That game and the rest of the series will show just how much the Mavericks have grown as a team. Two years ago they would have lost that game - now they have the ability to tough it out and win under pressure. To me, this was the final piece to the puzzle and they now have everything they need to go all the way this year and next year as well. I had the same feeling as you watching Shaq & Wade get no scoring help from the other guys. That's why I believe that the philosophy or belief that all Houston needs to do is to "surround" TMac & Yao with shooters is fundamentally flawed and won't work anymore against teams like the Mavericks and Phoenix who are playing a style of basketball that exploits mismatches on the floor. To do that you have to field a versatile team and this philosophy doesn't allow you to do that. You are essentially locked into hoping that the other team plays into your strengths at the SF/C positions (Yao & TMac). If they don't choose to do so and instead attack with a non-traditional lineup, then what do you do if you are the Rockets?
it trips me out reading this site sometimes on wade, he is a fantastic player but he killed them down the stretch with his turnovers. He makes spectacular plays but if he doesn't succeed than they sometimes turn into spectacular errors.
Watching Miami from the 2nd period on sort of reminded me of the Francis-Yao 04 rockets where the zone = lights out. That said if Miami makes some damned free throws, different ballgame. And my god, Payton was horrific on both ends. He makes Rafer Alston look like Nash with better defense.
Wade did not kill them with the turnovers. Wade was just trying shock treatment and scoring quickly to revive them after Antoine Walker and Gary Payton killed them with dribblemania and not getting the ball into Shaq. The only reason the Heat lost this game is because players like AW went away from Shaq daddy. They should have kept pounding Shaq the ball like they were in the 1st quarter. Shaq would have put up 25-30 and he would have gotten AW and JW many more open look spot up jump shots at the 3 line instead of the difficult longer range jumpers they were tossing up. I look for Miami to bounce back strong in game 2 and take it. Dallas is going to have to make adjustments to their offense. With the way Miami is playing Dirk and Howard, they are forcing JET and the supporting cast to beat them. They held Dallas to 90 and they could do even better than that if Dallas doesn't figure out something different. The only reason Miami lost this game was because Walker was handling the basketball too much and not getting it in to Shaq daddy. Feed the big dog and good things will happen. Game 2 SHaq: 30 points.
Don't agree, Dallas wins game 2. Miami should be worried, by and large they controlled tempo and shut down Dirk and they still lost. The Mavs are too deep for the Heat, they have been wearing out teams in the 4th quarter the entire playoffs. The Mavs played a mediocre game by their standards yesterday and they will play better in game 2. I still see Dallas in 5 or 6.
It really doesn't matter. Duncan dropped 40 on Dallas in game 7 and Spurs still lost. And I don't think Wade > Manu + Parker. The key is Heats' role players have to shoot the ball well and play great defense on the whole Mavs' team, not just Dirk. They may be capable to do it in 1 or 2 games, it is tough for them to do it throughout the series. That is why I pick Mavs to win in 5, or maybe 6.
Walker is something. He always has this look that he took a dump and it's half way down and got stuck. Man, this guy gotta be on the all-time screw-up lists. At least Avery knows KVH is a screw-up too, so he doesnt play him much.
the mystery as far as coaching moves to me is stackhouse. I thought maybe I only saw his bad games but dude is not shooting well and as far as I'm concerned, he hasn't stopped anyone either. He's shooting 41% for the playoffs, 31% from three range. what does he give them?
Stackhouse has the potential to give you bursts of scoring. You are right, though, he has done little this year. For me, though, a bigger question is why does Van Horn get playing time...ever? Just about every time he goes on the court the Mavs start losing. As for last night's game - it is shocking how bad Payton played (not that he is normally good - just that anyone could play so poorly and actually stay on the floor). The guy we got from them in the DA trade would have been a better option at this point.
The Cuban effect is also something to watch: the Mavs clamp down on defense and actually get called for fewer fouls. Mavs by qtr: 5 4 5 4 = 18 Heat by qtr 6 6 5 8 = 25 So in my opinion the Mavs got a helping hand in stopping the Heat's attempted 4q resurgence. Walker goes into the paint and no-one hardly ever gets called for hitting the guy. Haslem - that poor sucker gets hit with other peoples' fouls - he is the Tim Thomas of this series. Has Dirk ever fouled out of a game? But of course all of this is imaginary. Kobe, Dirk, Pau Gasol are all called just the same as the rest of the league..... "Tim Thomas enters the game and is immediately called for a foul by a ref just in order to get him warmed up!" Another reason TT would be a good fit on the Rockets. It would be nice to see Les make a sizable donation to the old refs' home fund so the Rockets can overcome the Van Gundy effect. BTW it was nice to see Stackhouse take a little juice last night from Shaq - he got Mutumbo-ized!! I am sure Cuban will whine about that.
Because Dallas got so many calls against San Antonio right? Dallas only took 27 Freethrows, yes eight more than miami, but who on miami besides shaq and wade constantly operate in the lane.
Miami is overmatched, the real championship was San Antonio vs. Dallas in the 2nd round. Barring injuries, or Shaq getting some life essence from the Gelflings, it is over. DD
if terry doesn't have the game of his life then miami wins easy. they contained dirk without much problem i don't think terry will be scoring 32 points again.
terry's been their second best player. he's done it all playoffs. remember? this is the guy everyone thought blew the SA series by getting suspended.
Before yesterday, he was averaging about 17.5 ppg on 42 percent shooting in the playoffs. Last night, he scored 32 on 72 percent shooting. He hasn't done that all playoffs. Not close. Now, maybe he'll continue to play that well (anything can happen), and if he does, Dallas will win the series. But if you look at the evidence, it's incredibly unlikely for him to do so and he is likely to come back down closer to his averages, which is about a 50 percent reduction in scoring. That's a pretty sizable drop.
Of course, by that standard, you'd expect Dirk to go up by that much or more as well. He's not going to keep averaging 15 or whatever he had last night too.
I agree. However, Shaq isn't going to keep averaging 17 points and 7 rebounds on 11 percent free throw shooting either. No, he won't increase as much as Dirk, but an increase nonetheless.
Jason Williams and Gary Payton are easily the weakest competition that Jason Terry has had to face during the playoffs, so it would be reasonable to expect his production will be significantly better this series (23-25 ppg). Kirk Hinrich averaged 20.5 points against the Heat in the first round and Ben Gordon averaged 21 points against them. That’s 5 points more than they averaged during the regular season. Jason Kidd increased his scoring average by 9 points against the Heat compared to his scoring average in the first round. Jason Terry is a better scorer than all 3. And while he obviously won’t shoot 72% again, he has proven he can shoot a very high percentage for an entire series. Or have you forgotten last year in the playoffs when he made 53% of his field goals and 60% of his 3-pointers against the Rockets.
53 percent is far, far different than 72 percent. If he shoots 10-18 or 9-18 instead of 13-18, it's anyone's game in the final seconds. Yes, I've heard the argument that Dirk will have better games to compensate for Terry's dropoff. But Shaq will have better games too. As for Jason Williams and Gary Payton easily being the weakest competition Terry has faced this postseason, I greatly disagree. Have you watched Steve Nash play defense? And as for Hinrich, Gordon and Kidd, you're dealing with incredibly small sample sizes. You're also dealing with two teams who trailed for a vast majority of those series, so naturally the guards handled the ball and shot more than they would have in a series where it was evenly matched and they routinely went inside.
