Pass some of what you're smoking. The absence of Toraye Braggs on this playoff roster is probably not weighing that heavily on JVG's mind, nor should it.
That lineup will definitely score some points but we will be seriously lacking in the rebound area and our bench depth/scoring will be affected. I would not mind if JVG could try it early and quickly change it at the second sign of trouble. That was indeed a blunder on JVG. I thought it was really senseless but there was no time for that now. I would have chosen Braggs overe Clarence but oh well......big mistake nonetheless. Can we add him on later if we advance?
We need to do two things, play better defense and kept Tmac fresher for the 4th quarter. Thus I guess I would like to see Padget less because he makes these goals difficult as we have to put Tmac on Dirk when Padget is out there (play Padget the 10 minutes Dirk is resting and maybe 5 more). Tmac has worn down the last few games, we need his O to be fresher for the 4th. I don't care if it is putting Bowen on Dirk more, or try Deke, or even Spoon, something else than Tmac on Dirk until really neccessary. Personally, I think the defense is more important than what edge Padget gives to our offense versus Bowen/Spoon (plus, as had Bowen, Padget too at times has had that dear in the headlights look and passed up his specialty shot). Dallas can't stop Yao when he has good position, and I don't think they can stop Tmac at all if he decides to go to the hole (when he is tired he seems less capable of doing this and settles for jumpers)--we have primary macth-up advantages whomever is in the other spots. If Tmac is fresh he should always be able to get to the rim or get fouled on this Mavs team, particularly if they are going small.
Dallas figured out how to play Bowen. Just leave him wide open and double team others. At this point, playing Bowen is literally playing 4 against 5. That's gonna tire out everyone, including T-Mac, if they have to consume much energy to beat the swarming Dallas D caused by Bowen for 4 qtrs. That's why JVG is playing Padgett more. On offense our problem other than Yao's fouls is the inconsistant scoring from our role players. Adding Bowen to it will make things worse. On defense, it's not Dirk who's killing us but their role players. Starting Bowen on Dirk to save T-mac energy for the 4th quarter comes at the price of lagging behind for three quarters, which is digging up a hole for oneself to jump in. I don't want to playing catch up in the final quarter against a team like Dallas. Now if Bowen can stick that J or drive to the hoop, or everyone else is shooting lights out with a hand in their face, I don't care if you put him on the court for 48 minutes.
You got me there: Padgett has been a zero on the offensive end. But these three would give up far more in points than they would bring in so the advantage would still be a big one for Dallas. Right now the Rockets don't need offensive "threats" - they need players who can consistently provide offense. That's been the difference in this series: the Mavs have these types of players while the Rockets don't. As for TMac, I thought the best strategy would be to have our PF guard Dirk and not TMac and that would have to be Spoon. TMac is doing a yeoman's job on Dirk but it has taken a terrible toll on his game and the Rockets need TMac's "A" game in order to have a chance. Spoon's offensive game (such as it is) is down on the blocks (where its is VERY crowded with quick Maverick players not named Bradley). On the other end he's toast because Dirk's primary game is out front facing the basket. Dirk is taller and faster - a bad mix for Spoon. This matchup would play right into Dallas' hands and quite likely ignite Dirk from his playoff funk. As I see it, Dallas was shocked in games 1 & 2 while trying to play Houston in a conventional manner. Once Avery switched to his "smallball" lineup, the Mavericks have been able to exploit their personnel advantage. It's been 3 games now and I just don't know what JVG can do to counter it. It took my sitting at courtside on Monday to make me understand just how much faster the Mavericks are as a team compared to Houston. I don't know if there's anything JVG can do to overcome this deficiency.
Starting Bowen worked in games 1/2 because the Mavs used their regular rotation. Now that the Mavs have gone small, I don't think a starting lineup of Yao,T-Mac, Sura, Wesley and Barry is a bad idea with T-Mac playing the PF. This gives us the best offensive lineup to match up with the Mavs small lineup. I particularly like this lineup to start game 6, we need to jump all over the Mavs, the team that has won the 1st q has won the game. I expect the Mavs to come out with abandon and try to run us out of the arena and a small lineup would help us counter that.
The Dallas small ball line up presents some problems for the Rockets defense, but it creates just as many opps for the Rockets. They have nothing close to an answer for Yau (when they can get it to him in decent position) or Tmac (anytime). If Tmac is fresh enough to go to the hole, and the Mavs are small, they cannot stop him. The problem has been focus and execution down the stretch, and the biggest reason appears because Tmac is winded.
The Mavs know they have no answer for Yao. That's why they went small. It's true that the Rockets have a physical advantage when that happens but that means nothing unless they can exploit it. And the past 3 games say that they can't with the current mix of players. Even when the Mavs go small, the Rockets' guards are so tied up chasing their Maverick counterparts that they can't get Yao the ball. So Yao sort of fades in and out of the offensive flow during the course of the game. It is Dallas' speed that is allowing them to get away with this tactic. Add to that the fact that outside of TMac, the Rockets have no one who can play Dirk. TMac can't be asked to play defense on a 7 footer, initiate the offense and fight through the double-teams the Mavs are throwing at him. Dallas' strategy is clear: Make McGrady work hard and expend energy at both ends of the court. And it has worked primarily because they can ignore whoever is playing the 4 for Houston and double off him. As for focus and execution down the stretch, it has been the Mavericks who have shown they have it while the Rockets have wilted under the pressure. For that I point the finger of blame at the Rockets guard corps because they simply haven't gotten the job done when it has counted the most.
Agree. The only reason I would start Bowen to to give T-mac a little bit of rest so he is not tired in the 4th quarter (from guarding Dirk all game long). I would still start Padgett though because you never know when he hits 4 or 5 three pointers in a game (something Bowen can never give us).
Who would guard Dirk from the first quarter? Please do not say Mac. Starting Bowen worked in game #3 as well. We had a healthy lead and were about to increase it had Yao's bucket-and-one been accepted by the refs. The problem in that game was that Mac got fatigued early as a result of guarding Dirk for an extended period of time. That lineup you proposed will prove disastrous over an extended period of time.
Padgett stunk it up bad in the first half of Game 4. It seemed like, if nothing else, we played a little smoother when Bowen started. But maybe that's just biased from seeing how poorly Padgett played early last Saturday.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back it's still a bit fuzzy. Seriously the problem with starting Padgett wasn't the starters but rather when you had Bowen & Mutombo on the floor on subs at the same time. It would drive me completely insane every time and it happened a few too many times. The cool thing is our future looks bright.
