The Kidd ain't alrightI seriously believe if you took a poll most would believe the Mavericks are up 3-0 in the NBA Finals instead of the actual 1-2 deficit.
The stark truth is that the Mavericks haven't been as good as they could be and this includes Dirk Nowitzki.
Yes, I want more from him. Shooting below 50 percent in the Finals from your star player is simply not acceptable. I realize the whole team is on his shoulders, but if he wants this title bad enough, he knows exactly what he needs to do.
I think we are seeing who these players actually are. Jason Kidd is 38. J.J. Barea is extremely susceptible to sucking. Jason Terry is a marginal good player in this league.
The Mavericks are very beatable with a ton of holes. Defensively, they are at best "good." At worst they are porous and they don't seem to have a lot of options. Meaning, I don't think they have that fifth gear or players on their team with that fifth gear.
Calling DeShawn Stevenson or Corey Brewer or Kidd your best defender is not a good thing, I don't care how good those guys are. Lebron James is the best defender on the Heat and he happens to be the best offensive player on the team.
The Mavericks have no stoppers. They have no one that can go iso and score at will. They don't have an athlete that will force them to win a game (all apologies to Dirk Nowitzki ... but I would've liked him at the rim on that final shot Sunday night).
The Mavericks are down 2-1 in this series for a number of very good reasons. The overarching theme is that they're not quite as good as we think and they were playing out of their minds for the previous three weeks.
You can't look at Kidd's game Sunday night and think, "Well, it was good enough to win." Kidd's been fucking atrocious this series and no one's willing to step out and say it. Now is not the time to have unfortunate turnovers or bad shooting. Now is the time when you play your best and Kidd, at times, has been OK and, at worst, bad the rest of the time. Not acceptable. Shooting 8-23 is not cool. Averaging seven assists and four turnovers per game is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Tyson Chandler, too. Don't give me this bullshit of his "impact" in the lane and defensive and that bullshit. You are here to do two things: Play defense (check!) and rebound. Seven rebounds per game and only one double-digit rebounding game in three is NOT ACCEPTABLE.
The Mavericks had certain strengths going into this series. Two were their "deep" bench and the other was their length. Two things we could depend on were the Mavericks controlling the boards and the bench outscoring Miami's two to one.
The opposite has happened. "Winning" the rebound game is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Considering the Mavericks' length compared to Miami's (Joel Anthony ... seriously?), the Mavericks should be up 10 rebounds every game. They're not.
Simply to say, "Well, the Mavericks won the rebounding battle by three" or "Jason Terry's being guarded by Lebron James" or "You don't win championships with your bench players" is utter bullshit.
Everyone's wiping asses. Everyone's looking for some logical explanation that doesn't land at the feet of the Mavericks.
Bullshit. I'm tired of wiping asses. I'm tired of pretending that these players are good when they are not.
The Mavericks have been UTTERLY OUTPLAYED for 90 percent of this series. That is a truth. It's fact. Believe in fairies and unicorns all you want. Doesn't matter. The Mavericks are playing like shit and unless it improves mightily, good luck with another second-place trophy.
