ATLANTA HAWKS

We resolve to get to the bottom of why we gave Joe Johnson so much damn money. He does lead us in points, but will we make it deep in the playoffs….of course not. ( same as last years resolution)

BOSTON CELTICS

We the Boston Celtics resolve to let Rondo shoot nothing but threes for an entire game, just to see what happens….

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

I, Paul Silas resolve to survive the entire season.

CHICAGO BULLS

I, Derrick Rose resolve to continue dominating basketball, postgame interviews  and my acne.

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

We resolve to continue to be a horrible team until Dan Gilbert can finally complete the cloning of LeBron James, let the clone grow to 18 years of age, then draft him with the #1 pick in the 2030 Draft.

DALLAS MAVERICKS

I, Lamar Odom will drive to Galveston Beach each off day so I can look at the ocean and remember what once was.

DETROIT PISTONS

We the Pistons resolve to find some food for Austin Daye, and to have Ben Gordons arms chopped off!

DENVER NUGGETS

We the Nuggets resolve to be extremely grateful that Coach Karl is back and healthy!

GOLDEN ST. WARRIORS

I, Coach Mark Jackson resolve to stop yelling “Hands down, man down” to everyone on the team, every possession.

HOUSTON ROCKETS

We the Houston Rockets resolve to continue pitting Chase Budinger, and Chandler Parsons against each other until they are forced to fight to the death.

INDIANA PACERS

We resolve to let Physcho T run into the stands at least once this season.

L.A. CLIPPERS

We resolve to keep our racist ass owner away from Chris Paul, and keep Chris thinking that Frankie Muniz is indeed the owner of the team.

L.A. LAKERS

We resolve to plant testosterone tablets in Pau Gasol’s drinks throughout the season.

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

We resolve to get Tony Allen as far away from our team as possible.

MIAMI HEAT

We resolve to win the Finals, not for LeBron but for original man: Juwan Howard.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS

We resolve to get to the bottom of signing of Mike Dunleavy Jr.!

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

I, Kevin Love resolve to rebound every ball, on every shot, from every basketball game in the world.

NEW JERSEY NETS

We resolve to play in Brooklyn until Brooklyn realizes that the Nets play in Brooklyn, then we haul ass to Russia! #NYETS

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS

We the NBA speak for the Hornets, and the Hornets have nothing to say!

NEW YORK KNICKS

I, Carmelo Anthony resolve to remember that I, Carmelo am the only option, and I need to shoot every single time!

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

We resolve to do whatever we can to keep Russell Westbrook from becoming Stephon Marbury and eventually eating Vaseline on Twitter!

ORLANDO MAGIC

I, Dwight Howard resolve to ask, demand, then say pretty please for a trade.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

We resolve to hire Michael Vick as soon as the NFL season is over. He will suit up and be in the starting lineup, just for the player introductions, but he wont play any minutes.

PHOENIX SUNS

I, Steve Nash resolve to never leave the Suns, and continue playing until they can find a point guard better then I.

PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS

We resolve to burn some Sage in the Rose Garden, because our team is definitely cursed!

SACRAMENTO KINGS

We resolve to remind all those fans that fought to keep the team in Sacramento that the team is still in Sacramento

SAN ANTONIO SPURS

We resolve to casually ignore the age of our Big 3, but encourage fans to purchase DeJuan Blair Bears from the gift shop

TORONTO RAPTORS

We resolve to call the NBA everyday, and send flowers so that they remember there is a team in Toronto.

UTAH JAZZ

We resolve to remind the Jazz players that the sign that said “Team of Misfit Players” was not funny.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS

We resolve to let John Wall do whatever he wants to and to continue letting Glbert Arenas in the locker room so he can shit in Rashard Lewis’s shoes.

REUTERS/Tim Sharp

Welcome to Texas Lamar and Vince, but before you get too comfortable there are a few things(rules) you have to be aware of. While enjoying the Dallas nightlife or noticing shell casings on the grassy knoll, always remember to have your identification.

At any time in Texas you can be asked for your identification from a police officer, and if you don’t have it you will be detained.  Of course Lamar and Vince your NBA-player status may help you to avoid these issues in other states with the police, but Texas doesn’t play nice with athletes not born in Texas. A passport in Texas is like a golden ticket, mainly due to Texas being a foreign country.

