Howard.....

I didn't see DH in pain like some of you, but his play after the first quarter was reminiscent of his play right before he missed that long stretch due to injury. Very worrisome.

 

I said it in the game thread, I believe all those missed free throws bugged him, he gets down on himself too easily.

DD

 

That was my thinking too. The problem we had in that last game was that not one rocket showed up, this shifted the burden more heavily on Dwight, and in turn he folded under the pressure. Harden was no spring chicken either. Oh well, game 5 it is I guess.

 

Dwight had a pretty impressive block in the 2nd quarter on I think Devin Harris. He looked just fine to me physically. Once he started bricking all those free throws and the team went away from him on offense, he seemed to mentally check out. Plus it didn't help matters that the rest of the players gave guys like Barea and Ellis a wide open lane to the basket which led to wide open 3's, layups, and putback slams for Chandler.

Let's just say the loss was a total team effort, just not in a good way.

 

There's a lot of blame to go around. However, it all starts and ends with Harden and Howard. Those two guys sort of left the game after the first. When Terry and Trevor couldn't hit a shot that puts extra pressure on Harden because then they wont honor that kick out pass. This is the kind of game where you burn the tape and move on.

 

My thoughts exactly.

Seeing 9/10 FT's rim out would bother most. Tyson is making it hard on him to get in any rhythm. The more aggressive he was defensively the more offensive rebounds they got.

Carlisle made good adjustments and the Mavs didnt roll over. Some of them are trying to keep their job.

I thought Dwight did a decent job on D in the second half he blocked Harris and Ellis at least once each, I think they called a foul on someone else when he got the Ellis block. But absolutely no one else was playing defense.

JJ made 2-3 high rainbow shots over Dwight when he went for blocks on him, Dwight hesitated knowing JJ wanted to suck him in and give Chandler the dunk. JJ wont get that lucky next game.

 

I like this explanation much more and I'm looking forward to DH and the whole team bouncing back in game five. Walking out of Dallas with a split is far from the end of the world.

Let's finish this in five and move on. I think Dallas may have peaked emotionally this past game, so it's up to the Rockets to come out and handle business tomorrow night.

 

I think after Dwight missed the fourth free throw he fell back into old bad habits, eg flexing his shoulders before each shot and trying to flick the ball with his wrists.

 

Dude needs to toughen up mentally

That's about it.

 

I do recall that moment it was after a Monta drive and I was worried they banged knees... He seemed okay after though we as a team just went into full tank mode

 

I think him missing all of his FT's took his mind out of the game, on top of that, Howard can't guard everybody. When Barea and Harris are driving right into the lane without any contest Howard has to come over to challenge, and when he did they just dished it to Chandler, or took a floater that led to Tyson or somebody getting a offensive board.

The switching also killed us, I understand the need to switch but do it wisely, in cases like Terry or Prigioni ending up on Dirk, or Howard on Barea, just go around the pick and stick to your man. The chances of them getting a bucket off the mismatch seem greater then the chance of them scoring off the pick.