we lost cuz: 1) we were outhustled 2) we slowed the game down in the 3rd. (even in fast break opportunities, players were walking up the court) 3) AB leaving midway in the 2nd Q after turning his ankle cooled him off 4) ERIKA Dampier put up MVP type numbers (not sayin that he is or ever will be) 5) Chuck played under 20 mins 6) Jason Terry is the Rockets' Kryptonite 7) lack of defense - when was the last time the Rockets gave up over 120 points?? If there's more, feel free to add more to this list.
They started running with us but driving straight to the hoop. AB and company went cold. - personally i think its b/c t-mac left - argument in the locker room? or maybe he is good luck. - did anyone notice that he was no longer on the bench in the second half? - Rockets saw those 2 homo's in the short shorts w/ the rolando blackman jerseys on. LOL - Bill said that they prob need Knee pads!!!! hahahahaha. LOL
We lost our intensity from defense to offense. That run at the end of the first half really turned things towards the Mavs. If we could have gone into the half leading by double digits, perhaps things would be different
I didn't notice this, but I did see Taylor having to sit on the floor because there wasn't enough room on the bench. Maybe they told McGrady to go sit somewhere else and make room for the people that might actually play. =P Back to the question at hand, it's already been stated a few dozen times in this thread, but it was just lack of defense, through and through. Terry and Co. was on fire because there weren't many hands in their faces and Maverick drives were not cut off by help D. Our shooters also had some open shots that didn't go down for them, but better defense would have given us more possessions and chances to fix that up.
They defended the 3 point shot. Teams will eventually do that night-in-night-out. They will contest the three, keep 2 or 3 guys back to take away the fastbreak, and force Ariza, Brooks and Budinger to shoot from midrange (the true weakness of the three players...and many alike). If Brooks can find the midrange game, which he showed a willingness to use for part of the time last season (until Alston left...surprise surprise), I think the Rockets could be more effective. The Rockets also wore themselves out from running so ******* much. 5 maybe 8 times a game they should run to keep the other team dominating on the second chance boards. If they continue to run at this rate with 5-6 players, they will wear down by December and become injury prone.
from what i can gather, 1, we are a jumper shooting team and also rely on fast breaks. only ab can penetrate. lowry can draw fouls at times but that's pretty much it. our post presence is weak against teams that have legit bigs. the post-ups from scola, landry and andersen are far from good enough. 2, so when we as a team are on a hot shooting streak, we look powerful. when the hands get cold, we tumble on offense. 3, the mavs, after adjustments, reduced their amount of jumpers (especially contested ones). that in turn reduced our chance of long rebounds and fast breaks. they also went back to defense quicker. as a result, we had to go into a half court offense a lot more, which wasn't our best weapon. 4, ab having twisted his ankle didn't help, either. did i leave anything out?
everybody knows how to defend a running team. let the run...play some defense...stop shots...play your game. mavs did that and allowed the rockets to run up and down. mavs countered by making baskets. it ain't no track meet...it's a basketball game it will hapen all year long to the teams that have discipline to play their game
Maybe the Mavs just realized during halftime: 1. That they had an All-Start starting lineup: Kid, Terry, Josh, Dirk & Marion. 2. That Trever cannot dribble. His iso drives "attemts" are right up there with Rafer's three point shots-- in causing the "NNNOOO......." reflex. This thought starts anytime he stays in the triple threat position for more than one second.
JET killed us as usual and Dampier realized its his contract season so he hooped it up. 20+ rebounds!!!!
Our offense right now only works well against crappy defensive teams and/or good teams for parts of the game. We need a go-go-guy when we go into a cold streak. Trust me, cooling off for a quarter and a half isn't going to win many ball games.
Our weakness was exposed. Besides, Brooks, we don't have anyone who can create for himself and for others. Once teams figure out how to stop Brooks, our offense becomes stagnant.
We lost cause theres a pattern vs the mavs 1. 10-20 point lead for us going into 2nd 2. End of 2nd quarter, Mavs make run to cut lead down 2-7 pts 3. 3rd quarter, mavs continue run and build up 10-15 pt cushion 4. 4th Quarter, Rox make run but Terry, Nowitzki, and occasionally Barrea with cold-blooded shots to end game.
It was our defense that let the high margin lost happen. We had a 17 point lead, even if our shot isn't falling at that time, if we defended better we can still slow them down and take our time to find the shots that were falling. They just turn our 17 points lead to only 4 in a matter of minutes and we panicked and taking bad shots like fast 3 pointers here and there that weren't falling, resulting in long rebound and fastbreak points for them. We still need to find a way to play smart if we have the lead. We had a big lead also against Warriors and Blazers going into the 4th, but again it was gone in a matter of minutes and were lucky that they made the run late in the 4th so we were able to withstand it.
