Haslem locked up Dirk in 2006 but RuPaul is infamous for getting his ass dug in by David West & the only time LMA went past the 1st rd he didn't fare any better than Dirk against Tiago.

>Dallas was a BALANCED team (8th in Ortg / 8th in Drtg) that
>won games scoring as well as on D (e.g. they torched LA with a
>shooting clinic)

Dallas had an efficient offense but their IDENTITY was that of a DEFENSIVE team. Kidd/Barea forced a high tempo game against the Lakers to nullify their size advantage & the FACT they forced the Lakers to miss a bunch of shots helped their cause. If the 2011 Mavs were playing pre-Tyson defense then they wouldn't have gotten as many easy baskets.

>and because he didn't play with any all-stars. that's just
>kind of the way that works.

According to that logic, since Tony was the leader in both points & assists plus happened to be the lone All-Star on the 2014 Spurs he "didn't have any help".

>And a worst Mavs squad w/o Tyson bounced the 3rd seed Spurs
>the year before that. Oh and Tyson has never made it out of
>the 2nd round without Dirk.

Manu was out for the entire postseason on 2009 & came back in 2010 to whoop some ass. Meanwhile Dirk had all his supporting cast sans Tyson in 2010 & got utterly outplayed by a backup player (George Hill) in the pivotal Gm 4. To add insult to injury G.Hill made him pay for playing a turnstile defense (Where Art Thou Tyson?) & stuck a dagger through his heart in the closeout game : https://youtu.be/N0pkwMQUvJs?t=205

>OKC learned to crawl vs LA in 2010 & were dangerous in 2011
Harden was still a role player & Ibaka was RAW as fuck in 2011. Harden established himself as the best 6th man in the game & destroyed the Mavs in 2012.

>Lakers were defending champs however you want to slice it
The Lakers were struggling against a team that had Landry playing wingman in the 1st rd b/c burnt out Pau was struggling to keep him in check.

>Miami had it figured out by the ECF vs Chicago
You mean when it was Bron's turn to play alpha & Wade's turn to play the 3rd wheel.

>if it was as
>easy to beat all those teams as you're saying then somebody
>else would have, but they didn't. Dirk did.

2010-11 was a down year as the top seed in both conferences were pretty mediocre compared to future & past 60 win teams.
-Bulls won 60+ games although they were heavily relying on Boozer
-The Spurs won 60 games while featuring the likes of Dejaun Blair/Richard Jefferson in their starting line-up & relying on Booner/Neal as part of their rotation.

Both squads would have been a 7th seed at best in last years western conference. The Heat made it to the Finals by pure talent & the Mavs didn't have to go through their nemeses (Spurs) thus it was a gravy train to the Finals.

>2011 JET was the same age as 2004 Spree
Spree had other duties beside scoring: It's called playing DEFENSE & he had to be the playmaker along w/ KG since Cassell was out of commission in the WCF.

>& "Kingpin" Kidd was older than Cassell.
Cassell's back problem flared up against the Kings & barely played in the WCF. Even if he was healthy Cassell couldn't affect the game on the other side of the court, actually he was a liability.

>And KG ran into 2 HOFers w/ 2 over the
>hill former stars and lost; Dirk faced 3 HOFers in their
>PRIME and WON.
Milk Carton Bron isn't seeing '04 Shaq & RuPaul against a legit PF hasn't been any more productive than Malone/Payton in the '04 WCF.

>nobody cares what you think.
You obviously do...no need to elaborate.

>LOL - 2001 sixers were a DEFENSIVE team anchored by DPOY Deke
>but you want to act like Iverson was all by himself just b/c
>he was the alpha on offense (ironic, huh?)

In addition to creating plays for himself AI also had to MAKE PLAYS for HIS TEAMMATES almost every time he was on the floor which was far from that case for Dirk. Not to mention DPOY Deke got destroyed by Shaq & AI still was able to inflict the only blemish on the 2001 Lakers postseason run.

>and who did AI actually beat on that 2001 run? Old-ass Reggie,
>bum-ass Big Dog, and Wince Carter.
-Old ass Reggie > No knees B-Roy
-2001 Bucks > 2011 Lakers
-2001 Wince > Milk Carton Bron

>and that's more impressive to you than Dirk's 2011 run? FOH

We all know what would happen if Dirk had the same supporting cast as AI did in 2001:
-MVP Dirk: 1st Rd exit while being outplayed by Stephen Jackson
-MVP AI: Finals appearance while outplaying Kobe/Vince/Ray