The Mavericks have no room for error now.
Maybe urgency has not yet been replaced by panic. But panic is lurking around the corner, waiting to hijack urgency.
There’s no such thing as a must-win situation unless your season will end if you lose. The Mavericks will have another game, no matter what happens Wednesday night in Game 3.
But going down 0-3 in the NBA Finals is nothing short of a pink-slip notification that your time is up.
No NBA team ever has recovered from a 3-0 hole to win a best-of-seven series, whether it’s the Finals or any other round.
So, for all practical purposes, this is a must-win.
Even as such, the Mavericks have to remember not to get stressed out about the situation.
As Kyrie Irving said on Tuesday, “The pressure is natural – makes diamonds. If you have a healthy way of looking at where we are, it feels like we are that team that’s gaining the experience, that’s being able to fail at this level.
“Now we have an opportunity to respond. That’s all you can ask for. If you asked me (in the preseason), would I want a chance to be down 0-2 and have a chance to respond in Game 3, or be out of the playoffs, I would choose the former. It’s as simple as that.”
Simple. That’s maybe the best word to describe what the Mavericks need now.
Simply go out and play like they did in the conference finals against Minnesota. Like they did in the previous rounds of the playoffs against Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Clippers, which seems like eons ago.
Like the old joke says: What’s eternity like? The NBA playoffs, only shorter.
But the Mavericks have reached the point in the series where they will either rely on their rowdy, proud and loud fan base on Wednesday night in Game 3 and make a series of this, or have to face the reality that, finally, they ran into a team that might be just a little better than they are.
No shame in that. They’re already one of the top two teams in the NBA this season. And they have no reason to panic, either.
“The urgency started for us a while back,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think we’re used to that. Basketball is about makes and misses and capitalizing on mistakes. We just haven’t had that opportunity to capitalize. We’re getting stops. (Then) we’re turning the ball over, give up a three.
“Hopefully the game is close coming down the stretch and we can capitalize on their mistakes. But there’s two teams playing, so we can relax and enjoy this and have fun. That’s what it’s all about.”
What’s fun is winning, though. And the Mavericks haven’t done that yet against the Celtics. And Luka Dončić is confident that the Mavericks are not that far off from winning games in this series.
“I think our defense has not been bad,” Dončić said. “We can’t really score. That’s our main problem now.
But we’re getting some great looks. We have confidence everybody can make a shot. We just have to keep believing it.”
Who would have thought that out of this team? Offense being the big issue. No time like the present to fix that.
For the sake of urgency.
X: @ESefko
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