Back when Nash was with Dallas one of the things I hated about playing the Mavs was that he was able to drive and pass to players for open 3, after open 3, after open 3. The Mavs back then do not have a strong post offense, nor do they today. They always scared me with their passing and assist and still do. Ball movement was key to their half court offense -- lets put aside their fast-break for the moment. Instead of Nash, it's Terry. He's not as crafty. But he's fast enough to drive and kick. One of the things that I always wanted the Rockets to do was guard the 3 when playing the Mavs. Even if it meant to trade 2 pointers for most of the game. It just seemed to work out better at the end when Dallas was NOT hitting their 3s (those heart breaking 3s). If we guarded their 3pt shooters that would mean that we'd have more one-on-one defending in the paint. But I always felt that was a better risk rather than giving them wide open 3s when we doubled down on Dirk/Fin/Howard/Daniels. Personally, I don't care if Stack, Fin or Dirk or whomever score 2 point shots/dunks (Block party! That's what Yao/Deke are for). I just don't want them shooting open 3s (Terry). I just believe that guarding one-on-one 2 point post plays is better than doubling on the 2pt post plays and risk them passing the ball out for an OPEN 3. The 1st game we defended the 3 very good -- and last nights 4th quarter we did too. We guarded the 3pt shot for most of the game but allowed the post fade-away shot for 2 points. The Mavs seem to struggle when they are forced to play a one-on-one style game. They are best when we double and they are passing the ball around. Don't do this! Assist are key to their offense. Limit that! Just look at the middle games were the Mavs shot great from 3! Those games we struggled. Then compare those games to the 1st and 6th games were we defended the 3. We did better. It's true that the Mavs have more ISO players than we do. But, AT LEAST make them work the ISO, at the expense of assist. At MOST, do NOT give up OPEN 3 pointers! That's the last thing we should do. Because even our players can't get OPEN 3s as much as they can. So, trade 2s. We can win a game of 2 pt baskets. We struggle when we try to get into a 3pt shooting contest -- by shooting 2s because the Mavs have locked down our our 3pt shooters . Also Player for player, the Mavs can ISO the 3pt shot better than we can; i.e. chucking 3 point shots. Even then....Let them chuck. It's better than doubling down and letting them get wide open 3s. The other thing I noticed was that we seem to rebound better when we are guarding the 3pt shot because there are LESS LONG REBOUNDS (we suck a getting those). We clog the lane which puts us in a better position for SHORT rebounds off of missed 2pt shots. But if we leave open 3 pointers...Yikes! Messing with death! It's like a double wammy. Open 3s and we're bad at long rebounds! For our losses, our offense wasn't really a problem throughout this series. It was that our defense was so bad on guarding the 3pt shot we ended up playing catch-up too much. And that come from behind situations made us rush. We'd struggle to score 2 or 4 points. And they'd just come down and hit two 3s in a row. Guard the 3. Please.... What about our ISO plays? Take your pick? Dirk on the post? Or TMac? Finley/Howard on the post? Or Yao? Advantage Rockets. I'll take those ISO chances. If they double, the Mavs will mess with death (Barry, Westley, Padget and James hitting open 3s). The first two game, the Mavs doubled on Tmac. The next three, they played more man on man; they didn't leave our 3pt shooters unguarded. I know that the Mavs know about their weakness. That's why they try to live at the FT line. They know Dirk is not as good at the ISO as Tmac is. So, they ask Dirk/Stack to drive to the basket in order to draw a fouls. It's better for them to risk that missed call than to shoot fade-away shots all game. I remember a few games ago we gave up three 3pt shots in a row becasue we doubled down. Why? Because we were afraid to give up 6 points on 2s? Well, we found ourselves down by 9 instead. I don't like that risk. Not with the Mavs. Maybe it would work against the Spurs/Heat. But not the Mavs.
its just the philosophy of JVG. he does not like to give up points in the paint because they are on average the higher % field goals. while i think the rockets should double down low when needed as long as its not jason terry's man. but there are times where i agree that they do it too much. in game 6 clock was running down dampier puts it on the floor coming across the lane wesley drops down and dampier kicks it out to for a 3. its about recognizing who is doing what really. give dampier that shot but if its stackhouse or dirk make them pass
