Besides the Beard, who will be our X-Factor or most important player vs. the Mavs? I could make a case for any 1 of Ariza, Dwight, Smoove, Tjones, or Brewer and right now I'm leaning towards Ariza.
I think it just depends on whether Ariza's shot is falling. The offense looks amazing when his 3s are going in, and looks terrible when they're not.
The answer has to be Dwight. We need him to outplay Chandler in this series. That shouldn't be too much to ask from him, even with him being less than 100%. He's clearly our 2nd best player. He needs to protect the paint against Monta and the Mavs, and he also needs to do his part on offense whether it's PnR or post-ups. Ariza is the only guy I'd even consider as more important than Dwight on this list. He is such an important part of this team's identity. We desperately need his wing defense against Monta/Parsons. The x-factor to the entire playoff run is probably going to be Ariza's 3pt shot. If he shoots 40% from 3 over a 7 game series, this team can beat anyone. If he shoots 20% from 3 over a 7 game series, this team could lose round 1. He needs to bring it on both ends, but he's a Champion so I feel good about him. Brewer/Smoove/TJones is a tough trio to choose from. I would rank Brewer as the most important from the 3 though. We desperately need quality bench backcourt play. Brewer is going to be our key bench scorer and we need him to create havoc in the open court and hit his outside shots. His energy has been a huge reason why we got the #2seed, he needs to maintain it and play well in the playoffs. Smoove vs. Tjones is tough. I'd probably say Smoove is a little bit more important because he's more versatile than Jones. He's also the veteran whereas Jones is still a little green. Smith's 3pt shooting is another major x-factor for this team, we need him to be respectable from there and do well in other facets of the game. He also needs to his his FTs. Jones is right there in terms of importance. He's a better scorer than Smith and if our stars are struggling to score, we could really use a 20pt performance from Jones that we know he's capable of. But Jones should focus on Defense and Rebounding in this series, he needs to make plays on D for us to win. Can't wait for this series.
The X-factor is Parsons. If his knee is better--he plays; if it is not--he doesn't play. Dallas is night and day with and without Parsons. His passing, movement without the ball, 3 point shooting, runs the court, ability to space the floor, etc. is crucial to Dallas's ability to compete.
Voted for Brewer. His energy off the bench and transition offense is going to be big for us. If he's getting easy transition layups/dunks then we're mostly likely rolling as a team.
I thought the poll was about an x-factor, and not the most important player besides Harden. Obviously Dwight is the 2nd most important player. I chose Brewer on the poll as the main x-factor.
As a Mavs fan, I fear Terry more than anyone else on the list. I have a feeling he'll show up in games 3 and 4.
Jason Terry will be the X-factor. First of all, he has the championship experience and most importantly, he is coming from the other side. If he can play at least in a decent level and being a solid contributor, it will not only help the Rockets, but will be a huge blow to the Mavs mentally when they will be playing behind. You don't need Terry to be playing out of his mind, but he needs to be a solid contributor on both ends.
Dwight is not an X-Factor, he is one of the factors. The X-Factor is actually, I think, don't force it too much.
Dwight Howard of course. We don't even know if he is able to play full minutes or not. We haven't seen much of him yet, Howard and Harden only played few minutes togheter, so we have to wait and see.
QFT - Brewer brings energy and intensity whenever we hit dry spells. He was a major reason we were able to win in Dallas a few weeks ago. Mavs have no one to counter his speed and aggression
Well said... X-Factor has to be someone they don't expect to come out and play well against them and make a big difference. I think that player is TJones
Definitely Dwight. If he plays like he did against Portland last season, the Mavs are toast. 2nd to Dwight would be Smith and Brewer. We need them to play well so we don't let the Mavs go on a run when Harden rests.
