Simply put, the San Antonio Spurs had no answer for Dirk Nowitzki tonight. You can sum up the entire game with that one simple concept. Sure, the Mavs forced 17 turnovers and scored 20 points off of them; yes, the Mavs out-rebounded the Spurs 45-37; but ultimately it came down to Dirk Nowitzki dominating everyone Gregg Popovich ran at him.
"There aren't many nights when Dirk is not special," said Popovich. "He was special tonight, but he had a lot of help. A lot of other guys played really well. Butler killed us and both big guys were really good on the boards defensively. Jason [Kidd] was a gnat. He was a focused, driven individual, as usual. They had a lot of people play well. They played sharper than we did."
Pop's ultimate answer to stop Dirk was to intentionally foul Erick Dampier away from the ball, but Damp his four of his six free throws on three consecutive plays and the Mavs were then in the penalty for the rest of the period. Dirk was the next one to draw a foul and he dropped both en route to a 36-point night (12-14FG, 12-12FT).
I'm sure it must have crossed Pop's mind more than once that perhaps he should get Bruce Bowen on the phone.
Dirk said he expected nothing less from Pop, who is a lot like Nellie in that he'll try just about anything to try and get inside the head of his opponents or gain some slight advantage.
The Spurs largely chalked this loss up to being sloppy. Popovich was clearly put out with his team's effort across the board, especially with regard to the turnovers and rebound discrepancy.
"I felt the first half was just a killer," said Popovich. "Half their points, 27 points off boards, putbacks and turnovers. That's just a sloppy game. There's no reason for that, so I was very disappointed in us not being very sharp. I think we've got to have a few more people step up and play worth a damn. I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs."
The Mavericks were anything but satisfied with the win. One win is important, but it takes three more to advance. It's not a good strategy to bet on Dirk hitting 12-14 and scoring 36, though he might average 30 for the series. They still allowed the Spurs to shoot 50% from the field and they had a hard time with the Spurs' big three.
Still, there were plenty of positives . . .among them Jason Kidd's phenomenal play. He had a great stat line, but that doesn't show how incredibly tough he was in stopping the Spurs' relentless pick-and-roll offense.
"Kidd played great," said Carlisle. "He was sensational in really all areas. In the second half he gave us a spark defensively—on Ginobili and when he was guarding their point guards. He's been great all year and it's no surprise that he carried it into tonight.
The Spurs have been very good at stopping Jason Terry, and tonight was no different. Still, he was able to impact the game with his passing and a timely three with 1:55 left in the game that iced the win for Dallas.
The difference between last year and this year is that the Spurs can't do as much double-teaming around Dirk. Caron Butler becomes the X-factor in that scenario, because unlike Jet he's not going to be deterred from attacking the rim. If he's open, it's going to cause problems, and he had a great deal of success tonight even when a defender was in his face. He was the second-leading scorer for Dallas with 22 points.
George Hill gave it a good effort in the first half, but was obviously still hurting on his bad ankle. Popovich said it's unlikely Hill will play in Game 2 barring a great deal of healing between now and Wednesday.
An exciting Game 1 is in the books, with the home team defending their court. Game 2 is Wednesday night.
Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Blogs/Cour...#ixzz0lWHg5jWG
If we are to win Game 2 it will be without Hill and RJ has to step up.expect Temple and no more dogs.
the mavs were already in the penalty, if not for that fouling Damp would have done nothingPop's ultimate answer to stop Dirk was to intentionally foul Erick Dampier away from the ball, but Damp his four of his six free throws on three consecutive plays and the Mavs were then in the penalty for the rest of the period.
They don't play again till Wednesday...Hill will be fine.
Plus there is no actual quote from Pop in that article on George and George himself didnt say anything about not playing on Wednesday...
If Hill can't not only play but play effectively, this series is over. Parker is clearly not fully in rhythm and the Spurs just don't have another credible guard on the roster. Minus the turnovers, scoring wise the big three did their job and did so efficiently, yet even though it was relatively close throughout, I never got the sense that the Spurs were really in this game or that they were controlling it.
It's an indirect quotation. Pop actually said that.
Hmm...I still don't see how Pop could make that assumption right now when George will have 2 full days of rest which will help tremendously...I think he will still end up playing..
Agree on Hill. If he is indeed still hurting and cannot go, this series is way over.
Still, as crazy as this may sound, I'd rather see Garrett Temple "cut his teeth" as the starting PG. I'd much rather see him in that role rather than see another minute of Mason laboring to dribble around screens with his poor handle and seeing him brick any more quick 3s.
I bet Hill still plays...the kid is young and will have 2 full days of rest off that ankle..
It's amazing how this training staff is so consistently wrong so often.
