I don’t want to make it seem like I’m giving the shaft to the Mavs/Spurs series… I’m watching it as intently as I’m watching anything else. But by the time the games are over, and I watch Inside the NBA afterwards, there’s just no time for blogging. Truth be told, though, while Pistons/LeBrons is getting more attention, this series is better basketball and more significant in terms of the whole NBA. So I did want to mention a few things…

Tim Duncan can still play at an MVP level. I’m not saying that he’s going to win any more MVP awards, of course, but when he wants to, when he has to… Tim Duncan can still dominate a game. Excluding players on my favorite teams, I’m not sure I’ve gotten any more enjoyment out of watching anybody than I have Tim Duncan. His game is as brilliant as anyone who’s currently playing. It may not be as flashy, and drop-steps into left-handed shots off the glass may not make as many SportsCenter highlights as a LeBron James dunk, but… they’re brilliant and beautiful in their own right.

He’s still the player he once was… he just can’t be that player as often. Certainly not for 82 games. He’s a little creaky, a little aged… but when it has to be there, it’s still there.

Dirk Nowitzki has grown. I’ve also enjoyed watching Dirk Nowitzki in this series. For so long, I thought he was a crazy-talented, big, softie who needed to change his tampon, and was incapable of even formulating a thought about playing defense. Now I think he’s a crazy-talented veteran leader who’s willing to take the big shots without fear, who also still kinda refuses to play defense. Now, he’s still not an ice-water-in-his-veins killer like Jordan or anything, but… he doesn’t have to be. He’s grown, and that’s enough. It’s good to see.

I’m not yet embracing small ball. Bill Simmons wrote (very well) about it yesterday… this is where the game is heading. Just put five guys on the floor who all have some combination of run/shoot/penetrate/kick skills, let them play off each other, and hey, getting an open shot is almost a formality, unless the other team who somehow find five guys who are just as athletic and defend intelligently. That’s a pretty tall order, especially considering that most teams are still built in the traditional mold. Teams are saying, “Hey, true post players are hard to come by, so… fuck it, we’ll do things another way. And in the process, we’ll see if we can turn your post players into a liability.”

Now, we may be getting ahead of ourselves a little bit… neither Phoneix nor Dallas have won their series yet. The conference finals could still be Spurs/Clippers, two of the post post teams in the league. But the trend is still emerging… and more and more teams are going to adopt it, because it’s easier to build a team that way, and… I dunno, it might be just as, if not more, effective. We need a little more time to tell on that one. Like I said before, I might be getting ahead of myself here. I just don’t want to see post play go the way of David Stern’s mustache all together.

And one other quick thing on this series… anyone catch Michael Finley claiming that Jason Terry punched him last night? It was on the loose ball that led to the second jump ball. Terry and Finley were scrambling for it, and Finley got out of the pile, pissed off, motioning that Terry had punched him. Bruce Bowen and Tim Duncan had to talk him out of punching Terry in the mouth.