Early March Madness

If I told you that I meant to actually predict double overtime to jack up Dirk's stats before the game would you believe me? Didn't think so. Doesn't matter though, because you didn't need me to tell you that the Mavs-Suns firestorm was going to be a great game. Was it the best game of the NBA season so far? Maybe so--brought together great performances from the big stars: Amare went for 40 plus, Dirk had a gross dub-dub(30 and 16), Nash put up a casual 16 assists. Then there's the really weird stat-shit-stuff, as Erick Dampier had 11 boards, which were they not ALL offensive rebounds, wouldn't be that weird. Jerry Stackhouse played 42 minutes and scored 33 points and looked a hell of a lot younger than he really is.

Jason Terry showed up huge too, with 27 points, five boards, five dimes and four steals, but his biggest shot came at the end of the first overtime when he buried a three from the right that was a mix of runner and fadeway all at the same time. It would best be described as "big", to be perfectly blunt.

The weirdest thing about this game though, was that Dirk didn't come up big in the clutch. At all. He missed a crucial free throw at the end of regulation. Then he missed an (albeit tough) fadeaway jumper against Shawn Marion (albeit grabbing his jersey and pretty much fouling him) to send it to triple overtime. Then he stormed off the court without so much as stopping to talk to his little Canadian buddy.

Now look, I don't mean to read too much into this at all, because Dirk is the clear cut MVP of 2006-07 right now, at least in my mind, but doesn't something need to be said about Jason Terry being the clutch guy for this team? Is that okay? Does Dirk have the leadership to either a) step up and hit a walk off winner in a huge game or b) put his team's collective foot on someone else's throat when it matters? Was D-Wade right? Maybe he needs that nasty streak to get a little darker before the playoffs roll around, which would actually make this excruciatingly painful L even more worthwhile. Interesting to see how the Mavs respond to this one.