Western Conference Semifinals Game 3- Suns @ Mavericks Game Thread

[sunsfn]

That was a great suns win!

The suns really stepped up in this game, and give some credit to D'antoni for this win. He is outcoaching the little general "big time".

Eddie Johnson and others have said over the years that the aggresive teams get the calls. In the first half last night dallas was more aggresive than the
suns, (other than Amare) in the 2nd half, the suns were definitely more aggresive than dallas.

The least aggresive team tends to reach and foul more, and the refs do favor the star players, but not the whole team in any game.

 

[jibikao]

Mavs took 27 FT and Suns took 22 FT.

You can hardly see any "favors" Suns was getting. I mean we were in serious foul trouble at the Half!

 

[BleedRed]

Great game by the suns last night. Nash played like the MVP, Amare was awesome, and Jimmy Jackson stepped up w/JJ out and had a big time game.
Go Suns!!!!!

 

[jbeecham]

Man, what a whiny little b*tch Avery Johnson is:

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH AVERY JOHNSON:
This was a very disappointing loss. To come back home after we got the split in Phoenix and play the way we played, especially in the second half, is very disappointing. We didn’t shoot the three very well, but the most disappointing thing was we didn’t attempt a free throw in the fourth quarter. Take your hats off to the Suns. All of their starters played 41 minutes or more and they all looked like they could play some more. We need to learn how to fight fatigue a little bit more. We didn’t fight adversity tonight and we will get back to the drawing board and make some adjustments and be ready to play on Sunday.

(On settling for jumpshots)
We shot some jumpshots, but I thought we took the ball to the basket very strong. For some reason, we just never made it to the free throw line.

(On Dampier’s early foul trouble)
It hurts us. He plays 5 minutes in the first quarter. Maybe the next time in that situation I will leave him in because we need him out on the court. You saw the difference from the last game when he played well and made a difference on the court. We even made a little run in the fourth quarter when he was in the game. We don’t have anybody that can play physical with Stoudemire. Every time he gets in trouble we have to go small, so hopefully he can stay out of foul trouble.

(On Nowitzki)
I think you saw a lot of the time they were triple-teaming him. I thought he took the ball to the basket really strong. The amount of free throws he took was really not indicative of how strong he took the ball to the basket. The real sad part about this, and the thing with me is no excuses, but the fact is that Dirk is a MVP caliber player and he is one of the least respected MVP caliber players that I have ever been associated with. When you talk about Shaq, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Steve Nash, but if you look at the type of year he had, it was as good as anybody. He takes the ball strong to the basket, he plays the game, plays defense, he does it all but he is the least respected.

Did we ever triple team Dirk? We doubled him sporadically, but I don't remember any triple teams. If Dirk plays such great defense then why isn't he guarding Amare? I love his comment about how he doesn't make excuses.......oh except the refs are why we lost, we don't get respect, dampier's in foul trouble, etc etc etc.

 

[elindholm]

Sounds like Avery Johnson still has a bit to learn in the "working the refs" department.

 

[Amare32]

I will be surprised If Avery doesn't get fined.

 

[sunsfn]

It appears that Avery has a lot to learn as a coach.

Right about now, Cuban might be wishing that Nelson was still coach.

(there is also that small item of not resigning his point guard!!)

 

[SirStefan32]

I had to work last night, so I taped the game and just watched it, and all I can say is WOW. Everybody stepped up, from Stoudemire and Nash to Marion and Jimmy Jack.

Man, they just ran over Dallas like a speeding SUV over a cat.

Go Suns!

 

[cly2tw]

Mavs got more calls than they deserved. The call on Amare for swinging elbow against Henderson and pushing Dirk after a defensive rebound were really bad calls. They realized that right away and did makeup calls later, one no-goaltending of Amare's block and another one that they gave to someone else (Nash?) that led to a technical on Avery Johnson for protesting.

They called foul on Q while the replay showed clearly that he got all ball at Stack's driving attempt. Dirk was initiating contact a lot, but most of the time the defender had a good position at the first contact and would get bumped into moving. So the refs were not calling fouls when he lost balance after the defender stepped away from the first contact.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

Good point above me man, the refs are idiots but they are doing the best they can.