ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 4/23/2005 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 1)

did anyone else see mike james get tough only to spit out his gum, knock it back in his mouth, and then spit it back out again? that was a great highlight

 

mav fans

 

Does that Mavs site still have that annoying little kid writing for them?

 

Player evaluations:

Yao: Yao should know by now that he is called for everything, but that didn't seem to stop him from a few mental lapses. He had several ticky-tack fouls called on him, but then at one point he unexplainably sprinted 15 feet across court to foul Dampier on a point-blank slam. The good news is that his per-minute stats probably look pretty good, and we always have Dikembe who can come in and play solid defense on any center in the league and shut down the lane. At this point it looks like Yao could win us a game or two in the series if he has a good game, but he won't likely won't lose us any.... dare I say.... Yao still has A LOT of learning to do. Let's hope he responds better to the pressures of the playoffs in the remainder of the series because we could use him.

Mutombo: Solid. He did exactly what he has been doing for us for the last month. If Yao changed his strategy a little, he could easily replicate the per minute production of the ultra-competant role player Dikembe has become.

Bowen: Great defense to pester Nowitski into a bad game. The combination of Bowen's energy and Nowitski's lack of cojones produced an admirable lack-of-severe-disadvantage that was predicted for the Rockets at this position. I don't expect Nowitski to play this poorly in any more games due to the extreme humiliation he must be feeling right now.... so lets cross our fingers that Bowen can continue to slow him down for stretches and give the Rocket's D a fighting chance. If Nowitski's offense wakes up, I expect to see more rotation at PF with Padgett and Weatherspoon trying to slow him down, or maybe contribute in other areas.... because lets face it.... if Bowen isn't defending, he doesn't need to be out on the court.

McGrady: No need to say anything. He played an amazing game, and there is no reason he shouldn't continue to play well because like the rest of the league, Dallas has no one who can come close to guarding McGrady when he is playing well. There were only a few possessions during the game where Dallas forced McGrady into bad decisions with double teams. Only injury can stop him.

Barry: Nice clutch shooting in the forth. That is why CD made him a Rocket.

Wesley: Silent... silent killer that is. Singlehandedly made Finley's existence meaningless today. Dallas could have played me at the 2-guard today with no real difference in production.

Sura: 1 assist compared to his 5.6 average. Not sure why his stat line was sub-par. No serious contribution from him today.

James: Produced the kind of role player game that wins championships.... reminiscent of Sam Cassell with his crazy offense that must drive opposing coaches insane. He ran the offense competantly, and then when Dallas was trying to tighten the clamps towards the end, pulled up for a few buzzer beating, off balance, shouldn't-go-in shots. What a relief. Every team in the league needs a guy like James to come in and put a roman candle in the collective **s of the team when they most need it. Basically, a guy like Mike James shouldn't be able to do what he does, but somehow he pulls it off when he's hot.

 

WIll the Rockets come back to Houston or stay in Dallas between games?

 

I TOLD you guys that the Mavericks were ripe for the taking! I am listening to the Mavs postgame show and they literally don't know what hit them. Case in point: Rockets have no one who can play with Dirk. Dirk will literally ABUSE Witherspoon, Bowen & Padgett. So what does JVG do? He starts Bowen and has him play Dirk straight up with help from TMac. They double Dirk to make him give up the ball and most importantly, do not let him get into an offensive rhythm. Dirk admitted in his press conference after the game that while he expected the double teaming, JVG had them coming from places he was not prepared for and as a result he became too tenative.

Having watched the Mavericks all season, I could tell that they had become wrapped up in their own success and that while they said all the right things about respecting Houston and such, deep down they literally believed themselves to be the superior team. They got caught reading their press clippings. Typical of the atmosphere up here was Kevin Blackistone's column in the Morning News:

"We knew these Mavericks wouldn't have Shaq and Kobe to worry about. But who figured they wouldn't have their nemeses in Sacramento to worry about, either? Chris Webber and Mavericks' strangler Doug Christie are no longer a part of the Kings.

Instead, the Mavericks have the Rockets, with whom they tip-off the NBA's second season today at American Airlines Center.

Yes, the Mavericks and Rockets split their four regular-season contests. But let's be honest: The Mavericks shouldn't need to exhaust their home-court advantage to defuse the Rockets.

The Rockets have Tracy McGrady, who on any day can be the best player in the game, and Yao Ming. But Nowitzki can match McGrady and exceed him, too. And Yao is not to be confused with Shaq.

Beyond those two, the Rockets are made up of role players and journeymen, none of whom match the rest of the Mavericks' roster. I'll take the Mavericks in five.

After the Rockets are the Suns, who won the West looking very much like the Mavericks looked in years past � all offense and no defense. Remember how far that got the Mavericks?

The Supersonics are a fantastic shooting team with little inside presence. And defending the jump shot, especially the 3, has been a Mavericks' strong suit all season.

These Mavericks are better than all of those pretenders. And all of those pretenders are better than their first-round opponents.

The only team these Mavericks should be worried about are the Spurs, and that is only if Tim Duncan is healthy enough to play at the level of efficiency and dominance to which we've all become accustomed and awed."

What was encouraging to me was that despite Yao's horrible game, the Rockets were able put the clamps on the Mavs and get the win. This defensive effort today reminded me of that Denver game a week ago when they took Denver's best punch and then took Denver out. Not too shabby for a bunch of "role-players and journeymen pretenders".

