The Padget experiment [starting lineup] has not worked as desired. The key purpose for starting him [scoring punch from long range in order to stretch the Mavs D] has been counter productive thus far. In the 3 games Bowen started, we did not really lack scoring punch. He brought an uncanny fervor and energy to our team (something that has been missing in the last two games especially early). He took on the primary role of taking on Dirk sparing tmac from burning out very early defending Dirk. Having tmac guard Dirk from the first quarter has also affected our pick-n-role defense. Bowen is a savvy veteran. A facilitator on defense as well as offense but it is so intangible that it gets unnoticed and often unaccounted for in the box score. He needs to get back to his original role and allow mac to do his thing on offense with enough energy to spare. Bowen is a pest that JVG must unleash from the start in order to continue plaguing Dirk and the Mavs. This will be a win-win for us since it will also mean that when Padget comes in with the second unit we will have his scoring punch as well as Mike's to help while either mac or Yao is on the bench. If Dirk continues to sag off Bowen, it is up Bowen to dive towards the bucket or at least go into motion to force Dirk into 3-second defensive violations. After saying all of that, I have a strong hunch that JVG will re-insert Bowen into the starting line-up come Thursday night - if for nothing else, to spare tmac for later in the game from fatigue and early foul trouble. I believe!
On the contrary, I think it was pretty easy for the Mavs to figure out how to guard the Rockets offense when Bowen was in the game... thus, JVG made the adjustment after game 3. Any time you see a team this many times, you're going to figure out a lot of their strengths and weaknesses, and how to defend all of them. Maybe you want him in there because of a "superstition", being that we didn't win the 2 games w/ Padgett starting... but that would be about it. Our defense of Dirk is still good, and in the end, its simply 4th quarter execution that's the difference between winning and losing... not the benching of Ryan Bowen. If you don't believe me, just watch the next game when Bowen comes in... its the only time that Dirk is actually "effective" on defense, because he knows he doesn't have to guard him.
i co-sign. ryan bowen completely shut down nowitski in the first two games.i never understood why padgett won the starting job over bowen. why try to fix something that was never broke in the first place? padget has absolutlely done nothing since he started. at least he hit some key three pointers coming off the bench.
Dirk scored only 16 points in game 4... and we lost. Shutting down Dirk is not the key to victory. Avoiding scoreless droughts of 8 minutes is.
Bowen started looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights - I think the pressure and attention got to him. Plus with him in the game, the Mavs don't even bother to defend him and he can't shoot well enough to make them pay for leaving him open.
I'd start him again as well. I also don't think stopping Dirk is the key, but it certainly helps. What's more, Bowen seemed to get to a number of loose balls that saved possessions or gave us offensive rebounds. That said, put Padgett in as well. Bowen only played 4 minutes last game for some reason. Everyone is getting tired from such close, hard fought games. No need to shorten your bench that much. They just need to figure out offensively how to deal with it, primarily Bowen going to the hole, or hitting open jumpers at the free throw line, which I think he can do.
Exactly... Guys... before the 4th quarter of game 5, our offense had NOT looked smooth AT ALL at any point since game 2. Sure, we hit a ton of 3's in game 3 that gave us our 11 point lead, but that wasn't the way we were beating the Mavs in either game 1 or 2. Also, if you rely only on outside shots to win... you're doomed. We finally figured out how to score consistently in game 5 by doing nothing but a Yao and Tracy pick and roll. That's it. A lot of the reason why Bowen was so effective the first 2 games was that the Mavs had no idea he would be playing (thus, had no game-plan against the Rockets offense with him in the lineup), and Dirk didn't know how to attack him. AJ used the two days off to finally get his team to play the sort of defense it would take to win... and that included treating Bowen like he wasn't even there when he was on offense, and going at him hard on defense (forcing him to foul). They made an adjustment... and JVG countered after game 3. We have enough out there to win.... its just a matter of putting it together for an entire game.
Ryan started game 3 and we still had a great game. We hardly trailed save for the first quarter and post the 20-0 run. We had an 88-80 lead in that game and had the refs not taken away Yao bucket plus 1, we could have gone 11 points. My point is that we have done well in all the games Bowen started. He was hampered by his early foul trouble forcing Mac to take on the role of defending Dirk early. This contirbuted to tiring out Mac expectially late in the 4th quarter when we needed his scoring and energy. --------- Nick, starting Bowen for me is not strictly about the loses per se rather in large part a move that I hope will preserve Tracy from tiredness and foul trouble while adding some scrapiness & some Bowen-passion back into the game especially early. Also our pick-n-roll defense has suffered with Tracy guarding Dirk early. I believe JVG and Thibodeau will see this in the game tape and make necessary adjustment which I believe will include starting Bowen.
