Coming To…

Here’s the deal. We are acting like Game 4 didn’t happen. No disrespect mind you… but the game can be summed in one sentence and it’s not an earth-shattering revelation (in fact, it might be a backhanded compliment). The Mavs finally got some offensive support from someone not named Dirk so that when the game really mattered ol’ boy had some left in the tank, and without Chris Andersen the Nuggets lost an edge. It isn’t worthy of great concern or panic.

The world will continue to rotate.

If the Birdman was suffering from the same virus rampaging through the Dunk household, I can testify to his condition and excuse the man. Remember when Jason Bourn was having flashbacks to his days in the training center when chemistry was washing his brain of subjective thought? Very similar… for about 12 hours, it’s eerily similar.

To the links (and I’m going to take liberties with a few rants of my own… that’s how I roll). As always, the links are embedded in the BOLD type my friends.

Jeremy from the Roundball Mining Company agrees with our assessment, at least on some level. They note the absence of the Bird was an issue, and they too agree that the sky is not falling.

The Denver Post used their blog space to post the blog apology from Mark Cuban, concerning the flap with Kenyon’s mom (I’m over it, and we should all let it go). That wasn’t worth reading, but the comments from the locals – surprisingly found intact several hours later (I honestly figured the Post would take many of them down… think again) – were. For instance, from Mr. BBall Fan 4 Life: First of all Cuban: THIS SERIES IS NOT COMING BACK TO DALLAS. Your team was lucky to eek out a 2 point win AT HOME. You are the biggest prik in the NBA, keep your mouth shut and your a** out of the Pepsi Center, dont be surprised if you get doused with some beer and nachos if you are stupid enough to show up. And finally i hope you continue to be the NBA’s personal piggy bank for the next 20 years (keep getting fined) for being an idiot. I love this guy… he gets “douse” and “eek” and “idiot” and “personal” right, then he misspells “prik”… he broke down in his moment of glory (just like the Denver D on Monday).

Sidebar for the Dunk
My good friend Chris Stuckey commented on my most recent game review (you’ll see Chris covering the Mavs on our network very soon) asking, “Why no mention of the late non-call?” I responded to him in person, but I’ll share it with you now.

Chris: Great post on yesterday’s game but no mention of the controversial finish??

Bryan: I avoided it on purpose… it annoys me to no end. The Mavs let Denver hang around… they let Chauncey hit the open J from the outside all night long, they left Melo open out there as well… the truth is, I think it’s a controversy no matter if they call it or not. If Carlisle makes a move to Bass earlier (in the game or in the series for that matter – and say what you want, but Carlisle has a history of doing this, never taking the blame he deserves, always pointing fingers… there is a reason he didn’t last in other stops, the schtick gets old for everyone involved), if Jason Kidd does anything of worth in the first half at all, if ANY of these guys put up some semblance of defense, it wouldn’t have mattered.
 
And nothing bothers me more than the “the refs were calling every ticky tac foul” argument put forth in Denver only to turn around and put the entire win on that one call in Game 3. You can’t have it both ways.
 
Besides man… it was like 2am and if I launch into the whole call/no call debate, we go another two pages and I become a babbling idiot. I would have launched into a tirade man… it’s a well known and accepted NBA mantra my friend. If you leave the game in the hands of the officials, you get what you get.
 
Weren’t you amazed at how the momentum was CLEARLY in the home team’s favor in the 4th… yet they just couldn’t pull away? This goes back to my point about Dirk being ALL alone in the first half. You can’t ask him to do this night after night after night. He is never on his game the way he should be in the 4th because he’s working too damn hard. If he hadn’t been carrying everyone not named Jason Terry in the 1st half, he EXPLODES in the 4th… you know it and I know it. The Nuggets can’t stop him, they haven’t yet… but they sure as hell wear him out and put him in a bad way for crunch time.

Chris: I completely understand everything you’re saying.  The sad thing is..overall, NBA officiating is pretty bad.  You would think that the NBA could find the best officials in business. 
 
If the refs knew that the Mavs had a foul to give, then they have to blow the whistle.  I don’t care what series of events led to it being a two point game with seven seconds left.  The game was decided on a missed call.
 
Let me preface this by saying that I do not like Rick Carlisle.  In his defense, Bass is an extremely streaking player and up until yesterday’s game, he had not shown signs of life at all this postseason.
 
