Newman gave up a 55 yard bomb with a 4 point lead on 3rd down with less than 2 minutes left in the game and Jenkins was the corner covering on the game winning touchdown pass for the Saints. Those are the starting corners for the Cowboys. That part of the Cowboys team has remained the same, even with the departure of Wade Phillips, that the secondary gives up big plays and gives them up at the wrong time.

So, Manning may be having his problems when he faces the Chargers, but this is no reason for the Cowboys, and us as fans, to underestimate anyone. I would say the Cowboys, local media, and fans better take Manning and the Colts very seriously and not consider anything they did against the Chargers in the equation when analyzing this game.

The Colts are at home, on a two game losing streak, and fighting for their playoff lives. That makes them an extremely dangerous team. I would be shocked if they don’t come out hitting on all cylinders this Sunday and the Cowboys better be up to the task!