Had some business to attend to late last week and over the weekend, so this series has gotten a little bit away from me. Catching up with the replay, though, I’m still bamboozled. What in hell is going on? And I say this not just as someone who has ‘endorsed’ the Mavericks simply because I’ll back any candidate that I think can beat the Lakers. This hasn’t been a “oh, the Spurs do what they’re doing” series. It’s been a completely bizarre, WTF, GTFO series. George Hill is good. We knew this. But this good? “I’mma run your ass all over the floor and play with more poise than Jason Terry” good? DeJuan Blair we knew was good. But TRR (Total Rebound Rates) of 16%, 83% (!) (I don’t care that it was 4 minutes), and 30%? Richard Jefferson being alive? What in God’s name?

Some things make sense. Like this. “Play Matt Bonner less and your defense will suck less. MAGIC!” That makes sense. And the Mavericks getting caught out of focus due to physical play? I loathe cliches. I don’t like boiling down basketball to “one team wanted it more” or “they played with the heart of a champion” or “you’ve got to be tough.” But there are also reasons why phrases become cliches. They’re used a lot. And it’s been true. You harass the Mavs, take them out of the basketball game and into a street fight and they’re not in their element. These guys aren’t dive bar frequenters. So that makes sense. Hell, the Spurs have been doing it to teams since Clinton was in office.

But Duncan and Ginobili and Parker struggling and the Spurs still winning? A three-guard lineup from the Mavs, in the face of all reason and common sense? Dirk Nowitzki being assisted on only 25% of his points in a crucial Game 4?

I can’t decide whether this is one of those series that simply didn’t make sense and wasn’t indicative, or if the Spurs really have something going. I heard a term used to describe the question of this Spurs team, and it does strike fear into my heart. Sustainability. Can they sustain this? Can you really win four playoff series with Richard Jefferson, a rookie sans ACLs, and George Hill as your vital components? Sure, Duncan and Ginobili will have their nights. But after what we’ve seen from this team this season, should we just throw all of that information away? My fear is we’ll find that this bizarre formula is enough to down the Mavs who can’t seem to make any adjustments, and the Suns, because, well, it’s the Suns and I’m pretty sure there’s an immutable law of physics which says Steve Nash can’t defeat Tony Parker in a playoff series. But LA? Trust me, I know how terrible the Lakers have looked. But doesn’t anyone else see the pattern being formed here?

The Lakers struggle against a fun, free, dominant Thunder team who is drastically shifting expectations and constructs on how to build a team long-term with young talent (the Blazer-destructim Manifesto). Then get a short-handed, perennially sheep-in-wolf’s-clothing Jazz team they can mow through. And then a Spurs team that manages to outperform expectations coming into the postseason, yet disappoint based on preseason expectations. That kind of path falls right in line with my continued philosophy that the Lakers are, through no act of their own or league intervention, blessed by the basketball gods to ensure that whatever they need to occur, does.

Regardless, though we’ve seen the Spurs “turn it on” in the playoffs seemingly ever year for the last decade, this seems like something else entirely. It’s a dramatic evolution of the team into an entirely new entity. This isn’t a team that flexed its muscle when it had to in the regular season. Their big wins in the regular season looked nothing like this. Sure, Hill had some huge games and Blair’s been a beast. But the overall complexion seems like this team just hopped out of a cocoon with swords drawn. It’s like the playoff Spurs just burst from the chest of the regular season Spurs .

So Dallas will, barring a miracle the likes of which haven’t exactly gone their way in the playoffs, be eliminated yet again, sooner than anyone thought they would, yet again. San Antonio also manages to continue their long standing tradition of destroying fun through excellence, depriving us of a competitive series culminating in a Game 7. The Spurs have acquitted themselves. The question will be what they do with their newfound freedom.