Thoughts and Reflections on Mamba

When Tim Thomas swished a three off a pumpfake in the last minutes, all thoughts shifted back to game 6 of the Laker series when he saved the Suns season. Luckily for Dallas, they are a better team than Los Angeles.

Speaking of better team, Dallas showed their grit and determination tonight. Dirk Nowitski has transformed his game before our eyes. He is taking the ball to the rack more often, and simply does not settle anymore for the 18 foot fadeaway. In years past, he would simply shoot over the defense, resulting in fast-break buckets for the opponents, and a disjointed flow to the offense, but now, he driving it in, drawing fouls, slowing down the pace of the game, and scoring at a higher clip. His rebounding is also up. He is, as we all know, a matchup nightmare.

Major props to Josh Howard and Jason Terry as well. They stepped up their game, especially Josh Howard with 29 much needed points. The Suns were completely poised for an upset. Nash has simply incredible court vision and sense. He makes the game so easy for his teammates. Put Boris Diaw on another team, and I guarantee you he will still be a no-name.

Dallas would be nowhere without DeSagana Diop, he unsung hero of game 7. He is the only Dallas player to slow down Tim Duncan, and tonight he changed the complexity of the Dallas defense again, by bothering Diaw and Nash.

I believe this will be, like the Detroit Miami series, a 7 game seesaw affair.

Here's an example of media adoration for Nash / media bias against Kobe. Marc Stein wrote this in the ESPN Daily Dime:

This was not a surrender from Steve Nash. This was not Nash showing us his Kobe Bryant imitation. This was certainly no show of mercy to Mark Cuban's team.
So scrap any such suspicions.
The reason Nash attempted only one second-half shot for the Phoenix Suns on Friday night?
There were two reasons, actually.
Reason No. 1: Nash's determination to create shot opportunities for his teammates went too far in this Game 2 and gradually took him out of the crunch-time attack mode he is known to shift into whenever he comes back to Dallas . . . prompting Nash to bash himself afterward for losing his aggressiveness.
Reason No. 2: The Mavericks did what they didn't do in Game 1 by frequently sending two defenders at Nash after halftime and conceding open looks at the 3-point line. When Phoenix finally cooled off late, to go with the Suns' 1-for-13 freeze at the end of the first quarter, Dallas had the impetus to secure a must-have 105-98 triumph that finally gives it a Western Conference finals victory in its own building.

Marc Stein maintains that Nash did the right thing by creating shot opportunities for his teammates when Dallas aggressively double teamed him. However, Marc Stein maintains that Kobe quit the game when he created shot opportunities for his teammates when Phoenix aggressively double teamed him. Marc Stein lauds Nash's "determination" in getting his teammates involved, while criticizing Kobe's "selfishness and personal issues" in doing the exact same thing, creating shot opportunities for his teammates.

Now, I have already shown you guys that Kobe did the right thing by not trying to score 50 in game 7 (by the way, can you imagine the headlines if he did that? "Kobe Ballhog" "Kobe Lack of Trust in Team Game" "Kobe Goes it alone, #2"). Nash did the right thing tonight as well. Why bring up an unwarranted Kobe comparison and stir the fires of controversy?

So in conclusion, either Marc Stein has a personal agenda to make Kobe look bad at every opportunity, or he holds Kobe to a much higher standard than Nash, such that he expects Kobe to destroy double teams and beat a team by himself. But if he holds Kobe to a higher standard, thereby acknowledging his greatness, then why did he support Nash for MVP?

Just some food for thought. Media bias? Believe me, there's a lot more where that came from.