The Mavs Channel Their Inner BeeGees

The Dallas Mavericks had every excuse in the world to lay down last night against the Denver Nuggets. The officials had robbed Game 3 from them (although Antoine Wright must have heard some DJ in the back of his mind say, "Throw your hands up!"), Josh Howard was down to zero ankles, and Mark Cuban threw all PR tactics out the window by calling Kenyon Martin a "thug" to Martin's mother's face (he has since apologized, thankfully). I came into the game thinking it would be nice if the Mavericks won, but, realistically, let's face it: this team has never really handled adversity well.

But, at least for one game, one night, the Mavs showed a little backbone, shaking off a turnover-prone night to--finally--win a game against the Nuggets this year. Eighth time's a charm.

In the minds of Mavs' fans that this series should be tied. In their minds they should be playing a rubber game on Wednesday... but that's not the way it is. Much like life, the NBA isn't always fair, but it's time to move on.

Prior to Game 4, I listened to a ton of sports radio and looked at quite a few message boards bashing the Mavs: Cuban's antics, Dirk Nowitzki's stalker/fiance (never thought in a million years you could slash those two elements, did you?), some stuff about closed windows, etc. Painful stuff for a Mavericks' fan... painful but unfortunately true.

One thing my sports journalism class has taught me this year, if nothing else, was to look at sports with an objective eye. More than likely, yes, Dallas is looking at major changes this summer. Part of me wants to see them try one more time with this nucleus, but when that nucleus next year would probably max out at a four or five seed and an appearance in the second round, why bother?

Talent wise, there's nothing horrificly wrong with the Mavs. I'd argue that, pound for pound, they have more solid basketball players than any other team in the NBA. But, win or lose this series (lose in all likelihood), Denver has exploited their biggest deficiency: a glaring lack of athleticism, especially at the guard spot.
With the exception of J-Ho, the wing players that are athletic just aren't good enough basketball players to be out there on a consistent basis. Outside of J-Ho and Dirk, I feel like everyone else is expendable at the end of the year.

That being said, I just want to enjoy the next game. It could be the last we see of the Dallas Mavericks as we know them.