Nuggets At Mavs Previews Game Three

[duncan228]

Denver at Dallas Preview (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid=2009050906&prov=ap)
Game info: 5:00 pm EDT Sat May 9, 2009
TV: ESPN
By Stephen Hawkins

Sure, the Dallas Mavericks have distractions.

Josh Howard sat out practice Thursday because of his sprained right ankle and the sore left one that has bothered him much of the season. Dirk Nowitzki faced questions about the arrest of a woman at his home.

There is also that little on-the-court issue against the Denver Nuggets— that whole one about losing both games at Denver to start the Western Conference semifinal series.

“Being down 2-0, we’ve definitely got a distraction in the sense we didn’t play in the fourth quarter,” Jason Kidd said following the Mavericks’ first practice since losing Game 2 on Tuesday night. “The game late gets a little bit out of hand.”

And so will the series if the Mavs aren’t able to change that trend in Game 3 Saturday in Dallas.

“We’ve got to keep scoring, we’ve got to keep making baskets and not allow them to run out and get easy plays,” Jason Terry said. “You turn the ball over, they get a layup. You miss a shot, they get a layup. That has kind of been repetitive.”

The Nuggets have been physical and fast in this series, outscoring the Mavericks 54-13 in fastbreak points so far. And they have been best when it counts most.

Denver only led by three at the start of the fourth quarter in Game 2, then went on a 16-2 run before winning 117-105. That came after a 14-point Game 1 victory accomplished in similar fashion.

After five consecutive first-round exits for Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets, they are 6-1 this postseason with the wins by an average margin of 25 points—take out the 58-point rout at New Orleans and it is still a 15-point margin.

“The city’s on fire right now. We’re loving it.” Anthony said. “We just want to keep giving it to (the fans). … Hopefully we can keep it going as long as possible.”

Their only loss in the postseason was 95-93 in Game 3 at New Orleans, when the Nuggets scored the first 10 points, had a 20-6 lead and couldn’t hold on. So is that a lesson learned for Denver when going to the opposing court for the first time in a series.

“There’s a growing up process that some of our guys haven’t gone through. We made a mistake in Game 3 in Round 1,” coach George Karl said. “We’ve talked about maybe being a little too happy and to be a confident team but understanding that being hungry and humble is better than being cocky and arrogant.”

While the Mile High City is excited, there are questions in Big D about Howard’s health and Nowitzki’s personal life.

Howard, who missed 22 games in the regular season because of his left ankle, sprained the right one in Game 1 and was limited to only a few early minutes in Game 2. He didn’t stop to talk to reporters at the end of practice Thursday, when he rode a stationary bicycle.

“We’re hoping that he’ll be able to go Saturday, but can’t give you a definite (answer) at this point,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

Nowitzki offered no explanation about the arrest of a woman at his home and declined comment when asked about his relationship with Cristal Taylor, who was apprehended on a probation violation and theft of services warrants Wednesday before the team had returned from Denver.

“It’s pretty obvious that I’m going through a tough time in my personal life right now,” he said. “I’m not at the stage where I can talk about it yet and feel comfortable talking about it.”

But Nowitzki, who has scored 28 and 35 points so far in the series, said he would be ready for Game 3 and was “focusing in on basketball as much as I can.”

Terry said there is no reason to be concerned about Nowitzki.

“He was in here at practice (Thursday), going hard and we were going at it,” Terry said. “Everybody’s focus here is on Game 3 and getting that first W.”

Notes

Nuggets:

April 22 G Chauncey Billups' previous playoff high for threes was seven at Orlando in 2003, and his regular season high was also seven, which he accomplished three times, the last on Jan. 11, 2004, against Dallas. ... C Nene briefly left the game after getting poked in his left eye by Devin Brown late in the third quarter. ... Grammy-award winning rapper Lil Wayne, a native of New Orleans, had a front-row seat.

Mavs:

G Jason Terry finished with 16 points for Dallas, which suffered one of the worst losses in the playoff rivalry. ... Dallas failed to send the Spurs to consecutive home playoff losses for the first time since 2002.

Team Stat Leaders

Points
Carmelo Anthony Den 22.8
Dirk Nowitzki Dal 25.9

Rebounds
Nene Hilario Den 7.8
Dirk Nowitzki Dal 8.4

Assists
Chauncey Billups Den 6.4
Jason Kidd Dal 8.7

Team Comparison
Team Record Standings PF PA Road/Home Streak L10

Denver 54-28 1st Northwest / 2nd West 104.3 100.9 Road 21-20 Lost 1 8-2

Dallas 50-32 3rd Southwest / 6th West 101.7 99.8 Home 32-9 Won 2 7-3

[Ghazi]

Backdoor fucking sweep

[Phonzie20]

I'm feeling pretty comfortable about going to the WCF right now.