During the next couple months you may notice a large number of horses, and chuck wagons appear throughout the city.  Do not be alarmed, it is only the arrival of the rodeo and tons of horse manure.

Still in disbelief of the Lakers decision, Lamar Odom is now a Dallas Mavericks. Joining the defending champs will give the Mavs the needed height with the loss of Tyson Chandler to the Knicks. Lamar Odom, Dirk, and Jason Kidd on the break will be fun to watch.

The Lakers get an $8.9 million trade exception for the 32-year-old Odom, who is going into the third year of a four-year deal. He has averaged 14.6 points and 8.9 rebounds in 829 games over 12 NBA seasons, four with the Clippers, one in Miami and the last seven with the Lakers.

The 34-year-old Carter had to clear waivers after playing for Phoenix last season. The Mavericks announced Monday night that Carter had signed a contract that reunites him with Jason Kidd, his teammate for three seasons in New Jersey.

Dallas didn’t provide details of Carter’s deal, but it is expected to be a mid-level exception of $3 million for this season.

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

Carter has 20,250 career points, eighth among active players and 35th on the NBA career loss. He was originally the fifth overall selection in the 1998 draft by Toronto, and has played 925 career games for the Raptors, New Jersey, Orlando and Phoenix.

(Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images)

Since Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semis against Boston the Heat have turned up the heat, treating the Celtics like white kids playing basketball with swim trunks on.

Dallas also had Caron Butler on the floor in those two wins early in the season. Butler has been out since tearing a tendon in his right knee on Jan. 1. He was averaging 14 points and 4.1 rebounds in almost 30 minutes per game. He averaged 18 points in Dallas’ two regular-season wins over Miami. Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said Friday that Butler’s availability for this series is “unlikely, but I’m not sure.”

This series, like all basketball will be based on matchups.

With or without Butler the Mavericks are in for their toughest matchup this postseason.

The Mavs were built to get past the Lakers and they succeeded at that, unfortunately no team in the NBA is designed to handle the Heat. Dallas will utilize the zone defense to make up for their matchup problems.

In the two-game regular-season series against Dallas, Wade and LeBron James were a combined 3 of 17 versus the zone, according to Synergy, which provides a statistical analysis of each playoff game.

Miami has plenty of matchup issues as well. The most compelling is of course, Who holds Dirk?

Chris Bosh should get the majority of the assignments, along with Udonis Haslem. During the Eastern Conference Semis, LeBron James turned Derrick Rose, the league’s MVP into an average point guard. The world will await the  moment when LeBron and Dirk square off against each other, and in many situations the game will depend on how well LeBron can defend without fouling Dirk.

Dirk has shot 130-140(93%) from the free throw line this postseason.

According to StatsCube, there is one thing that the Heat and Mavs have had in common in these playoffs: incredible success in late-game situations.

In “clutch” situations in the postseason, the Mavs have outscored their opponents 97-42, while the Heat have outscored their opponents 98-55. Neither of those totals encompasses the complete comebacks by Dallas in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals (when the Mavs rallied from 15 down with five minutes to go) and Miami’s effort in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals (when the Heat came back from 12 down with less than four minutes left).

Clutch situation = Last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime, with a score differential of five points or less

Dallas has been the best offensive team in clutch situations, scoring an estimated 148 points per 100 possessions. Miami has been the best defensive team in clutch situations, allowing just 69 points per 100 possessions.

As well as Dirk has played this postseason, you can’t help but notice the Miami Heat ‘Big 3′ becoming comfortable with each other. The Heat weren’t assembled to win regular season awards, or have the best record. They took their talents to South Beach to win championships, and Dallas is all that stands in the way of accomplishing that goal.

Should the Heat win the series, then they’d join the group of multiple winners and it would mean every champion since 1984 will have won at least 2 titles and that the seven franchises would have combined to make 39 NBA Finals appearances.

TRUTHSPORTS PREDICTION: HEAT IN 5

Dallas didn’t lead until Nowitzki hit two free throws 16 seconds into overtime, needing to rally from a 99-84 deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation.

