Round 1: Dallas Mavericks vs Golden State Warriors

Looks like redefined picked the wrong time to switch bandwagons.

 

yup.. so why is he still here?

maybe when mavs are out and rox go in he'll redefine himself again as a rox fan..

 

Here is my theory. Basically they have taken a page out of our book and put a long SF on Dirk who seems the best fit to give him problems. Example: Mcgrady from our series 2 years ago.

Add that Jason Richardson and Baron Davis are 2 strong physical guards that can take it to Terry and Harris and any of the guards Dallas tries to put on them. Making those guys play defense disrupts their offense somewhat. Dallas with their weak interior defense allows GS guards to get into the middle almost at will.

Dallas is primarily a jump shooting team and GS is quick and athletic enough to play zones and get out to the jumpshots and contest them for the most part.

For GS to win though, they have to be clicking on offense though. Last night it was B.Davis annihilating the Dallas D. The next night it will need to be J.Rich or Harrington.

Dallas is going to have to play more defense than it's comfortable with and that will break their offensive rhythm enough I hope to allow GS to take the series in 6 or 7.

 

Mavs have their hands full...

GO GSW!

 

I don't really think don nelson took any pages out of any books except his own. guarding dirk with a long player isn't something jvg invented. tmac did great that series, but the plan was pretty much to guard dirk 1 on 1. nelson had long players guarding dirk, but sent second defenders at him as soon as dirk starting going to his spin move. they also fronted dirk, which the rockets don't do. nelson basically knows dirk inside and out, so i don't think he needed any tips from anybody on how to defend him.

 

I'm not saying Nelson pulled a page out of our book but just saying it's been shown to be more effective to guard Dirk with a short but long player with speed than it is to guard him with a traditional 4 spot player. You're right though that Don knows Dirk inside out and knows what bothers him. You're not going to stop Dirk consistently but at least you can make him work and that is exactly what GS is doing to all the key players of Dallas.

Let's hope they can keep it up.

 

My thoughts on the loss:
-This is one of the many reasons AJ may not have been wise to basically forfeit their last meeting a week ago. Maybe he didn't want to tip his hand, maybe he wanted to rest his guys, but they can't wait for the series to start before they work on figuring out the Warriors.

-If I'm a Mavs fan, I'm most worried about Dirk disappearing again. He's been unreliable in the playoffs for at least the last two years, and when he sinks so do his teammates. Either someone else needs to learn how to take over games for him or he has to find a way to go to the next level in the postseason. This will be a bigger and bigger problem each round deeper they get.

-The Mark Cuban face is priceless.

-Nelly had a 6 and 1/2 man rotation, and the scary thing is, they have the energy to pull it off. Small ball basically forces Avery to put Dampier and Diop on ice, but they don't have the energy to make up for the forcibly shortened rotation. Dallas isn't made up of mustangs like they were in the Nash/Finley/Dirk era.

Dallas should still pull this off, but they're going to have a very tough time doing it.

Evan

Does he like toast or something?

 

the pics remind me a lot of the movie 300! they look real hungry!

b diddy looks a bit like Kimbo

 

Just as long as the Warriors make it a longer series than we all expected, that should help the Rockets, especially if we ending up have a long series with the j*zz.

 

B-Diddy's beard >>>>>>> your boy Dirk Chokestki

It will be an absolute travesty when he gets the MVP. I have NEVER seen a supposed "superstar" struggle as much or as often as Dirk does in the playoffs. One time or two times and you can just put your hands up and say, "Hey, it happens". But when he consistently disappears in the playoffs, it becomes a problem.

You put Kobe or Wade or Lebron or T-Mac on that Dallas team and they wouldn't need to worry about that. But I don't know how you can brush aside the fact that he consistently struggles against much smaller players and his teammates have to keep carrying him throughout entire series at times.

The guy is the most inconsistent superstar I have ever seen in the playoffs. He can be brilliant or an absolute liability.

 

There are few things sweeter than watching the Mavs lose. Particularly in the playoffs.

But they have HUGE match-up problems with GS. This isn't a fluke...this is the 4th time in a row GS won. Dallas didn't all of a sudden get cold and GS got hot. They were playing neck and neck the entire game...until Dallas put them away in the 4th quarter IN DALLAS.

We'll see if Dallas can figure out a way to beat GS in game 2. But if they don't??? If they don't, GS wins this series.

 

Excellent analysis. If the Mavs loose this series, they will mentally crater. I don't think they can recover next season. They have pushed hard all year to get to the playoffs. To loose in the first round to the number eight seed would be devastating.

 

i thought that after last season...coming into this season.

they're regular season wizards.

 

Well technically, they did start the season "shell-shocked" by losing 4 straight. But eventually, they started playing some weak teams, and got their confidence back.

THAT is how schizophrenic this Mavs team is... soooo mentally unstable that they had a 67 win season, but still started it off with a 4 game losing streak because of the post-finals hangover.

Now, they've lost 7 of 8 to a team that just flat-out matches up with them well.

 

i wouldn't be surprised one bit if GS comes out in game 2 with:

Biedrins
Harrington
Barnes
Jackson
Davis

to start the game. They'll have Richardson and Ellis as their 6th and 7th guys off the bench.

 

Yeah..I'm not so sure this is a mental thing, ya know. I think it gets worse for them mentally each time they fall behind this team. But I think this is a pure basketball matchup problem. 7/8 and 4 in a row to a team...i think that's more than just "in their head."

They're too talented not to win a bunch of regular season games. And, as you say, there's too many other really weak teams out there to fatten up against.

 

dallas is going to have their hands full. People talk about how much better defensively they are, and to a certain extent its true on an individual basis but their team defense is not that good.

 

Totally agree... the matchups are there.

But I saw a lot of the "mental" weakness that they displayed in the finals (and in 04-05) show its ugly head last night. The constant flopping/complaining for calls (they were getting calls all night... consistently... had way more FT's... and STILL felt slighted by the refs), Dirk looking and acting helpless with fronts/double teams (and admitting as much so in the post-game press conference), Avery switching his lineup before the game (signficantly weakening their bench, and eliminating Dampier from the game before it even starts),

In the end, they're likely deep enough to overcome the lack of a superstar with a killer instinct. They wouldn't have beaten us in 05 without Terry lighting it up, and having no fear to take over. Same goes for having us guard Stackhouse with a 6'1 Wesley. In the end, they were too much... the question is, does Terry still have that in him? (haven't seen it in awhile), and is Stackhouse young enough? Because, its the SOS from Dirk.

 

Great points...who steps up when Dirk doesn't?? I think you're right..that's real questionable.

 

The thing about the Warriors is that they're zoning everything. With that, the Mavericks can't pinpoint a defensive weakness long enough to exploit it. The Warriors are comfortable enough with their defense that they don't mind switching on defense in a pick and roll situation (a staple play between Dirk and Terry).

It's like "Ok Jason, you want Baron to guard you or do you want Harrington or Jackson to guard you" and either one of those players will do just fine against Terry.