This is new territory for me (outside of a second round during the 93-94 season) so I'm just enjoying the ride.

I'm not looking past Dallas btw. Just feeling said 'comfortable'.

[pauls931]

ESPN just reported the Mavericks have a 6% chance of coming back.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KX5jNnDMfxA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KX5jNnDMfxA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[monoslyab1k]

This Josh injury might be a blessing in disguise. We're a better team without him anyway, on both ends of the court.

[Imposter Cleaner]

You guys are pathetic, those two teams are both old and won't have many good years to play. The future of this league belongs to Thunder and other young teams, though the Mavs are still more likely to step into the WCF.

[balli]

lol Lloyd Christmas

Why the hell aren't these teams playing until Saturday? I sat through the entire Cavs blowout expecting to see this game tonight. I didn't even think it was going to be good, but I was expecting to see it. 5 days off? WTF is that shit?

[VI_Massive]

This Josh injury might be a blessing in disguise. We're a better team without him anyway, on both ends of the court.

Are you kidding? He makes them a really good team. Without him they are a borderline playoff team.

[Imposter Cleaner]

Are you kidding? He makes them a really good team. Without him they are a borderline playoff team.
I think the honorable high-famed monoslyab1k means Josh Howard isn't as good as the other four players in Mavs lineup, but I disagree with him. Probably Josh Howard is the 3rd best small forward in the whole league, the two guys ahead of him are Lebron James and Kevin Durant.

[angelbelow]

I think the honorable high-famed monoslyab1k means Josh Howard isn't as good as the other four players in Mavs lineup, but I disagree with him. Probably Josh Howard is the 3rd best small forward in the whole league, the two guys ahead of him are Lebron James and Kevin Durant.

are you touched in the head?

[KSeal]

Shit series, who cares, the Mavs suck massive ass and the Spurs suck even more massive ass cause they could only beat this shitty ass team once, hahaha. Series over in five.

[duncan228]

Updated.

Denver at Dallas Preview (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid=2009050906&prov=ap)
Game info: 5:00 pm EDT Sat May 9, 2009
TV: ESPN
By Jaime Aron

In their romp through the playoffs thus far, the Denver Nuggets have made only one mistake: blowing Game 3 of their first-round series.

Up 2-0 on the Hornets, and playing in New Orleans, the Nuggets jumped way ahead in the opening minutes—then wound up losing. They bounced back in a big way the next game and haven’t lost since.

On Saturday, Denver gets another Game 3 on the road, again while up 2-0. This time it’s against the Dallas Mavericks.

Have the Nuggets learned their lesson? Do they now understand the difference between a playoff road game and a regular-season road game?

Denver coach George Karl is eager to find out.

“Game 3 always has a sort of home-court intensity that big-time pros know how to take advantage of, and I think Dallas is made up of big-time pros,” Karl said. “They’re going to have a home-court energy that’s going to be more than New Orleans was. It’s going to be hotter. It’s going to be a hot building where we’re going to have to keep 48 minutes of composure and focus and make sure we stay on track and on point to how to win the game.”

The Nuggets haven’t had many problem with the Mavericks so far, using their size and strength to bully their way to the basket seemingly at will. Both games have featured stretches when everything came easy for Denver and nothing was easy for Dallas.

Yet the Mavericks haven’t been total bystanders. In both games, they led early and got close with about a quarter left. The difference has been Denver pulling away and Dallas unable to stop it.

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle and staff have had three days to come up with some new strategies and some backups in case those don’t work. There’s also been time for Josh Howard to rest his ailing ankles. And there’s the twin comforts of being home (where Dallas is 17-1 since mid-February) and being out of Denver’s high altitude.

“Coming home is something that can help you, but it doesn’t guarantee anything,” Carlisle said Friday. “Our whole game’s got to get better. There are a lot of things we can do in the first three quarters that will help us be in better shape going into the fourth.”

Dirk Nowitzki is always Dallas’ main man, but perhaps especially so Saturday. He’s spent the days since Game 2 dealing with the arrest of a woman who was living at his house and the fallout from it, including constant media attention. Having a game to play should be a great release, and fans are likely to show him plenty of support.

“Watching him prepare the last two days, he looks like he’s focused, ready to go,” guard Jason Terry said.

In going 6-1 this postseason, Denver has won by margins of 12 points to 58. No nail-biters—well, except for that 97-95 loss to New Orleans in Game 3.

