Let's try this again... Mavs vs. Thunder. I-35 Series

I made mention of it in the Laker's debacle thread, but I think Kendrick Perkins could provide some challenges to the 2010-2011 regular season Mavs. That being said, if the Western Conference semi-finals Mavs show up this one is done in 5. Oklahoma City has no give up in them so I don't see them folding like the Lakers and allowing the Mavs to complete a sweep.

Thoughts Dallasites?

yah, when does football start?

My thoughts are that the way the Bulls made the vaunted Heat "trio" look like middle schoolers today, I'm hoping LeFail/LeQuit gets to enjoy his summer vacation REAL SOON!

GO BULLS!

hoping the Mavs momentum and experience will prevail. they have home court advantage so i think they will win the series. it will be tougher than people expect though. i disagree that Kendric Perkins will be too big a factor since the Mavs are basically a jump shooting (and 3 pt jump shooting) team. they better be hitting the 3's though because they will have their hands full with Westbrook. they haven't faced his kind of speed at the point so far in the playoffs. he will break the Mavs defense down consistently. and Durant will be tough to guard as well. Mavs will be tested but prevail probably in 7.

MAVS in 6.

Mavs in 5. Deeper. More experience. Fresher.

No opinion, I am a hockey fan from Detroit and the Wings are out of it. OKC is going crazy over the Thunder. As long as Miami loses I don't care.

Mavs in 5 or 6.
Would rather play Miami than Chicago in the Finals, but that will not happen.

this series is going 7.

Either way this will be a back and forth series. Neither teams have an answer for the scorers....Dirk = Unguardable, while OKC has 2 in the top 10 scorers who's going to contain Durant? And who can stay with Westbrook? So this will be a tail of Defense and which team can start making some stops, if we can keep them out of the paint Dallas all day. Our bench production is what is going to make or break us. I say Mavs in 6 but it will be a bunch of 90+ games.

Would rather play Miami in the finals, bulls have more options outside the big 3. Next year that might be a tad diff.

I think the series is going to go to 7 with Dallas winning. Westbrook the point guard is a match up problem for the Mavs - he's too fast and quick for Kidd to guard him and he's too big for JJ or The Jet.

Durant doesn't scare me as much because the trio of Marion, Stevenson, and Corey Brewer can play him physically. I don't think they can completely shut him down, but they will make him work for his shots and points. Plus Durant can't really create his own shot to much compare to Westbrook.

Plus the thing we have to keep in mind with Dallas is that they are jump shot shooting team. Jump shot shooting teams are either hot or cold, when they are making their shots they are potent offensively, but when they are off they struggle, which sometimes transcends to them struggling defensively and with offensive turnovers.

The best way to defend OKC is to let Westbrook do all the scoring and be the ball hog that he naturally is.

Some interesting stats for the Mavs and their new found playoff success.

For the regular season the Mavs shot the following:

Paint - 42% of their overall shots at a 57% shooting %
Mid-Range - 31% of their overall shots at a 45% shooting %
3 Pt - 27% of their overall shots at a 37% shooting %

Against the Lakers:

Paint - 39% of their overall shots at a 56% shooting %
Mid-Range - 26% of their overall shots at a 44% shooting %
3 Pt - 35% of their overall shots at a 47% shooting %

The biggest difference was defense and the fact that their 3 Pt shots were both dramatically increased AND their shots were falling at an astonishing rate. The Mavs could beat any team shooting 47% on 3 pt shots with more than 1 of 3 shots from that range. The biggest question - Can they keep it up? As others mentioned, hard to sustain hot shooting, especially at THAT level.

I was hoping to factor out game 4 to see how that adjusted the stats but NBA.com isn't the easiest to manipulate. May edit this post for that info if I can find it.

EDIT - The best I can find is the Mavs shot 39.7% from 3 pt range for games 1-3 and took 32.3% of their total shots from 3 point range. Still huge improvements over their regular season stats even factoring out Terry and Peja's game 4 performance.

I predict Lakers in 7. Oh hell they aren't playing are they. That's too bad. As long as they aren't I really don't care. NBA finals have already been played. Heat beat Celtics in 5. They were the 2 best teams

Wildcat

Celtics and Heat? LOL. Yeah Chicago's ass whooping of the Heat really showed how both those teams are frauds! One is over the hill and traded away some length inside and the other is 3 deep. too funny!