A lot of hate on Josh Smith - I'll be honest, I really didnt think he played all that bad. He was exceptional at bringing the ball up the court when Prigs was being pressured by Barea, and although I really didnt like him just driving down the lane out of control, I can live with him missing 2-5 foot floaters/short jump shots because if he doesnt, his defenders going to go off and double team someone else. His stat line might not show it, but many of his misses were close shots that you'd want him to take along with contested put backs near the rim.
+1 Was Parsons always this bad at defense? I dont remember him being this poor defensively with us. I can only assume his knee injury is really hurting him because he was a liability for them out there last night.
i agree with you, but where do you see his minutes fall given pablo and terry are above him in the pecking order?
idk about this, capela can't do much outside of 3 feet from the bucket, which isnt bad given he has so much more potential there, but his ability to perform isnt necessarily being a stretch
Good points! Questions from people more knowledgeable about X & Os.. At some point, Harden's going to need to make shots. He's great at using what the defense gives him, and for the first game, passing it off to the big guys or corner 3s worked. However, we were lucky -- at least 2 of those 3s that went in were last second. Is there a way to get Harden easy shots? It feels like he's the one who always initiates the play - and 1 on 1s are hard in the playoffs because the lane collapses a lot more and so he has to pass it off. Would love to see him come off screens more -- or have Prig set up the play where Harden gets backdoors or easy threes. But the few times where Harden drove yesterday, he was smothered at the basket. I *feel* like be should be more aggressive to find his shot, but maybe that's not the gameplan and I'm not looking at the right stuff. It felt like for long stretches he was content to dump the ball to Josh Smith or pass it off right away.
He was very good his rookie year, but limited by his physical skill set i.e short arms and lack of lateral speed. In certain defensive situations he measured statistically close to Shane Battier, believe it or not. He was a great effort defensive player and his height made him a great defender for a lot of top scorers. I remember him playing great defense on a lot of amazing players like Kobe, KD and Dirk. But it all changed after that. Slowly started focusing on offense and using his energy on that side of the court. He was an slightly below average defensive player his second year, even though the perception of him being a great defender was still out there. His last year in Houston was when it all fell apart for him defensively. He still could play good defense for limited stretches but his focus was primarily on offense. It got to the point that he and Harden were taking turns losing their man on defense and giving up countless easy baskets. Harden just got more flack for it because he was our star player. It doesn't look like he has gotten back any of his defensive intensity in Dallas. The fact that Rondo has to guard the oppositions best perimeter player, is proof of that.
josh smith just has a way of making me remember that faried quote after a denver-detroit game about josh smith shooting detroit out of the game. josh did an impressive job of allowing dallas back in the game.
Play Terry at 2 and always have Dwight or Capela on floor when he plays. When there are no true 5s on floor, Rondo had his way with him.
Keep Josh under control (less TOs) Harden to be more aggressive Dwight needs to stay on court Play harder
Rondo plays really good defense on Harden. Need to free him up some more with screens or try to get a switch on picks. Mavs will definitely attack Capela even more next game. Dwight needs to stay out of foul trouble so we don't need to rely on the rook and Smith/Jones to play as much. Expect more full court pressure on Harden and then maybe some tighter zone defense to throw us off in our "sets" offensively. This is where it hurts not to have that 2nd playmaker because Harden will be exhausted from his heavy offensive load. Prigs played well IMO but he needs to hit some shots. Still seems hesitant and doesn't know when to shoot it. Terry or whoever should be leaving Rondo every time to double Dirk in the post IMO, especially if Jones is guarding him. Defensively, just attack Dirk on PnR's. Carlisle will either suffer offensively or defensively depending on what he wants to do with Dirk. His defense is so bad that he can't even be hidden anymore. Chandler always has to rotate, which leads to those easy alley-oops or finishes in the paint.
I see the hack-a whatever thing coming they just gotta make their free throws tbh also, Dwight Howard and his fouls, I feel if Dwight can stay on the floor we will kill them
Here are my thoughts. Capela played great, but I think McHale has been using too much of him as you can see him get tired and exhausted. He's too young and not used to playing that many mins against the better opponent in a playoff first game. expecting his condition to improve a little and his mins to go down a bit. Harden did well, but we are waiting for him to dominate in games. We want to see a triple double Harden, lol!!! Offense rebound, we need to grab those!!!! protecting the paint - Mavs scored too many pts in our painted area. Less fouls committed by DH. When he was in the game, we totally destroyed them, when he is out he had issue. prigs needs to shoot more, couple of times he was wide open and passed the ball instead.
When we're moving the ball well, Dirk and Monta get caught ball watching VERY OFTEN, so we attacked the basket flawlessly. That's a trending issue among Mavs fans. They want to see more Rondo time than Monta. I'd like to see TJ continue to out hustle them, but take smarter shots. He forced a bit in Game 1, but his tenacity really stood out. Everyone mentioning Nick vs Rondo should not hold their breath for too long. You might see Nick later in the series, but don't expect much.
We won easily with Harden not shooting well, Howard barely playing, and Smith playing like crap. We'll be fine.
TJones, plays smaller than his height, he double cluthes and brings the ball down to shoulder level. We need him to play bigger and stronger on the blocks.
