The Suns polished off the Mavericks last night, getting another incredible performance from Steve Nash, and finishing off a comeback from 16 down with 4:00 to play in the third against the limp-wristed Mavs.

We’ll get to the Suns in a bit, but I wanna talk about Dirk Nowitzki for a minute.

At the end of regulation, Jason Terry pretty much allowed Steve Nash to have the open three that send the game into overtime. I don’t know what Terry was thinking, he wasn’t even looking at Nash when he took the shot. He could’ve taken a foul on him at any point before that, or contested the shot. It was strange because Jason Terry played his best defensive game of the series.

Anyway, as they walked off the court, Dirk Nowitzki proceeded to scream as Jason Terry for the mistake. A couple of things…

1) If Dirk wants to be a leader, he’s gotta pick spots for when he’s going to get in someone’s grill. You can’t just react emotionally whenever you feel like it. Making a guy feel like two inches tall right before he has to play the most crucial overtime period of the season is not a good idea. Magic, Larry, and Michael all had moments where they felt it necessary to berate teammates, but none of them would’ve done it in that situation. It doesn’t help anyone. Right then, it’s better to put your arm around the guy and say, “Hey, shake it off. We need you,” instead of embarrassing him for a mistake he’s already aware of, and heading into overtime as a fractured team.

2) You can’t scream at a guy for not playing defense if you’re not going to do it yourself. Dirk’s man, Shawn Marion, had 38 and outscored Dirk by 10. Terry’s man, Steve Nash, had 39 and outscored Terry by 3. Dirk had plenty of opportunities on both offense and defense to do things to help his team win late in the game, and he didn’t.

3) Dirk can also feel free to stop being a pussy. He was 0-3 in overtime, including a forced shot in a crucial situation that had absolutely no chance to go in. Terry later hit an off-balance three-pointer to keep a little bit of hope alive. Dirk also spent about half the game on the floor, whining about calls he didn’t get. Sometimes he had a point, but in a game like that, you’ve just got to shut the fuck and play.

As I’ve said before, it doesn’t work if your best player isn’t also your pit bull. Not against great teams in the playoffs. Dirk is more like a collie. Jason Terry, Josh Howard, and Jerry Stackhouse were the Mavs best players through this series. And the series was close enough to be justified in saying that if Dirk was able to step his game up, lead his teammates and make them better, that they could’ve won it. But he didn’t.

And now Phoenix moves on to play San Antonio. I don’t think they can win.

Memphis and Dallas were two teams that were pretty ill-equipped to stop Phoenix. Memphis at certain points had the right idea, but they just weren’t in the same galaxy with Phoenix when it comes to comparing athletes. I think the keys to beating Phoenix are discipline, transition defense, patient offense, and organized team defense in a halfcourt set. Dallas isn’t particularly good at any of those. San Antonio is.

I think San Antonio wins this series, and I don’t think it will take more than 6 games. I would be very surprised if Gregg Popovich didn’t find a way to slow Phoenix down. Maybe we’ll get a little more in-depth with this later.