Rebounding is the key. especially TMAC and Battier, please get more than 3 rebounds . Also JVG please let Deke play until he grabs at least 10 rebounds. rebounding= physical=effort=defense= win.
Will Bonzi be back against sacramento? Because It would be better cause then he could get his shot going and not be rusty for Dallas. Hopefully we can soon see Snyder and Bonzi out on the court at the same time and see how they get along.
I dont think we can beat Dallas this year. They are just too loaded with talent, its rather unfair actually. They have no holes, and all-stars at almost every starting position. Josh Howard is blossoming into a superstar that can outplay Tmac on some nights. We have major holes at PG and PF with NBDLers backing up those positions. Meanwhile, they have well above avg role players like Stackhouse and George coming off their bench.
Why would you assume Yao would go out and guard him? We could play pseudo 1 2 2 zone or 3 2 and have Yao cover the inside in case of drives. On the flip side we would throw a combination of Battier and Tmac at Dirk. And don't forget what kind of player we have in Yao....without fouling him Dirk will not be able to stop Yao in the post. Lack of Strength.
If we get our roster healthy and integrated (big IFs) I DO believe we can beat them. In fact I think we have to be one of 3 teams that have any shot at all at them. The Spurs have no shot. Dallas is better than last year and the Spurs have only added a year on their aging roster that could not keep with them athletically last year. Now instead of a Mavs win in 7, the Mavs will beat them in 5 or 6. The other two teams (besides us) with a shot at them are the Suns and Heat (if those teams get healthy as well). The Suns gave them trouble last year, and that was without Amare, Kurt Thomas, a lesser version of Barbosa, and a tireder version of Nash. If Phx gets their whole roster back they are the worst for the Mavs to play because they are better shooters and will beat them unless the Mavs stay really disciplined and slow the ball way down. Now a real long shot (like us) are the Heat. But the East is still for the taking, if they start getting Oneal, Jones and Williams mixed in they are by far the class of the east. Plus we already know the Mavs have no answer for Wade. I think it is implausible and a real longshot, but not impossible. Also, stylewise--being a very disicplined half court offensive team with potentially a tough defense, they fit the Mavs great. Similarly, we have a lot of the pieces and style to beat the Mavs. We in fact probably have the two best half court individual match-ups on the floor, Tmac versus whomever and Yao versus whomever. Of course Dirk, Howard and Terry are very tough, but having Battier, Tmac, Snyder, Wells, Head, Alston and Hayes to cover them is not bad. If we get healthy the Rockets are pretty atheltic and long through the wings and forwards and we can play super tough defense. You add that with our two great offensive options and we can be tough. The Mavs have been the best team this year, but they are not a juggernuat. I don't think we are talking about as good of team as many of the NBA champions in the 2000s. If you look at them they really don't shoot great as a team and they don't hold down opponents great as a team. They do both well, but not great. What they kill you on is rebounds and FTs. So if you play tight half court defense, cut down on TOs, hold your own on boards and have a couple of really difficult individual offensive options (Wade, Yao, Tmac, Nash)--you can beat them. We are not talking about a team like the 01 Lakers or late 90s Bulls.
josh howard a superstar?? he's doing this b/c dirk is getting the attention. if we put the D tmac faces, he is EASILY shut down. but we can't do that b/c of dirk.
Yao in the post is our main advantage, so naturally we have to feed that. The question is whether we can devise a defense to stop Dirk when they play him at center. Clearly, Yao can't/shouldn't cover Dirk on the perimeter. A zone seems like the best option, with Chuck Hayes or Juwan as the primary defender on Dirk. Neither of these guys can handle him one-on-one, so I think they should play an aggressive defense that challenges Dirk to drive to the basket. This gives Yao a chance to give help defense. This worked pretty well with Ryan Bowen 2 years ago. A straight zone is ok, but Dallas has so many good jump shooters that they, perhaps better than any other team in the league, can break a zone down. Nowitzki and Terry are 2 of the better shooters in the league, and Howard/Stackhouse/Harris/George/Croshere are all decent. Terry, in particular, is nasty when he is left open. I think our goal should be to not give up open 3's and also close off the layups. This means we soften up a bit in the gray zone (15-20 feet). If we can force Harris and George to take a lot of shots in this area, that'll be good for us. Howard and Nowitzki are both athletic enough to hit runners or pull ups, so we don't want them taking the shots. Instead, we play them aggressively, have Yao clog the middle, and stay put on Terry. We have to hope that Stackhouse doesn't get hot, or else that will really hurt our game plan.
