Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban is confident of his team’s chances - NBA play-offs Update
After dropping two straight games at the Rose Garden against the resurgent Portland Trailblazers, Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner, was confident of a strong comeback. The Mavericks played aggressive from start to the finish in all of the four quarters and thrashed the Blazers out of the game in a comprehensive 93-82 win at the American Airlines Centre on Monday night.
Dallas leads the best-of-seven games first round series of the play-offs 3-2 and is setting its sights on escorting the Trailblazers to a first round exit.
The prolific bench player, Jason Terry, who finished the last game with 20 points said after a tie-breaking victory, "The team that's more physical in each one of these games has won the battle at the free-throw line, has outrebounded the other team, has gotten more steals and has forced the other team into more turnovers. Tonight we did that and ... we've got to continue to do that because this series is far from over."
The Mavericks are one of three teams in the league’s history to amass eleven successive seasons with 50 or more wins. However, they are the sole line-up not to seal multiple championships. In fact the franchise is in the quest for its first title fight.
Cuban scoffed at the opinion that the Mavericks carry emotional baggage from their previous post-season failures since the 2006 NBA finals. He invited skeptical fans to jump off the bandwagon, especially ones who are considering the team’s playoff history.
"Anybody who wants to quit on us, quit on us. We're going to keep busting our a*s. We're not going to beg them. They can do what they want to do. That's why they call them fans and that's why they call everybody else talk-radio junkies," Cuban said.
The Mavericks had an open opportunity on Saturday to get hold of a 3-1 lead in the first round matchup. The team was leading by 23 points with 1:16 minutes left in the third period and fell startlingly in the fourth quarter to tie the series.
It was a menacing defeat for Dallas in the defining moments of the game. In the 2006 Finals against the Miami Heat, the Mavs lost a chance of taking 3-0 lead in the last seven minutes that followed four consecutive routs, putting them out of the contest. At that time, Dwyane Wade crushed the Mavericks just like the Trailblazers’ guard Brandon Roy damaged them on Saturday night.
Cuban said that the game 4 meltdown was just one game and the team can bounce back especially since they overshadowed Portland most of the game on Monday. Cuban is confident the team will race away to the finals.
The Mavericks will be arriving at the Rose Garden on Thursday to take on the Blazers in the game 6 of the play-offs.
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