Tuesday preview: Spurs at Mavericks
The San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks have a bevy of things in common. Both teams are loaded with talented veterans, led by great coaches, from the great state of Texas and playoff-bound. It is no wonder that any team in the Western Conference or the East for that matter would like to avoid these two come springtime.
On Tuesday, the foes from the Southwest Division will clash in a potential playoff preview, although likely seeding dictates that would only happen in the conference finals.
For Dallas, the season has been a fairly turbulent one. The Mavericks have been busy making moves throughout the campaign, signing Amar’e Stoudemire in February and earlier, trading for disgruntled point guard Rajon Rondo. The transactions have been helpful but perhaps not made the impact owner/general manager Mark Cuban was hoping for, with his team sitting at 44-27 and seventh in the conference.
Dallas is an older team looking to make perhaps one final run at a ring before starting to break this core down. Stoudemire is always on borrowed time with his bad knees, while center Tyson Chandler and forward Dirk Nowitzki are beginning to show age. Nowitzki is still a tremendous weapon but no longer the superstar he was when the team won a NBA championship in 2011.
Times have been tough around the Mavericks recently. After losing to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, head coach Rick Carlisle hammered the team for a lack of effort, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com.
“This is a Dallas Mavericks hard-play problem, all right?” Carlisle said, focusing on the Mavs’ poor effort in the first half, after they blew a six-point lead in the final six minutes of the loss. “We don’t play hard all the time. And that’s a problem.
“It’s pretty clear that’s where our inconsistency is, and we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to be a more together team. I believe that we can do it. We did it in the second half, but it’s work. It takes effort. It takes effort in the locker room, it takes sacrifice, and we’ve got to be willing to do those things.”
Dallas will have a chance to prove itself twice in the next four days with a home-and-home against San Antonio. The Spurs are coming together at the right time, winners in eight of their last 10. San Antonio is 44-25 and sixth in the West, but looking like a major threat to anybody with great talent and a championship to defend.
On Sunday, the Spurs went on the road and crushed the Eastern Conference-leading Atlanta Hawks 114-95. Six players scored in double figures, including Kawhi Leonard who scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to go with seven assists and four steals. Tiago Splitter led all scorers with 23, while Matt Bonner amassed 17.
The playoffs are almost here. It’s time to pay attention to the teams from Texas.
