The Daily Take: Indians and Mavs Crashing to Earth

The Mavericks lost a close one at home against the Heat.  Although people have talked about the questionable call on the Chalmers shot at the end of the first half, but Dallas just didn't step it up.  Dirk certainly stepped his game up, but you need more than just Dirk to win a series.

Dirk shot 52% from the field, grabbed 11 boards, and scored 34 points but he was it for them.  Terry is scoring 14 ppg in the series, but his shooting has been off (38%), partially due to a bone bruise in his wrist that was revealed after Thursday's game.  It's the injury bug again, biting Dallas, but they have pushed through every time. Still, even if this team fights through it you have to seriously worry.  Out of the top 3 scorers outside of Dirk, only Shawn Marion is shooting over 40% for the series and some of the other bench players (Peja, Barea) are struggling to find their shot.  Yesterday, Marion had a bad game and they needed Kidd or Terry to step it up.  


For the Heat, they are still winning despite Lebron only scoring barely over 20 ppg and Bosh shooting 31% from the field.  Its because Wade is dominating.  They are letting Wade take it this series because Lebron has the much tougher matchup.  Wade is just destroying Stevenson and Chalmers is doing pretty well too.  However, they will have to seriously worry about Bosh because although they are up 2-1, Terry could get hot at anytime and if he does, this series could reverse its momentum completely.  

The Indians have dropped 2 more, bringing their losing streak to 5 and they have also now lost 10 out of their last 13.  While, you can at least somewhat dismiss the 4 losses to the Rangers when this is a team that always finds a way to beat the Indians recently.  While Santana has not hit all that well, he has at least been reliable behind the plate until yesterday.  Yesterday, he didn't handle himself behind the plate either and there were other mental mistakes this team was making (a bad throw to first by LaPorta).  Tomlin had another mediocre game and it seems like he and Masterson are falling back to Earth.  Tomlin is good, but I think his ERA is about where it will end up be, between 3.60 and 4.00.  Thankfully, Talbot has been good in his last 2 starts, but he lost his most recent one because he did not get run support because this team has not been hitting.


Today is key for both teams.  Dallas needs to win tonight, and likely their next game at home to have any chance in this series.  Kidd and Terry need to step it up.  Its the same for the Indians.  Carrasco needs to have a good outing and the Offense that has only put up 6 runs in this 5 game streak needs to hit the struggling Liriano.  If not, they may have to turn to options such as bringing up Cord Phelps.  They are still contenders, they just have to win tonight to solidify that status for a while.