Kevin Durant finished with 29 points and 15 boards, and Serge Ibaka had 18 points and 10 boards for Oklahoma City. Russell Westbrook added 19 points, eight boards and eight dimes.Durant had nine of the Thunder’s 26 turnovers, including the one that led to Kidd’s big shot.

Kidd stripped him as he went up for a shot with just over a minute left in overtime, then took a pass from Nowitzki, pump-faked to get Westbrook in the air and stepped up and drilled a 3-pointer to put Dallas up 108-105 with 40.3 seconds left.

On a night the Thunder appeared to be minutes away from tying up the series, the loss of James Harden to fouls spelled disaster on the offensive end. Since returning home the Thunder have shot 3-30 from deep.

The Thunder out-rebounded the Mavericks 55-33 (+22) in the Game 4 loss. That’s the largest rebounding advantage in a postseason loss since the 76ers lost to the Bullets April 18, 1986 despite out-rebounding them by 58-29 (+29).

Only two teams have come back from 3-1 deficits in NBA history without the benefit of home-court advantage in Game 7 — Houston in the 1995 West semifinals and Boston in the 1968 East finals.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Dallas on ESPN/ Mavs lead series 3-1

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

In Game 3, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant decided to take a backseat and let their teams have at it. It resulted in a Mavs 93-87 victory for the Mavericks and a 2-1 series lead.  Durant and Nowitzki combined to shoot 14-43. Fortunately for the Mavericks, Dirk decided to help out in the 4th quarter, making 10 of 11 possessions at one point, finishing with 18 points.

“He’s our guy. In the fourth quarters, he’s going to touch the ball as frequently as we can get it to him,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said.

Kevin Durant finished with 24 points and 12 boards, but was 0-8 from deep. Russell Westbrook rebounded from being benched in the 4th quarter of Game 2, with 30 points. The Thunder missed their first 16 3-pointers — including all eight by Durant — before Westbrook made one in the final minute. 1-17 from deep was the majority of the problems the Thunder faced. The Thunder three-point shooting tied for the second worst postseason 3-point percentage in the last 20 years.

Game 4 is Monday at 9ET on ESPN/ Mavs lead 2-1

In Game 2, Dallas appeared to be riding the wave of Game 1, but then Kevin Durant murdered Brendan Haywood.

In the 4th quarter Kevin Durant and OKC got big baskets from Eric Maynor, and James Harden. Harden’s scream in this video following the jumper is what nightmares are made of.

Game 3 is Saturday at 9ET on ESPN/ Series tied 1-1

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks had a nice rest before Tuesday nights Western Conference Finals. Many believed that rust would play a part in their matchup with the OKC Thunder who were fresh off a Game 7 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

There was no sign of rust on the older Mavs, winning 121-112, and taking a 1-0 series lead. There was absolutely nothing the Thunder could do to stop Dirk. He hit 10 of his first 11 shots from the field and an NBA playoff-record 24 straight free throws on the way to 48 points. “I thought Dirk was pretty good tonight,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said, laughing. “I thought we defended him as close as we can — obviously, too close.” Scott Brooks won’t be laughing if Dirk continues his play, and there doesn’t appear to be any reason he will end his dominance.

Nowitzki finished 12 of 15 from the field and a perfect 24 of 24 at the line. It was the most points by anyone this postseason and two shy of his most ever in a playoff game. Dirk also had the highest FG pct in a conference finals game in history.

Kevin Durant followed his 39 points in Game 7 of the previous round with the 40, one shy of his most ever in a playoff game. Tuesday night marked the third time in NBA playoff history that opposing players scored at least 40 points in Game 1 of a playoff series.

Russell Westbrook routinely attacked the rim but was unable to convert many of his shots missing 12 of 15, and drawing the angst of Thunder fans as he chose difficult shots instead of deferring to Durant in the second half.

The problem for the Thunder was obviously, and without question Dirk Nowitzki. Although he shot 24 free throws the Thunder still had more attempts, 43 for OKC, and 36 for the Mavs.  Each Thunder player got a chance to defend Dirk and all failed miserably.

The Mavs bench outscored the Thunder 53-22. 21 points on mostly laypus from J.J. Barea, and the super 6th man Jason Terry had 24 points.

