NO ONE stops Dirk "easily", Miami would risk James getting into foul trouble trying to guard the German. Also, James would be using A LOT of energy trying to stop Dirk which could effect him later on in the game/series. Why wouldn't they be worried about their PGuards? Lakers don't seem to be and look at them. Wade on Terry is a mismatch but once again, do you want Wade running around trying to use up his energy and fouls on Terry? I have ZERO confidence in Bosh being a difference maker, not saying he is useless but Bosh taking shots away from James and Wade means advantage Dallas.
In the playoffs Depth and a Bench is overrated, since starters play 40 mins a game, and a 2, 3 day break. You can get by with a bad bench, but cannot get by without stars in your team. The Mav's problem against the Heat will be Wade, as they don't have anyone to guard him, and Dwight has Haslem to deal with, and we no what happened last time in that battle.
tmac stopped dirk in 04-05. guys with length and size and quickness can slow dirk down considerably. james is better than tmac defensively. he's 26. he shut down KD and still put up his stats offensively. this guy is a superstar and a 2-way player. this is not pau or odom on dirk now. i forsee james basically shutting down dirk and making him invisible like we did in 04-05. wade is running around guarding ray allen and it's not slowing him down. in the playoffs. you have AT LEAST a day rest between every game. so they'll get their rest. there are no b2bs. barea went off tonight b/c of dirk. the heat will not double team dirk with james on him. bosh will force chandler to come out b/c bosh can shoot. he's not going to post up anybody in the mavs. that's already an advantage by taking chandler away from the basket. and if marion is on him, well, marion isn't KG or chandler. the only way for the mavs to have a chance is for caron butler to come back healthy. that might take james away from dirk for stretches and allow dirk to dominate.
OKC can give them resistance though b/c of their interior defense. but the heat are no longer an iso team 80% of the time like they were in the reg season so basically, if the heat don't win ti this year, they're simply chokers.
Though I don't think it'll be Miami Dallas in the finals... Putting the Texas rivalry aside I would be going all out for Dallas. Dirk has been loyal to his team, never sold out to go somewhere else and Cuban does everything to try and win.... I'll take that team every day over the Heatless crybabys. But I think it'll be the winner between Memph OKC over Dallas ha.
This Dirk is different, this guy is playing at a different level. Haslem is coming off an injury...REALLY think he will stop him??? Just disagree on this one, Boston is struggling because they traded their advantage away at the deadline otherwise Miami would be getting exposed already.
haslem is not going to play much even if he comes back. i'm talking about lebron james guarding dirk. i don't think dirk will tire james out much b/c dirk is more of an iso player. he would get more tired guarding guys like KD who runs around the entire court. the reason the lakers struggle to guard dirk right now is b/c their big men are too slow and odom is not strong enough (dirk outweighs him by 20-30lbs). lebron will physically match up to dirk, and he has the quickness to basically make dirk into a perimeter player. that is the recipe to slowing a guy like dirk down. it's rare b/c you don't have a lebron or a tmac in his prime who can physically match up to dirk. exposed what? boston beat the heat 3 times WITHOUT perkins earlier in the season. i don't think perkins would make a difference. if you see perkins play right now, he's not the same guy. heat would win this series in 5 or 6 if they face dallas. the mavs simply have no one to match up to wade or lebron. kidd on wade and marion on lebron would be completely ugly. and you're also completely underestimating this heat's defense.
if mavs win this series, they're going to the finals after taking care of okc. durant n westbrook are good but dallas is too deep in the rotation and they have homecourt.
I don't think Perkins would of got Celtics a win btw, you are really not giving enough credit to how well the Heat are playing. Btw, here is QA from the main Miami Reporters about Haslem, gives you a view that the Heat are taking. Q: Just wondering (and jumping ahead), but will Udonis be back in rhythm in time to cover Dirk again? That would be fun. -- Jason. A: Isn't that the entire goal? It is why they are saving their Nowitzki-stopper for the Finals.
the lakers can still win the series if they win game 3 b/c they still have a game 7 at home if it gets there. but kobe is declining, and pau simply is overmatched by chandler. their 2 best players won't be able to dominate 4 of the next 5 games for them top win. the celtics wont' win b/c they simply cannot score on miami. point blank. it's not the celtics' D that's a problem, but they lack the dribble penetration to create vs miami. if miami beats boston, they're going to easily beat the bulls/hawks. if the mavs beat the lakers, they will be favored vs okc/memphis. but you're right, rocket fans should know something about being up 2-0 and lose. that happened twice to us.
I don't get why most posters have written off the Lakers? The series is far from over because: (1) This is Dallas we talkin about. The biggest chokers in the last 10 years. (2) They still didn't slow kobe down (3) Gasol will explode sooner or later (4) and most importantly for the second straight game, lakers outrebounded the mavs. This series will go down to game 7 and lakers won with 20 free throw attempt in the 4th quarter. Book it.
If Dallas wins then size Miami up for their rings. Miami still can't stop quick attacking guards. The only reason Kobe isn't dropping 40+ is because he can't just blow by dudes anymore. Wade still can. They couldn't contain Roy, so how will they keep Wade out the paint? That's not even taking LeBron into consideration. Miami arguably has the best defense in basketball. Dirk is gonna have to go off for them to beat Miami, and I don't trust him to do it against LeBron. The LeBron type dudes are the guys Dirk typically struggles against.
the heat are a scary team for anybody, but I honestly believe that the celtics are just too old to lock them down on defense. I think both atlanta and chicago won't have the problem. Not saying that Miami still won't make the finals or even win it all, but boston series, I don't believe, is them dominating more than it is boston getting too old to compete.
Gotta see it to believe it !!! The same Mavs team that lost to a player ????.....The same Mavs team that relies on Dirk NOwitzki???....The same Mavs team that guaranteed they would catch the Spurs in the regular season????..............Yeah they can do it!!!!
