Let Them Go Again, Phil

Third quarter. Game one of the Western Semis well in-hand, up 16. Here comes the run by the opponent that always comes at some point in the midst of the second half.

Every victory, be it in the preseason or the playoffs, comes as a result of a well-navigated recourse in the face of adversity. We all know this as law in sport and were brought up with this reality from the beginning.

Might as well clot the bleeding at this point in time with a Gatorade and oxygen tourniquet, right?

Take a timeout Phil. No? Okay. Let them go, as usual. They will “Zen” their way out of it like they always do. A country-whistle for a double team on defense here, the leash lengthened again and again with offensive futility there.

The Mavs are numb in a 10-0 run nearing the end of the quarter. Now can we take a timeout and attempt to curb this high by least turning the resonating fire down to low for a second?

Wait, not yet? We were up 16 and have now let them within 3?

Finally a stoppage was at long last resorted to by a smug and stubborn perpendicular hand gesture to the officials. Now we call for time, after 3 levels of the 4-floor structure accumulated has been toppled over in burning haste by the opponent.

Beyond the usual rhythmic strategy, this is what frustrates me as a Laker-fan:  when things get out of hand and the Monarch of the Laker-bench forbids his soldiers to fortify, and rather try and slice and dice through the stalwart, casualties unmitigated.

A seasoned and grizzled warrior needs a stretch of wind more than he did when he was a young champion. He has already learned how to withstand your mind-games.  I fear this has been failed to be realized in this penultimate playoff-season for Coach Jackson.

Zen realizes this balance. For some reason, Phil does not. Live not with accolades and blueprints of before, but rather, live in the now. Know what now says. You are defying your own principal state-of-being, Phil.

Against a veteran lineup like the one Dallas boasts, don’t feel like you are so far ahead that letting the reigns go in an unbridled fashion will ultimately develop in an incontrovertibly satisfying result.

This is not New Orleans of last week nor Houston of last year. This challenge is truly in question. It is a storm more than anything the Western Conference seas has brought to your vessel in the past few years.

Jackson was quoted in a post-game conference as saying, “we gave it away.”

You gave it away, coach. Don’t tempt the zen-like, far-traveled path of ying-and-yang symmetry you have established by giving away a supreme state of being that you can quite easily moderate and contain.  Leave the pride and utter defiance non-withstanding. You’d hate to foil two different three-peats with two different teams on something like senile, lock-step commandment, wouldn’t you?

Make the adjustment. Prove you are what your rings say you are. Manage timeouts and halt the “we can put forth an unorthodox template and yet exclusively be better” edict.

Feel the balance outside of your own expectations and manage what is real, just this one time.  Your team needs you to.

We’ll see if the “Zen Master” can swirl the melting pot of what is as well as what should be one last time.