Hardwood Paroxysm Presents: Our Fantasy Playoff Matchups

The Shoe Block Series

By Daniel Lewis (@minutemandan), Hardwood Paroxysm

So far the Mavericks have managed to avoid a first-round matchup against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in 2007. With a six-game lead on the Thunder, who are the 8-seed, the odds aren’t great that these two teams would meet up – but if they did, oh boy, would that be something else.

The Mavericks haven’t been able to beat the best team in the Western Conference this year, losing in Dallas and Oakland. Steph Curry rallied the Warriors from a 22-point deficit to win their second game, dropping 51 points to help his team pick up the win.

But when they played in Dallas – Tyson Chandler was doing everything he could to win. Everything.

The stories in this series would be savory. It’s a rematch of the classic 2007 series, where a scrappy group of players knocked off Dirk Nowitzki, who won league MVP that year as he tried to take his team back to the Finals after losing to Dwyane Wade and the Heat. That Warriors team had a young scoring guard who was still learning the game, named Monta Ellis, who has grown now into the Mavericks most important player. Who will throw the highest number of shoes into the stands, Tyson Chandler or Andrew Bogut? Which style will win, Draymond Green’s trash-talking or Chandler Parsons model face?

You have to think that the Mavericks acquired Rajon Rondo knowing that there was the possibility of having to play the Warriors at some point in the playoffs. J.J. Barea, bless his heart, can’t be responsible for helping guard Klay Thompson and Steph Curry for 28 minutes a game.

Imagine a series where Curry and Ellis are going at each other for 40 minutes a game, with Steph’s lethal jumpbacks awing the crowd, while Ellis dazzles on drives to the hoop. Tyson Chandler takes over a game, grabbing 20 rebounds and keeping the Warriors from scoring in the paint. Klay Thompson steps up after being called out by Steve Kerr, dropping 40 points in the second half to help rally his team from a 15-point halftime deficit. Dirk takes Draymond Green back to college, jabbing, driving, and scoring like a man 10 years younger.

Draymond responds by tipping in the game-winning offensive rebound in overtime to send the series to a seventh game. Rajon Rondo on national television happens, and his 20 points, 20 assist, and 20 rebound game impregnates the Twitterverse, but the game comes down to the final possession, with the Mavericks down by one point, as Dirk Nowitzki catches the ball on the left elbow as the clock ticks down from 10 seconds and into history.

Who wouldn’t want to watch that? That’s a matchup that the world wants – no, the world needs. Could that series bring world peace? I’m not saying that it wouldn’t.

Next: Bestbrook tries to prove a point