Marc and Zach are very different than Pau in the low post.
For multiple reasons, I don't think Dirk is anything better than an average defender. At times he's below average. When you take into account the amount of effort he gives on the offensive end and the fact that he absolutely cannot get in foul trouble, it's understandable that he's limited defensively. At his age, it's probably better that he conserve energy on defense.
Regardless of what you think of Dirk's D, it's fairly obvious that he's not a better defensive player than Duncan. Even at this point in Duncan's career. I bring that up because Marc did most of his damage against Duncan in ISO.
If i'm Hollins, I make it a point to force the ball into Marc and hope Dirk gets into foul trouble.
LA didn't have anyone to stay with Barea and Terry. Memphis does. And if Allen keeps Terry in check, Dallas goes right back to remembering how hard it is to win without a 2nd option.
I think Dallas should hope for OKC.
But Dallas's help defense is way better than the Spurs. Chandler>>>Mcdyess in that category. Marion, Kidd, and Terry I've seen getting some steals off the blind side of the Lakers bigs. Dirk can use his length to bother shots. Dallas just won't let you back them down so easily. Dirk has more trouble with slashers like Odom or even worse like a athletic 3 playing at the 4 like Stephen Jackson.
Dallas has much better help D than the Spurs. I agree with you there. Chandler is a good help defender, but with Randolph's range, I think Dirk could be left on an island if they call ISO's for Gasol. As far as physical strength goes, Dirk isn't weak in the post when being backed down. But Marc is huge and knows how to use his body.
It really depends on how Gasol decides to play. If Gasol starts settling for 15-ft jumpers and turnaround jumpers in ISO, then Dirk is athletic enough to bother his shots. If Marc goes straight to the low block and uses his body to get to the rim, then I don't see how Dirk can defend him or stay out of foul trouble.
Dallas should beat either team in 6 games.
They should hope for the team that's not gonna beat them up and be more physical in general.
That's OKC.
Marc Gasol in game 1, scored 9 FGs..5 of the 9 were assisted, 1 was a wide open jump shot, and 1 was off an offensive rebound..he only scored 2 of his FGs in the post, in 1 on 1 situations, 1 of them coming off a blatant push-off that wasn’t called, and the other on a fadeaway that he will probably never make again, during the rest of his career..
Marc Gasol in game 2 scored 2 FGs, both assisted..
Marc Gasol in game 3 scored on 7 FGs, 6 of them assisted..
Marc Gasol in game 4 scored 3 FGs, 2 offensive rebounds and 1 assisted..
Marc Gasol in game 5 scored 5 FGs, 4 of them assisted..
Marc Gasol scored 5 FGs in game 6, only 1 of them assisted, 2 coming on offensive boards, 1 of the others coming off open jump shots..
Gasol scored 31 FGs for the series– 62% of them were assisted..
5 of them were on offensive rebounds, mostly from the attention that Randolph draws inside, obviously..
2 were open jump shots where Duncan can’t go out and contest, due to old age and too much responsibility..
So he only scored 5 FGs vs. the Spurs that were created for himself..the rest were either due to his rebounding ability, due to Duncan's inability to come out and contest open jump shots, and due to the Spurs small frontline, once Duncan goes to help out on Randolph, which Duncan himself admitted..
Against OKC, Gasol hasn't been able to do much for himself..
Gasol scored 9 FGs in game 1, 6 were assisted, 1 was an offensive rebound..so he scored 2 by himself..
Gasol scored 3 FGs in game 2, all assisted..
Gasol scored 4 FGs in game 3, 3 of them assisted..
Gasol scored 11 FGs in game 4, 9 were assisted, 1 came off a tip rebound off Randolph’s miss..
Against OKC, so far, he has 27 FGs, 21 of them have been assisted, 78%..
2 came off off rebounds, from Randolph's attention, as usual..
So he has 4 FGs created for himself, out of the 27..