If they're afraid of starting Bowen because of his lack of offense, why not go with a lineup of Yao/Mcgrady/Barry/Wesley/Sura. Mcgrady has been guarding Dirk anyway, so it's not like Padgett is being used as a power forward. That lineup would force Dirk to guard Mcgrady, which would be disastrous for them. Or a lineup of Yao/Mcgrady/Weatherspoon/Wesley/Sura might even work. Maybe Spoon could prevent all the offensive rebounds the Mavs have been getting. Padgett has just been really unimpressive to me so far.
You must have been watching a different game than I did.... we fell behind by double digits in the 1st quarter of game 3, and had to go on a decent run to make it close by halftime (we trailed by 5 going into the half). Also, Bowen had nothing to do with us getting our second-half lead. In fact, Padgett was one of the guys who it all those 3's in the 3rd quarter. In the end, I guess I just like the offensive options Tracy has on the pick and roll with Yao (which will be our primary play for the rest of the series) when Bowen is not in there. I understand the argument that Tracy might be getting worn out playing defense on Dirk... and it could be a valid one. But, I also think that we expend too much energy on offense sometimes, and thus that also gets us tired for defense. In the end... it shouldn't be that hard to score over 100 on this Mavs team. We haven't looked "smooth" yet at home, and I'm hoping they just copy the game plan from the 4th quarter on Monday, and use that the entire night.
I don't mean to sound like a Padgett fan or anything (because I'm not). At this point, however, we really have no other options. The small lineup of Wesley, Barry, Sura/James and T-mac at the 4 is actually what we've been doing in the 4th quarter of most of these games... and its what got us our 11 point lead in game 3. But, it really bit us hard in game 5 because these guys just can't rebound.
The problem with Dallas is that they still have enough offensive power even if you shut down dirk. Dirk has been a w*ssy the whole series and it did not prevent guys like Terry, Stackhouse, Finley to stand out and make big clutch shots. The best thing I see from the series is the play from Yao/TMac combo. Yao was shooting 40% against Dampier and Co. in the regular season, now he averages more points while shooting 74% against the same team that he had big trouble dealing with in the regular season. That really bodes well for us in the future.
This sounds like an option to me, except theoretically it puts Yao in even further foul trouble and keeps the Mavericks heavily on the boards. On the other hand, neither Bowen nor Padgett play large, so probably can't get too much worse in those areas. Option 4 (1 = Padgett, 2 = Bowen, 3 = Barry) would be to start Deke too. Probably idiotic, but I've been impressed with Deke's defense of Howard. Deke has just enough of an improvement in lateral quickness over Yao that Howard has been forced to shoot jumpers. It keeps Yao out of foul trouble, and improves interior rebounding. Alternatively, what do you do on offense, and will the Mavs be able to find more 3 point shooters as Howard attempts to drive to the lane?
Ah, New Jack: If we go with the first lineup, we put 3 guys on the floor (Sura, Barry, James) who have been inconsistent as hell on offense for the past 3 games (witness their fluctuating point totals in the last 3 games). Thus far, they have shown that when crunch time comes, they have been unable to generate much offense to carry us thorough (example: one 3 point FG in game 5). Plus, they are simply no match defensively for the younger and faster Mavericks players. If we go with your second lineup, then all Dallas will do is isolate Dirk on the slower and shorter Witherspoon and shoot over him. Or they'll create a mismatch with Howard or Stackhouse - neither of whom he can defend. Either way, it won't be a pretty thing to watch.
Padgett seems to get lazy, in my opinion, gets tired on defense. I'd only use him for spot up shooting.
They've been inconsistent, but I still consider them bigger offensive threats than Padgett. Mcgrady would still guard Dirk. Spoon on Howard would be a mismatch, but not significantly worse than Padgett on Howard. We've been able to get away with Yao guarding Howard for stretches. We can get away with Spoon guarding him for stretches.
Isn't it ironic that possibly the biggest blunder by JVG in the playoffs so far has been not including Braggs on the playoff roster? Imagine if a guy as strong and mobile as Braggs was on the playoff roster instead of Moochie or whoever else is on it. Braggs could have also helped us major time in the rebounding department. You could have then switched Braggs and Bowen (with all their 12 fouls) on Dirk when he is in, and when Dirk comes out you put Padgett in. You can even put Braggs at the 5 spot whenever Dallas goes small to create mismatches. I was REALLY ticked off when JVG didn't include Braggs on the playoff roster before the series even started. Now 5 games into the series, I am absolutely convinced that Braggs would have been a MAJOR help in this series against the Mavs. Yah well, too bad I guess.
This absolutely supports my point. Wearing Tmac down by assigning him early to Dirk will more than likely result in more scoring droughts in the future. Starting Padget on him is not an option either. Talking about going down by double digits in game 3, I am not sure if you paid closer attention, you will notice that Ryan went down early with foul trouble thanks to those ticky-tack calls. That contibuted in large part to our first quarter demise. In summary, using Mac to shut down Dirk early has not really help - rather it may have hurt us but it was a gamble the coaches deemed fit at that time but I duely expect a change in philosophy back to what we saw in games 1, 2 and 3.
