SA Preview... Remembering the Good ol' Days

Ahh... Every once in a while, its good to remember the good ol' days.  Unfortunately though, that was then, this is now.  Hard to live in a past, when your team with out a championship has arguably underachieved the most out of any other team in NBA the past few seasons.  But we can learn from history.... Because whether we want to believe it or not, it's repeating itself... Just with a slightly different twist.  

Back to this picture though for a minute for quick history lesson about our Mavs.  If you remember correctly, Game 7, that damn Ginobili hits a 3 with 12.7 seconds left in regulation to put them up 3... in SA.  I remember exactly at that moment wanting to die, dig a hole in the bar that I was at, and burry myself in shame for my team...  Little did I know, Dirk was thinking MUCH DIFFERENT...

"I saw everything slipping away, the great season we had..."

BUT...

"We believed it was our time to win this"

And of course, you know the outcome of that series... (Never mind the finals right now, only positive thinking from here on out) So follow me here... I can probably say that most of you felt like I did after that Manu three... I can say most of us are feeling those same feelings RIGHT NOW that we felt before Dirk shut us up with his drive to the basket.  So I ask again, what has history shown us?

Well, both good and bad to be honest with you.  But at what point since the Jason Kidd trade, have you thought that the Dirk of 2007 is with us and NOT the Dirk of 2006?  Sure, the rest of the team may not all be there...  YET, hell the coach even isnt there mentally to what Dirk is right now... but given the recent play of Dirk, that's a good starting point and will/should only filter down to the rest of the team.

Mike Fisher spoke with Dirk and others last night and here's what Dirk had to say about HIS mental state...

I took (Thursday's loss to Boston) hard. I didn't hardly sleep at all. Very frustrating. ... I think the guys are holding it together fine. Our chemistry is great. Once we get that first one (a win over a contending team), we can start rolling. We just need (multiple) guys playing well at the same time. And then in the playoffs, it can be a different story.

Sound like the 2006 Dirk, or the 2007 Dirk?  Even AJ had some nice things to say about Dirk in Big ED's latest article on why Dirk WONT BE this years MVP despite his recent play...

"He's had a terrific year," coach Avery Johnson said. "He's become a better passer this year. He's playing much better defense. He's blocking shots. He's getting dirty rebounds. And he is a heck of a leader. He's grown in that area."

Oh well, it could be worse.  At least big Ed is not letting Dirks' recent play go to his head like other news outlets have.   Sounds like its been a good dose of "poisonous journalism" for some of their fans... Even though both players have justified such talk as of late.

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Sorry, I know I rambled off on a subject we have all beaten to death.  Lets talk about the game at high noon today at the AAC.  We know where the Mavs (44-25) stand, lets talk about the Spurs (46-23).  They come off back to back 102 point wins against Chicago and Sacramento.   However they have recently been playing as about as well has we have coming in having lost 6 of the last 10.

Our friends who blog from the mud-river down I-35 at PTR have their game thread open already.  AusTechSpur sums up the game best...

This should be a great game.  Both teams are getting desperate.

Key match-up: Parker vs Kidd.  Though Parker had a below average night last time these two met, Parker was only 1 or 2 games back from his ankle injury.  Kidd played ok offensively with 7 points (3-8 shooting) and 10 assists, but defensively was on Manu most of the night and held him to an uncharacteristical game of 17 points (6-20 shooting).  With Stack starting though now instead of Terry, I imagine Kidd to be on Parker most of the night this go around.  Also it looks like Manu is back to coming off the bench.

X-Factor:  JET.  Bass had a great game last game, but I think we cant expect him to come out and do that again.  The rival runs deep with Terry and this Spurs team, and I think he should be up to the challenge to try and keep up with Manu offensively.  As long as he is not handling the ball, the Mavs should be OK when Kidd is not in the game.  Finely will be the X-Factor for the Spurs, as he seems driven to always play well against us.