Beyond the GM Survey: Rivalries
http://www.nba.com/preview2006/gmsurvey_rivalries.html
By Jeff Dengate
Posted Oct 27 2006 11:47AM
You guessed it … we’re talking NBA rivalries.
More recently you could have considered A) the Lakers and Kings, and B) Kobe and Shaq two of the biggest rivalries in the making. Both of those, however, came to an abrupt end as 1) L.A. and Sacramento failed to meet deep in the playoffs on an annual basis, and 2) Bryant and O’Neal shoved aside their differences with a nationally-televised man hug last Martin Luther King Day.
You see, it takes repeated encounters with a great deal at stake – say, like, a trip to The Finals – or more than a little bad blood to define a truly great rivaly. Sometimes you get both. See: Bad Boys-Bulls, circa late ‘80s. Also: Knicks-Heat in the late '90s.
While there’s no real hatred involved – especially with two groups of such stand-up individuals – the top rivalry in the game today, between the Spurs and Mavs, has been rooted not on geographical proximity but rather the teams’ recent battles for supremacy, both for the Southwest Division and Western Conference.
In fact, the two are so evenly matched that one or the other, as a bulk of the league’s GMs believe, figures to win the whole shebang this season. Which one that is could come down to another final possession in the decisive game of a playoff series, as was the case this spring, when the teams met in the conference semis. If the two finish with the West’s top records this year, as they did in 2005-06, they’d meet a round later with even higher stakes – a trip to The Finals. The playoff seeding scenario has changed this year to award division winners only a playoff berth, not one of the top three seeds; seeding is now based on teams’ records.
“This has been an amazing series,” Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki said after Dallas won Game 7 in San Antonio to advance to the 2006 Western Conference Finals. “Every game but Game 2 was a battle. A couple of plays here and there and the games go either way. This was a special series.”
Yeah, ask Tim Duncan how special it was, watching another Texas team celebrate on his court after dethroning the champs. So special that he worked his 30-year-old legs harder this summer than he has the better part of the past decade.
“He’s been working on the track and the hill, in the weight room,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, when camp opened, about Duncan being in the best shape since his first couple years in the league. “He took it hard last year, not winning the whole thing when we had an opportunity to do that, with a team good enough to do that. We didn’t make it happen. So, he’s doing everything he can to be his best.”
It seemed plausible in the 2006 Playoffs that the Mavericks would, again, be sent home despite an excellent regular-season record while the Spurs marched toward the trophy. Or would they?
After dropping Game 1 in San Antonio, the Mavericks won the next game there and the ensuing two at home to take a commanding 3-1 lead, the likes of which only eight teams had ever squandered in a best-of-seven series. The Spurs, though, bounced back taking Game 5 at home and Game 6 in Dallas, in a series that, to that point, featured five games decided by five points or fewer – three were decided by one or two.
The stage was set. San Antonio could win at home and Dallas would continue to hear the same knocks that it’s a solid regular-season squad that can’t get it done in the postseason. Or, Dallas could put its doubters – not to mention that black-and-silver roadblock – behind it and advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2003, when the team lost to … yep, Duncan and the Spurs.
Game 7 saw the Mavs run out to a 20-point lead in the second quarter. But the Spurs stormed back on Duncan’s shoulders, as the Spurs big man poured in 13 of his game-high 41 points in the third quarter. The Spurs hung close in the fourth and took their first lead of the ballgame, 104-101, on a Manu Ginobili triple with 92 ticks remaining on the clock.
It couldn’t happen again, could it? In the 2003 Western Conference Finals, the Mavs held a 13 point third-quarter lead in Game 6, looking to knot the series at three games apiece, with Tony Parker slowed by a stomach virus. But reserve Steve Kerr stepped up and nailed four triples as the Spurs rolled off 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to advance to The Finals and ultimately win the 2003 title.
Back to 2006, with time winding down, the Spurs put All-Defensive First Teamer Bruce Bowen on Nowitzki in single-coverage, isolated to the right side. Nowitzki put the ball on the floor and got past Bowen. Ginobili arrived late, rotating to help stop Dirk at the rim, resulting in the Dallas bucket and subsequent free throw on the foul to send the game into the extra session, where the Mavs – finally – put the Spurs to rest.
The Spurs, however, have not rested easy since that last contest on May 22, 2006. While they’re not saying so much as a peep about revenge or looking forward to a rematch, it’s not too difficult to read between the lines.
“It’s impossible to win championships every year,” Popovich said earlier in training camp, “and it’s the little things that win them and lose them for you. When you feel you’re good enough to win a championship and you don’t, and things are so close, that hurts more. If you go out and get your butt kicked and the other team beats you every game, beats you to death, you know you’re not good enough. When you know you’re good enough, and you lose a squeaker, that sticks with you longer.”
So, you can only imagine the intensity of these rivals as both chase the all-important homecourt advantage throughout the Playoffs in anticipation of yet another showdown. The teams’ decision makers, meanwhile, are imaging an early Dallas victory in the Southwest, followed by a Spurs championship parade.
Don’t agree? Tune in to find out otherwise. The teams meet tonight at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN) in San Antonio in their final preseason game before four meetings in the regular season, the first being Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET (TNT).
[b]MAVS-SPURS: KEY PLAYOFF MOMENTS[/b]
[b]2003 Western Conference Finals[/b]
Gm 1 Dirk's 38 points offset Duncan's 40-point, 15-rebound effort, as
the Mavs win 113-110 in San Antonio. Dallas takes its first lead
since the first quarter when Michael Finley hits a hook over David
Robinson with 14 seconds left. The Mavs went 49-of-50 at the
line for the game.
