by Micah Hart
Each day until the end of the NBA Finals, we’ll be taking a look at the conventional wisdom of the moment — which team is currently the favorite to win it all, and which team should be ashamed to still be putting on their jerseys.
Here’s how it looks for the weekend of May 14-15.
Start planning the parade:
Dallas Mavericks
You might think a long layoff between games might make the Mavericks rusty, but seeing as the core of their team is almost exclusively on the wrong side of 30, I’d say it plays right into their hands.
Whichever team wins Sunday’s Game 7 between Memphis and Oklahoma City is going to be drained come the start of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday, all the more so if it’s the Grizzlies, who will presumably stay on the road and head straight for Dallas.
Meanwhile Dallas gets to rest up, particularly helpful for a guy like Peja Stojakovic, who has been huge off the bench this postseason for the Mavs but generally speaking is as brittle as uncooked pasta.
Give it up already:
Oklahoma City Thunder
A friend of mine sent me an amazing statistic yesterday. The combined average age of OKC’s top four players in terms of minutes played is 21.5 years old. The combined age of the University of Pittsburgh’s top four this season was 21.75 years.
This is a young, young Thunder squad, and under the harsh lights and scrutiny of a Game 7 situation, that inexperience will lead to the team’s unraveling. That, and their continuing inability to hold double-digit leads.
The Grizzlies have shown themselves to be fighters in this postseason, and though Oklahoma City slowed Zach Randolph in several games in this series, he was back in full beast mode in Game 6 (30 points, 13 rebounds) and will keep it going on Sunday.
There is a bright future on the horizon for the Thunder, but it’s at least another year away.
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seriously… this conventional wisdom stuff is STUPID
If everyone had read this by now
there’d be four parade parties being planned
playoff games sway in every direction unless one team is down 0-3
It’s just idiotic to switch predictions every day with the change of one win or loss
a series consists of 7 games
and from now to the finals, we’ve still got a little more than 20 games
Why waste time doing this report?
The grizz were in the “give up” coloumn yesterday
Now it belongs to OKC
who was once told to start planning the parade
come on the seires is 3-3 and OKC has homecourt advantage
you can break down the age of the players
but should OKC be “ashamed to put on their jerseys”
They’re not giving up (nor the grizz)
this is a great game 7 coming up so can’t we all just watch quietly
Neither the bulls or the mavs played games yesterday yet you switch predictions
because you don’t know who should be planning the parade
so you go back and forth
this isn’t even a prediction
it’s a article just craving for readers’ attention
You can make your predictions once and for all
changing it everyday is laughable
or if you really want to do this “wisdom” thing
Change the “planning parade” title to “best team right now” or something
cause as a writer for such a big site as NBA
You should have more WISDOM
Great comment!!! In ya face!!