Sorry, can't wait for the game thread to discuss this. With Yao being out, I am wondering if we would be best served starting Battier at the 4 to defend Dirk, with Deke at the 5, TMac at the 3 on Howard, and then if they start with Terry and Harris, then we need to start probably Head alongside Terry. We could let Battier and McGrady take turns on Dirk, making him put the ball on the floor and then fading away or giving it up. With Deke guarding the rim, I'd like to see us start this way and then see how we match up on the perimeter defensively. I am more worried about Terry and Harris than I am Dirk and Howard if we have McGrady and Battier defending the most against Dirk and Howard. I think Juwan is a horrible matchup with Dirk and will allow Dirk to rain the 3 ball until we have to double or Juwan has to move up and give up the dribble drive. It would be nice if Bonzi or Snyder was ready to play and give us some good D.
1st! We win. Oh wait, this isn't the game thread? I was fooled. Okay, seriously, not bad ideas JoPa, but the starting lineup is not going to change. Doesn't mean the main lineup playing will stay the same. This game will probably have a lot of small ball: Deke/Jho at the 5, Batt, Mac, Head, and Rafer...JL3, Hayes, and Bonzi might get some time too, hopefully Snyder too. Honestly, our best matchup on Dirk is Mac, cause Battier is a little shorter, and when Dirk is on, it doesn't really matter who guards him...unless it's KG, and we don't have KG. Dallas is going to go with Dampier/Diop, Dirk, Jho, Harris and Jet, with Stack and George getting some time. They'll keep a center in there as long as Deke is in, but when we replace Deke with Hayes just have Jho at the 5, I think Avery would shift Dirk to center and play small. I don't think Deke and Jho are going to see the floor a lot together other than the start of the game and the start of the 3rd. But for that to work, T-Mac needs another monster game.
But Dirk has size over Battier. And quite a bit too. What we need is for Rafer not to get burned all night long. On the other hand, the refs BETTER help us out. They can start by not calling phantom fouls on Dirk, and turning those into flopping fouls. =)
I've always been dissapointed with JVG's tendency to let the other team determine matchups. I guess, in this case, Dirk has such an advantage over everyone, you need to change your gameplan, not try and make the Mavs change theirs. Still, with the way Juwan has been playing recently, I'd rather the team be confident they can come out smoking and kick the Mavs ass, then change the gameplan up. Not to mention, Howard is a dificult matchup as is, and it'd be nice to have Battier guarding him, too.
If they start two small guards, I wouldn't be surprised to see JVG switch Battier onto Terry or Harris. Battier is versatile enough to "contain" quick small guards (re: Dwayne Wade) if they're causing too much damage. Over the course of the game I'd like to see McGrady matched up against Nowitzki and Battier on Howard ... I think that gives us our best defensive advantage. But then the Mavs like to run a lot of switch and iso -- expect them to try setting picks with Terry/Nowitzki leaving Dirk on iso with Rafer. How well we perform in this game will be highly dependent on how well we are able to defend those picks and avoid bad isolation mismatches.
I wish JVG put Snyder on Stackhouse whenever he played. It will be way more interesting to watch both of them playing against each other again.
Dirk does have size on Batman but that is the best defense that we can throw at Dirk. But remember, Ryan Bowen is 6'9 and he was our 'dirk stopper' two years ago and Bruce Bowen guards him alot whenever they play San Antonio and he's even more undersized. The strategy that JVG used last time when we blew them out was to constantly keep changing up defenders on Dirk by throwing Snyder, Battier, and McGrady at him and I think the different looks was pretty effective. Hopefully Snyder can get some defensive minutes against Dirk and we'll have more depth at the 2/3 with Bonzi there as well.
ideally, yes, tmac is better at guarding dirk than battier but with Yao out the rockets need tmac to burden more of the offensive load, which means he will have less energy on defense. Plus I don't want tmac to get into foul trouble guarding the flopper. We need him to spend most of his energy on offense in order to open up 3 point opportunities for others(in my opinion we will need to make close to double digit 3's in order to have a chance at winning).
The only person he doesn't have size over is Mutombo... Battier is easily the man we need to guard Dirk. The only guy in the league who can physically match up with dirk is KG.
Very good observation. The Rockets however, do not switch much on PnR. The Rockets show or trap, help and rotate and recover. That's what is great and bad about the Rockets defense. At it's best, our Defense dictates the shots that the opponents offense takes (unless they want to take bad shots). Also, in addition to small ball, I think TMac is going to get a lot of 1-on-1 coverage vs Dallas. It will be up to T-Mac to play well and force them to start doubling.
i think mutumbo should gaurd nowitzki didn't he do a good job on KG last time? maybe he'll do okay this time around... anywhoo im rambling so battier, mac, hayes, and mutumbo all take turns gaurding Dirk alston and Vspan start and guard terry and harris respectively whoever isn't guarding nowitzki guards howard. so... Pg: Alston Sg: Span SF: Mac Sf/Pf: Batman C: Mutumbo we'll bring in Jho, Chucky, Bonzi, Head for rotation and scorin
I wonder why no one has mentioned the best man defender we have on the team CHUCKY HAYES IIRC he defended Dirk VERY well in the last meeting, he is strong enough to prevent Dirk from Driving and bodying him off (something that I think neither tmac nor battier can do better), I think we need to basically send either battier or chuck or tmac at dirk and see who can defend him the best on the day I really dont want Mac panting by the end of the 1st half or see him in foul trouble
What the hell? Why bow to them? Chances are we'll lose most games on this trip. My suggestion? Let's burn them. Deke Battier T-Mac Wells Head Let our swing men post them up all night long while Battier and Head provide the perimeter threat. That should be our line-up for most of the night. No team can defend both T-Mac and Wells posting up and we should take advantage of that. Since T-Mac is handling the ball a heck of a lot more recently, we can afford to go with Head over Alston for good stretches. Maybe even Lucas. It's important that whoever it is is hitting the 3 and is doing a decent job on defense.
I see Padget playing some in this game and playing quite well. Howard will start on Dirk while Shane will handle Howard. Shane and tracy will shot Howard down or at least close to it. John John will have a good game as well. In a league where match-up is huge, we match-up very well against the Mavs this season. If Bonzi and Snyder can see a few minutes that will be a plus.
Dirk may have size over Battier..but our zone defense will keep him out of the paint and force him to play his perimeter game, where Battier can shut him down.
God I hope Padgett doesnt play he is an upgrade to Ryan Bowen..but he is still useless.he cant hit his perimeter shot...
Battier on Howard Mutombo guards the paint Alston guards Terry like a wet blanket McGrady guards #2 guard Howard , Bonzi and Hayes take turns on DIRK