That's not a knock on him, he's a good player, rebounding, shooting open shots and slashing are obviously solid skills to have, for a big man..however, it's pretty clear that he can barely create his own offense..he's very reliant on his teammates for his offense..
Dirk is a much better defensive rebounder than Bonner or Splitter, and a better overall defender than Bonner and Blair..he should be able to help limit Gasol's offensive rebounding output..
If Memphis runs their offense through Gasol, Dallas should be extremely happy..
That's it. Dallas will be favored in each series. But Memphis will wear them out physically a lot more.
Dallas should be very fresh after the sweep. And the finals usually allows for more time to prepare as you usually get 1 or 2 more days off before the finals starts. If it's all about winning the WCF, I think Dallas has a better chance of beating the Grizzlies. But whoever wins that series, will be the tougher opponent anyways due to proving to being the better team. We'll find out. I think the Thunder are the slightly better team.
It's funny how you talk about baskets that are assisted and those which aren't. Assists are given for anything nowadays. If you actually watch the plays, you'll see what i mean. You ignore the assisted baskets and act as if he didn't actually create that scoring chance on his own.
1st FG: PnR with Conley, he receives the ball in the paint and scores an And-1. OK. He didn't create this shot for himself.
2nd FG: Gasol receives the ball from conley at about 18 ft. Duncan challenges him to make the shot so he does.
3rd FG: Gasol receives the ball on the low block with Duncan on his back. He immediately turns and puts a hook shot over duncan. He created that shot for himself.
4th FG: Receives the ball from conley off a PnR and shoots from the FT line while Duncan closes out.
5th FG: Duncan ISO - turnaround jumper
6th FG: Duncan ISO - drives to the basket and scores
7th FG: Post up ISO on Duncan - spin move and finish at the basket
8th: Offensive rebound
9th: cut to the basket, receives the pass and finishes.
He was actually credited with assisted baskets on some of those isolations. If that's the stat you're looking at to evaluate his game then you don't know what you're talking about.
4 of those baskets were created in isolation. 1 on 1 with Duncan. Duncan actually had time to close out on him on his 18-footer, so it could actually be argued that he created that scoring chance by threatening to drive. But I'll give you that one.
We could sit here and go through every game and pick apart the plays. Looking at which baskets were assisted doesn't explain how the offense was actually created. He also hit two jump shots off the PnR, so i guess those shouldn't count because he didn't cross anyone up and toss himself an oop off the backboard.
You said he had 3 FGs created by himself against the Spurs during the 1st round. He actually had 4 during the first game.
In game 1 he had 4 FGM in ISO against Duncan and you honestly think he had 5 total during the entire series?
So let me get this straight. According to you, his offense comes from:
-penetration from the guards
-rebounds
-putbacks
-jumpshots
-opposing players inability to step out and contest his shots
-frontline players that can't guard him
So basically his offense comes from the combination of where every versatile big man's offense comes from over the course of a 6-game series. Then you say he can "barely" create his own shot. Completely ignoring he did it 4 times in the first game against Duncan.
It's actually obvious he can create his own shot in 1-on-1 situations when he needs to.
He either can or can't create his own shot when he needs to. If you'd like to argue "barely", go right on ahead.
Memphis doesn't run their offense through Gasol. He's their second option in the post. Which is saying a lot for someone as versatile as he is.
Last edited by jag; 05-10-2011 at 02:17 PM.
This is an OLD team. You get as much as rest as you can I think.
as I said many times. If Durant takes over the remaining games OKC is getting to the WCF. Another thing, I don't think last night's loss affected the Grizz mentally as most think. Same old Memphis will come out in OKC game 5.
