Today, before game 4 in the Mavs – Spurs series in the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs, I think it’s a good time to take a first look at how my predictions I’ve made on April 17 on Saviorfan.com. Well, the numbers still have me within my predictions. I predicted the Spurs would get two wins out of this one. But I’ll be honest – I hadn’t expected the Spurs would have them so soon.
I still have faith in our beloved Mavs, but the truth is, the two seed team in the West faces a must-win situation tonight, when they play game four in San Antonio. You don’t want to come back to Dallas down 1-3. You cannot count on coming back from being down by two against a team like the Spurs. While I think they’re not most likely to win the championship, they still are the Spurs. They’re still able to put you away.
What I think is very important is the Mavs get off to a fast start and show fighting spirit from the get-go. In both games the Mavs lost in this series, they were outscored by an average margin of 5.5 points per first quarter, with the tendency pointing to the worse. In game three they were outscored in the first period by seven. In game two it was four.
Dirk has been the one big consistent force in the Mavs’ lineup in this series. Other scoring options at times seemed to lack. I believe if the other players, especially Caron Butler will go hot and complement the offensive efforts by Dirk, the Mavs have a real good shot at coming back to ‘Big D’ in a series tie at 2-2.
This is probably the most important game of this series. If the Mavericks win tonight, they restore home court advantage for a three-game series. If they lose, elimination is looming and with that, I don’t think even a Dirk departure from Dallas is unlikely. In short: It would get ugly. But let’s not go there just yet. Like I said, I expected the Spurs to get a couple wins in this series. They got them now, maybe sooner than expected. But the Mavs and coach Rick Carlisle will adapt to make sure we’ll see NBA Playoff basketball in Dallas in May. Go Mavs!
