I was entertaining house-guests when it happened. And by 'entertaining' I mean following the Mavs/Thunder game on my phone. And then, it came across Twitter like wildfire: Dirk trips over himself and goes to the locker room. And that's when I knew things had to change.
Short-term, those people are never allowed in my house during a Mavs game ever again. But long-term, a Mavericks team that was looking a title contender is now a slightly better version of the Cleveland Cavaliers that LeBron left behind.
While they did rally to beat OKC, the Mavs' offense produced a season-low in scoring against the woeful Toronto Raptors, who themselves were down significant personnel.
While a game like that puts Dirk to the top of the MVP rankings, it also is bad, bad news in a Western Conference when a single win can mean the different between a two-seed and a seven-seed.
The Dirk-less Mavs put up a great fight against San Antonio, and sure, maybe in our darkest hours some of us were wondering how we could switch Jason Terry and Gary Neal a la Face/Off, but the real fact is this: Without Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs are barely a playoff team.< ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Alex McVeigh
Dallas Mavericks: Can They Weather the Storm Until Dirk Nowitzki Returns?
January 1st, 2011 by Alex McVeigh Leave a reply »
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