Dirk's out, therefore, there is possibility Spurs might lose...
So this is going to be on locally on FSSW as well as TNT, right? I much prefer watching Sean/Bill Land to listening to the TNT assholes.
Thanks for posting all those related articles, duncan228.
I could save a lot of time... you're an angel.
I want to second that.Just a question, do you have a bot or something helping you out?
Is Dirk definetely out? I hope he plays personally.
http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html
Referee Assignments
Thurs. Dec. 30
San Antonio @ Dallas: Derrick Stafford; Mark Ayotte; Courtney Kirkland
The Spurs have been getting some unbelievable breaks.
1. We catch the Lakers when they are struggling
2. Dirk will most likely not play tonight
3. Garnett may be out next week.
I'm just waiting for things to even out. They have to right ? I mean, our record is sick and we have a real chance at improving on it against some really strong compe ion.
All this time, we keep improving.
[QUOTE=tmtcsc;4859469]The Spurs have been getting some unbelievable breaks.
1. We catch the Lakers when they are struggling
2. Dirk will most likely not play tonight
3. Garnett may be out next week.
I'm just waiting for things to even out. They have to right ? I mean, our record is sick and we have a real chance at improving on it against some really strong compe ion.
All this time, we keep improving.[/QUOTE
After years past with all the nagging injuries to TD, Parker, and Manu, (not to mention Fish's .4 second time stop shot and Brent Barry getting mugged) I think things ARE finally evening out.
Don't forget Melo being out for the near Xmas day game too.
Great point
After years past with all the nagging injuries to TD, Parker, and Manu, (not to mention Fish's .4 second time stop shot and Brent Barry getting mugged) I think things ARE finally evening out.
Billups and KMart being out the first Denver game also...
The mavs have the talent, just not the mentality to be champions. Even if you are the best, you never say you are the best, it only gives teams motivation, jet doesnt learn even though his head is big enough to hold two brains. I do remember their excuse when we had our last championship, "it's only because they didnt have to play us." Well try not to get knocked off in the first round and that might just happen.
As far as playing without nowitzki, teams have a knack of filling in the void and then some. They'll surprise you. I'd rather have nowitzki in the game since we've prepared a defense around that scenario, w/o him then it sounds like 48 minutes of small ball? If marion is PF, then it sounds like we start timmy against chandler, but no other big at the same time.
Or how about keeping our same lineup and forcing them to match up to us? Iso blair, have him back down marion. Marion doesnt have the weight to match up though he can jump high enough to block layups. We might be able to force some quick fouls on him.
Jason Terry is a hoot. He never learns. Yep, there is a very good chance they will win tonight and a very good chance they will have the best record in the NBA come playoff time only to lose out in the first round. Quiet confidence is good, loud mouth over conidence will do you in every time.
the real threat is an improved butler on offense, any wide open shot by any mav (they'll nail them), and now chandler on D.
Butler loves baseline drives, i say force him baseline early so he runs out of real estate, make him have to pull up or jump out of bounds for a dangerous pass.
JJ is gonna penetrate, just have to shadow him so he cant toss up anything easy. Make him run around the basket and out to reset.
Never leave turtle.
And as we learned in the POs, always have a man on kidd and he will show his age. He only shoots 3s when they're uncontested.
If dirk does play, i like it when hill fronts him, it takes so much work to get him the ball, then if you can get him to pass it back out using a quick double it kills so much time on the shot clock.
Not a whole lot you can do if marion takes a running floater in the lane, he's just so long and those shots are always released so fast. Maybe if he's shadowed when he gets near the paint before even catching the ball...
And stevenson is their set 3 point shooter, hes only in there for that purpose alone. If he's in the game, maybe we can get away with a smaller defender on him as long as he's in his grill.
I like our chances, hill seems to do well against the mavs. Tim and manu shouldnt have two bad games in a row.
