What team would you rather face in the first round?

[Donald Kaufman]

Yeah it's all good, I was responding more to Dwade's post anyway.

[co_laper]

I was actually responding to Mad Mavs post.. But it's good too. haha..

[ahonui06]

Dallas will win tonight to ensure another 1st round battle between Dallas and San Antonio

[DWadeno3]

Dirk is soft but he DOMINATES us offensively. Defensively, I doubt you'll see him on Duncan much. Usually we guard him with Dice or Bonner and vice versa. Duncan is usually being guarded by Dampier or Howard in this case. There will be stretches where they guard each other mostly during small balls when both plays Center.

I'm not worried about Duncan's production. He always comes up big in the playoffs so no reason to expect differently. Actually, when it comes to playing againts Dallas, it's never about the Spurs' offense. We won't be worried about what Parker, Duncan, and Manu can do. It's about our Defense againts Dallas. So all your points about Dallas not being able to stop Duncan or Manu are all pointless.

As long as you slow the game down, you should be able to control them though. The Mavericks thrive when they get to run since they have a genius playmaker and some athletic guys and shooters he can feed. But I think as long as you force them to execute their halfcourt offense and let them take a lot of jumpers, you shouldn't have a problem there. That's at least my observation from the couple of Dallas games I've seen this season.

[co_laper]

Couple?

The key to beating the Mavs is one thing when it comes to SA vs Dallas. It's about stopping Dirk from getting hot. You can live with Dirk doing his usual numbers. But if he starts getting 30 points on a very efficient shooting and then 10+ rebounds, you're dead. We have a chance if he's doing things like 24 points on 22 shots and 8 rebounds. I guarantee a win if he's scoring less than 20 points and grabbing less than 8 rebounds.

[co_laper]

Btw, it looks like Pop wants Dallas in the 1st round. We kept Manu and Duncan out while Dallas played a full team. I believe if we win this game (even if OKC also win), we'll own the tie breaker againts OKC and thus giving us the 6th seed. So we still had something to play.

[Donald Kaufman]

'We got Dallas. I'm just glad we avoided Utah. I don't think we match up well with them at all.

[Blame Rasho]

'We got Dallas. I'm just glad we avoided Utah. I don't think we match up well with them at all.

I think otherwise...

Dallas just has too much overall talent...

Utah and Denver despite being good teams, I think we would be a very live dog to beat them.

Dallas just isn't a good match because of Dirk, their althetic players( Butler, Marion and etc) and their two bigs ( Haywood, and Ericka Suckpier).

If we were to win it would have to mean that Dallas lost the series more so than we won the series...

[Donald Kaufman]

My biggest concern is Jason Terry, he generally kicks our ass pretty good.

I don't think we're outmatched against these guys. I like our chances.

And I don't agree that it would be a case of Dallas losing rather than us winning.

[co_laper]

Well Phoenix won againts Utah and thus earning the number 3 seed. I would much rather meet Phoenix than Dallas. But yeah, it should be a very fun series.