Western Semifinals: (1) Sacramento vs. (4) Dallas | SAC WINS 4-1

[Spike]

Who cares about defence when you can score 120 a night?? Dallas doesnt need to play defence, they can easily outscore Sacremento. Mine still stand Dallas in 6.

By the way, it's spelled "Sacramento" with 2 a's not 2 "e's". I wouldn't pick on something as simple as spelling but you've misspelled it like 5 times now. Get it right.

By that kind of logic, the Mavericks should be able to outscore the Lakers the next series and sweep them since the Mavericks have a lot higher ppg average over the Lakers than they do the Kings. The Mavericks are a little better offensively but the Kings are a lot better defensively. Defense wins Championships and the Kings play a lot better defense than the Mavericks. Mavericks are 28th in defense. The Kings are 19th.

Sure the Mavericks looked good against the Timberwolves and the Kings didn't look that good against the Jazz but the Jazz play a different style than the Timberwolves. I bet if the Jazz had to face the Mavericks in the first round this year, they would have given them as much trouble as they did the Kings. They did last year. Dallas needed 5 games to get rid of Utah in the first round last season.

However though it wont be so easy for Dallas because I dont expect the Kings to just roll over and die they'll put up a great fight. Will we see Webber step up in the 4th quarter?? Remains to be seen.

Well at least you gave them that.

[Marc]

Don't get me wrong, I like the Kings, but it was hard to go against the red-hot Mavs, so I'm sticking to my pick. Right now, the Kings are up and have been most of the game. Dallas has shot poorly and Divac has had a great game. Looks like Sac is taking Game 1, but this thing is far from over.

P.S. Spike, you should ask Nate for a nice Kings avatar to show your support! You also can use your custom title beneath your name for that. User CP > Edit Profile.

[Spike]

Kings 108, Dallas 91. What was that, Brian? The Mavericks will "easily" outscore the Kings? I don't think so.

What was that Brian? I can't hear you! 38.9 percent from the field. 91 points for a team that averaged 105.2 points per game and averaged 112.6 ppg in the playoffs.

DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE! That's right baby!

Imagine if Chris Webber hadn't fouled out, the Kings would have won by 30. If the Kings continue to play like this, we're going to sweep the Mavericks.

Having said that, I still think it'll go 7 and the Kings winning in 7.

Originally posted by mjames:

Don't get me wrong, I like the Kings, but it was hard to go against the red-hot Mavs, so I'm sticking to my pick. Right now, the Kings are up and have been most of the game. Dallas has shot poorly and Divac has had a great game. Looks like Sac is taking Game 1, but this thing is far from over.

Yeah this thing is still early and will go 7 and I stick with my pick, Kings in 7.

P.S. Spike, you should ask Nate for a nice Kings avatar to show your support! You also can use your custom title beneath your name for that. User CP > Edit Profile.

Thanks for the tip, Marc.

[air_canada]

I think you can't bypass defense, 120 or not. It's not a question of scoring; you don't know at this time if Dallas will score 120 a game.

[Bran]

Spike I didnt mock you, air_canada made a comment about my sig that he liked it and I said thanks!

[Bran]

One game wont win you the series baby so dont break out the wine yet!

Yeah I expected the Mavs to have games where they wont shoot well and tonight was the night, Vlade Divac is funny in the 4th quarter pushing off against the Mavs player and expects a foul from him. Mavs will bounce back, Kid Canada wasnt himself.

[Spike]

Originally posted by Brian:

Spike I didnt mock you, air_canada made a comment about my sig that he liked it and I said thanks!

Oh, Brian. Oh man, sorry about that. My sincerest apologies. Yeah I know I'm a little sensitive these days.

Originally posted by Brian:

One game wont win you the series baby so dont break out the wine yet!

Yeah I expected the Mavs to have games where they wont shoot well and tonight was the night, Vlade Divac is funny in the 4th quarter pushing off against the Mavs player and expects a foul from him. Mavs will bounce back, Kid Canada wasnt himself.