“It’s easy while you’re winning and you’re in front,” Terry said. “We’ll see what happens if we put a little pressure on them, come out and handle our business in Game 3 and see what happens in the next one after that.”

Then again, the Nuggets are 6-0 against the Mavericks this season. They have won twice in Dallas, including that lone home loss by the Mavs the last three months, a fact Denver’s Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin insisted Friday they didn’t know.

“We’re just trying to be better than we were in Game 2,” Martin said. “It’s going to be rowdy in here. We played here late in the year and it was loud. I can only imagine what it’s going to be like now. There’s a lot more at stake, so we’ve just got to stay together knowing we’re in enemy territory.”

Billups said he expects a more conservative approach, as in fewer risk-reward plays because part of the risk is giving up easy baskets that would fire up the crowd.

“A 9-0, 9-2 run makes the visiting team feel like it’s a lot worse when you’ve got good fans,” Billups said. “So we just got to control the tempo and not take as many chances offensively.”

Carmelo Anthony said the lessons from Game 3 against New Orleans should help, too.

“I just think the intensity and the energy that we started off that game with, and then we kind of let up, kind of got relaxed, kind of got complacent,” he said. “I think we’ve learned from that mistake.”

[duncan228]

Dallas Mavericks' success will be judged by next two games (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/050909dnspocowlishaw.3ddd133.html)
Tim Cowlishaw
Dallas Morning News

When the second-round playoff series moves to Texas this weekend, the intensity will be high and the games will be awesome.

But enough about the Rockets and Lakers.

It's the series that's coming to this town that I'm wondering if it's just getting started or already about to wrap up.

Denver's victories of 14 and 12 points over Dallas were pretty decisive in the Pepsi Arena. So now the Mavericks are faced with the task of needing to go 4-1 against a team that, to this point, it is 0-6 against.

That seems a little much to ask, doesn't it?

The Nuggets have dominated on the inside where you would expect their size to be a big problem for Dallas. But they have been better on the perimeter too.

I think the Mavericks have to win the next two games at American Airlines Center in order to register this as a successful season.

A six-game or seven-game loss to a team that has come on as strong as the Denver Nuggete have? Yeah, I'll take that and say that the Mavericks made strides in the right direction after two years of first-round defeats.

But if they get swept or go out in five and don't even protect their home court in this series?

Then I can't get too excited about a first-round victory that might not even have happened had the San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili been able to play.

If the Mavericks were a younger team, if they had a nucleus like the Portland TrailBlazers' with players in their early 20s, then sure any kind of progress would count as a stepping stone.

But when your three best players have been around as long as Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry (that's 35 NBA seasons), then I don't think a quick dismissal in the second round is enough to suggest things are back on track here.

There are two reasons I think the Mavericks have a chance to get back and compete in this series. One is that 17-1 home record after the All-Star break. Yes, that includes a loss to these same Nuggets, but Kidd didn't play in that game.

The second is that I think Denver's bench advantage will be minimized in the next two games. Bench players tend to be energy players, and they often feed off the home crowd.

When Denver went to New Orleans for Game 3, they got next to nothing from the "Birdman" Chris Andersen (three points, three rebounds, no blocks) and Anthony Carter (one point). The Mavericks would really benefit from a reduction in what these two players and J.R. Smith have given Denver in this series.

However...

It's fairly clear right now that Josh Howard is not going to get to 100 percent in this series. Both of his ankles are hurting. Even with three days off between Games 2 and 3, that probably won't be enough to get Howard back to the level he reached in the San Antonio series.

And, if you recall, Nowitzki and Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle called Howard the "team's MVP" in that series.

That means getting a lot more from the team's role players than we have seen in the first two games.

It means doing it against a team that is setting an NBA record for margin of victory (21 points per game).

It means doing it against a team that responded to its two-point loss to the Hornets in Game 3 with an NBA record 58-point road victory in Game 4.

As TNT's Charles Barkley said on KRLD-FM (105.3 The Fan) Wednesday, "Denver's only played one bad quarter in the entire playoffs."

The Mavericks need a lot more than one bad Nuggets quarter to raise questions as to whether or not Denver is going to advance. But I don't think they are likely to get that.

[duncan228]

Dallas Mavericks vs. Denver Nuggets: Game 3 preview (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/basketball/mavs/stories/050909dnspomavscap.3409c02.html)
Dallas Morning News

Scouting the Nuggets

They are 6-1 in the playoffs, and their wins have been by an average of 24.8 points. ... Big men Nene, Kenyon Martin and Carmelo Anthony have destroyed the Mavericks' starting front line. They won Game 2, 62-39, and Game 1, 55-46. ... The Nuggets have 24 steals through two games, including 15 in Game 1, which was the most ever against the Mavericks in a playoff game. ... Chris Anderson remains the emotional spark plug of the Nuggets. He's averaging 9.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in this series.

