Top 10 playoff truths: Nelson leads greatest upset in history
1. I don't subscribe to the near-universal belief that the Mavericks choked this series away. The only choke job I saw was Don Nelson choking the life out of his two prized Dallas protégés, eliminating his son's team in the process. And he did it with a big smile.
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| Don Nelson proves he's one of the best in the business. (Getty Images) |
The story goes that Mark Cuban hated the fact that Nelson liked the underdog role. Now he'll hate that for a different reason.
In orchestrating the greatest upset in NBA history, the winningest coach in NBA history has another wonderful moment to hang his hat on. In many ways, this is his championship, as bittersweet as it is.
He baffled Avery Johnson's team, therefore baffling his friend and successor. He erased his greatest find, Dirk Nowitzki. (More on Dirk later because I know you'll demand it, sadists.)
However, spot No. 1 in the Truths is a tribute to the man that made it all happen, coming back to the Bay Area to finish what he started 18 years ago. He coached a masterpiece of a series, flustering a 67-win Mavericks squad that now figure to wind up the butt of jokes.
2. Appropriately, props are in order for Nelson's top assassin, Baron Davis. He has won over casual fans with his play, but let's not get too wrapped up in calling him this generation's Willis Reed. Please, can we not do that?
Though he was hampered, adrenaline put him at about 80 percent after he initially couldn't get any lift. You knew when he limped off and they announced it was a strained hamstring that he'd be back. You wrap it up and play.
His performance was impressive. He ran the show in a way Monta Ellis never could, and Ellis played well during the stretch he was absent. But Davis, even forced to settle for jumpers, keeps everyone involved. Amid the chaos, everything slows down for him. He controls it.
Don't discount his mental hold on a series like this, either. His confidence transformed his teammates and shrunk his opposition. When he rose up to his feet to get in Austin Croshere's face after a hard third quarter foul, did he look injured to you?
That was all about sending a message. Golden State would not be bullied. Not with Davis out there. He deputized Stephen Jackson and got it done. That doesn't make him a hero.
It makes him damn good at his job. Given his history of injuries and fallouts with coaches, he needed a moment like this for critics to give him his due.
3. If Andrei Kirilenko doesn't have his confidence back by now, I'd worry about him ever becoming the player he used to be before this season's breakdown. I'm not talking about the crying incident. I'm talking about the whole thing -- all 82 deflating games.
The 2004 All-Star version of Kirilenko showed up for Game 6. It was evident to anyone who watched. Carlos Boozer called the effort his best game. TNT put him on with Craig Sager, who pulled off another of his sublime wardrobe atrocities, a blue squiggly line-filled ensemble. If America was able to take its eyes off that suit, the country watched AK-47 back in the spotlight.
This is the highest he's been in a long time. Is he ready to build on this? Utah's fortunes in Game 7 probably depend on that answer.
4. Nowitzki was completely out of his element. Nelson knew exactly how to frustrate him into bad looks, and he made the game painfully difficult for him. So, yes, he failed his team. But he doesn't suck. Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse are not better players than him, and he's no loser who can't lead a team to a championship.
He just played chief soldier to Johnson's role as Gen. Custer.
Johnson said his team "didn't have the confidence, and got rattled." How does a 67-win team not have confidence? That falls on both their shoulders, but it's Nowitzki who people will kill most.
Golden State made him invisible out there, and that's partially Johnson's fault, too. Nowitzki had one real run all series where he played like an MVP, and never got comfortable enough in this type of game to get going.
Don't be too cruel. Consider that fate is going to punish him by presenting him an MVP that he probably won't be able to look at.
Every time he sees it, he'll remember this, the 2-for-13 Game 6, and as he put it, that the "last six to seven months, you win 67 games and it really means nothing."
5. Tracy McGrady tried to sell that this Game 7 isn't the biggest of his career.
"Why would this be the biggest?"
C'mon, Tracy, just say yes. It is. I know you're coming from the angle that you approach every game the same way, and that those previous Game 7s you've gone about preparing for the same way have gone real well for you (both double-digit losses, the most recent by 40), but putting it on yourself to advance at the start of the series means you say the right thing and you put it all on the line now.
If I were McGrady and had a mulligan, I'd have said, "definitely, this is the biggest game of my career, and I guarantee victory."
6. B-Diddy on Jackson as the true leader of the Warriors: "He's turned his life around, ask any guy who means the most to us, and they'll say Stephen Jackson is the heart and soul of this team."
Because he has a ring, Jackson's play and confidence has been a crutch for Golden State to rely on. He was cited for his lack of leadership in Indiana, and it's nice to see him using a fresh start to try and set things right. He scored 13 straight points in the Warriors' game-clinching 18-0 third quarter run, but walking the opposite direction from the Davis confrontation was the best thing he did all night. It proves he may finally realize how invaluable he is to the cause.
7. Between all the bumping, pulling and grabbing, you can tell that playoff intensity has reached a nasty level in the already physical Utah-Houston series.
Boozer: "Everything is going to matter."
Scratching for every edge is what Shane Battier and Boozer are known for doing on a nightly basis, but when you've got everyone out there scrapping, guys are bound to start developing hard feelings. Mehmet Okur and Juwan Howard got into it, and those two aren't hot-heads. Emotions overflow in elimination games.
You know the NBA will have a veteran crew in Houston on Saturday night.
8. So how far can Golden State go? I'm not writing them off in the next round, that's for sure. Although their opponent remains to be seen, the Warriors home environment makes it a threat to win every time. Those people turned out in droves to joyfully witness an execution, and I'm certain they will come out for more.
If Houston advances, the presence of Yao Ming makes a meeting with the Warriors incredibly interesting. Can he hang with the pace? If it's Utah, there would be no one that would've seen that pairing coming. The Warriors in the Western Conference finals still sounds strange, but it's a tangible possibility.
9. The Miami Heat get over on Dallas again this postseason, too. Sure, they got swept, but they do have rings as consolation prizes. They took advantage of their shot at the promised land, and now lose the stigma of being the most disappointing squad during these playoffs.
10. Considering that fourth quarters in the Jazz-Rockets series have been so one-sided toward the home team, Houston will win Saturday's Game 7. Late-season mistakes always come back to haunt you -- ask Miami -- and Utah fading late and fumbling away the homecourt edge will be its downfall.
