Can a team trailing by 3 games with 6 games to go make the playoffs?
We won’t get that answer Sunday, but we’ll know a lot more about it.
The Suns visit the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center in a nationally televised contest. After beating Sacramento on Friday night, and getting an assist from the Memphis Grizzlies, who beat Dallas, the Suns trail the Mavericks by 3 games for the final Western Conference playoff spot.
So, as we do here at Fanster.com, we’ll paint the picture of what to look for on Sunday, but since we’re not that artistic, we’ll do it by the numbers.
3
The number of games the Suns trail by the Mavericks by in the Western Conference playoff pecking order.
4-4
The Mavericks’ record since Fanster.com launched their “Mavericks Fail” campaign.
5
The number of current players on the Dallas roster who were on the team that eliminated the Suns from the 2006 Western Conference Finals. (Nowitzki, Terry, Howard, Dampier, Stackhouse)
3
The number of current players on the Phoenix roster who were on the team that was eliminated by Dallas in 2006. (Nash, Stoudemire, Barbosa)
10
The over/under on the number of times the ABC/ESPN broadcast team will mention the special friendship between Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
138
The over/under on the number of times the ABC/ESPN broadcast will show Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban during Sunday’s game.
4
The number of times Jared Dudley has scored in double figures in the last five games.
4
The number of times Jared Dudley had scored in double figures in his previous 37 games since joining the Suns in December.
29
The number of games missed by Dallas forward Josh Howard this season, due to an ankle injury.
75
The number of times Howard has stood for the National Anthem this season, whether he was playing or not.
5.9
Jason Terry’s scoring average in the fourth quarter of games this season, making him the 6th leading 4th quarter scorer in the league behind only Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Joe Johnson.
19
The number of consecutive games Dirk Nowitzki has scored 20 or more points, the longest streak in the league.
