Well done Mavs, well done.

D

dangdirtysooner

250+ Posts
The better team took this series. Congratulations Mavs.

The future is still bright for the Thunder. The 4 best players on the team are 22 or younger. A lot of this team's problems(TOs, closing out games, etc...) will just naturally improve with experience.

But the last 48 hours have sucked for Thunder fans. The way we lost the last 2 games is just a killer.

Now please go beat the Heat in the Finals!
 
Mavs were clearly the better team. OKC will only get better and better. But, contrary to the general belief that the Mavs are too old and long in the tooth...actually, OKC was too young and inexperienced. Mavs definitely dominated. Who knows hhow they will perform
 
Haven't heard much out of Cuban these playoffs. Hope it stays that way and the Mavs keep on winning. C'mon Bulls, at least win tonight and force a game 6 in Miami.
 
No way the Mavs dominated the series as each game was very competitive and the last 2 could have easily been Thunder wins. What the Mavs did do was dominate the end of the 4h quarters and that's where games are won and lost.

Westbrook just tries too hard and doesn't let the game come to him. His intensity would be good for a player at another position, but at PG, it's a different story. I remember when Magic was a rookie and hit a big shot to win a game and Kareem came over to him and said, rook, we got a lot of games to play. Chill. Westbrook's speed gets the bigs out of position, but he doesn't do a good job of taking advantage of it. It's either get to the line or they don't score down the stretch. They hit very few shots in the last 2 minutes during the series.
 
The series was not dominated by the Mavs, but not surprisingly, hornpharmd was Johnny-on-the-spot in pointing that out, after disappearing from other threads.
 
Nobody disappeared. I said this series was over the other day. Very impressed with the thunder for fighting back and not getting blown out. This was a big step for that team. They have gained valuable experience and are a very young team. They weren't the favorites and they took a veteran better coached ball club to the wire in games 4 and 5 and made it a competitive series.

Wad I will say that the entire thunder team showed their inexperience late in these games. This includes Durant. They will all learn from this. I think they would benefit from having a teammate like Kidd who could help foster their development.

I would also like to see Durant grow as a leader. He needs to call for the all more late in games. If Westbrook does not get him the ball more then I would like to see him get in his face during timeouts. Michael and Kobe would do this when needed. I also want to see him get the ball lower in the post when he has a smaller defender on him. And to drive to the basket more. With the defensive attention he draws he should be able to find open teammates if the lane closes up. Basically he just needs to be more aggressive.
 
The Thunder will be good, probably championship caliber, when Westbrook decides to leave and go be "the man" for another team. He cannot accept being the #2.

Reminds me of the Devin Harris/Dirk Nowitzki thing. Devin Harris is DEFINITELY not a me-first guy, so don't think I am saying that. But Harris was a dribble-drive first guy and not a pass-first guy. Dirk could not be Dirk with Harris. I think behind the scenes Dirk complained about this, but it NEVER came out.

When the Mavs went out and got Kidd, it made Dirk (and everyone else) that much better. Harris was better than Kidd in a lot of ways, but Kidd made the team better.

Durant will be better if the Thunder let Westbrook go and bring in a veteran PG. I know those guys don't grow on trees, but there has to be one that is a good fit for this team. That PG will make Durant and everyone else better.

Kudos to the Mavs organization on putting the pieces together to make this happen. I certainly had my doubts along the way. I can think of no other franchise that has had the heartbreaking losses the Mavs have had over the past 5 years. To keep the spirits of the organization (and your superstar player up) is commendable.

Go Mavs!
 
Any team that can bring a guy like Harden off the bench is pretty loaded. This is the last time OKC will be any kind of "easy" out.

Mavs got them 4-1 this year. I could see the exact opposite next year. That team has a multi-year window of championship possibilities.

I think Westbrook is a dynamite player but a little volatile. He definitely plays his *** off and in transition is unstoppable.

For a guy who never played PG in college, he is one helluva PG and just figures to get better. I wouldnt dump him unless you got a LOT in return.

And KD is just getting started. His team needs to play better around him, and he needs to improve on getting to his spot and taking the ball. Gonna win two rings minimum.
 
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