Dirk is spectacular but the Dallas Mavericks suck.  Keep Dirk, Terry and Bass and send the rest of them packing.  Being mediocre is pathetic.

(That’s it… you are going to love Chris when he gets rolling on the Mavs. Coming soon.)

I want you to keep in mind that Brian Cuban, Mark Cuban’s brother (and one of several lawyers on his staff), was nice enough to hit Twitter and claim Denver fans as “classless” and “the worst in the NBA.” Keep that in mind as you read this post from Chris Dempsey reporting live from Dallas during Game 4.

iPod junkie like me? Chances are you already hit the BS Report from ESPN. If not, check out yesterday’s offering (May 12th, 2009) as Bill Simmons talks NBA playoffs with former coach and current commentator Jeff Van Gundy. With about 15 minutes left in the podcast, Bill makes his case for Denver putting the Lakers to bed. Great stuff… and then Simmons goes on about 10 minutes later, calling the Nuggets out as the team most likely to implode, picking the Lakers in 6. Before you get too upset, understand he’s been picking against Denver throughout the playoffs. He deserves credit for this, staying true to his word. Also understand he predicted the Rockets would win their series against the Lakers if they could win Game 5, and they just got spanked by the Mamba and crew by 40.

Sidebar for the Dunk
You know what? There was one moment that pissed me off like no other in that game, and that was the unbelievably stupid foul by Linas Kleiza late in the 3rd quarter. If I were to point at one singular act that changed the tone of this game, it may have been that foul. This guy has an outstanding outside shot, but he’s been riding the bench, labeled as a “defensive liability” by Karl. So what’s he do? He finds the best shooter on the floor, fouls him on the shot (if it had stopped here, nothing of note happens), and then he KEEPS him at the line with the damn technical. He’ll be riding the pine again in Game 5, and I can live with that… more shots for Chauncey.

I’d like to send the follow to all of my friends in Texas. Just a little reminder. The following was needed to win, at home, with the calls in your favor, by two. Enjoy.

In the interest of fandom and brotherly love, when the reviews of the Dunk fails to hit your need for precise, sanitary, thorough analysis of the play-by-play actions of the game – I’m more of a pick-your-spots kind of guy – hit our friends at the Nugg Doctor. He tells you about every play, with just enough detail to satisfy.

Sidebar for the Dunk
One other note… hey TNT. When you were showing the stats on Dirk’s night… listing the field goals by defender… I believe the analysis was, “No one is really putting him in a bad way.” AT THE TOP OF THE CHART: vs. Kenyon Martin, 3-for-7. I’d say that’s pretty damn impressive. I wonder how many defenders faced Dirk this season and held him under 50% in a single game. The guy was at 48% for the season. If the truth were told, I would question if they, “they” being the announcers, were told to avoid Kenyon in this or any other discussion on the evening. The place was dripping with drama splattered from the carnage that was Mark Cuban vs. Kenyon’s mom, yet they failed to remark about it with any depth at all during the game. I guess we don’t want to throw tomatoes at the king… let’s just talk about his Twitter account for HOURS ON END.

In case you missed it, which means you live in a soulless dungeon and rarely come out (this story was linked and spread all through town… portions were read on each and every local radio show, including the primary news networks, that day), here’s the link to the feature spread on Chauncey from ESPN’s Tom Friend. It’s pretty amazing work, to say the least.

Twitter Shouts
- My man Chris Harrop with the Aurora Sentinel hit us with some love again, calling out the Dunk and the Stable in some late #ff calls on Sunday. Coming from Chris, it means a ton.
- Peep this. Israel basketball. Support the cause of bball across the globe my friends.
- Check out my man Sweets and crew over at AllBallsDontBounce.com. They cover things from an angle I can appreciate. I think you will agree. Who else comes correct with a video post of the TNT Bread Challenge?
- The Dunk would be giddy if the following folks would add us as follows: @robhuebel, @PeteCarroll, @stackmack, @BrittanyLane (yes, we are that shallow… damn proud of it).
- Last but not least, a little local love for some friends of mine. If you are into hip hop at all, you should be hittin’ up Three the Hardway when they are on the streets of Denver. The work put forth by the entire team is outstanding, well above and beyond any other local stuff you might be bangin’. They are just starting to learn the art of Twitter. Hit ‘em up, check ‘em out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Chris Andersen, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Dirk Nowitzki, Kenyon Martin, Mark Cuban, NBA Playoffs, Twitter