what happened, did another dame break your lil' heart?
no dude can dominate when he has cried his lil' eyes out on a msgboard. REAL TALK!
On what? Ibaka? He's about to get pump faked into submission. Collison will have a bigger role.
what happened, did another dame break your lil' heart?
no dude can dominate when he has cried his lil' eyes out on a msgboard. REAL TALK!
nah, i just can't stand the kissin' up to others on this board. it's in' sickening tbh.
you tell 'em, brah![]()
People need to stop looking at individual matchups. Who is going to guard Durant? Westbrook? Dirk? Who cares? The Mavs aren't full of terrific individual defenders. But with regards to overall team defense, Dallas is top notch...as indicated by the fact that they have not allowed a team to score more than 97 points in any game in the playoffs, and held the Lakers to under 90 points twice. IMO, that is the biggest difference between the two teams. The Mavs will use a zone D plenty and OKC doesn't exactly burn the zone.
Also, Harden is the biggest X-factor of the series. I don't see OKC having a shot to advance if he doesn't have a good series. The Mavs' bench will dominate like they did vs LA if Harden doesn't pull his weight, and then some.
I have yet to pick a Mavs series correctly so far, so my official prediction is OKC in 6.
PM me if you wanna know. It's off this guy's FB page
Zoning OKC would be a big mistake imo.
The Mavs have the experience and veteran leadership, play good D, and have Dirk Nowitzki. Mavs in 6.
They don't have a guy that can flash in the post to have guys collapse, unless they want to sacrifice Durant to do so. For small stints, forcing a team that likes to slash and penetrate to take jumpers would work, especially against a young one on this stage.
Durant and Westbrook would kill a zone. You don't want to do that against them. I'm telling you this is a BAD matchup for Dallas.
I agree. It's over imo. Just waiting to say I told you so after the series. I am depressed right now. We could've gotten the easy Grizzlies who actually did matchup well with OKC and still lost.
Hollinger today:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playo...PERDiem-110517
Zone games.
Oklahoma City doesn't play zone, but the Mavs do. Oh, do they ever. Dallas is probably the best zone team in basketball, and in talking to the Oklahoma City people yesterday about the three regular-season meetings, it appears Dallas' complex zone defenses gave the Thunder kids a lot of problems.
I'd expect the Mavs to make heavy use of them again. Not only does such an approach eliminate some of the individual mismatches on the perimeter, but it also moves the game to Dallas' playing field -- a slower, thinking game that requires the one thing (quick ball movement) that is a clear weakness of the Thunder.
Che will not change his predicition and stick to OKC taking this. But I do not foresee a short series anymore. IMO OKC in 6
I even see Dallas taking the 1st 2 games only to get their usual yearly backdoor sweep
what do you care?
RT @SebastianPruiti: OKC scored on 29.4% of possessions against Dallas' zone, but 45.7% of possessions against Dallas' man to man - zone is going to be key...
Westbrook will get mind ed by Kidd doing something as simple as backing off of him, resulting in Westbrook taking 20 foot jumpers all game, and missing most of them. Dude is a mental midget.
And last year, when Marion was starting, he did a damn good job guarding Durant overall. This year, he hardly got to guard him since he was backing up Dirk at PF, so usually Caron or Stevenson was on Durant, and both are not as tall or long as Marion.
Ibaka historically has done a job against Dirk. Check your facts. Dirk shoots something like 70% when Ibaka is on him. Not to mention how easily Ibaka bits pump fakes, and Dirks heavy usage of the pump fake. Dirk can get him in foul trouble whenever he feels like it, and if Carlisle was smart, he would immediately feed Dirk right off the bat to get Ibaka in foul trouble, then suddenly their interior defense is . Perkins is okay at clogging the lane, but he isn't half as good defensively when he doesnt have a weak-side shotblocker helping him out (previously KG, now Ibaka). Perkins becomes very foul prone when he doesnt have weak-side help.
tlong posting something re ed only to have it destroyed 2 posts later by Shank.
What makes you so sure?
T-Mac in his prime had issues like crazy with zones, and T-Mac in his prime is very similar to Durant, only more skilled, but both are prone to taking a lot of bad shots.
I am pulling for OKC, but just slightly over the Mavs. Mavs got some points with me for that beatdown they issued to LA. I know that will make them feel better. However I would like to see OKC win it all for a couple of reasons:
1. Shows teams and fans that young squads can get it done with the right key pieces and coaching. That should help squash some comments from fans of teams like the Wolves who have talent but no execution.
2. Shuts down Miami for a year. It's been true for a long time that teams are being built by blockbuster trades instead of player development. A few high quality genetic freaks are ruling the NBA and they are being assembled on two or three teams. How depressing for a fan of a team like the Raptors who will never see anything close to a Finals because they cannot get good people to come there.
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