Scouting the Mavericks

They are 2-0 at home in the playoffs this season, having pulled away down the stretch for comfortable wins against San Antonio. ... Jason Terry has been chilly through two games in the series, hitting 13 of 31 shots. However, he has shot 40 percent from 3-point range (6-of-15). ... The Nuggets have shot 33 more free throws than the Mavericks in this series. ... Expect Ryan Hollins to get a look early in the game, especially if the beginning of the game is not kind to Erick Dampier. The Mavericks cannot afford to get off to a sluggish start. Hollins' energy can help negate that.

[Sean Cagney]

This Josh injury might be a blessing in disguise. We're a better team without him anyway, on both ends of the court.

No you're not, he is the reason you guys got going late and passed the Spurs, he was key in that series. Thats just reality, he is a big part of their success when playing well.

[duncan228]

2-0 hole not too deep for Mavs (http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_12331104)
Mavericks know one win can turn around series
By Anthony Cotton
The Denver Post

DALLAS — In winning his three NBA championship rings, Mario Elie said he lost track of the number of times his Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs teams rallied from two-game deficits to win playoff series.

"At least seven or eight," he estimated.

But if Elie, now a Dallas Mavericks assistant coach, can't come up with an exact figure, he is well aware of the formula that seemingly downtrodden teams need to use.

"You can't be thinking about four games or five games, or even winning a series," Elie said Friday afternoon. "All you have to worry about is one, just winning one game."

At this point, down 2-0 to the Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals, that seems like a formidable challenge heading into Game 3 today. You know that a team is reeling when its players and coaches evoke the game's elite in describing the opposition, as Elie did when he said Denver, like the Eastern Conference front-running Cleveland Cavaliers, has yet to be tested this postseason.

That fact, added forward Dirk No- witzki, has given the Nuggets a headiness that has been tough to overcome.

"They've earned that swagger," Nowitzki said. "They ended the regular season great, and they got rid of New Orleans quick in the first round. I mean, I've never seen a team win a playoff game by almost 60 points, and on the road."

While Dallas has played tougher than New Orleans, the Mavericks have plenty of concerns. Like poor fourth-quarter play in the opening two games; like the questionable status of forward Josh Howard, who limped off the court in Game 2 with both ankles hurting.

Even having the series return to Texas offers no guarantees, admits head coach Rick Carlisle. Certainly home should provide more of a safe haven than it's been for Nowitzki, who got off the team plane Wednesday to news that his girlfriend had been arrested.

And while Carlisle on Friday called the incident "yesterday's news," he can't be sure that there won't be lingering distractions today.

Nowitzki's situation is just another factor in why, while very front and center, Carlisle is almost helpless in Dallas' quest to take back the momentum. The NBA has long been regarded as a "player's league," meaning that while coaches can X and O into the wee hours of the morning, if the men on the floor don't buy into it, it doesn't matter.

That connection between players and coaching staff is what Nuggets coach George Karl lacked in Denver until the arrival this season of Chauncey Billups, and why he jokes that he's always telling Spurs coach Gregg Popovich that "he's never coached in the NBA — he's always had David Robinson and Tim Duncan" — two all-stars who've always been in sync with the head coach and able to police the team.

On Friday, Carlisle spoke of some strategic things the Mavericks might hope to accomplish today to combat a Denver team that "has hurt us in a lot of areas." There may, for example, be a change in the way Dallas defends Nuggets center Nene, who has torched the team for 49 points in the opening two games.

"They're an active team and he's an active guy, and because of that he's been the beneficiary of their ability to move the ball around when we're double-teaming," Car- lisle said. "We've been working on some things to shore that up."

But whether Nene scores 24, 44 or four points today may not be a deciding factor in the Mavericks' ability to win.

"It's the locker room, the character of the guys in there — are they going to fight now and do whatever it takes to win this game?" Elie said. "We should know what we're facing by now. They have to feel like they can respond to what Denver is doing.

"I think we can. Those guys (the Nuggets) are playing with swagger and confidence. Now it's up to us to bring them down a little bit."

[Last Comic Standing]

ESPN just reported the Mavericks have a 6% chance of coming back.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KX5jNnDMfxA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KX5jNnDMfxA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


:lmao

[Rogue]

are you touched in the head?
usted es un idiota, carajo tu pedazo de mierda.