 

To me Dallas had a couple of things working well in game 1

1) Kept Yao at bay
2) Stack on Wes worked well for them

I expect them to continue to attack Yao in game 2. Don Neslson was at the game, so he must have say where Dirk should get catches for game 2. To me if Dirk catches in rythm without putting it down, he is deadly. Jason Terry hasnt recognized it yet. Let's keep our finger cross that Avery will never figure it out till the series is over.

 

Listening to the Mavs timeout huddle broadcast on ESPN and then the postgame conference, Avery Johnson sounds VERY insecure and unsure of himself. It will be interesting to see if he continues with refusing to play Nitwitzki at the 5 spot and with keeping Daniels out of the game. He has already gone to the media with an "absolutely not" declaration on Nitwitzki playing the 5. Will he eat crow for the better of his team, or instead stick by his words?

Frankly, listening to him in that huddle which came sometime during the 1st quarter if I recall, I gained an ocean of confidence for our team. I mean I still believe that we are at a talent disadvantage in this series. But Avery Johnson is just out of his league v. JVG.

One snippet that I do remember verbatim from said timeout huddle......he was yelling at the top of his lungs, "This is not the time to panic!!!! This is not the time to panic!!! We're gonna get it together!!! Uh....We're a fourth quarter team!!! We're a fourth quarter team!! We don't panic!!"

And to think that Cuban signed this guy to a 4 year deal

 

Great game. Man, they really had me YELLING as loud as I could in the 2nd quarter.

Can't wait till Monday.

Amazing how the rest of the team picked up the slack when Yao couldn't stay in the game. No more duck for him.

TMAC, wow. He was insane!

 

like C said before, we GOT to keep Dikembe...Yao's progress is a bit slow. But what a freaking win!

 

Note to all the media who doubted us: Kiss My Ass!


Believe again!!!! Go Rocs!!!!!!!

 

When Yao is having a poor game like today, I wonder if he should just try to do less. Basically, Dikembe comes in there with two things on his mind.

1) Grab every rebound.
2) Block every shot.

If JVG parked Yao under the basket like he does Dikembe, I wonder if that could get him going.

 

Mavs can't stop Yao.
Mavs can't stop TMac.
Mavs can't stop James.

We can stop their players with our defense.



I'm still not sure yet..but today we obviously were the better team..we owned..but I don't know yet. Can't wait til next game.

 

It's easier said than done. As great as Shaq is, he has been in foul trouble a lot. The strategy of any opposit team is always to attack the shot blocker, take it to him to get him into foul trouble. I'm not denying Yao made some silly fouls, but our primeter people have to play better defense to limit the penetration. otherwise, Yao will be in foul trouble all the time.

 

some feedbacks from Mavs's forum check it out:

Dallas Mavericks Thread views: 65

Subject Dissing' T-Mac-The Consequences.
[Post#: 426215 ]
Posted by Bubba_BNS (User )
Posted on 4/23/05 07:17 PM



Many of you on this board made some strong predictions that the Mavs were going to roll over the Rockets. I think I even saw one or two predict a sweep.

I also saw many "experts" here pontificate that the newly found Mavs D would shut down T-Mac. This was just game one, but the fact is, that never happened. Defense doesn't just appear after a few games. And maybe AJ did "talk" about D in the preseason, but playing it for more than a few months is the key. Van Gundy has been building that Rocket D for a few years now. I think that was plainly evident today.

Mavs and their fans need to calm down. This was just game one. But for some of you, to calm down means quit making wild and baseless claims and predictions. Don't be like Dampier, who evidently declaired himself the best C in the Western Conference??!!

Well, apparently, the best Center got out rebounded on his team by a GUARD, and in the crucial 4th qtr, outplayed by a very old so called "washed up" Motumbo???

I think things will work out for the Mavs, but they need to get over themselves, and quick.

T-Mac is dangerous, and they proved tonight he does have help and other scorers on his team.

Mavs and their fans need to chill..sorry that the truth hurts. Respect the Rockets and T-Mac...and all will be ok.




http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/b...icks&Number=426215&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5

 

That may or may not work, depending on what the opponent will do. When Yao is in the game, he is an offensive threat, so the Mavs, or any team the Rockets play, will try to get him into foul trouble by attacking him. It's different with Deke who is not much an offensive threat. Players don't want to drive in because they worry about getting blocked due to Deke's reputation, and the coaches won't force them to since Deke wasn't an offensive threat to them.

Usually, the Rockets always went to Yao in the early stage of the game, but today's game plan was different. I believe JVG realized that Mavs would concentrate on stopping Yao inside, so he used Yao as a decoy to set up pick for TMac, draw the Mavs' big man away from the paint. We ran the same play over and over again, and the Mavs couldn't do anything to stop it in the first half. I wonder why the Mavs didn't doule TMac in the first half to have him get ride of the ball.

Next game, the Mavs will definitely make some adjustment, particularly on denying TMac's ball, and doubling him once he has the ball. JVG will have the team dump the ball inside to Yao a lot, it's up to Yao to step up, dominate the inside for us to win it on Monday.

 

Rybo sounds so cool, i wish i had a nickname like dat,

 

Rockets are 17-1 after winning game 1. All time in the NBA the game 1 winner has gone on to win the series 78.5% of the time.

Looking good

 

Well I suspect Avery will focus the Mavs defense around TMac next game - meaning Yao will see far less double coverage, especially when he is without the ball.

Yao was able to score one-on-one against Dampier on 2-3 possessions in this game. I would also expect JVG to make an adjustment in running Yao off more screens to let him catch the ball on the move in the paint. Hopefully Yao puts together a nice game on Monday while the Mavs worry about Tmac.