I think the key is to Yao was not very effective against Mavs this year. Shawn Bradley defened him really well... BTW, am I the only one that thinks the best center in Houston right now is not from China?
The way for us to beat Dallas is to hope and pray that we can just slow down Dirk to about 30 ppg and then have Yao average about 18-20 ppg. No one else on thier team really scares me. Finley is having a down year and Terry can get really wild at times. Van Horn and Stackhouse can all be held by our role players. If T-mac brings his A game (which we all expect) then I see us pulling out a tough 6 or 7 game series. Saying all this, I would still rather play the Sonics.
Many of these are good points. Crash the boards, Get yao involved early, Players hit open shots, etc... I think we have a great chance to beat Dallas. We split the series. We won one home and away game vs Dallas. I personally think Houston vs Dallas and SA vs Denver will be the first round series to watch in the WC. Although if all else fails, we can pull a Temple basketball coach John Chaney ploy and have either Vin Baker or Moochie go in and have them crack some skulls... j/k.
I dont want to see the rockets blowing the Mavericks out in three of games and losing the other 4 by a small margin. We do need to do a bit more than get more points than they do.
Well, I just have a feeling that we may see TMac on Dirk during some part of the game. Maybe even in closing minutes when the game is very tight.
I think there are 3 big factors Pace: Something the JVG is sure to dictate this pretty well. San Antonio was able to beat Dallas two years ago by simply playing their style of ball. Yes Dirk got injured halfway through the series, but I think San Antonio still would've won. There's very little chance we'll be able to outgun Dallas. If there's one thing the Rockets have shown this season, is the ability to close out close games. As long as we stay level-headed and keep the game close, we can pull off an upset. Rebounding: We absolutely need to crash the glass. Dallas is a team that will make you pay for giving up offensive boards. Physicality: With the exception of Dampier, Dallas is a pretty soft team. We just have to be as physical with them as possible and hope the refs swallow their whistles. If Dirk continues to get those phantom foul calls go in his favor, there's nothing we can do about it. As for Yao, hopefully Dampier's physical play will light a fire under his ass.
Good post I totally agree about controlling the pace and playing our style. We have to score. We have to keep it close..never let them get too ahead if they do get ahead..we should maintain control of score and pace and tempo. And rebounding..secure the rebounds! We can do that with preparation and focus and good execution. Physicality sounds good. Wesley and Sura are pretty rough. We don't want any injuries. But I really want to see Yao get mad and start owning
I'm afraid that our physicality might work against us. Not in the sense that we aren't gritty enough but due to the fact that the refs are Dirk nuthuggers. If a Rocket so much as passes gas in Dirks direction, our guy will get a tech, a flagrant, and Dirk will go to the line while whining about the rough play the whole time.
On defense, Bowen can force Dirk into low percentage outside shots but down low he would need help defense - which would result in open 3's for the rest of Dallas' players. One problem in defensing Dallas is that they can run it or play halfcourt effectively as well. They also have so many legit veteran scorers that you cannot just key in on shutting down one particular guy. On offense, I think we need to pound the ball inside as much as possible and initiate the offense on the low block. This is where having Juwan as an extra post-up option would have really helped us against this team. Dallas' bread and butter is playing the perimeter passing lanes and forcing steals to get easy transition baskets. We also need to control the boards in order to have a chance of winning as well, IMO. It's really a shame to me to have played so well to get up to the 5th seed, only to now meet up with who I think is the team we match up worst with. I hope we can pull it out but if it was my money I'd have to say Mavs in 6.
dirk is gonna be able to save all of his energy for offense. we need to make him play D. i don't tihnk we will ever feature spoon, padgett, or bowen on O. we should try a line-up of: yao tmac barry wesley sura or james. give that line-up a lot of time. we will be able to make quick defensive rotations so they don't get open shots. we will still be a good rebounding team (yao and tmac are good on the boards). and dirk will have to guard tmac witch will wear anyone out.
Mentioned this in another thread, but Jason Terry is playing damn good basketball right now. He's gonna tear us up.
You're right, I think Norwitzky shot like 20+ freethrows one time against us and we lost even though TMac scored 40 points in that game. As good a free throw shooter Dirk is, we need to put someone on him to harrasse him but not overdo it and foul him because it's like giving him two points. Weatherspoon can't defend Dirk that effectively, I think we might see a Mutumbo on Norwitzky playing some PF for us.
it was a joke the fact is if you score more points than the other team you win, correct? thats the basis of the whole thing
Ya I forgot to mention Nitwitski's spazz attacks when he feels any contact. He customarily goes into convulsive seizures in order to leave no doubt to the surrounding refs, commentators, fans in the stands, and even fans in the john, that he has indeed taken a hit. Two of his teammates are also much storied for their non-stop whining to the refs.....Stackhouse and Bradley.
Ughhh, Rox please beat Dallas.... Mav fans are already talking about playing Phoenix in the 2nd round on their forum....
I think you are on to something. We MUST make Dirk play defense during the game or he will wear us out on the offensive end. I doubt we start off with the small lineup you mention, but it will be tried at some point during the series to see if it gives us an advantage. I wonder if the Mavs would leave Dampier in or not. If so, who would Dirk guard on defense if Dampier took Yao? It would a huge advantage for us if he took T-Mac. If Dampier is not in, who in the world would Yao guard if T-Mac took Dirk? Just a thought.
I think the key will be defensive rotation. Even when the Rockets were still losing to the Mavs consistently, they would keep the game close until they all of sudden decided to stop playing the 3. It may be counter-intuitive given Yao's propensity to foul, but it would make sense to overplay the perimter.