Gm 2 After seeing a 28-point lead cut to 105-97, Duncan scores an
inside basket, rebounds a Van Exel miss, and blocks a Nowitzki
shot that leads to a Tony Parker layup. Van Exel comes back with
a three, but Duncan finds Ginobili out of a double-team for a
three of his own to push lead back to 12, 112-100.
Gm 3 In the fourth quarter, Nowitzki collides with Ginobili and injures his
left knee, leaving the game and not playing another minute in the
series.
Gm 4 Parker fuels a 22-6 [Spurs](https://chinaspurs.com) run, at one point making three straight
baskets, as they rally from nine down in the third to lead 77-70.
Steve Nash scores seven points in a 10-1 run to pull the Mavs
within two with eight and a half minutes left, the closest they
would get outside of a Raef LaFrentz three that again brought
deficit to two with 3:22 left.
Gm 5 The Mavs overcome a 66-49 deficit. Nash makes a buzzer-beating,
running floater over Duncan and a three-pointer in 9-2 run to open
the fourth and tied the game. A Najera dunk gave Mavs their first
lead at 85-84; A Van Exel runner and three-pointer sandwiched
around a Duncan dunk, followed by Nash's improbable, stepback
jumper makes score 92-86.
Gm 6 Trailing by 13 in the third quarter, and with Parker limited by a
stomach virus, Steve Kerr enters the game and nails a three with
1:38 left in the third. Kerr is involved in a fourth quarter barrage of
Spurs' threes to knot the game at 71 and goes on to hit two more
treys in the 23-0 San Antonio run.
[b]2006 Western Conference Semifinals[/b]
Gm 1 Bruce Bowen hits a three with 2:14 remaining to break an 84-84 tie.
The Mavs have a final chance to tie, but Jerry Stackhouse passes
up an apparent open 15-footer and retreats to the three point line to
launch an ill-advised shot.
Gm 3 Three ties and 12 lead changes in the final six minutes. Duncan fouls
out, with the [Spurs](https://chinaspurs.com) leading 99-98, as Nowitzki twists his ankle.
Ginobili makes two consecutive layups for the 103-102 lead with 7.9
seconds remaining, with Nowitzki finding Stackhouse for layup off a
triple-team in between. Nowitzki rebounds a Stackhouse miss on
the following possession and makes two free throws for the 104-103
lead and the win.
Gm 4 Game features 20 ties and seven lead changes. Jason Terry hits
several big shots in the final minutes of regulation and in OT,
including a high-arching jumper over Duncan from the right corner
with 38 seconds remaining.
Gm 5 Ginobili and Bowen make key defensive stops down the stretch as
the [Spurs](https://chinaspurs.com) hold on 98-97. Bowen blocks Nowitzki with 6.3 seconds
remaining to force a jump ball. Jason Terry throws a punch at
Michael Finley in the final moments of the game, leading to a
suspension for Game 6.
Gm 6 With the score tied, 82-82, former-Mav Finley hits a three to give
the [Spurs](https://chinaspurs.com) the lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Gm 7 The Mavs blow a 20-point lead but are saved when Nowitzki
converts a driving three-point play to send the game into OT after
being fouled by Manu Ginobili.
THE KING OR THE RING?
Rivalries can also be formed when two players enter the league at the same time, as Oscar Robertson and Jerry West did. Robertson was the top overall pick in 1960, a territorial selection by the Cincinnati Royals, followed by West at No. 2 to the Lakers.
Again, the modern day version lacks any animosity, as did the one between two of the game’s all-time greats. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were the best of friends as they – along with Carmelo Anthony, another member of the class of 2003 – co-captained the U.S. squad in this summer’s World Championship in Japan.
Then again, they were on the same team chasing the same piece of hardware that each could experience. As they battle to represent the East in this, and future, Finals, only one can advance. Given both signed extensions with their current teams that will keep them in the East for a number of years to come, only time and championship rings will help in determining the ever-popular question of who’s a better player.
That issue is complicated for even the NBA’s general managers, who believe James will edge Wade for this year’s MVP award, as well as being the one player they would select if they were starting a franchise today. Wade likely doesn’t mind, because most players will tell you they’d trade it all for a ring, something Wade is expected to be playing for again come June.
In the meantime, all we – and you – can do is speculate and debate. Oh, right, and enjoy the show – especially those of us not old enough to have caught some of the best individual rivalries mentioned earlier.
First Meeting: Cleveland at Miami, Thursday, February 1 at 8 p.m. ET (TNT)
CENTRAL SHOWDOWN
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A gritty, defensive-minded team from Motown, time and again, halts the title hopes of the squad calling the Windy City, a short three-hundred-mile drive away, home.
Nearly 20 years later, the Detroit-Chicago rivalry figures to be renewed and it has nothing to do with the Bad Boys or Michael Jordan. In fact, the Pistons appear to be trading in their lock-down manner in favor of higher scoring, while the Bulls are, for the most part, star-less.
Welcome to what happens when the heart and soul of one team jumps ship to another in the same division, as Ben Wallace did when he signed with the Bulls in the offseason.
For five straight years now, the Pistons have won at least 50 games per season and made runs deep into the Playoffs. The Bulls … not so much.
That all changes this season with one stroke of the pen – on Wallace’s contract – as many GMs believe the Bulls will pry the Central Division title from the Pistons’ clutches. But, as Jordan and the Bulls learned nearly two decades ago, before they got over the hump to win three straight rings of their own, the road still leads through Detroit.
First Meeting: Detroit at Chicago, Saturday, January 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET (NBA TV)