We just destroyed Dirk last night on the PnR. Every single time we did a high PnR with either the big rolling to the rim, or Harden rolling to the rim it usually ended up with an alley oop. Dirk for all his talent on offense, is going to be a huge weakness for them on defense. They can't try to ICE on the PnR because it will give up an open shot to Harden, they can't try to trap because Harden has beat them on that. What is their tactic vs that? Or do they have a viable option to stop it? Because Harden couldn't really go off because they forced so much attention on him, but gave up easy alley oops and passes to open shooters.
They are going to have to make a change at SF, especially if Parsons is that gimpy. They can assign Dirk to Ariza since he's more stationary and not a threat to really beat anybody off the dribble. They can have Jefferson (6'7) or Charlie V (6'11) guard PF on the PnR. Dirk and those guys are pretty interchangeable on the offensive/defensive end. Furthermore, they also were pretty effective when they ran zone.
I don't know that they can do much about it on the defensive side. Offensively they could go small and put Dirk at center, force Dwight to chase him around.
I really hope someone breaks down the Mavs defensive issues last night. Guess who the worst rotational defender was last night for the Mavs. Chandler Parsons.....His responsibility as a defender was to step in on those PNR in front of the rim.
Rondo, Chandler, and Aminu are there only plus defenders. Not sure what the can do other than playing those three more minutes, but Chandler and Rondo are minuses on offense so there would be a trade-off. Villueneva isn't an answer, he's worse than Dirk on defense which is saying something. Jefferson also isn't "good." Their best bet may be to guard straight up, let Harden get his and try to shut everyone else down. Worked in the 2nd quarter, especially when Dwight went out.
The only way Dirk/Dallas doesn't get abused is if Howard fouls out by the 3rd period for the rest of the remaining games and Rondo,Dirk,Amare or Parsons "goes off" all the games. I don't see Ellis going off if Ariza is guarding him but the bottom line is that Dallas needs at least 3 maybe 4 players to get Hot along with Dwight fouling out by the 3rd period to make these games close to begin with. Look at last night with Dwight only playing 17 minutes and Dirk had nothing for it
Dirk's defensive woes have been masked in the past by a decent rotation of defensive players, but they don't have that as much this year, and he's getting exposed more on the defensive end. Doesn't stop him from yelling at his teammates about their defensive breakdowns though.
They trapped a lot of the PnRs, moving away from that strategy would allow Harden more space to operate and drive. He wouldn't be able to pass it as much driving, but he'd have one defender on him until he got to the basket, and he would just kill them playing Harden ball of driving and layups/fouls and freethrows. The only way they can hope to stop us is to create foul trouble(which conversely didn't really help them this game). Dallas has some problems to fix, we just gotta tighten up our game a smidge
This. Perimeter defense of Marion + Kid plus interior defense of Tyson Chandler was not appreciated enough. Once that was lost, Mavs went back to their no-defense ways of old days. Dirk is a huge liability of defense. Always has been. This is not new news. Those three players masked this weakness of his temporarily while they were all there.
their theory was the rockets rely too heavily on on one guy. they focused on slowing that one guy and it resulted in all of the role players having good games due to harden's willingness to pass out of the PnR when they trapped him. the next game i think they go the opposite route, and try to make james beat them by himself by covering all of the role players. they could have the big guy hedge and the guard go under and recover on the PnR forcing james to shoot over the top while the rest of the defense stays home on the shooters.
The only thing they can do is hide him in the corner guarding Ariza, Terry, or Brewer. Smith and Jones can take him off the dribble as well into the paint and have the skills to throw the alley-oop to Howard or Capela.
Good because Houston destroyed their zone, because no matter what the Mavericks have horrible one on one defenders all over the court. The only good one on one defender they have on the wing is Aminu, but he's a negative on the offensive end.
they may find a way to slow our PnR, but they will also have to deal with dwight playing an extra 10-15 minutes.
