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I don’t refer to games that we can lose and not be eliminated as must-wins. It is a pet peeve of mine. What is the point of the phrase if you don’t actually have to win? Everyone understands that every playoff game is of the utmost importance. Hyperbole really isn’t necessary. And even when we are playing in an actual must-win game (such as tonight) the reality of the situation is so obvious the phrases hardly merits usage. Moving on…

• Whether I like it or not, this team is desperately reliant on its outside shooting. I’ve complained all season long that being overly dependent on the long ball is a recipe for offensive inconsistency and, guess what, our offense has been woefully inconsistent this series. But it is too late to change now. We have a gaggle of supposed gunners. One of them needs to step up and make some 3-pointers.

• But seriously: Someone has to make a damn shot.

• Even if our shots are dropping, a win isn’t assured. Our best performance from 3-point range came in Game One. Even if our offense is firing on all cylinders, we will not be able to straight up outgun the Mavericks. Defense has always been the foundation of our postseason success. We have to get some stops.

• Luckily, it seems Popovich has come to understand this. He inserted Bowen into the starting rotation and played George Hill for the entirety of the fourth quarter in Game 4. Yes, in both instances we are sacrificing offense for defense but how many of these “offensive” players have consistently produced over the course of the series. If the choice is between a slow, grinding game and a shoot out, our hopes lie in the former.

• If worse comes to worst, we’ll sign Robert Horry at half time, have him hip-check Jason Terry directly into the Mavs bench, get the entire team suspended and win the series on a technicality.

I’ll be back later this evening with a recap. Feel free to leave your thoughts both during and after the game in the comments section. Go Spurs.