QUOTE(TCURiggs @ Apr 25 2010, 10:04 PM) [snapback]550381[/snapback]
Not true. Lots of teams come in to a season or a playoff series as the underdogs (or with low expectations), but end up pulling off the upset or having a great/unexpected run...the Mavs are never that team. They are typically the favorites and end up crapping the bed, which is much more disappointing in my book.
There is an element to this that is misleading. Once a team tastes playoff success, their fans seem to not pay attention to whether or not they are actually favorites in a given series. Case in point: During the 2000-01 season in which this era of Mavs basketball was born, everybody was ecstatic that we'd pulled some huge upset against the Jazz in the first round...in reality, that was a 4-5 matchup. We pulled the Spurs in Round 2 and lost 4-1. Nobody was upset with that at all. Let's look at how many times the Mavs have pulled upsets vs. how many times they've been upset:
2000-01: Upset the Jazz, lost to heavily-favored Spurs
2001-02: Beat lower-seeded Minnesota, lost to favored Kings
2002-03: Beat lower-seeded Portland, beat lower-seeded Kings, lost to favored Spurs
2003-04: Lost to favored Kings
2004-05: Beat lower-seeded Rockets, lost to favored Suns
2005-06: Beat lower-seeded Grizzlies, Upset favored Spurs, Beat lower-seeded Suns, Upset By underdog Heat (and the officials, which combined - made the Heat a fave in my book)
2006-07: Lost to huge underdog Warriors (the first true meltdown in this era and admittedly - perhaps the greatest meltdown in all of American pro sports history, given that an 8 had NEVER beaten a 1 and that the NBA is the toughest league to win as the underdog in the playoffs)
2007-08: Lost to higher-seeded Hornets
2008-09: Upset higher-seeded Spurs, lost to higher-seeded Nuggets
In terms of upsets vs. being upset, I'm counting 3 upsets for the Mavs in this era (Jazz once and the Spurs twice) vs. the Mavs being upset twice (Heat and Warriors). That doesn't seem like a team that melts as a favorite over and over. Even if you assume they lose this series, it's still just 3-to-3...and I, for one, will never be convinced the '06 Finals were not a hose-job by the officiating. Officiate that series in a manner that even approaches fairness and the Mavs would have a ring...and the history since then would be drastically different.
This is a team that has shot itself in the foot at times, for sure...but it's also a team that's been drowned by bad breaks and circumstances beyond what is normal. Game 3 of this series is another great example. Danny Crawford refereeing...Spurs play a FAR more physical game and get 16 fouls whistled against them while the Mavs have 25 whistles go against them. And if someone can explain how the breakaway was NOT a clear-path foul in the second half of Game 3, I'd appreciate it. As poorly as the Mavs have shot, this thing should easily be 2-2...same thing with the Nugs last year with the no-foul on Melo when we had clearly fouled him intentionally. Without that phantom call, the Mavs head back to Denver 2-2...who knows what would have happened?
As disappointed as I am in the Mavs, I am sick to death of NBA officiating. It is the worst-officiated league in all of professional sports, and the officiating is far worse in the NBA than college or Olympic basketball (1980 notwithstanding). It is disgusting how you can know who's going to win and who's going to lose based on which ref is calling the game. They need to do something about it...it's already cost them a substantial group of basketball fans who refuse to watch the Association and opt for college and international instead. I don't want to join that group, but I'm getting there.