I don't agree with this. Recent history has shown you need at least 2 "superstars" to win a ring. Mavs have a lot of good players but besides Dirk, they really don't have a player than can be counted on to take over a game. FO has surrounded Dirk with very very good support players. I just don't think they have someone that can take over a game. Spurs have Manu and TP (both players than create their own shots). Also TD at times still has this ability. Lakers, Celtics, Heat all have multiple players than can take over a game. Lakers only marginally at this point, and I think that's why they struggle. But Mavs just don't have it. It hasn't been since Detroit won, that a team won a ring by committee. And I don't think the Mavs have the toughness that Detroit had. Which does back up your point about mentality.
Whoah, totally forgot about Denver. Yep, more breaks.
As for the .4, I'm not sure anything can make up for that.
No word on Dirk yet.
Game time decision looks like
I do see your point, the mavs have always been a jump shooting team, a pure shooting team at that. They dont have an offensive post presence to dump it down to, then kick it out to, which is typical of championship teams. In fact, their first option seems to be a jump shot from nowitzki, then if he's doubled he passes it out for a jumpshot from someone else. We all know jumpshots dry up in the POs, so you need that big guy for some easy points down low, so I definitely see your point.
I think the difference this year is a butler who drives the lane and gets fouls, he didnt do that last year. So if we can turn him into the butler of last year that would be great.
You can also see they're trying to change their Offense too. Nowitzki is trying to be a playmaker for the first half, knowing he can get his in the second. Kinda like what kobe had to do in order for him to be successful in LA. I've always thought that we should give dirk the kobe treatment, he can have all he wants as long as we contain the other players. I know it's easier said than done.
Dirk is out. Now we will probably lose
1. Dirk will probably play, but Dallas isn't going to say until game time.
2. Even if he doesn't, this is a rivalry game and Spurs will bring it.
No doubt Butler has been effective. But he would be option 5 or 6 on the Spurs, if not lower.
A Dirk-less Dallas reveals the value of shot creation
by Jesse Blanchard
48 Minutes of
A night of Dallas without Dirk Nowitzki would be a thoroughly dull and pointless affair, regardless of outcome, if not for the fact that the wonderful talents of Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game will still be chronicling the events.
While doing his thing for the New York Times’ Off the Dribble blog, Mahoney talks about the Mavericks 84-76 loss to the Toronto Raptors and what the loss of Nowitzki’s specific skill set means to Dallas.
The discrepancy in talent between Dirk and his teammates is notable, but the Mavs’ embarrassing loss to a short-handed Raptors team was as attributable to skill set as it was to actual skill. No one on the Mavs can produce at Nowitzki’s level, but they also can’t even occupy the spaces he normally fills on the floor, create quality shots in a half-court setting, or run the two-man game as a legitimate threat.
Dallas has many useful players, but the dirty little secret of the Mavs’ offense is that almost all of their shot creation is reliant on Nowitzki.
For all the depth the Mavericks and Spurs boast, the truth is all of it is for naught without a catalyst to make their role players’ skill sets make sense.
Keep reading →
*********************
Advanced Scouting: San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks
by Scott Sereday
48 Minutes of
According to reports, Dirk Nowitzki, listed as day-to-day, is very likely to sit out of tonight’s marquee match-up. Nowitzki had significant MVP momentum prior to his injury and his absence will dramatically help the Spurs chances. The last time these two teams met, my preview focused on Nowitzki offensively. Although Dirk is probably a little underrated defensively (he usually rates pretty well in defensive adjusted plus-minus), he isn’t really a defensive game-changer, so I’ll just explore how his absence impacts this game offensively.
What changes without Dirk?
Dirk Nowitki has been responsible for over two-thirds of the Mavericks offense from the post. He is also their top scorer on isolation plays. When Dirk is out of the lineup, Dallas figures to be a pick and roll team that has the ability to push the ball.
Keep reading →
Things are simply bigger in Texas -- including the rivalries
Shaun Powell
NBA.com
Way, way back in the day, when a dispute flared in Texas, each side would reach for the Smith & Wesson. The first to squeeze the trigger would be the only man standing to tell the story.
Thank goodness for progress, where the Spurs and Mavericks only need to reach for the Spalding.
You like where this rivalry has been, and also where it's going, with both teams standing on the mountaintop in the West and built to last through summer. There's a meeting Thursday night in Dallas (9:30, TNT) that will serve as a checkpoint, giving two teams a chance to size up each other, and themselves.