Masonry needs to find the bench. He's awful. But hey, look at the bright side..his hair looked cute didn't it ? He's got that going for him. Pfft
Roger Mason is just bad. i'm not even going to bad mouth him any more because he doesn't deserve it. it's not like he's underperforming - he just sucks. he's in a situation where he can't realistically expect to succeed. so why should we continue to project such preposterously high expections on him? i wish him the a great year next playing for a Chinese team i've never heard of.
Ok, seriously. What the heck was up with Mason's hair? So that's your cool playoff look? I got pissed off everytime he was on the screen, even when we were up! If Hill is indeed out in Game 2, I pray we give Temple some burn. He seems like a pretty good matchup for Terry/Barea.
Maybe I'm speaking on emotion and am overreacting to the one loss, but maybe this team's talent level is flat out overrated. They just look so over matched against so many teams. Particularly anyone with quality size, long wing players or forwards.
People can act like this was close all they want, but did anyone ever get the feeling, even when they briefly took the lead and were tied, that the Spurs were really in this game or in control of it? I didn't. It may as well have been a blowout because virtually everything was a struggle for the Spurs and it all looked so easy for the Mavs. And the Mavs aren't even that good. Spurs fans overrate them because the Spurs are ill-equipped to guard them and have been for some time, so they look like world beaters against the Spurs.
If this team is going to get back to being championship caliber again in the Duncan era, it's going to take more than tweaks. Yes, the individual talent, on paper, makes it seem as if they are close. But in reality, when they've all been healthy, this team has been a certified mess the vast majority of the time. The talent just doesn't fit together. You can make excuses (or, as some would call them, reasons) for this. We all know them and I'm not going to bother reciting them, but at the end of the day, they've had enough time together and it's not rocket science. This team isn't running a complicated, nuanced system like the Princeton or the triangle, they have mostly a two play offense. This is not about "learning the system", they just flat out don't fit together. No matter what the lineup is, there's almost always an issue or something they're lacking in it. It's a mess.
I hate to say it (and I'm not going to change my prediction), but deep down, I agree with mingus, in that we could see a similar series to last season.
I'm not sure how overrated the talent level is, however I do know that this team achieved a certain level of mediocrity this season. And it doesn't matter much about injuries and chemistry. I've just felt all along that this team had declined to a level where they weren't bad enough to miss the playoffs, but they were not good enough to make a deep playoff run either.
The issue with the lack of size and length is very disconcerting because, as I said in another thread, it's not like Dirk just emerged as a superstar player. He's been a bad matchup for this team for several years. Factor in the length that the Fakers and Blazers have and it's quite mind-boggling why the FO hasn't properly addressed this roster deficiency. Meanwhile, Pop insists on going into battle with an over-the-hill (McDyess) PF and a slow, inferior, 3-pointer shooter (Bonner), who both masquerade as 5's, in a smaller and slower frontline.
Last edited by SenorSpur; 04-19-2010 at 02:07 AM.
McDyess has been playing the 5 since he got back from his last knee injury. I get tired of hearing how slow he is when he's the one guarding the other teams PF every game. Why is our "center" guarding a power forward? Try putting Dwight Howard on Dirk and see how that works out.
Dirk will get his...remember Armare going off on us dunk after dunk? Just put a warm body on him and don't go for the fake...and put a hand up when he fades. If Hill goes Wed I'd like to see him try a little Dirk duty. As long as everyone else is held relatively in check and our bench does something (anything!) the Spurs win game 2!
It is hard for RJ or anyone else to step up when they never see the ball. Any impact will have to be made without the ball. When TP and Timmy were on the floor it was 2 on 5. Even if 2 on 5 was effective, players lose focus in other parts of the game if they never touch the ball. A little more team ball will also help reduce the turnovers.
I am not aware of Pop saying that after the game. I'm not saying he didn't, but I did not hear it if he did.
+1
Without a 100% George Hill....
The spurs will have 2 games this series where the role players (Bonner, Mason, Bogans, etc) all have good games and carry the spurs to victory. And that's assuming they still get good production from the big 3. Unfortunately 2 games doesn't win a series.
Hill's a great defender on bigger players (Durant) but trying to guard 7'1" Dirk with a bum ankle would almost be a surefire disaster.
He had four days rest from the time he tweaked it Wed to Sunday's tip-off. That didn't seem to do much good.
Well considering the fact that he re-aggravated the same injury, 4 days is not nearly enough rest.
And now, instead of resting, he played another 18 minutes on it last night so whatever healed in those 4 days just got shredded .. so now your probably looking at no 100% George Hill till the 2nd round at least
When you put dogs into the game, why would you be surprised when they play like dogs?
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