| 15 March 2009
This year, even though the West is extremely tight from the third seed down to the ninth place team, the race for the eighth and final spot is going to come down to a showdown over the next month between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns. And it seems pretty fitting because these two teams have had the most drama out West in the past couple of seasons despite the fact that Kobe Bryant still plays out there.
Over the past couple of seasons, the Dallas Mavericks have had to endure a complete and utter collapse in the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat that was fueled by a legend-starting performance from Dwyane Wade and an ever more legendary performance from Bennett Salavatore. After that, the Mavericks followed up with 67 wins the next season only to be completely embarrassed by the Golden State Warriors' rag-tag style of play in the first round of the playoffs. Dirk Nowitzki's manhood was questioned and Don Nelson was able to give a big middle finger Mark Cuban. Follow that up with a mutiny against Avery Johnson who has a win percentage in the neighborhood of 70%, a trade of Devin Harris and a couple of first round picks for a version of Jason Kidd who couldn't keep me from getting to the paint, Josh Howard smoking weed only to trump that by saying he doesn't celebrate the National Anthem because he's black, and Mark Cuban's alleged insider trading gaffe, and it hasn't exactly been an easy couple of years for Mavs fans.
But the Phoenix Suns would argue that they've had a tougher couple of years while all of this was going on in Dallas with their own discretions and disheartening situations. And they'd have a pretty valid argument. The Suns have endured bloody noses, questionable calls, and player suspensions in numerous soul-crushing playoff losses to the San Antonio Spurs over the past couple of seasons. They endured first round picks being sold to save money, Shawn Marion's mood swings, Amare Stoudemire's matador defense, Boris Diaw's Frenchness, and a regular four-man rotation. They dealt with a trade of Shaq coming in and Marion leaving, which led to another playoff loss to the Spurs after a back-breaking Tim Duncan three in game one (you read that correctly), Mike D'Antoni deciding he didn't want to be a part of the defensive movement by Steve Kerr, Terry Porter being hired to enforce the defensive movement only to have him be fired months later as they realized that this team couldn't play defense. And that experiment of defense has ultimately led to the position where they are now.
If the Phoenix Suns had been running all season long, they'd probably have a significant number of more wins under their belts and wouldn't have to worry about being four games behind the Mavericks for the eighth and final playoff spot. And now with both the Mavericks and Suns having played 67 games on their schedule, the final 15 games will determine who gets to play the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs to possibly crush their fans' hopes one more time. The Lakers would love for the Mavericks to exhaust themselves as they defend their seed in the West so that they can face a Mavericks team that has lost six straight and gone 3-15 over the last 18 games between the two teams.
The Suns on the other hand will attempt to take advantage of a slightly easier schedule down the stretch run to overtake the Dallas Mavericks for a shot at upsetting Kobe in the first round.
The Suns schedule looks like this:
Home Games: Philadelphia, Washington, Denver, Utah, Houston, Sacramento, Memphis, Golden State
Road Games: Portland, Utah, Sacramento, Dallas, New Orleans, Memphis, Minnesota
Playoff-bound opponents: Philadelphia, Denver, Utah (x2), Houston, Portland, New Orleans
Back to Backs: Utah then at Portland, at Utah then at Sacramento, at Memphis then at Minnesota
The showdown with Dallas on April 5th might end up being the deciding factor since the three back to backs including the four games in five nights (the first two back to backs) will help cancel out the four straight home games that the Suns play over the next week and a half. Throw in the fact that the Suns end the season with home games against Memphis and Golden State and Dallas will need to win that Sunday showdown against the Suns.
Here are Dallas' remaining games:
Home Games: Detroit, Golden State, Denver, Miami, Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans, Minnesota, Houston
Road Games: Atlanta, Indiana, Cleveland, Minnesota, Memphis, New Orleans
Playoff-bound Opponents: Detroit, Denver, Miami, Utah, Cleveland, Atlanta, New Orleans (x2), Houston
Back to Backs: at Atlanta then at Indiana, at Minnesota then home for Miami, at New Orleans then home for Minnesota
Dallas' two games against the T'Wolves definitely helps their cause and with a four-game lead currently over the Suns, the Mavericks are in pretty good shape to keep their lead. But they have two more playoff opponents than the Suns that they'll play over the next month and that could end up being the biggest factor for their playoff chances.
Either way, one team is going to stay home for the playoffs and pray that they beat the astronomical odds against them winning the NBA lottery and the other team will probably give false hope to their tortured fan base one more time.
The NBA: Where What The F*&^ Happens
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