Better Luck Next Year For The Suns and Mavericks

by Bodog Sportsbook | Apr 30 2008

The Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns both made major midseason changes to their lineups in an effort to make a deep playoff run. Ironically, both of those “deep” runs ended in dominating first round defeats.



Better Luck Next Year

The Phoenix Suns had their season ended at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs yet again. Despite major midseason changes including the addition of Shaq Daddy to the lineup Phoenix still fell short, in fact, it wasn’t even close. We’re not putting that on Shaq, he played exactly like he said he would and then some. Arguably, it was the heartbreaking loss in Game 1 that may have done the Suns in. Why the Suns did not foul and put San Antonio on the line instead of giving them the opportunity to tie the game remains a mystery that Mike D’Antoni now has all summer to ponder. So after losing Game 1, twice, the Suns proceeded to watch San Antonio make uncontested layups for the next 2 games placing themselves in 3-0 series deficit. In the final elimination game as well as for much of the series, the Suns offense was absolute crap. Phoenix was simply too easy to guard and too easy to score on. Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan were dominant, but it was Tony Parker who murdered the Suns all series long. In desperation the Suns attempted to place Boris Diaw on Parker, who promptly torched Diaw for a cool 31 points to close out the series and the season on the Suns, convincingly, four games to one.

The problem with the Suns is that they were still trying to play the style of basketball that had brought them success in previous years, the problem with that is that they don’t have the same players of previous years. The Suns want to run and gun, but their personnel suggest they are no longer a run and gun team, but a half court team. And if you’re no longer a run and gun team, then you had better be a defensive minded team. The Suns were neither and some of that blame has to fall on Mike D’Antoni and some more on the GM Steve Kerr. Better luck next year to a Phoenix Suns team that will need some major systematic changes to be successful in the future.

Passing of the Guard

After being on the victim end of one of the biggest postseason upsets in NBA playoff history, the Dallas Mavericks hoped that this year would bring them redemption. The Mavericks traded away a young budding point guard in Devin Harris for the future Hall of Fame guard in Jason Kidd. On paper the trade looked good, but Dallas struggled to adjust to Kidd’s style of play and the transition never looked seamless. But that’s not why Dallas lost this series. Dallas lost this series because Josh Howard didn’t show up for this series, maybe he forgot due to short term memory loss from all the ganja he admittedly blazes in the offseason. It might not have made a difference whether Howard showed up or not. Chris Paul was simply too good for Dallas. CP3 outplayed Kidd for the entire series. Paul does an amazing job of continuously finding ways to get his teammates involved. Paul can also score at will and always had a clutch response for any run that Dallas tried to make. In the elimination game Paul notched his first playoff triple double to send the Mavericks home packing after 5 games. As a fan of the game, just watching a young Chris Paul dismantle the Mavericks made you want to yell out: “That Chris Paul is one cold mother…” Better luck next year to a Mavericks team that is sure to undergo some major revisions in the offseason.

Houston staved off elimination but will have their work cut out for them against Utah to even this series in Salt Lake.

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