By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
How close are the Kings and the Mavs?
Philadelphia-Eagles-and-the-Super-Bowl close. New-Hampshire-to-Vermont close. Kobe-and-that-hotel-girl close.
You know, really close.
And we mean that in more ways than one. First, there is the off-the-court mixing and mingling. DB.com staffers all agree: No two teams in the NBA appreciate each other, respect each other, just-plain-old like each other, more than the guys on the Mavs roster and the guys on the Kings roster.
KINGS COVERAGE
Familiarity has bred this Western Conference admiration society; Dallas and Sacto got to know each other well in last season’s marathon playoff series. The fact that the two clubs play a similar style is probably a factor, too; for pure entertainment value, a Mavs-Kings meeting is generally without match.
And then, testify good-guy Mavs who know Sacto’s boys well, there is the fact that the rosters are populated with very few posers and very few punks.
Seriously, from way-early pregame warm-ups to just before tipoff and then throughout Sunday afternoon at American Airlines Center, players on these teams treated each other like office co-workers separated only by cubicles.
And then there is the other closeness factor: Sacramento, long considered an elite team, a true contender – Nellie says the Kings are alongside the Lakers as “the best team in basketball’’ – is now not really better than the Mavs.
Oh, don’t let Nellie hear us say that. He’s still peddling that poormouth baloney about his “underdog’’ Mavs.
But results don’t lie. Dallas won its eighth straight game, 108-99, with real live defense. (Only 99 points allowed!) And with a fourth-quarter spurt that created a double-digit cushion. And, when facing a tied score with two minutes left, clutch shooting to seal the deal.
Dallas, which is 8-3 this year against the “elite’’ foursome of the Kings, Lakers, Spurs and T’Wolves, has two of those wins in two meetings with Sacto. The Mavs also beat Sacramento in that playoff series last spring in part by winning a pair of games on the road, and certainly doesn’t approach games with them with any thought of being intimidated.
The teams are getting closer in the standings. But what has really closed is the talent gap.
It was only two seasons ago when the Mavs really had no matchup answers for a variety of Kings. Thick-and-crafty center Vlade Divac? Which Mav was going to guard him? Lightning-quick point guard Mike Bibby? Which Mav was going to guard him? Microwave-hot sixth man Bobby Jackson? Which Mav was going to answer him?
A classic strategic from two years ago: Peja Stojakovic, the brilliant offensive weapon of the Kings, is 6-9. Dallas’ best answer to check him back then: Steve Nash, who is 6-3 when he’s standing atop a Vancouver phonebook.
“I don’t think we assembled talent with specific matchups with other teams in mind,’’ says Mavs exec Donnie Nelson. “But we always did believe that this group of guys would end up giving us more options than we had before.’’
Indeed, there was Josh Howard guarding Peja. And Travis Best coming off the bench to run with Bibby (with Michael Finley also taking some effective turns). And Antawn Jamison out-sixth-manning Jackson. And Shawn Bradley single-handedly causing fits for Divac and his new tree-trunk-of-a-center buddy Brad Miller.
Howard, Best, Finley, Bradley and Antoine Walker all did effective work defensively. Nash (21 points and a season-high 13 assists), Jamison (13 points, 10 rebounds), Nowitzki (20 points, 12 rebounds) and Finley (23 points) handled the offensive end.
“He’s on fire,’’ Nellie said of Finley.
And so are the Mavs. And so, really, are the Kings.
Both on fire. Both that close.