Three Thoughts - Mavericks Close Out OKC
In an absolute uphill struggle, Dallas finally put the Thunder to sleep in Game 6 at AAC.
Nothing would come easy, that’s for sure. And you almost wouldn’t accept it any other way.
The Dallas Mavericks closed out a Round 2 series in the exact same sequence that they used in Round 1. Loss-Win-Win-Loss-Win-Win in both rounds, but surely the Game 6 final sword to the Clippers was much easier to apply than the same finishing blow to the young Thunder. Nevertheless, they fell, 117-116 in front of a relieved capacity crowd that witnessed a 48-minute struggle.
It pushes the Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals on a Saturday night in the same number of games that their house-mates, the Dallas Stars used early Saturday Morning to finish the job in Denver, Colorado. For those curious, yes, it is the first time in the history of our city that the Stars and Mavericks went to the final four of their sports in the same year. In fact, there are only two other times in the history of DFW that any two teams made it that far; 2011 (Mavericks and Rangers) and 2023 (Stars and Rangers), so to be doing it simultaneously has been quite a spring in these parts.
Both the Mavericks and the Stars will blast off in Round three of a possible four this week at the same time (but different nights!).
These are My Three Thoughts:
– The Mavericks should be very proud of their 2nd half response and probably should be very upset about their 1st half start. In a nutshell, the Mavericks are a team that can look nearly invincible at times and nearly incompetent at others, often due to their general intensity and focus. If they ever crack the code and leave behind the immature ways (especially at home) they might be ready to win a NBA title.
I realize that this is coming in pretty hot to start this essay, but I thought that the Mavericks almost took themselves out of Game 6 early and in doing so, might have flirted with ending their own season prematurely.