Tony the floor general
So who do you like in the NBA’s Southwest Division this season? The Dallas Mavericks made it all the way to the NBA Finals last year (before finally falling to the Miami Heat). And the San Antonio Spurs have won the division the last two seasons, and still have the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili trio on the roster.
Well, if the season were only one game long, the Spurs would’ve been the best bet here. San Antonio got 19 points from Tony Parker in their season opener on Thursday night as they picked up a 97-91 road victory over their state rival. Parker had been listed as questionable for the game because of a sprained ankle, but the injury obviously wasn’t serious enough to keep him off of the floor.
Tim Duncan was good for 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory over Dallas, while Manu Ginobili tossed in 16 points and picked up five assists. In fact, three other Spurs also scored in double-digits Thursday night – Bruce Bowen had 13 points, Francisco Elson had 12 points, and Michael Finley managed to score 10.
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However, the win wasn’t an easy one for San Antonio. In fact, the Spurs trailed 51-45 at halftime, and 75-72 going into the fourth quarter. But a strong effort in the final frame (where they outscored Dallas 25-15) got San Antonio the victory.
Dirk Nowitzki had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Mavericks in a losing cause, while Josh Howard scored 20 points and added four assists, and Jason Terry picked up 14 points and four assists. Austin Croshere was good for a dozen points off the bench on the night for Dallas, and Jerry Stackhouse scored nine.
So San Antonio starts the season ahead of Dallas in the Southwest Division standings – and that’s a position that they’ve been in before. The Spurs finished three games ahead of the Mavericks in the Southwest last season, and one game up back in the 2004/05 season. And while finishing in first place isn’t crucial (Dallas still managed to get by San Antonio in the postseason last year), teams can earn an easier route through the conference playoffs with that result.
For that reason, the games between these two Southwest Division rivals should prove to be heated all season long. But no matter how well the Spurs and Mavs do against each other, they’re still widely expected to boast two of the top records in the entire league. In fact, oddsmakers had Dallas’ season OVER/UNDER pegged at 56.5 wins prior to their opener, with the Spurs at 55.5.
Are both of those marks attainable? San Antonio won 63 games last year, and 59 games back in 2004/05. Dallas is coming off campaigns where they picked up 60 and 58 victories. However, don’t think that those posted OVER/UNDER totals aren’t high; only the Spurs, Mavericks, and Pistons passed 55 wins last season.
Before Dallas can win more than 56.5 games, though, they’re going to have to win one. The Mavs’ next chance to grab a victory comes on Saturday night on the road against the Houston Rockets, and they’ll follow up that outing with a home game versus the Golden State Warriors on Monday. San Antonio has a busier weekend, with a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, a trip to Canada to play the Raptors on Sunday, then a game in New York Monday night.
