At some point, athletes and teams need to make a stand. What represents all of the sacrifice and toil that got you to this point? Whatever it is, that is what you must work the hardest to defend. Is it the off-season where you will take your skill set to the next level and really hit the weight room hard that represents your desire to win? Is it the goal-line stand that represents all the parties that you skipped during the season because you had practice scheduled the next morning? Is it Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals that represents every time you played hockey since you were six years old?
For the Dallas Mavericks, that time is now. For the Miami Heat, it was Game 3. For the Carolina Hurricanes, it was last night’s game. Unfortunately, the Edmonton Oilers waited until the third period to step up and play for all that they had invested over the years.
Miami’s certainly slowed the game down. The Heat offence is still stagnant. Dwyane Wade is excellent but nobody else is moving without the ball (like a run I saw last night, except none of the players were Dywane Wade so it took thirty three minutes to play a game to eleven). PHX, San Antonio, Dallas, and the Los Angeles Clippers were much more exciting to watch. Game 5 was still tense, but the interest is gone and there wasn’t much that could be learned from it. The Mavericks still run some neat set pieces, due to the creativity of Del Harris and the recent improvement of Dirk Nowitzki.