I'm just interested, didn't get to watch the game, know that we were winning by a good amount in 2nd quarter. Did they just make a bunch of threes, or was there more to it?
Brooks was no longer on fire, the Rockets got very little offensively from 3/5 of their starting group, and as a team their defense sucked.
They trapped brooks everytime he came off pick n roll and that forced Rockets to use Ariza, but Ariza couldn't create for himself/others. Mavs also did better job running back defensively to prevent fast break. For Rockets, they didn't do a good job on preventing penetration and once it happened they also did poor job with help defense. Mavs just got rolling once Rockets' defense broke down.
I think the Mavs ran more half court ball and stopped taking so many outside jumpers. Dirk and co. started driving to the bucket which is smart vs our frontline. I said in another thread, when teams realize they must play half court against us and nothing else we will have to start adjusting quickly...my evidence the Lakers game and the last 2 1/2 qtrs of last nights game.
the mavs did the same thing they been doing to us for 5 years now, stay close until late 3rd quarter than terry lights us up and puts us away....i hate the mavericks. For different reasons than the jazz though, they just dont friggin miss.
We are not running actively anymore in 2nd half. Scola, battier, hayes are really not built for a run&gun system. Sure they can run better without yao/tmac, and it'll surprise teams at first. But at the end of the day when teams are familiar with us, those players are not going to outrun or "out postup" you. Let's just enjoy our .500 season and forget about consistently beating elite teams. It's not gonna happen and frankly, we''ll lose to weaker teams in some nights. That's just the nature of a long NBA season.
I disagree... did you not see Chuck Hayes dribble the length of the court after a steal and get an assist to Scola on the other end? The problem was the shots stopped falling and defensively we fell apart. The latter being the bigger problem. The defense looked like swiss cheese it had so many holes in it. I can count on one hand how many good defensive rotations Andersen and Landry had together.
What happened? I think the Rockets are to blame for this one, not the Mavs. The Rockets stopped doing what made them so successful. Eric D. got 20 rebounds. 20! The Rockets were winning games by swarming every man in the paint for a rebound, I didn't see that as much. Also the Rockets got outplayed in transition. Why? They weren't rebounding and throwing it down for the hustle plays. The lack of rebounds were why Dallas got 'hot' and beat the hell out of them. Rebounds people... we need rebounds.
They packed the paint, forced us to shoot long jumpers and unfortunately we didn't connect. On the other end they got pretty much whatever they wanted.
The Dallas Mavs run actually started to end the 2nd qt. We were up big and then they got it down to 4 or 2 points.
That excellant play happens in the first half, and it really surprises me. But like I said, it 'surprises' me because it didn't happen often in the past and it won't happen often in the future(although I hope so). It's like the behind the back dribble from yao a few years ago. It's spectacular but it's not what yao really is capable of night in and night out and you can't count on it.
We were both shooting well in the 1st half, they started shooting lights out in the 2nd and we shot 28% in the 3rd, 13 whole points! It seemed that as soon as AB was injured our attack began to falter.....
What happen was we stopped playing hard plain and simple. The body language of the whole team just looked sluggish. Plus RA pulled most of the starters after the 3rd to rest them for tonites game. It also looked like our chemistry was gone in the second half. It was painful to watch Battier try to force his offense which is very ugly. He needs to stick to shooting 3s not driving or posting up because it usually leads to a TO.
looked to me as if kidd and berrea became more aggressive offensively...ie if brook is gonna light you up, you need to make him play defense and wear him out on the other end..this lead to the rockets having to help out on kidd, esp in the post..and left open shots for others..then they got hot... defensively..dallas had a big trap our small pgs on pick and rolls...to stop their penetration...and in general they were more conscience helping in the paint, forcing the rockets to beat them from the outside....unfortunately..the rockets got gun shy, and hesitated despite having open shots..not being confident or aggressive it all kinda fell apart... with dallas hitting their shots, and rebounding better, that cut off all the fast breaks..
Because running full-speed and hoping an opportunity basket presents itself doesn't go well over long periods of time. It's more exciting, it's fun to watch (most of the time), but you still need your players to be able to slow it down and run a half court game. We need playmakers who create without turning the ball over. You simply can't depend on opportunity baskets all the time which is what it *seems* like the current roster lives and dies by.
i have a bad feeling that once other teams scout the rockets recent games, they will see how effective it is to trap brooks and force anyone else to create. adelman will have to adjust by playing lowry and/or budinger with brooks a lot more. adelman has been doing an outstanding job, but last night's loss is partially due to his failing to adjust in the second half. dirk was schooling scola every single time he got the ball. scola couldn't even stay in front of him well enough to contest a shot. why wasn't chuck switched onto dirk and scola on dampier?
Its so annoying losing to Dallas. Jason Terry doing that stupid jet thing and trying to pump up the crowd all the time. I just want to slap him. And seeing flopinski and mark cuban smiling pisses me off. On top of that i get 10 texts from Mavs fans thinking they are the *****. Dallas is a good team but I still think we can stick with them or any body else in the league.
