Is it more important to have Bowen on Howard rather than Terry?

[DubMcDub]

SpursDynasty actually has a point. Dirk should be their only threat in the series and the Spurs should shut the lane down and guard Terry and Howard with Bowen and Manu. Make Dirk shoot everything, like Amare in 2005 or like Kobe when he goes off for 50. A one man team can't win.

Dunno. Seems they tried this during the January 5th game and they still lost. At home.

[wildbill2u]

Lots of guys are gonna have to play Dirk because Avery has got him posting up near the basket and driving more. This creates a lot of fouls on whoever guards him so we'll lose players to fouls, even if they only have to go to the bench for a while.

That being said, a lot of the time a player who shoots all the time in a game throws his team out of sync and they often don't win those games. I know Kobe put up some numbers on those games they won, but that isn't necesarily so.

[Man of Steel]

Bowen on Dirk

[Leetonidas]

Dunno. Seems they tried this during the January 5th game and they still lost. At home.

True. I personally think everyone will be on Dirk. Elson, Horry, Oberto, Bowen, Finley, and Timmy...I think they'll all guard him at some point.

[DubMcDub]

True. I personally think everyone will be on Dirk. Elson, Horry, Oberto, Bowen, Finley, and Timmy...I think they'll all guard him at some point.

This is certainly the most likely scenario and, furthermore, the most effective one for the Spurs.

[jaespur21]

This is certainly the most likely scenario and, furthermore, the most effective one for the Spurs.

Dirks only chance will be far from the hoop cuz if TIMMY is guarding dirk anywhere near the hoop the REFS will have 2 bail Dirk out

[Kobulingam]

Dirks only chance will be far from the hoop cuz if TIMMY is guarding dirk anywhere near the hoop the REFS will have 2 bail Dirk out

they always do

[Dalhoop]

Allowing Dirk to do what he wants will not work, because he will do what he wants. On teams like the Suns and Lakers the playbook starts the same way

"Pass the ball to the middle; When the double comes ..."

This in not how the Mavs book starts, we pass the ball to the middle and space the floor with shooters. If a team has a guy that can guard Dirk and stay out of foul trouble, then we do other things like drive and dish and pick and roll. The thing is, not many teams have someone that can stay out on Dirk and stay out of foul trouble.

Another problem with that reasoning is the FT shooting, Dirk makes his, Amare and Shaq are a combined 20% FT shooter (Not really, but you know what I mean), you can't just foul him if you get beat like you can with Shaq or Amare.

Finley should guard Terry, the bigger body may take some of the edge off of his long shot, be aware though that this may force the Mavs into drive and dish mode as Finley cannot stay with Terry

[smrattler]

To start the game, yeah, Bowen needs to be on Howard. He needs to basically make him a non-factor scoringwise or at least a very inefficient scorer for the series (low FG%). And yeah, throw bigs at Dirk, he's gonna get his points anyway, but keep a big body on him and try to control the boards.

I'm more worried about the other lineups AJ will throw out there, with Howard, Stack and George (who is looking pretty sharp right now and is a big SF) out there. They could go really small with Harris, Terry, Howard, George and Dirk. What's our counter lineup? TD will have to be out there. Whoever he guards (George or Dirk) will take him away from the basket and that's already a positive for them since we have nobody else to protect the rim, they'll take it hard to the basket.

[Dalhoop]

I'm more worried about the other lineups AJ will throw out there, with Howard, Stack and George (who is looking pretty sharp right now and is a big SF) out there. They could go really small with Harris, Terry, Howard, George and Dirk. What's our counter lineup? TD will have to be out there. Whoever he guards (George or Dirk) will take him away from the basket and that's already a positive for them since we have nobody else to protect the rim, they'll take it hard to the basket.

This is the MAIN problem when facing the Mavs, if you stop them one way, they change the line-up and MAKE YOU come out of the set-up that was working. In the above line-up Duncan and Dirk each will score at will, but George is a better rebounder then whoever the Spurs go with and he can guard Duncan (To the same extent that anyone else could, he often guards PF's in the Mavs system)

The flip side of that line-up, one that we have seen all year, Is the Dirk, Dampier, George, Howard and Terry .. The rebounding with that line-up could kill the Spurs.

[td4mvp21]

Dunno. Seems they tried this during the January 5th game and they still lost. At home.

I'm pretty sure that they got away from that in the second half. If I remember right, didn't Howard and Terry both have good second halfs?

[picnroll]

but George is a better rebounder then whoever the Spurs go with and he can guard Duncan (To the same extent that anyone else could, he often guards PF's in the Mavs system)

Please let it happen.

[mabber]

Assuming we leave a majority of the defense on Dirk in the hands of Elson (and yes, I cringed as much as you did) with Bowen probably not guarding Dirk till crunch time, is it more important to keep Bowen on Howard or Terry?


I actually think Terry is much more clutch than Howard (I believe Howard only averages 3 ppg in 4th quarters) and whie JHo is an excellent rebounder, I actually think at the end of the day, based on offense, Terry is our bigger threat, even if Howard is the more versatile player.


Anyways, would you guys rather keep Bowen on Howard or Terry if you had to pick between the two?

I think playing Bowen on Terry might be a decent option late in the game as the Mavs use the Dirk/Terry pic 'n roll 80% of the time in tight games. They don't usually call plays for Howard late in games.