It was late Saturday night, and the Dallas Mavericks were excited about their Western Conference finals victory over the Phoenix Suns but restrained about their upcoming meeting in the NBA Finals against Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.
So Mavericks coach Avery Johnson was explaining how it all came together for a franchise that went through the 1990s without making the playoffs.
“We added Jason Terry and Erick Dampier and [Jerry] Stackhouse and Devin Harris [before the season],” he said. “Then we added DeSagana Diop and Adrian Griffin, who if we didn’t have those two guys you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now.”
And you start thinking: They let go for nothing Steve Nash, who went on to win consecutive league MVPs, and spent the money for Dampier, who played 24 minutes in two games against the Suns. They released Michael Finley in the amnesty tax program. The got Terry for Antoine Walker and Stackhouse for Antawn Jamison, who went on to be an All-Star for Washington. They did get the rights to Harris in that deal.
Diop was a long-shot free-agent pickup after officially being a draft bust in Cleveland, and the Bulls thought Griffin was going to retire when he was part of a salary-saving deal with Houston in 2004 and wasn’t brought back this season. But there he was starting the second half Saturday in the big comeback in which the Mavs scored 63 points to smother the Suns.
Really, there’s no great way to explain these Mavs, other than it works. They won 60 games in the regular season, and it’s hard not to see them as favorites in the Finals because of what they’ve done.
The Heat did knock off the heavily favored two-time defending East champion Pistons, but Detroit went out with more excuses than wins.
“They put in all those rules, like the hand check, after we won the championship two years ago playing defense,” Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. “Nobody wanted to see a defensive team in the Finals and winning. It’s not as explosive. It’s not as fun to watch. I don’t like watching it either. I’m not mad at ’em.
“You look at us against San Antonio last year. Two really good defensive teams in the Finals played seven games and got the worst ratings in history almost. Seven games. There hadn’t been a seventh game in the NBA Finals in a lot of years. But look at the first-round series this year: Lakers-Phoenix and Washington-Cleveland had ratings out of the roof.
“They’re running up and down the floor, no defense being played, shooting and running and gunning. That’s fun to watch. So they put in those rules to keep it from being 89-85.”
Dallas will help make sure it isn’t.
With O’Neal, the Heat is the better half-court team. When the Mavs signed Dampier for $73 million, he said he was the second-best center in the West after O’Neal. Now he’s the second-best center on his team behind Diop.
Johnson was named coach of the year this season, and in the playoffs he has shown why.
The Mavs’ strength all season has been depth. It’s supposed to change in the playoffs when you use your best, but in some respects leaning on their best was the downfall of the Pistons and Suns.
“Maybe in the end we got tired,” conceded Suns coach Mike D’Antoni. “But I just feel like it was prudent to play the guys I knew could win us a championship.”
Similarly with the Pistons, coach Flip Saunders continued with a short rotation as big men like Kelvin Cato and Dale Davis, brought in to counter O’Neal, rarely played.
It’s different with the Mavs.
“Avery makes a point to make sure that everybody stays ready,” Stackhouse said. “Obviously, [Dampier] hasn’t been big in this series because of the style of play. But he should be well-rested to get a lot of time in the next series.”
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Johnson hasn’t been afraid to use his entire team, and it may signal a change in NBA philosophy. The Mavs have had nine different players start in the playoffs and have 10 players playing regularly. When his guards got in foul trouble early in Game 6, Johnson didn’t hesitate to go with Marquis Daniels. Griffin started the second half to get more size in the lineup and play more half-court.
It’s a pattern Phil Jackson used during the Bulls’ championship runs, which is why there often seemed to be an unlikely hero. It’s a long game. You give the opponent something else to think about and react to. You have to have the players, but also trust them.
So Johnson raves about players bypassed by others.
“Josh Howard is playing at an All-Star level to go along with Dirk [Nowitzki], and we added [Keith] Van Horn last year, who we think has another level to go to,” Johnson said.
Its personnel has given Dallas the versatility to dictate games. The Mavs got the bigger Spurs into a running game, forcing Nazr Mohammed and Rasho Nesterovic to the bench, and won the two games when the Spurs scored 118 and 119. And in three of the Suns’ losses to Dallas, the Suns scored fewer than 100 points as the Mavs slowed the game.
“I liked the way we’ve pieced together a team,” Johnson said. “It was definitely with the intention of trying to be flexible enough to play fast and slow. We feel we can play against teams with different styles.”
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