By the looks of things we will be facing the Dallas Mavericks in the 1st round of the playoffs and ohh what a series it would be. I think there will be three things that will determine our fate against them early. 1. We have to set the tone in game one. If we can steal homecourt in game one, and at the same time send a message to the rest of the league that we are ready to fight. Then i believe we can take the Mavs in six. 2. TMAC has to take control and Yao has to be a formiddable sidekick. The one two punch has to come hard every night and the leader in TMAC has to be born. 3. JVG has to set a defensive scheme to at least slow Dirk who in my opinion is one of the biggest mismatches in the league. I say a three headed monster with Bowen starting and Padgett and Weatherspoon rotating in and out just to try and wear him down. If we can do these three things i believe that the series would be our's in six
Do you guys think this is the kind of series where Mutombo can be used as a Power Forward ? Thinking of Weatherspoon, and Padgett guarding Dirk is giving me a headache....
Agree with your three things. I like the 3 headed monster idea..to wear down Nowitzki. It could work. Bowen playing pestering tenacious defense..Spoon being like a wall and strong..Padgett energetic..it could work!. Mutombo...could guard Dirk a little bit but I think Dirk is too quick for him on perimeter. Who knows?!?!? Mutombo may be ready for Dirk. Add Braggs and Baker..6 headed monster vs. Dirk!
deke at the 4 wouldn't work, even if dirk is on the bench. kvh has been lighting it up as dirks shadow for the last 14 or so games. unless yao can effectively shutdown and inside offense of the mavs, the rockets wont have much of a chance. i say mavs in 5, or rockets in 6.
When the won the close game, TMac was on Dirk when it counted most. I would do the same thing again.....in spurts. DD
You guys are forgetting about Jason Terry. I've been really impressed with him this season, as I never really got to see him play before. He's damn good at driving to the hole, and has a sweet jumper. His passing is underrated as well. This guy can go for 30 on any given night. Also, it looks like Jerry Stackhouse and Eric Dampier are healthy, and give Dallas a ton of depth. This is a matchup nightmare, as Houston will have a difficult time keeping up with all the scoring.
Dallas offense goes with Dirk. All other guys can be shut down including Terry. Then their defense is always suspect. If we make'em work hard on D, their offense will suffer.
JVG will take care the business don't worry. He knows what is the best for our team and what we should do in next two games. He also will think about how to beat Mavs or Sonics or what ever we will face. If we can hit the 3s, especially DW's shot we will be fine. Belive our rosters , we have tmac right? we have yao, deke, sura, JB and MJ. I don't worry about this right now. I feel when we play good, we can beat any team. If we want to go to the final we should beat any one, right? Go Rockets
Why is everybody so worried about Dirk? He is good, but he NEVER comes through in playoff times. Yes he can get his numbers, but he always find ways to get hurt one way or the other.
you are talking about the don nelson mavs, and not the aj mavs. under nelson the mavs allowed 98 ppg, with aj the mavs have allowed 91 ppg. the scoring hasn't changed at all. the mavs are the deepest team in the league, and aj sat dirk out the last game against portland just so the mavs would have to learn to play without dirk. they're 14-2 under johnson. dirks regular season stats vs his playoff stats: 20.4ppg 8.3 board and 2.4 ast in the regular season vs 25.6ppg 11 boards and 1.9 ast in the playoffs
Tough but winnable. Their young guards are a match up problem for us. Avery has them playing defense which is almost "unmaverick." They can't match up with Ming, and TMac will give them fits. No one can really match up with Dirk. If the Rockets bring their A game in the series they can win in six or seven. The Mav fans may think this is a cake walk, but they will thing differently after the first game or two. If Ming disappears, however, we are in trouble. The playoffs are about elevating your game; whoever does it best, wins.
I think JVG has plans for Braggs in the playoffs, didn't shock me that the Rox put VB on the IL but I find the timing curious going into the playoffs. I think JVG may play a 4 man PF rotation that will include Braggs to attack Nowitzski and pressure him at every turn. I know some people say let Dirk go off and D up on everyone else but I think Dirk is the head of this beast and cut off the head and this team will fall.
that's such BS. those regular season stats count his first couple of years when he only averaged 8.2 and 17 PPG.
I like T-mac on Dirk too. Otherwise he's gonna get a clean look everytime down. But it's not like J ho was any better with the matador defense. Dirk seems to post less and less. So T-mac seems a viable option. Spoon will do nothing. Padgett pretty much useless. Mutomobo out of his element. I think the only person who can guard him like glue will be T-mac.
