Despite blowing a 20 point lead, Dallas forced OT on a converted Dirk Nowitzki 3 point play, followed by the Dirkster blocking an attempted Tim Duncan put back of a missed Ginobli lay-in. After failing to seal the deal in each of the Mavs’ 3 losses in this series — games that all ended with Notwitzki having a chance to pull it out — this was an awesome finish, especially if you’re among the millions of people worldwide praying that Keith Van Horn finally gets a ring.
Or the 2 or 3 people praying Keith Van Horn finally gets a ring.
In all seriousness, with a 3 point lead and 22 seconds left, it’s mind blowing the Spurs fouled Nowitzki when he drove to the basket.
(I think Pop’s mind was blown, too)
Tim Duncan (41 points, 15 rebounds) had exactly the sort of Game 7 you’d expect, but he’ll spend the summer thinking about his 3 missed shots during overtime, if not a brick from the foul line late in the 4th quarter.
With the defending champs’ elimination, Dallas finds themselves in the Western Conference finals for the 2nd time in 4 seasons, but the first time with Avery Johnson at the helm (and not so coincidently, for the first time with a team that can occasionally defend). I’ll go out on a very short limb in predicting that
a) they’ll advance to the finals, regardless of their competition in the next series and
b) TVT is gonna be all over Dirk.
c) no one at TNT, ABC or ESPN will have the good sense in the next round (or perhaps the one following) to turn their cameras away from the Blizzard-making jerkface that just happens to own the Mavs.