what the are you talking about? Collison was sticking his in Dirks belly button every ing time he was defending him, with no call.
Thing is, Dirk has all kinds of different moves he can throw at you. He is the most offensively versatile player in the league right now, along with Kobe and Nash. He has tremendous footwork, all sorts of fakes, spins, and strange contortions, and then he has mastered one of the most uniquely unguardable shots in NBA history (the one legged off balance fadeaway), right there with Kareems skyhook. Dude may use his fadeaway frequently, but it doesnt make him predictable. He uses that to bait people into either fouling him, or biting a fake so he blows past them for an easy bucket. If you don't get baited in, then he will just keep taking and hitting it. Defender is pretty much at his mercy when one-on-one in a late-game situation.
If Bron can consistently guard Dirk effectively in crunch time, its going to make it pretty tough for the Mavs. I don't expect that to happen, but at the same time, I wouldn't be suprised to see him do a decent job. When he wants to be, Lebron is maybe the best one-on-one defender I have ever seen.
Eh, the refs have been inconsistent like always. They seem to allow Collison to body up on Dirk and minutes later depending on which team has momentum will call the same defense a foul. I'm not going to take away anything from Dirk. He's been that good and he's the most focused NBA player in the playoffs this year. Also, like I said before, I think Bosh and Haslem will guard Dirk for the most part with Lebron volunteering to defend Dirk in the last 2-3 minutes of a close game.
We should really examine the Mavs opponents to get an accurate idea of how they'll play against Miami.
Portland - Decent team but still trying to find it's iden y.
Lakers - Yeah, about that. They were horrible in all aspects.
Thunder - Good team but hasn't formed a cohesive group to translate into defensive stops when necessary.
As it stands, Miami is likely going to be the best offensive and the best defensive team Dallas has played. After Dirk, you have a massive falloff to the #2 guy on the scoring totem pole, while Miami obviously has a trio of guys that can hurt you on any given night, and usually one of them is going off.
What should be really concerned for Dallas isn't stopping the Heat, it's the defensive matchups that the Heat are going to give them. Is Terry going to be able to do anything with Wade draped on him? How about LeBron guarding basically anyone on the Mavs including Dirk? He's long enough to give him fits, and as we've seen in past playoffs, strong guard/forward players who can force Dirk into uncomfortable shots give him difficulties. Bosh isn't going to stop Dirk by any means, but the Heat are also in the enviable position of just letting Nowitski have his 40+ points per night and shutting literally everyone else down on the team. With Butler healthy they'd be in a position to force mismatches, but I just don't see the Mavs having enough firepower against a good defensive team (and they haven't played one yet since the Lakers decided not to show up) to win 4 out of 7. I mean, come on, JJ Barea has been terrorizing teams in the playoffs. That should say all you need to know about the kind of defenses Dallas has played against in the first 3 rounds.
Now, flip it around. Who's going to guard James? How about Wade? Even if Bosh is only hot for one or two games out of the series, that's going to force Chandler or Dirk out of the lane to guard him and give Miami more penetration opportunities. And I somehow doubt that LeBron and Wade are going to have as much trouble with the Mavs interior as the teams out West they've played so far.
In a normal season, a team sweeping the defending champ etc... would be the huge favourite and it would be choking to lose in finalsWhen a team whatever the context is good enough to sweep the 2 times defending champs fully healthy we must consider this team the favorites to win it all especially after loosing only 3 games against lakers, Portland and OKC. I'm just calling a cat, a cat, not winning thethis year would be an upset.
But it's not a normal season. It's a season where a new contender has been created with the 2 times MVP, the 2nd best player in the league and an all star big man all in their prime
Losing against them is not choking. For any team.
Few points...
stretch, like him or not, Carmelo Anthony is the most versatile scorer in the league.
Dallas has played well enough and against some of the better teams in the league in the playoffs that they shouldn't be discounted at all. Doesn't mean they should win, but they've been that good. Plus, they're like 5-2 in the playoffs on the road. That's pretty crazy right there considering their compe ion.
As for Miami having a trio of guys that can hurt you on any given night, that's true. If the playoffs have shown us anything, it's not what you get from the guys you expect to show up. It's what you get with guys that come out of nowhere to give great performances. Terry, Peja in that Lakers series. On any given night right? JJ Barea playing out of his mind. Shawn Marion in game 5. Heck it applies to the Heat as well. I think the series is tied or maybe even in Chicago's favor if the Heat don't get unexpectedly great performances from Udonis Haslem in game 2 and Mike Miller in game 4.
Sure it will be a tough defensive match-up for the Mavs. Absolutely. I expect Marion to play LeBron a lot for the most part and DeShawn Stevenson to start on Wade. And off the bench, they'll have to mix and match and/or play a little zone to try to guard those two. Obviously, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood will have to play big in the paint to try to force those two guys to beat them with jumpers. And if they do, I think the Mavs will live with that. No one on the Heat is guarding Dirk. It's up to Dirk to continue to make those crazy shots at a crazy clip. It's up to guys like Terry and Marion and Kidd and Barea and Peja (if he gets some minutes) to come up big... on any given night to help Dirk out.
