Column: Huge Balls

     by Rob Stiller

Dallas Stars: Lost at the San Jose Sharks Friday 3-2 (OT); Beat the Sharks in Dallas Sunday 2-1 (4OT)

It’s only fitting that the ballsiest player on the team scored the ballsiest goal of the season for the Stars as the team advances to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals after appearing on the brink of completing an historic collapse. I’m talking about Brendan Morrow, for those of you who didn’t weather the five and a half hours it took to decide a winner early Monday morning. Just as significant as the playoff implications this game held, though, is the fact that this game reminded us that hockey games needn’t be high scoring affairs to be exceedingly entertaining. As much as the league has tweaked the rules in recent years to allow for more scoring, games like this, in which two goaltenders go toe to toe for hours, are the ones that will be tagged as “instant classics” in the hockey world. If you had asked me three weeks ago how much hockey I had watched this season, an honest response would probably have been about six hours. But not only did I watch as much Sunday night, I was on the edge of my seat the whole game, as Turco and Nabokov made ridiculous save after ridiculous save. As of 2:43 Monday morning, there isn’t a YouTube video of the game winning goal. But to me this HUGE hit Brendan Morrow layed on some San Jose chump might as well have been the game winner. Video, as well as Rockets and Spurs weekend news, after the jump.

Houston Rockets: Lost at the Utah Jazz Friday 113-91

As far as biased commentary goes, it’s no secret that we here at the Dic have a distinct affinity for the Dallas Mavericks, and thus an obligatory disdain for the Houston Rockets. But you have to respect what Tracy McGrady and the Rockets were able to accomplish this season, in a particularly stacked Western Conference, and after losing their second best player for the season, despite being eliminated at Utah Friday night 113-91. And as much as I hate to say it, I wish my Mavs possessed the same mental tenacity as do the Rockets.

Going into the series with the Jazz, any half conscious fan could tell you that Utah was clearly the better team. But the Rockets responded to that much in the same was as they did losing Yao earlier in the season during their 22 game winning streak: they didn’t give a crap that they were often overmatched and supposed to lose. They played hard and hung tough and very well could’ve come away winners in that series, which, as a fan, is all you can ask. Particularly big ups go to Tracy McGrady as well. A lesser person and probably most NBA players would have at some point snapped after fielding awful question after awful question from Pam Oliver and the Company on his inability to get out of the first round. Instead of giving ESPN some soundbyte to exhaust for the rest of his career, T-Mac handled all the scrutiny with class, and appeared able to largely ignore it on the court.

San Antonio Spurs: Lost at the New Orleans Hornets Saturday 101-82

When looking ahead to the second round of the playoffs, it seemed almost intuitive to pick the Spurs to casually dismiss the upstart Hornets in five or six games without giving it much consideration. After all, I have repeatedly picked the Spurs to repeat as champs this season. But if you look at the individual matchups in this series, particularly with the benefit of having seen a Game 1, it’s clear that the Hornets present the worst possible matchup for the Spurs on a position by position basis. Most troublesome for the Spurs is clearly the matchup between Duncan/Thomas and Chandler/West. In Game 1, West and Chandler combined for 40 points and 24 rebounds versus 5 and 5 for Duncan and Thomas. The Spurs big men came up short in Game 1 for two reasons. First, Thomas’ offense inadequacies allowed the Hornets to throw two big, athletic defenders on Duncan with regularity. Second, the young and active Chandler grabbed six (!) offensive rebounds over the old and arthritic Thomas. That isn’t to say I think Duncan will lay another egg in Game 2, but you have to be intrigued to see what Greg Popovich does to counter Tyson Chandler and David West. Game 2 is Monday, 5/5 at 8:30.