Biernutz
11-10-2008, 05:16 PM
Dirk questions effort after loss to Clippers
Nov 09, 2008
David Moore
Dallas Morning News
LOS ANGELES -- Josh Howard's absence didn't come close to explaining the Mavericks latest disappointment.
Pick on the defense if you want. The Los Angeles Clippers did. Of course, the Mavericks offense didn't exactly inspire poetry.
Poor defense and bad offense will do a team in every time, even when the opponent is a Clippers team that had been winless until Sunday's 103-92 breakthrough. But that only scratches the surface as to what bothers the Mavericks these days.
After the team's fourth loss of the young season, Dirk Nowitzki questioned the team's effort and said it has been coasting.
"If you don't compete hard, it's not about Xs and Os,'' Nowitzki said. "You can run whatever play you want. You can have all the schemes you want defensively. We've just got to push ourselves to play harder.
"I don't know what it is. I don't know what's going on. We don't leave it all out there, and that's what you've got to do.''
The pattern has become all too familiar in this 2-4 start. The Mavericks fall behind, fight their way back then don't have enough left in the tank at the end of the game to pull it out.
On this afternoon the Mavericks overcame an 11-point second half deficit to tie the score at 79-all with 8:10 left. The Mavericks then watched the Clippers reel off 13 unanswered points.
"It's a continuing theme,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "Dig a hole, battle hard, get tied, sometimes get a lead and then they went on a [13-0] run.
"We're behind where we want to be.''
Look now and the Mavericks are behind Memphis in the Southwest Division.
Not only did the Mavericks offense miss Howard, they missed Jason Terry's production for the better part of the game. The team's second leading scorer missed his first 11 shots and finished 3-of-15 from the field. The Mavericks shot 41.4 percent as a team and scraped together only nine fast break points.
"For us, that's one of our strengths,'' point guard Jason Kidd said. "If we can't get out and run that puts a lot of pressure on our defense.''
A defense that allowed the Clippers to place six players in double-figures and score 19 points above their season average.
"We've got to find out how we're going to get some stops,'' Kidd said.
Nowitzki believes they need to find themselves.
"We've got to compete,'' Nowitzki said. "That's on the players, on every single one of us.
"We've got to cut harder. We've got to defend harder. We've got to rebound hard. I just think we're coasting too much right now.
"We're not good enough to coast, as you saw tonight.''
This and that
Josh Howard did not play Sunday because of a sprained left wrist but the team remains hopeful he will be ready to play Tuesday against the LA Lakers. Gerald Green started in his place and finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. "Gerald did some good things out there,'' coach Rick Carlisle said...Jason Kidd picked up a flagrant foul late in the fourth quarter when he fouled Al Thornton on a drive to the basket. He disagreed with the call.
http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/dirk-questions-effort-after-loss-to-clip.html
Nov 09, 2008
David Moore
Dallas Morning News
LOS ANGELES -- Josh Howard's absence didn't come close to explaining the Mavericks latest disappointment.
Pick on the defense if you want. The Los Angeles Clippers did. Of course, the Mavericks offense didn't exactly inspire poetry.
Poor defense and bad offense will do a team in every time, even when the opponent is a Clippers team that had been winless until Sunday's 103-92 breakthrough. But that only scratches the surface as to what bothers the Mavericks these days.
After the team's fourth loss of the young season, Dirk Nowitzki questioned the team's effort and said it has been coasting.
"If you don't compete hard, it's not about Xs and Os,'' Nowitzki said. "You can run whatever play you want. You can have all the schemes you want defensively. We've just got to push ourselves to play harder.
"I don't know what it is. I don't know what's going on. We don't leave it all out there, and that's what you've got to do.''
The pattern has become all too familiar in this 2-4 start. The Mavericks fall behind, fight their way back then don't have enough left in the tank at the end of the game to pull it out.
On this afternoon the Mavericks overcame an 11-point second half deficit to tie the score at 79-all with 8:10 left. The Mavericks then watched the Clippers reel off 13 unanswered points.
"It's a continuing theme,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "Dig a hole, battle hard, get tied, sometimes get a lead and then they went on a [13-0] run.
"We're behind where we want to be.''
Look now and the Mavericks are behind Memphis in the Southwest Division.
Not only did the Mavericks offense miss Howard, they missed Jason Terry's production for the better part of the game. The team's second leading scorer missed his first 11 shots and finished 3-of-15 from the field. The Mavericks shot 41.4 percent as a team and scraped together only nine fast break points.
"For us, that's one of our strengths,'' point guard Jason Kidd said. "If we can't get out and run that puts a lot of pressure on our defense.''
A defense that allowed the Clippers to place six players in double-figures and score 19 points above their season average.
"We've got to find out how we're going to get some stops,'' Kidd said.
Nowitzki believes they need to find themselves.
"We've got to compete,'' Nowitzki said. "That's on the players, on every single one of us.
"We've got to cut harder. We've got to defend harder. We've got to rebound hard. I just think we're coasting too much right now.
"We're not good enough to coast, as you saw tonight.''
This and that
Josh Howard did not play Sunday because of a sprained left wrist but the team remains hopeful he will be ready to play Tuesday against the LA Lakers. Gerald Green started in his place and finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. "Gerald did some good things out there,'' coach Rick Carlisle said...Jason Kidd picked up a flagrant foul late in the fourth quarter when he fouled Al Thornton on a drive to the basket. He disagreed with the call.
http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/dirk-questions-effort-after-loss-to-clip.html