Mavs afraid to raise banner in front of Spurs

[Lurker]

Buck Harvey: Banner year? Search starts for the Spurs

Web Posted: 11/01/2006 10:40 PM CST


San Antonio Express-News

DALLAS — If the Mavericks were playing anyone else tonight, they would raise their Western Conference championship banner. They would celebrate the best season in franchise history, and Mark Cuban would say a few words about San Antonio.

Dirty water would be mentioned.
 
The Mavericks will instead try to be cool, as if they've won too many of these banners to count. They will wait until their second home game for the ceremony, and this cuts to the respect the Mavericks have for the Spurs. They know every edge matters.

But the Spurs' respect for the Mavericks goes deeper, and last summer showed that. Then the Spurs rebuilt their roster.

They did so to redistribute their payroll and to adjust to the trends and rules changes. But, as much as anything, the Spurs did so to counter the team they play tonight.

Isn't that more of an honor than anything a banner could bring?

Cuban might still say a few words. He vows to sit in his usual seat and be his charming self, even though his fellow owners have put him on double-secret probation.
 
It's telling that his peers see him as San Antonio does; Cuban would have lost a popularity contest last year to plantar fasciitis. But Cuban also added a dark passion to this rivalry, and he managed to draw in a few million more during the Finals.

Given that, shouldn't the NBA want Cuban to continue being Cuban?

He's changed at least for tonight, probably because of Avery Johnson. Whereas Cuban's instinct would be to hang the banner in front of the Spurs (could he hang Michael Finley in effigy, too?), the Mavericks will play this straight.

Cuban says this has nothing to do with the Spurs. "Opening night is its own celebration," he told reporters this week, and in a marketing sense that's true.

Mavericks-Spurs sells on its own, whereas the next Mavericks' home game, against Golden State, needs an angle. As for nose-rubbing: This way the Mavericks can show Don Nelson what they did without him.

But it's also true every other team raises division, conference and championship banners on opening night. So why are the Mavericks, who had never accomplished so much before, deferring?

Because they don't want to give the Spurs any extra drive. AJ is as worried about the details as his mentor, Gregg Popovich, always is.
 
But the banner issue is just that — a detail — compared to the realities of last season's playoffs. Then the Spurs ran into matchups that skewed the way they like to play, and that's a tribute to how good Dirk Nowitzki is.

Too quick for Nazr Mohammed and Rasho Nesterovic. Too dangerous for Tim Duncan. Too consuming for Bruce Bowen. When Nowitzki occupied Bowen, Josh Howard ran free against slower defenders.

Yes, the Spurs were a play from beating Dallas. Yes, playing small made sense considering the alternatives.

But the Spurs were seemingly always behind, always clawing back. They tried to outscore the Mavericks instead of out-defend them, and that's not the way the Spurs won their three conference championship banners (and three NBA titles that followed).

The Spurs had their own edge, because the Mavericks never could defend Duncan, either. Duncan will be able to do a few things tonight, too, because nothing AJ could do in the offseason could alter this.

But the Spurs? They changed to try to beat the team that beat them.

The Spurs don't know if they have any answers. The exhibition blowout against the Mavericks proved little, and they say tonight won't be definitive, either. They may not know until May.

But opening night officially starts the search. What if Francisco Elson can contest Nowitzki at the 3-point line with his height and still recover when Nowitzki drives? What if Eric Williams can help in a pinch? Or what if Fab Oberto, given more than the brief turn he had on Nowitzki last season, mixes his cleverness and toughness?

Next year's banner celebration is at stake.

[WayOutWest]

Or what if Fab Oberto, given more than the brief turn he had on Nowitzki last season, mixes his cleverness and toughness?

:rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:
Now I feel like an idiot for spending $200 + for Carlos Mencia tickets, all I had to do was read this guys articles for a belly busting laugh!

[rickortreat]

This is dumb.  The Mavericks should rub the Spurs face in it. It's not like they can play any harder than they did last year.  It's important that everytime they play each other, the Mavericks send the message: "We're better than you".

They should never show fear or even respect to the Spurs, they're just another team the Mavs have to go through to get to the Championship.

It's important for Mavs to win this game, just as it matters to the Spurs that they can beat them.

 

[Reality]

If San Antone goes small ball, the guy on the aftergame news report who went out of the stands and slapped Popavich upside the head will be me.