The Mavericks in their current winning stretch (17-of-19) have beaten the Thunder, Heat and Jazz twice each, and also the Hawks, Magic and Spurs. That's as impressive as it gets here in a season that's approaching one-third complete. Dirk Nowitzki, the one player the Mavericks can't afford to be without, is rubbing a sore knee. But you figure depth and wisdom, the team's two advantages, will help keep them compe ive until he fully heals.
"This is the best defensive team I've been on," said Nowitzki, who raves about the extra D-mension that Tyson Chandler added this season.
The Spurs have won 12 of 13, but we'll learn more about them in the next several days, because in addition to coming off the win over the Lakers and with the Mavericks up next, they're stepping into a minefield. There's the Thunder, Knicks and Celtics upcoming. They've also caught a break, beating a handful of teams who were missing a key player or two.
Of course, anything the Spurs do now is a bonus if only because Tim Duncan always paces himself through the regular-season grind and sets his alarm for mid-April.
"We've been lucky," said coach Gregg Popovich, staying true to his wait-and-see nature. "We have a long way to go."
Well, let's hope Thursday night and the rest of the season bring out the best in both teams. That would enhance a rivalry that hasn't been lacking for drama. Really, you must rank Spurs-Mavericks right up with the best in recent years, if only because (a) they meet often, and (b) they're in the same conference, and (c) they've been good-to-great for almost 10 years running, and (d) they know each other well.
Just as well, maybe we should include (e) for urgency. This is a big season for both franchises if you buy the theory that the Duncan and Nowitzki eras don't have many serious championship runs left. The centerpieces in both places are still strong and smart and sturdy but also aging. le hopes? Well, there's this year, certainly, but then what? Two more? Three, tops?
Whatever. Let's just look ahead to the next Spurs-Mavericks moment and see if it stacks up to the others. We'll see if it beats the 2003 conference finals, the start of this intense relationship, when the Spurs won in six. And then when Michael Finley, a salary dump by the Mavs, joined the Spurs and splashed some Tabasco on the scene by saying the Spurs were the better team. And the very next postseason, in 2006, when Jason Terry snuck a sucker-punch below Finley's belt and earned a one-game suspension, which became moot when the Mavericks won a Game 7 overtime thriller. And most recently, when Manu Ginobili braved a broken nose (and a hideous tape-wrapping that actually became fashionable by the Riverwalk) to lift the seven-seed Spurs past the two-seed Mavs.
All told, they've met six times in the playoffs in eight years -- and we didn't even mention the regular-season game three years ago where Duncan was asked to step outside by referee Joey Crawford. Yes, that happened against the Mavericks, the compe ive fever apparently infecting everyone on the court.
What Popovich and R.C. Buford have done, in keeping Duncan well insulated over the years by quality and relatively affordable (so to speak) pieces, has been remarkable in this day and age. From Finley to Bruce Bowen, Antonio McDyess to Stephen Jackson, the Spurs always manage to find the right fit by rummaging through the Draft or free agency or the NBA landfill. Gary Neal is the latest, and Richard Jefferson, after a slippery initial season in San Antonio, is finally paying off, shooting 49 percent from the floor and 45 on 3s. With Ginobili averaging nearly 20 points a night and Tony Parker still holding his own among the point guard elite, Duncan can save his best stuff for spring, only occasionally delivering big between now and then.
Strange, but on some levels, the Mavericks' hot start is a surprise. Roddy Beaubois is still mending from a bum foot, Brendan Haywood is dreadful offensively (27 percent on free throws?) while Caron Butler often wrestles with his role and fourth-quarter minutes. They're being bailed out by their rebounding and commitment to defense and clever play from their veteran guards. Any team with Jason Kidd and Jason Terry in the backcourt, along with Jose Juan Barea, will rarely wreck themselves with self-inflicted mistakes (only 13 turnovers a night).
"We like where we're going," said Kidd. "This is a good group that plays well together."
With the Lakers on a slide and Kobe Bryant in a snit, you can argue that Dallas and San Antonio are the best the West has to offer. And good news is, Thursday night's game won't settle anything. This rivalry has spring written all over it.
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