[Max Power]

Mavs' run-and-gun strategy still may work in the end
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, April 19, 2004

About the time Chris Webber dribbled around the arena, over the Maloofs and down the lane to complete that ludicrous up-and-under thingy he spun into the basket at full speed in the fourth quarter, you realized you were watching a cartoon of an impressionist painter's rendition of an NBA playoff.
It was a brilliantly vivid image. It was marvelous, if ragged, theater.

And in other news, it's hoops suicide.

The Kings went at the Dallas Mavericks' preferred throttle range Sunday - wide open, for those keeping book at home - and they made it work to the tune of 116-105, the kind of game they haven't put together in, oh, let's say two months.

And if you didn't know better, you'd have sworn those were thin smiles the Mavs were wearing under their semi-disappointed comments afterward.

Know why? Because the Mavericks kill people dead with that game plan - later, if not sooner. Because the Mavs, with all their flaws, with their sub-mediocre road play this season and their what-me-worry? defensive posture, are never more in the thick of a game than when their opponent decides it really enjoys going up and down the floor.
Or, to put it another way, "Obviously, this team feels comfortable in a high-paced game - the more possessions, the better," Dallas guard Steve Nash said.

Or, to put it a third way, "Not really," Vlade Divac answered directly when asked if he'd be comfortable playing the rest of the series at this tilt.

In taking Game 1 on their home floor, the Kings demonstrated how to win a game and risk a playoff. It's not breaking news. Coach Rick Adelman knew it the day before this series began, and he knew it again Sunday. He warned of the danger both before and after his team's victory.

There was a point on Sacramento's evolutionary timeline at which the Kings were the team that wanted to bait every opponent into playing backyard ball, and Adelman looked like a master back then. But it was a few years, a few injuries and millions of steps ago.

Now, "They're better at it than we are," Adelman said of the Mavs' breakneck routine. "I mean, they're better at it than anybody in the league.

"So you've got to understand that the more you take a quick shot and miss it, the more you bail them out."

The Kings and Mavericks cranked up 174 field-goal attempts in 48 game minutes Sunday, and welcome to exactly what Mavs coach Don Nelson was hoping for out of this series. Oh, he'd like to cut down the silly plays and the extraneous blown offensive possessions - he'd like for Dallas to play like the composed team it hasn't always been this season - but all in all, this was basketball the way the Mavericks want to play it.

And the problem, for Sacramento, is that the style can't be trusted. The Kings looked almost at home running the floor with the Mavs in Game 1, but the question is whether Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic, Divac and the crew can possibly slam up and down that way for seven games - or six, or, shoot, two or three.

"The faster the better for us," said Nash, whose team led the NBA in scoring at 105.2 points. "That (pace) is not what beat us today. We made too many little mistakes, and offensively, we maybe didn't run enough."

Word to the heavy-legged: This is a Sacramento team, after all, playing a long series without sprint-master Bobby Jackson, playing with a tired Divac and a clearly weary Stojakovic. Webber's injury is old news. A track meet suits this bunch not at all, no matter how glorious it looked for four quarters.

Dallas essentially played the Kings even through three periods despite some horribly ragged work, and that's the thought the Mavs took with them back to their hotel Sunday evening. In the third quarter, when the common wisdom held that the Kings really applied the defensive pressure, the Mavs still jacked up 24 shots. They shot lousy, was all.

"We got what we wanted offensively," said forward Antoine Walker, whose 3-for-11 work from the field didn't help. "We were getting good shots. ... We're leaving today feeling very comfortable."

The Kings felt just fine with themselves afterward, and coming out of the month or so that they're coming out of, you can understand. Sacramento played this game with more spice and more energy than it has showed in weeks.

And in that fourth quarter, with Dallas having hung around for 36 minutes, the Kings really went out and won a game - took control of it and never gave it back. It was good stuff. It was fine theater.

It's a mirage.

Or, to put it a fourth way, "We cannot get into an up-and-down game with these guys," Adelman said on the eve of this series. "We're going to lose that battle eventually."

That's later, if not sooner. It was a great way to win a game, the Sunday plan.

It's just a lousy way to attack a series.