Oh I'm definitely not breaking out the wine. I could definitely see the Mavericks winning Game 2. This is going to be a real long series. I still stick with my Kings in 7 pick. I'm just taking joy out on people who thought the Mavs would win in 4, just baseing on what they saw in the first round. Kings aren't going down that easy.

The Kings could play better too. Webber was making stupid fouls to take him off the floor and Doug Christie is a much better shooter than what I saw today.

[Spike]

Also winning Game 1 was more important for the Kings than the Mavericks because the Mavericks had already won twice at Arco Arena this year so Dallas knows they can win there.

But Sacramento needed to make a statement today that the playoffs are different and show Dallas they aren't going to roll over and be as easy as Minnesota was despite first round appearances.

[Bran]

No problem Spike, all of our emotions run high

No I would never say Mavs in 4 the Kings are too good to lose to the Mavs in 4 games, Kings played great defence tonight, Doug Christie is such a great defender and anyone who wants to learn how to play defence watch Doug Christie.

[Marc]

The Kings do have a tendancy to get on the refs and start blaming them - it effects their play. I think the Mavs will be able to win on a better shooting night - the Kings held on this time because the Mavs simply couldn't put it through the net often enough.

[Spike]

Actually, after thinking about it, I think the Mavericks will win Game 2 because the Mavericks won't miss that many open shots again and you'll never ever again see that stretch of 7 scoreless minutes the Mavericks had in Game 1 now that the rust is off.

And because Nellie and Del Harris are 2 of the best X's and O's people in the game. They're going to have something "special" for tomorrow I bet. I really don't think home court means much in any series until the ultimate deciding game (Game 5 in the first round, Game 7 in other rounds. Just look at Game 5 of all first round series this season). Especially in this series with 2 of the better road teams in the league.

Originally posted by Brian:

No I would never say Mavs in 4 the Kings are too good to lose to the Mavs in 4 games, Kings played great defence tonight, Doug Christie is such a great defender and anyone who wants to learn how to play defence watch Doug Christie.

Yeah Doug Christie is definitely an unsung hero on this team. I don't know where this team would be without his defense. Nick Anderson played that spot previously here and he was horrible and a crybaby to his own team.

Now having said that do you know what I would do if I was Dallas? You can't let Divac and Webber dominate in the post if they're going to setup shop down there time and time again. I would take Christie's man and use him to double team Webber and Divac all the time from the start of the game because Christie had a horrible shooting Game 1 and really didn't do anything big offensively till he hit that big left wing three late in 4th Quarter.

Originally posted by mjames:

The Kings do have a tendancy to get on the refs and start blaming them - it effects their play.

Yeah that's true. They did that that Utah series too. Other team's busy scoring while their complaining. Vlade's a great, nice guy off the court but he should just shut up sometimes. He really didn't have anything to complain about Game 1. Webber though I thought kind of got jobbed with those fouls. 5 or at least 4 of those were offensive but I've seen other post guys on other teams back down defenders like Chris did and never get called for the charge.

[Marc]

I think it's kind of funny, speaking of Divac. I was watching The Sports Reporters Sunday and they made a comment that Divac better not try that little ball fake with Shaq. Shaq'll just stand there and stare at him like: "What? Bring it." Anyway, I say Dallas ties this up tonight.

[I OWN THIS]

I will say this, if the Kings were to win this series against Dallas, then the West is over the Lakers simply own the Kings. But if the Mavs can shoot much better than they did last game and can win the series, that will make for an interesting matchup with the Lakers. But the West is all but over Lakers would beat Kings 4-1, and Lakers would beat Mavs 4-2. So take your pick, because basically it is over. But i would like to see the Mavs matchup against the Lakers.

So, after the first game of this series, i am gonna stay with my pick and hopefully the Mavs will shoot much better, because their defense is non existent.

Joey

[air_canada]

They have no one to throw at the Daddy! Eschmeyer, Bradley?
Stiffs. Nowitzki? Too Crafty. LaFrentz? Not heavy enough. Wang? Way too thin. What'll they do?

[Bran]

Mavericks defeat the Kings 110-102. I told you that the Mavs scoring drought would not last long so no reason to feel cocky over a game. Stevie "Kid Canada" Nash led all scorers with 30! Nowitzki finished with 22.