This looks like it's going 7 games and is gona be of a series.Which the winner will get to the Finals. the rest of the playoffs after this are gonna blow. And the worst part is I am already seeing Lebron getting his ring and from then on it's gonna be Lebron bukkake all over the media for the next 5-10 years
OKC since they can struggle to score in the playoffs. They don't have a legit post presence and they are terrible at moving the ball around which will bite them in the ass against the Mavs. However the Mavs don't really have anyone that can slow down Westbrook or Durant but then again Durant doesn't have the ball handling or passing skills to take over the game as much as he should. Ibaka and Perkins also seem to be breaking down; Perkins said his knee was only around 60% and Ibaka's been battling with some stuff.
Imo the Grizz are a more complete, bigger, physical, and more athletic team. Dallas won't be able to get their old 3 point shooters good looks throughout the series against their young legs. There will probably be plenty of foul trouble if Zbo and Dirk are facing against eachother and I give the edge to Zbo (when it comes to foul trouble) since he knows how to get away with being physical and his bread and butter are high-% shots like putbacks around the rim.
Also depends on how each coach decides to defend Dirk. If Dirk can live at the line then its all over.
stretch... how do you think we matchup v Miami?
dammit stretch answer!!
All that I know is I want the series to go 7 and have each game go down to the end. Forcing heavy minutes for the starters.
lol blazers in 6Come on man. You know I'm a mavs fan. Just maybe not the type of fan you care for.
lol lakers in 6
1. Mavs didn't look good to end the season. Portland got a great addition in Gerald Wallace
2. Lakers were the defending champions with big star power. I was wrong on both series but I had reason to doubt the Mavs considering their history.
Nobody actually reads what you post. If you're gonna do it anyway, atleast keep it to 2 lines or less to save you all that typingas I said many times. If Durant takes over the remaining games OKC is getting to the WCF. Another thing, I don't think last night's loss affected the Grizz mentally as most think. Same old Memphis will come out in OKC game 5.
This looks like it's going 7 games and is gona be of a series.
5 games
mavs win
Not great. We can deal with one great wing player. I don't know if we can hang with two.
The one thing though is Chandler. Coming into that 06 Finals, Dallas had outrebounded their opponent every single game in the playoffs. Miami took that away. At least Shaq was good for that. Now it's the opposite. Chandler can really dominate the glass against them, and he has to in order for the Mavs to win a possible series against them.
Dallas has the size in the paint to exercise their "experience" advantage over either team, making this a difficult choice. If I were a Mavs fan, I'd probably choose Memphis, simply because the Cinderella story has to end sooner or later, and that team doesn't have the experience of pushing the eventual champs to 7 games last season. No KD to face also has to be a good thing.
I actually think we matchup great with Miami. No point guard or center to worry about. It's basically 3 players. I like the Dirk/Bosh matchup. I think Dirk will have a big series. Stevenson and Marion are good defenders. Having them matchup with Wade and Lebron with Chandler helping out on defense as needed. Barea won't be exposed on defense.
The only team left that can beat Dallas is Miami and vice versa.
Should be a great Finals, tbh. I'd like the Mavs chances a lot more if they had HC against the Heat because i think it definitely goes 6 or 7.
Dallas beat OKC without Dirk is all that needs to be said
But Stevenson or Marion are not part of what is right now the best 5 the Mavs use.
Our best lineup coming out of that LA series was:
Kidd-Jet-Peja-Dirk-Chandler.
Can you really ask Kidd to d up Wade? He can do it against bigger stronger guards, but Wade will lit him up due to superior athleticism and speed. Ditto for Peja on Lebron. Marion can play him well, but the spacing we get because of Peja completely disappears with Trix on the court. He's gonna have to score a lot of hustle points to make up for it.
I think Dirk-Chandler will absolutely murder anything the Heat have with the bigs, and I pray Haslem does come back. I think he can do nothing on Dirk. But I don't know if that is enough to counter Wade-LeBron.
Also, let's not be sure of that PG matchup. Chalmers is shooting the ball well in the playoffs, and if they use Wade as PG at time with James Jones on the court, there is no way we can hide Barea on defense.
There are many issues with that machup in my mind.
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