Meet The Mavs: For Dallas Fan, It's Like Looking in a Mirror at Your Former Self

[cly2tw]

Clippers were, and Spurs would have been, a much harder matchup problem for the Suns than Mavs. Brand and Duncan are just nightmares for us. Maggette and Cassell were harder to cover for us than anyone on Mavs besides Dirk.

Dirk has been the revelation in the payoffs. We will throw different looks at him and he will have his points. But he just isn't the Brand type of brute inforcer who could score inside at will on us. From last year's experience, Howard, Stack and Terry would cause a lot of problem. But Marion who couldn't really defend Howard last year improved his perimeter defense a lot and Bell will shut out any of the three who is just gone hot. So, defensively, I'm not worried as much as with Clippers or Spurs.

On offense, without Amare, we don't have that killing P&R anymore, but we have expanded our offensive varieties a lot. Anyone can do a pick/screen and switch to create a potential mismatch to our favor. And TT, Diaw will post problems for the Mavs they not experienced on the Suns team even late in the regular season. With two tough series, every youngster including James Jones become extremely confident. Without a shot blocker of the caliber of Brand or even Kaman, they'd put a lot of pressure on Mavs' defense. Oh, and LB will be even more effective than he was for the same reason. Also, Bell will be able to post up problem for either Harris or Terry while drawing a lot of offensive fouls from Howard and Stack.

In general, the Mavs have over the Clippers only the intangibles like Dirk's will, AJ's coaching and generally more hunger and experience. This will be an interesting series for sure, but I really like the Suns chance, particularly if they learned the lesson from game 7 win vs the Clippers and reduce Nash's ball handling time to save his energy selectively.

Sorry, Mavs' fans, this is year is your only window of opportunity for the title, yet the new Suns will be just too good to let you guys profit on it.

 

[Gaddabout]

The Mavs are a better halfcourt team than the Clippers. What they lack in brute force they more than make up for with balance and efficiency as well as better veteran play. Have no doubt the Suns will not outscore the Mavs 45-0 behind the 3-point line, and they're much less likely to get suckered into the Suns pace. The Mavs are much better at making the extra pass on offense, and their interior passing is light years ahead of the Clips.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Someone spoke of Steve's will. If you don't know what that looks like, get a replay of Dirk whirling past Bowen to tie game 7. Same look. Except Dirk is the guy who just led a mediocre German national team to the European Finals this year and was player of the year. The 2 best foriegn players, best friends-playoff enemies. It doesn't get any better than this.

Forget Dirk at your own peril. He has intangibles Kobe and Brand don't have. A. he's not a jerk, and B. He's been through some playoff wars, and just beat the NBA Champs with Duncan, Ginobli, Bowen and Parker all playing their best ball all year. That's 3 big time NBA stars and the runner up defensive player of the year.

Wow, two major things wrong with these paragraphs. First one, Ginobili was the problem with that play. It was acceptable that Bowen gets beat by Dirk on that play, why? Because the Spurs would have still been up 1 with about 21 seconds left on the clock. So that means that Dallas has to foul and it becomes a free throw game. The ending of the game would have been much different if Ginobili doesn't foul here, although I cannot say the ending would have been the same.

Second, you may have meant to separate the two, but you stated that Kobe is a jerk and has not been through playoff wars, right and wrong respectively. You stated that Brand was a jerk and has not been through playoff wars, wrong and right respectively.

Eventhough you might have wanted to separate those, you'd might want to articulate better so your statements stay true.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

...oh and M3fan, I thank you for coming into this forum and have not been a troll. Your posts are intelligent, even if there are reasons to disagree with them.

Thanks, and we hope that you stick around for the series.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Someone spoke of Steve's will. If you don't know what that looks like, get a replay of Dirk whirling past Bowen to tie game 7. Same look. Except Dirk is the guy who just led a mediocre German national team to the European Finals this year and was player of the year. The 2 best foriegn players, best friends-playoff enemies. It doesn't get any better than this.

Forget Dirk at your own peril. He has intangibles Kobe and Brand don't have. A. he's not a jerk, and B. He's been through some playoff wars, and just beat the NBA Champs with Duncan, Ginobli, Bowen and Parker all playing their best ball all year. That's 3 big time NBA stars and the runner up defensive player of the year.

Back court experience. Terry has his mental farts and Harris is immature. Advantage PHX. But the Mavs this year have a defenssive system. Their rotations are pretty solid. Their team defense has been a constantly improving work in progress. We didn't have Terry for game 6 and Harris took off game 7. Still beat the champs. You have great guards, but are they really better than Parker and Ginobli?

Josh Howard will cover Marion. Shawn will have to work for his points.

I do know this. Avery has been thinking about how to cover the PHX pick and roll for about 355 days. He was embarrased by it before. And that's whats different about this years Mavs. Its not the players. It's the personality transplant from a hard nosed rookie coach who, as a player, once got cut on Christmas eve, who later hit the championship winning shot. WHat the Spurs just learned is that the Mavs are now as tough as their old teammate. That's why in Dallas, we believe.