Tmac versus a Mavs is a major advantage. They really don't have great wing defenders (remember what Wade did to them). Howard is their best shot, but he is foul prone and losing him do to fouls hurts them in other ways (offense, reboudng). Yao and Tmac are both great advantages versus them, though not true in all series (e.g., Phx, SA) Tmac I think would be the most important player versus this team in particular. (remember Mia was much more effective attacking outside in with Wade than inside out through Shaq where Dallas swarming and long arm defense produced a lot of TOs). No no, the best guys to cover Dirk are Battier and Tmac. Versus Dirk you what length and quickness, guys who make him put the ball on the floor. Guys like Posey & Haslem & Bowen. For us Hayes and Howard would be our 3rd and 4th choice. Remember last time Tmac did excellent against Dirk, but now we have SB as the primary one so that Tmac only has to do it in spots and can focus on offense. I think we man up. Dallas is really not a great shooting team overall. What you don't want to do is give Dirk and Terry (great open shooters), and to a lesser degree Howard, open looks. Dirk may get his 25 or 30 in man to man, Terry may get some too, but limit the rest. Good tough man to man d while containing Dirk to the best you can with a long mobile forward (SB and Tmac). I think our best frontline versus them will have Yao-SB-Tmac. SB and Tmac can be interchangable on Dirk and Howard. They will have to counter with a C (Damp or Diop)-Dirk-Howard frontline because Yao is way too much for Dirk defensively. I would love to see them try to go small with Dirk at center--that just wouldn't work versus Yao. Now they can go a couple of ways with the backcourt, but we have answers. If they play Terry and Harris we can go with Alston and Head in the backcourt, if they go Terry and Stack we go Head or Alston and Wells or Synder. IF our roster is healthy I think we can counter every move they make while keeping Tmac and Yao as tremendous match-ups in our favor offensively.
I think with a healthy team we can beat Dallas. Rafer < JTerry Tmac > DHarris Shane = JHoward Howard < Dirk Yao > Dampier Bonzi = JStack Head = George Hayes = Buckner Deke & Snyder > Rest of the Mavs Bench Most teams usually go 8 or 9 deep, especially in the playoffs and I think our starters can handle the Mav's especially with Yao back in the lineup. Like Desert was mentioning above I also think when healthy we have the right personnel to counter most of their moves and their backcourt is not that big. JTerry (6'2) covered by Rafer / Head / JLucas (if we need more speed) DHarris (6'3) covered by Head / Kirk DGeorge (6'8) Kirk / Tmac JStack (6'6) can be countered by Bonzi Josh H (6'7) we may need Kirk / Tmac (to rotate on Josh & Dirk) Nowitzki (7'0) same rotation of Kirk / Tmac / Shane This is the type of matchup (Dallas / Spurs / Suns) where having big guards like Bonzi (6'5) / Kirk (6'6) / Tmac (6'8) / Shane (6'8) will make such a big difference.
The key the beating Dallas is to acquire a pf/pg. Sorry folks, we aren't beating Dallas anytime soon. They are in a class above us. Phoenix might very well be as well. SA is probably better than us as well. After that, we're there. With Yao Ming back, we're number 3. Of course, being number three only means you'll make it to the second round of the playoffs. But hey, that's the better then the last 10 years. But yeah, sorry to break it to you - we aren't beating Dallas (except in the fact that any team can beat any other team on a given night in basketball). But Dallas is just dominating us right now. Don't see it happening.
wow. yeah josh howard is good, but to say that he's a superstar is absurd. you have to realize that he gets a lot of opportunities to create offense with teams focusing on dirk. to go and say that he can outplay tmac is even more bizarre. tmac straight up schools howard as if he were teaching cal 3 to a 5th grader. unless howard gets help on the double team, there is no chance in hell that howard stays with mcgrady on either end of the floor
and you are a pessimistic yankee. anything can happen in the playoffs. have some faith, and keep your dismal comments in new york. and no, i don't care what your signature says
I wouldn't count us out in a 7-game series. I think JVG is very good when given time to prepare for a team. I think Dallas and Phoenix will blow us out in 1 game but as the series goes on, defense gets tighter and players start to choke (especially Phoenix, without a true go to guy).
Who said introduce Dirk to Deke's elbows? That should be one of those "keys to the game" all the announcers have. That should be the only key to the game. Also, don't worry about the mavepricks, they don't have an answer for Yao. If we get to see them in the playoffs, Yao will show them up every possession until they double team him leaving, guess who, Tracy McGrady open or facing single coverage. Can you say...money in the bank?
Yao and T-mac will get their points, we need the other guys to make Dallas pay for the double/triple team coverages. Also, keep the rebound battle even and limit Dallas fast break points.
