EVAY
05-22-2006, 03:20 PM
Remember early in the series when Avery said he purposely didn't double team Tim because he didn't want to take his defenders off the three point shooters for San Antonio? His comment at the time, when asked if he was concerned about them getting into foul trouble was "They each got 6 fouls and I plan to use them all".
That strategy made some sense since Tim has had a terrible free throw shooting season, and if the foul comes early enough or strong enough, it would keep him from getting the bucket, and then if missed one or more free throws, it was as good as a turnover for the Mavs, because our possession would have netted us no more than one point, and an increasingly frustrated Duncan.
The problem for AJ, though, is that Tim started making the bucket on which the fouls were called, and then he started making the free throws, too, so that suddenly he is a genuine 3 point threat, and AJ is suddenly unhappy with the fouls that he purposely called for. So...what will he do tonight?
Will he keep fouling Duncan? Will he start early double teams? Will he try it until he sees whether or not Duncan is gonna make his free throws and then change it if he needs to? Or is he convinced that with Terry back, he can just stay with the game plan he has had so far and the Mavs will turn it around. Anyone got any guesses?
That strategy made some sense since Tim has had a terrible free throw shooting season, and if the foul comes early enough or strong enough, it would keep him from getting the bucket, and then if missed one or more free throws, it was as good as a turnover for the Mavs, because our possession would have netted us no more than one point, and an increasingly frustrated Duncan.
The problem for AJ, though, is that Tim started making the bucket on which the fouls were called, and then he started making the free throws, too, so that suddenly he is a genuine 3 point threat, and AJ is suddenly unhappy with the fouls that he purposely called for. So...what will he do tonight?
Will he keep fouling Duncan? Will he start early double teams? Will he try it until he sees whether or not Duncan is gonna make his free throws and then change it if he needs to? Or is he convinced that with Terry back, he can just stay with the game plan he has had so far and the Mavs will turn it around. Anyone got any guesses?