NBA Playoffs: Best in the West?

Writing by admin on Tuesday, 8 of May , 2007 at 12:04 pm

Somebody’ got some ‘splainin’ to do.

The Dallas Mavericks are going to have one of the worst offseasons any pro sports franchise has endured. Dirk Nowitzki will have to wear a brown paper bag over his head when he collects his MVP award. All because the 7-5 favorites to win the NBA title hit a rough patch and were eliminated in the first round.

Nobody said winning a championship was easy. That’s why you probably wouldn’t have wanted to play the Mavs on the futures market, even if you believed they were the best team in the league. The risk wasn’t worth the reward. The “best” team doesn’t always win.

Now that Dallas is no longer in the mix, the San Antonio Spurs are the favorites to come out of the Western Conference. They’re 7-4 to win the title, thanks in part to their series-opening win over the Phoenix Suns (11-5). Golden State and Utah were tied at 10-1 heading into the first game of their second-round affair.

It’s easy to see why the Spurs have vaulted to the top of the odds table. Teams like Dallas and Phoenix tease with their ability, but have yet to make the leap to true greatness. San Antonio has done it three times since Tim Duncan came to town. A casual bettor would look at this and simply say the Spurs know how to win.

Nonsense. There is a different environment in the NBA playoffs – away crowds are more daunting, and facing the same team over and over again requires tweaks in strategy. But basketball is basketball. Every pro player knows how to win; it’s just a question of whether they’ll perform at a higher level than the opposition when the time comes. That’s why they play the games.

In my evaluation, Phoenix is a better team than the Spurs, although the Suns’ effort in Game 1 was subpar – and they still might have beaten San Antonio had Steve Nash and his bloody nose not been forced to the bench in the last minute. But my evaluation also assumes the Suns will play up to their own level. Would I bet on it? That’s another story.

Category: Online NBA Basketball Betting

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