Just some things to understand here. When the Suns are on, like they were on Monday night, they are unbeatable--by anyone. Dunleavy said exactly that. There is nothing you can do when the threes start raining down. The Clips were the best perimeter defending team in the league and they couldn't stop it.

This is not last year's Suns. There are many, many more weapons. The Spurs ended up beating us last year by playing our game. The Mavs will have to do the same. If they run and gun with us and beat us--fine, they are the better team. But they will not be able to ride Dirk's back to do it. EVERYONE on the team will have to be contributing offensively.

Oh, and about Avery figuring out how to cover the pick and roll--every coach in the league has been trying to figure that out for years. Its the bread and butter play of the NBA and no one yet has shut it down. Avery is a great guy, and disciplinarian and a motivator, but I doubt he has the genius to do what Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Larry Brown and many others haven't.

 

[Bada0Bing]

jeez man, give the guy a break. He's said "Marion-body type" not actually comparing Howard and Daniels to Marion and he's right. And I think our two quick PGs are Nash and Barbs, which he's right about there as well. Besdies, he's said he's only watched 4 games and his knowledge of us is better than most trolls we get here and he's not being a douche or anything. Give the guy a break.

I mean most everyone here is talking about how great Marion plays Dirk, but in reality, this is a MUCH better Dirk than we've ever seen and he torched Marion's ass for 30 points a game this year, but you don't seem to be going off on any of us.

I just don't understand why a contrary opinion has to be met with "you're clueless" which is basically what you're saying when you say "you've lost all respect".. come on - this guy started a good thoughtful thread and he gets this kind of guff - if that' the way it's gonna be, we might as well ban him right now.

Cheese, you’re right. I apologize to M3Man. I was a little fired up when I posted that. I should have said that I disagree with your assessment there. I definitely appreciate the intelligent discussion that M3Man brings. Much better than what we’ve seen from the LA crowd.

 

[jenna2891]

Well, Brand didnt come off as a jerk in the last series, but I do usually root for dirk (except now) because I dont hate him (unlike Kobe)

man, you've been slacking lately. let me fix this for you.

 

[jenna2891]

Well, Brand didnt come off as a jerk in the last series

 

[jenna2891]

but I do usually root for dirk

 

[jenna2891]

(except now)

 

[jenna2891]

because I dont hate him

 

[jenna2891]

(unlike Kobe)

 

[Joe Mama]

If the Phoenix Suns get hot from beyond the arc they can win this series. If not, they will lose in 5-6 games.

While I don't agree with everything our new friends said, he's right on with most of it. Dirk will give Shawn Marion more trouble this year. That's why I think we are going to see Boris and even TT spends some time on him.

On the other end of the court I expect Josh Howard to give Shawn Marion a lot of trouble. If Avery Johnson is as smart as Mavericks fans believe this will be number one on his priority list. He needs to pull Josh Howard aside and tell him that it doesn't matter what else he does on the court. He needs to shut down Shawn Marion. This is not very difficult if you are committed to it.

If I'm the Phoenix Suns on giving Boris Diaw the ball a lot. I don't think anybody on the Mavericks can cover him. He'll only stop himself. He has got to be aggressive, especially against Dirk Nowitzki. He can get Dirk in foul trouble early quite easily.

I'll bet harassed scores at least 15 points tonight. Steve Nash can not guard either him or Terry. They are both too fast.

I think this series will be decided by the Phoenix Suns outside shooting.

On last year's playoffs please do not forget that JJ missed the last five games of the Dallas series and the first three games of the San Antonio series. With a healthy JJ the Dallas series would not have even made it to six games, and the Suns would have given San Antonio more trouble.

Oh yeah, welcome to the messageboard.

Joe Mama

 

[playstation]

m3man,

awesome post bro, makes absolute sense to me. i think you're on point on most things, and only disagree with little snippets that don't really contribute to your main point (the dj benga thing for one).

3 things:

-Don't look at what happens this year as a sign of things in the future. remember, amare is out, and he will be back next year. if we're able to give you a fight without a top 3 big man, that doesn't bode well for you when he's healthy.

-During the year, you had no answer for Diaw. We'll see how good Avery is at adjusting. Very hard to prepare for a player like him.

-Ahmad Rashad interviewed Jordan in 1998 before he won his final title. Asked him where he was still superior to the competition. he said, he wasn't faster, stronger, or in some cases even smarter than the opposition. he said, the one thing he had going for him was his will. in order to beat MJ, you had to bend his will, and he felt that at that point, it really wasn't possible. he was right.

like many have mentioned already, there is no reason to believe the suns win this, except that i see in nash that same will, specifically with regard to playing his former team. its very hard to put a finger on why, and really carries no merit in a logical discussion, yet there it is anyways. i just can't see Nash at this point in his career letting Cuban get the best of him. He is going to play out of his mind again. remember, last year, same guys guarding him he gets 30/13/7 for the series. we'll see if that's enough.

i think game 1 proved points 2 and 3.

 

[Nash]

where is the great M3Man now? I thought he wanted to have intelligent conversation? I want to too!

Where the f is he now?

 

[BillsCarnage]

Great post.

Welcome to the board.

Ditto.

 

[arthurracoon]

 

[elindholm]

Bump -- just thought we might want to take stock of this now that it's 2-2.