Game 1 winners have won 78.6 percent of all best-of-7 series in NBA history

Game 2 is Thursday night in Dallas, where the Mavs are 6-0 this postseason. Dallas leads series 1-0

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

If you were to tell me at the start of the season that the 2-time defending champs, the Los Angeles Lakers would be down 3 games to nothing to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Semifinals, I would have been convinced you knew nothing about  basketball. As unbelievable as that sounds it is currently live and in living color and extremely unprecedented.

You knew after watching the Lakers first round matchup with the Hornets that something wasn’t right, but you knew, like all the times before, they would find a way to better their opponent. Dallas is notorious for folding under pressure and coming into Game 3, leading 2-0, many still believed they wouldn’t even win the series. On Friday night the Mavericks put to bed any notion that they aren’t capable of being champions, by once again finishing better then the champs, leading to a 98-92 victory and a win away from the Western Conference Finals.

The Mavericks pulled this game out by scoring 32 points in the fourth quarter, the most by either team in any period this series. The Mavs go-to-guy Dirk Nowitzki scored 32 points, making 12 of 19 shots, and dropping 4 of 5 from beyond the arc. Seemingly unstoppable the lakers had no answer for Dirk. Jason Terry scored 23 points, including multiple daggers down the stretch.

“Just about everything that happened down the stretch was a direct result of him either scoring the ball or making a play to get somebody a shot, or make a pass for an assist for a 3 or a 2 or whatever it was,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said.

Peja Stojakovic scored 11 of his 15 in the final quarter.  Jason Kidd added 11 points and nine dimes.

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Kobe Bryant finished with 17 points, on a night he chose to be more passive. The Lakers without Ron Artest started lamar Odom in his place. The trio of Odom, Gasol and Bynum had only been on the court together a total of 2 minutes, 19 seconds all season.  After complaining about “team trust issues” Andrew Bynum lead all Lakers with 21 points and 10 boards.

If the Lakers fans need to blame anyone Pau Gasol continues to draw a huge bulls-eye on his chest. Pau finished with 12 points on 5-13 shooting and 8 boards.

*The Lakers outscored the Mavs in the paint 56-20, but Los Angeles made 3 three pointers while Dallas made 12.

“I don’t know, I might be sick in the head or crazy or thrown off or something like that because I still think we’re going to win this series,” Bryant said  “I might be nuts. … Let’s win on Sunday, go back home and see if they can win in L.A.”

No NBA team has ever won a series when trailing 3-0, as the trailing team has gone 0-98 in those situations.

Game 4 Sunday: at Mavs, 2:30 (ABC / 103.3 FM) / Mavs lead series 3-0

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

The Los Angeles Lakers lead by 16 points late in the third quarter, but were out-clutched for the first time in a long time. The Mavs trailed by seven points entering the fourth quarter Monday, but then outscored the Lakers by nine to steal the win, 96-94.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points, including 11 in the 4th quarter, and 14 boards. The Lakers had a chance to pick their match-up against Dirk Nowitzki nursing a 1-point lead with 20 seconds remaining, and elected to go with Pau Gasol. Prior to the play, Nowitzki was 5-for-5 against Gasol, 5-for-11 against Lamar Odom and 1-for-6 against all other Lakers. Gasol fouled Nowitzki on the inbounds, sending him to the line and giving the Mavs a lead they would not relinquish.

Pau will receive the majority of the blame for the loss. He committed the foul on Dirk and lost the ball to Jason Kidd on the next play with less then 20 seconds on the clock. Pau Gasoldid finish with 15 points, 11 boards and seven dimes, so he played well offensively. Kobe Bryant was in shooting machine mode finishing with 36 points on 14 of 36 shooting. He had no dimes.

Bryant had the 81st 30-point game of his playoff career, trailing only Michael Jordan (109) in NBA history. Bryant has scored in double figures in 156 straight postseason games.

Jason Terry scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half to lead the Mavs’ reserves, who outscored Los Angeles’ bench 40-25.

The Lakers looked out of sorts late in Game 1, and the ability of the Mavs to deny Andrew Bynum was key to their win. “I know we got that crazy last minute there, but we’ve got to come out in the second half and play better,” said Andrew Bynum, who managed eight points and five boards for Los Angeles. “We didn’t lose it at the end. We lost it in the third quarter.”

Game 2 is Wednesday at 9:30 on TNT/ Mavs lead series 1-0