I'm tired of people saying "Dirk is playing the best ball of his career"... Dirk is ALWAYS like this in the playoffs... except for 2007, which is a fluke.
What Dirk is doing is standard... what the backcourt + Chandler/Marion has done is why this year is different from the 3 years past..
crofl
the Lakers offense s all over Miami's offense. They will definitely be the best defensive team they've played but OKC/Portland were no slouches on that end either
Miami in 7. I've got Dallas splitting the first two in Miami, then taking two in Dallas, with Miami taking the last 2 at home. Everyone's talking about how important this is for Dirk's legacy, but Lebron has a ton of pressure on him to ring this season. This is really going to be a great series to watch.
OKC is just as good as Miami offensively IMO.
LA, and Portland (after Wallace trade), and OKC (after Perkins trade) were all good defensive teams.. Miami is better than all of them defensively, but I Digress.
Not when Pau's girl is skull ing him...
The Lakers were not functioning properly this postseason. I don't think this years Dallas would stand a chance against last years Champion.
The only thing to be concerned about if you're Dallas, is that they need to be more consistent on defense throughout. You can't fall behind then think you can just turn it on in the 4th. It's what happened in the last couple of games, and thanks to OKC's inep ude, it worked out well, but you can't just rely on it.
i don't wanna hear about how Dallas hasn't played anybody this postseason. They played what everybody thought beforehand was the toughest first round matchup in Portland (good luck convincing GNSF that the 11 Grizzlies =/= 99 Spurs crofl) and then ing swept the team that had been dominating the NBA the last few years.
Then they were to be a sacrifice to the Thunder who, according to alot of spurfans, just won the NBA Finals against the Grizzlies and dispatched of them easily.
And now all of a sudden they haven't been tested yet
bump
I just want to know if Mavfan is going to be as classy as us if defeat ends up being their future...
Very good point L. Dallas has been pretty fortunate to close out a very inexperienced team. OKC was up by a pretty good margin in the last 2 games but the Thunders youth was exposed.
The Heat with Wade and Lebron will have none of those.
Miami has been pretty fortunate to close out a very inexperienced team.. see?
Damm you make a great point!!!
Thank God we played those inexperienced Lakers! Their lack of experience is why they lost! Not because the Mavs are actually a good team or anything!!
A tough first round matchup is not nearly the same level as a tough 3rd round matchup, to say nothing of the Finals.
i don't wanna hear about how Dallas hasn't played anybody this postseason. They played what everybody thought beforehand was the toughest first round matchup in Portland
Only a Mavs homer would think that the Lakers team this year is equal to the champions of the back to back les. They played with no heart and no leadership. JJ Barea went wild on them, and I don't think there's a single dominant defensive team in history that would have let that happen, no offense to JJ. I'm fairly certain OKC would have beaten the Lakers in 5-6 if they would have met in the 2nd round. They just had no one who wanted to exert their will over the game.then ing swept the team that had been dominating the NBA the last few years.
I had Dallas over OKC in 6, citing the fact that the Thunder just don't play consistent defense.Then they were to be a sacrifice to the Thunder who, according to alot of spurfans, just won the NBA Finals against the Grizzlies and dispatched of them easily.
They have played 1 solid team, 1 excellent team that didn't really have their heart in it, and 1 very good team. However, the Heat are a stellar playoff team and want to win roughly 5000x more than the Lakers did. No one Dallas has played yet plays the full 48 on both sides of the court. In fairness, I think Dallas will be the best team Miami has played so far, but I'd take the Bulls over any team Dallas has had to deal with, too.And now all of a sudden they haven't been tested yet
Miami >=< Dallas > Bulls > Thunder.
I'm not attempting to sell Dallas short, I'm just saying I don't see how you can so calmly rationalize Dallas in 6 considering how good Miami is compared to the other teams Dallas has played.
Heat in 5. Their young Big 3 is like a god damn video game cheat code since they can always have a star on the court. NBA's ed.
Only a Spurs homer would completely discredit the job the Mavs did in that series. Every game except for the tanked Game 4 came down to the wire. They just out executed the Lakers down the stretch
Mavs going to the Finals has upset CryHavoc
Please show me where I'm discrediting them? I'm simply making the point that the Lakers weren't as good as last season, and I said it before the Mavs series when Chris Paul's hobbled, tired, one-man show almost took them 7 before CP3 ran out of gas.
Cry Havoc... U MAD?
The Mavs were clearly the better team against the Lakeshow, no doubt about it. There will be no short list of excuses from certain Lakerfans (Overrated woman mammaries had trust issues, Pau was heartbroken, Artest missed a game, etc), but outside the first game, the Lakers never had a chance.
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