NBA Special: Tyson Chandler says Dallas Mavericks were wrong to take Oklahoma City Thunder “lightly”
When the Western Conference Finals series started, the signs were there for everyone to see and everyone did see them.
Everyone except the Dallas Mavericks.
Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder are a very good basketball team. They have the league’s top scorer in Kevin Durant and one of the most explosive point guards in Russell Westbrook. Oklahoma City posses a solid front court with Kendrick
Perkins and Serge “i-block-a” Ibaka. They also have great depth with the likes of Nick Collison, Eric Maynor and James Harden, who have regularly been coming off the bench to great effect all season.
The team is full of talent, energy and youth. If there were any question marks over their big game temperament, they have answered them this postseason. First, by dominating the Denver Nuggets and then in the gruelling seven game
series against the team who knocked out the top seeds. If they needed any more proof, the Dallas Mavericks needed look no further then game-1 of the Western Conference Finals when despite a magnificent performance from Dirk Nowitzki, the Thunder hung on for
the majority of the game.
However, Tyson Chandler has revealed that all the above was seemingly lost on the Dallas Mavericks in game-2. They just did not give OKC the respect they deserved going into the game and that fact, as we know, came back to haunt
them.
“When you’re afraid of a team or you feel like a team can beat you every single night, you go out there and you play with a certain type of edge,” Chandler said, “I feel like we came out here and we took these boys lightly.”
Dallas came off the back of a sweep against the two-time NBA World Champions, Los Angeles Lakers, in the previous round. As such their confidence was sky high and the team believed it could overcome any obstacle put in front it.
Confidence is a good thing and is necessary for success in any field of life. However, overconfidence is not and there’s fine line between the two.
The Mavs strayed because they underestimated the Thunder due to their inexperience at this stage and to a greater extent, because of the overconfidence in their own good form. The result was a resilient performance from OKC, whose
bench came alive and toppled the established names of the Dallas side to take the win in game-2 and steal home court advantage from the Mavericks.
The loss hurt the Mavericks pride and they didn’t have too many answers after the game. The Mavs however know they made a mistake and are looking forwards to making amends already. Tyson Chandler added later that Dallas have realized
that Oklahoma City are a team to be feared, and will come out all guns blazing in game-3,
“There’s a reason why they’re in the Western Conference finals. They’re not a team to be taken lightly, so we’ve got to make our adjustments and come out and win Game 3.”
Dallas shouldn’t make the same mistake in game-3.
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