1-I think he was tired. But I also think, that since his rhythym wasn't there that Pop gave Blair more run. It's not like Blair played bad and DeJuan went to work and softened up the middle with his physicality.
2-Tony needs to be selective and pay attention to the situation. Up by 5, don't leave any 3 point shooters open. Haywood, statistically, is the next most effective player on the Mavs. So, yeah, he does touch the ball and when he does, it means something more positive than negative.
3-I thought about that. It might be time for the docs to color the tape. I suggest flesh colored, so that way his eyes are more normalized to the color. It's a jedi mind trick.
4-Everyone always says that the playoffs are about adjustments. You can't play that way the whole time. You need to show a mixed bag. While that's the tried and true, with Tim tired and Dice playing major minutes, showing double limited Nowitzki's penchant to get hot. Think about it this way, let him get hot, your best bigs are tired, you have Bonner playing not very well, your next big is only 6'7", and well...if you can force doubles, and the other Mavs shoot badly, then it's a calculated risk that pays off. While smalls do bother him, for as well as he's been playing, the doubles on Sunday helped to give Dirk his lowest statistical output of the series.
5-Why sacrifice Game 5 at all? Pop has a swiss army knive of a team. He just can't sit them and waste a game knowing that if you win it, your team gets that rest you talk of. You give too much credit to Rick Carlisle. There is a graphic that runs right underneath each Coach at the beginning of the game. It's their playoff wins and losses. Let's just establish, right off the bat, that Pop's win-loss record is astronomically better than Rick Carlisle's.
Pop is 105-64. Carlisle is 36-40. So has Rick earned this much respect?
I'm betting that he'll make a different mistake that Pop can exploit with his swiss army knife. Butler is a better fit in a slow down game, whereas Marion is better in an uptempo game. What tempo has been established in the last 3 games? Slow down, half-court. Marion isn't a good fit for that kind of game. His athleticism isn't much of a positive when the Spurs are playing world-beater type defense they were playing in the 3rd and early 4th.
I say Spurs in 5.
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