We should live with Dirk shooting the mid-range shot because if we get doubled we just end up gettig punished by the threes. I also believe that we should close the game with our starting line-up. where was Sura the entire fourth quater? Keys to a game 5 victory: 1. No double team 2. Get Mac some help 3. Yao needs 20/10 game
I agree with you somewhat. I would try laying off the double team for a while to see how that goes. Their 3 pointers are killing us right now.
I agree. Lets find out if Dirk can carry them to a win after all. I have faith that Bowen and more importantly T-mac can guard Dirk and atleast hold him under 30 pts even if the Rockets dont double team him. Atleast this way Finley, Terry, and Stackhouse are not left wide open for 3 point shots.
I've been thinking this way too. They're killing us with ball movement in the 4th quarters and we're just not fast enough or too tired to rotate to their outside shooters. This has been a problem dogging the Rockets for awhile and I think staying with your man might be the best option. With Yao and Deke we got big intimidators inside and we will have to trust they can keep down the in the paint scoring leaving our guards and T-Mac to tighten up on the mid range and outside.
I'm posting in this thread because IMO this has been the key to the Rox failure in the last three games. Like games 3 and 4 we saw the Mavs do the same thing. Rotate the ball to an open man and get a wide open jumper late in the 4th. For a team that prides itself on defense this has been a real achilles heel for the Rox in not just this series but several times during the season. The Rox have to quit stop doubling up the Mavs ball handlers. They are just too good at finding the open man and the rest of the Mavs are too good at getting open when one of the Rox fall back to double. OTOH the Rox look too tired to or become too focused on the ball carrier to rotate fast enough to pick up the open man. The Mavs are having very little success driving inside against Yao, especially when he can keep out of foul trouble, so that isn't too much of a problem. The rest of the Rox defenders need to keep with their man or switch off fast enough screens to deny the Mavs so many open looks. If they can't do this the series and season are going to end on another game that's going to look very similar to the last 3.
Tmac looked tired throughout most of tonite's game and was tired out by the 4th quarter in the last 2 games as well... Having Tmac guard Dirk AND making him responsible for our offense will tire anyone out in the NBA, i dont care who u are and Tmac on offense has suffered as a result...I say unless Dirk begins to absolutely demolish us we place Padgett/ Bowen on him... Also, the Mav's small lineup is killing us with their quickness and we need someone like Tmac to guard the guards penetration...Maybe I am wrong but i really think this is the case.
I agree that guarding Dirk has taken a toll on T-Mac. I'm less concerned though about the Mavs penetration. If you look at most of their inside shots they were definately affected by the presence of Yao. The shots they got were put backs that can be taken care of by better blocking out and staying with their men. I agree they might need Padgett and Bowen to spend more time guarding Dirk.
Rather let Dirk kill us than their role players. If we play the Mavs one on one straight up we at least know who is the focus of our defense, Dirk. Yet if we continue to double team, any Mav can go off and the Rockets don't know who that will be - the Mavs' role players are too talented, anyone can go off at any time if they get open looks.
Sad thing about the Mavs is that their role players are also stars/ good players/ former or future allstars.
I think the Mav's got a lot of rebounds tonite because the Mav's perimeter players (Terry, Stackhouse, Howard etc) were blowing past our perimeter defenders and causing Yao to step up to block/alter the shot...now if the shot was missed there would be another mav to grab the rebound or even put back since Yao had turned his back from boxing out in order to play help defense In my mind, I think it all comes down their speed trumping ours by a lot. I thought Steve Kerr made a really good point when he said that KVH's injury actually helped out the Mavs because it allowed Avery Johnson to use a quicker backcourt. I believe that their quicker backcourt combined with Tmac tiring out has killed us the last 3 games. The solution in my mind is to allow Tmac to boost up our offense by guarding one of their backcourt players and allow a less important player on our team guard Dirk, like Padgett. This would kill two birds with one stone IMO, because it would cut down the effectiveness of their backcourt and boost our offense with a less fatigued Tmac. I only wish I could ask Van Gundy about this
