Finding the Silver Lining for Mavs, Hawks

So it’s no surprise that Denver, the second-best team in the West, beat Dallas -- still around only because they upset San Antonio -- at home. Again. Nor did anyone with most of their brain intact put money on Atlanta to beat the mighty Cavaliers on the road. It also doesn’t take much to write about these victories: They were obvious, predictable, and clear cases of the better team coming out on top.↵
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↵However, there are some lessons to take away from these seemingly unremarkable outcomes, maybe even some hope for the Mavs and Hawks. Dallas gets to head home for Sunday’s game, where, as we all know, they will no longer be subject to the demands of Denver’s high altitudes. Also, seeing as so much of the Nuggets’ ability to win games seems predicated on big plays and momentum, on the road these factors won’t be nearly as pronounced. On top of that, the Mavs did an admirable job last night of hanging around till late, relying on bench production and general stick-to-it-ness. If that kind of thing gets going for a team when they’re on enemy territory, who knows how well things will gel when this series shifts?↵
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↵Alas, the Hawks have only now played one contest in Cleveland. And it’s hard to locate the same kind of building blocks in their loss that you can with what happened to Dallas. ↵
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↵But think about it this way: They weren’t completely destroyed. Well, score-wise they were, but they were a young team taking on arguably the league’s best team, the day that the league’s best player received his MVP trophy, in that team’s house. There were some bright spots, like the aggressive play of Josh Smith, and Mike Bibby’s shooting. These won’t be enough to make them competitive in this series, and judging from the Hawks’ post-game comments, didn’t make this loss any more demoralizing. But sometimes, when a team’s gradually pulling itself up by the bootstraps, “respectable” is more than enough.↵