Mavs are in Their Alamo

(cue the Pacino "Any Given Sunday" speech).

It's kind of a bizarre feeling to know that 8 years of cheering for your team - cheering for them to make some noise in the playoffs every year - all could come to an end pending the outcome of one game.

Tonight could be the end of the line for this incarnation of the Dallas Mavericks, the 2000-2008 team that has been a perennial 50 game winner and playoff participant, and a return to the lottery for the next several years. If they lose tonight, and find themselves in an insurmountable 3-0 hole to the younger, quicker Hornets, then this franchise will be need to be blown up with such force that pieces of Stackhouse, Terry and Avery will be found on the surface of Jupiter some day.

In all of the playoff series this year, the home teams were 13-3 after the first 2 games, and all series, except Philly-Detroit, were 2-0 after the first two games. Last night, all of the teams that needed to win the third game came through to keep their series alive, with Washington and Toronto winning convincingly on their home courts. If nothing else, the Mavericks are a completely different team at home, and very well could grab an ounce of momentum.

Win, and they may put a little doubt in the young Hornets' minds. Lose, and there's no reason to even have a game 4 and Avery will be cathing a lift with Ron Washington to the airport next week.

It's funny that Dallas and Phoenix, two teams that have been knocking on the door of a title for the past 4 years, find themselves at identical crossroads. Tonight could be the night where the torch is officially passed to New Orleans, LA, and Utah for Western Conference supremacy for the foreseeable future.