This series is going to be, to borrow a word from the player formerly known as Rasheed Wallace, bananas. All conventional basketball wisdom is pretty much worthless. To watch this series intently and figure out what’s going on almost requires one to learn a whole new sport… it’s just so different. This series is to basketball what pornography is to the film industry… it’s a new direction, and might not be conventional or pure, but you’re not going to look away, either.

This was EJ’s Neat-o Stat of the Night, and it’s about all you need to know: There were 47 total layups in the game. 47. That is a staggering number… particularly for a conference final playoff game. Each team got about 6 lay-ups per quarter. I don’t even know how to make sense of that. It’s like an NFL conference championship game where each team scores 8 touchdowns on 40-yard touchdown passes. Bananas indeed.

I actually felt like Dallas played it pretty well last night. I thought Game One would be the hardest for them, and Phoenix did come out and make an early run. But Dallas got used to the tempo, they took better shots, they picked their spots to run, and started to get back on defense. They controlled the game for a while, eventually wiping out Phoenix’s lead and extending to a 9-point lead of their own. But that’s Phoenix… you can’t let the foot off their throat, or they’ll end up scoring 42 points in about 8 seconds.

If for nothing else, you’ve gotta give credit for sticking to their guns. Adjusting is just not an option. If they’re going to make an adjustment, they’re going to go from running like hell to running like a motherfucker who’s face is on fire. And if the Mavs are able to slow things down, which I think they did pretty well, then it’s nearly exclusively pick-and-roll, mostly with Steve Nash. The defense will switch, they’ll get a big on Nash, or a small on Tim Thomas or Boris Diaw, and then they can get what they want. This is where the Mavs will miss Josh Howard, if he can’t get back anytime soon.

But Dallas can get any shot they want, too. I don’t think it comes as any great surprise that Phoenix did not come out last night and play lockdown defense. And if Raja Bell’s going to miss any time… oh man. Scoring records could be in jeopardy. I suppose I’m still pretty confident in the Mavs to win the series, but I don’t think Phoenix is done winning, either. At least once a series, they have one of those games where they just shoot the lights out and really can’t be beat. It’ll be entertaining. A regular scoring orgy.