Kobe Bryant’s
Practicing, What Does That Mean For the Mavs Playoff Hope?
By Big Z & Skinny D
Insider Jonathan Underhill
Going in to the basketball season
the consensus was that the Western Conference was stacked and had anywhere from
10 to 12 teams fighting for those eight golden tickets to the playoffs. A lot
of analysts’ preseason preview didn’t include the Mavs in the playoffs. A lot
also didn’t have the Lakers in there either. Well Kobe Bryant’s return is
imminent. Mavs are 11 games in to the season and sitting at 7-4. His return
will undoubtedly shake up the Western Conference. What does this mean for the
Mavs playoff hope?
While the season is still very
young, I want to start by saying the Mavs defiantly look like a playoff
contender. They are currently undefeated at home (5-0), including dominant
performances over Memphis and Los Angeles, both playoff teams last year. As far
as our road record, we all know that it’s not easy to win on the road. The Mavs
are 2-4 with a few gut-wrenching losses to Houston (who come to the AAC
tonight) and Miami that were both winnable games. But close only counts in
horseshoes and hand-grenades. Regardless, this new-look Maverick team has me
excited. They can score with the best of them (2nd in the NBA in
points/game) and have been savvy on defense accounting for the 2nd
most steals in the NBA. The two-headed monster at center, DalemBlair, has been
suitable on defense down low, accounting for 14.3 boards/game and 1.8
blocks/game, and we are still waiting on the return of Brendan Wright. Devin
Harris is still injured and we could really use some backcourt depth (does
anyone else have a cringe whenever Gal Mekel is on the floor?). The jury is
still out on Shane Larkin, who played his first game against Philly getting 3
points, 3 assists, and 3 steals in 9 minutes of action, but I am really pulling
for the guy and hope he can find a suitable role on this team. My point being
that while the Mavs have already looked stellar at times, Mavs fans still have
more to look forward too as the season progresses.
Kobe Bryant is practicing and
whenever he makes his return you have to believe he’s going to be ready to ball
out. The Lakers are trying to tread water, like the Mavs last season without
dirk, until their MVP gets back on the floor. This just means one more team the
Mavs have to fight with for a playoff spot. I mentioned on the Big Z and Skinny
D show last week that Mavericks will not have the luxury of resting Dirk’s
knees as much as they would like as the season plays out because of the depth
in the West (Dirk already has a knee sleeve on, but no one in the organization
is saying much about it, that it’s simply precautionary). Each Western
Conference Division has four of their five teams that I would say are, “playoff
contenders.” In the Southwest division you have San Antonio, Houston, Memphis
and Dallas. The Pacific division has Golden State, both the LA teams, and
Phoenix. Then the Northwest has Portland, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Denver.
That’s 12 of the 15 teams. In theory this means the Mavs will have a battle
night in and night out, unless they keep up this implausible home court
advantage. So with Kobe coming back and the Lakers making a playoff push like
we know they will really change anything from the Mavericks perspective? Not
really. The Mavericks just have one more obstacle on a list of many. The Lakers
are about to receive their much need MVP back, but hey, we’re still waiting on
some reinforcements ourselves.
