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i disagree.

avery is tailoring dallas' team solely for SA, they are starting to play the way they do. phoenix will have to play some sort of half court game and defense in the playoffs to beat dallas or SA.

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The problem the mavs have is the players Phoenix had that owned them last year are still there. They had no answer for Nash, Marion, Stoudemire they all went crazy. Joe Johnson missed most of the series and Q Rich almost disappeared anyway so given the depth they will be better against the mavs as well. Sure they may play better defense, but they were playing better defense last last year too, and when they got to Phoenix they just couldn't slow them down at all.

They may be playing better defense, but they just dont have the personal to defend any of those 3 players.

As for the spurs it was just Stoudemire and Nash that consistently owned them, but still all those games were so close. The problem was the suns couldnt slow down anyone at all, including the full bench. This year though they will be able to slow down some of those roleplayers and have a very good chance to take the series. Of course it will help the Spurs will have to deal with the mavs this time around, and the Suns can run through whatever the garbage 3 seed is.