[Novice#41]

Kings no match trying to guard Daniels
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, April 25, 2004

DALLAS - The troubling image Saturday might not have been Dallas rookie Marquis Daniels stepping up from outside and hitting jump shots, nor for that matter winding up with 22 points in the Mavericks' 104-79 rout of the Kings.
Daniels, after all, has scored in double digits in 14 straight games and averaged 19.9 points in that span. An undrafted free agent one summer ago, he's no longer an unknown quantity.

No, the trouble, for the Kings, might have come in watching Daniels consistently post up or blow by Mike Bibby en route to several close-in baskets in his 11-point burst in the third quarter, when the Mavs put this game away.

Reason? It suggests that Rick Adelman and his coaching staff now have another defensive matchup with which to concern themselves.
"He hit some tough shots and he got a lot of layups," said Bibby, who tried to answer offense with offense by scoring 22 points. "He played a nice game."

More than that: Daniels was the Dallas star on a team full of scorers. He converted 10 of his 20 field-goal attempts and logged a game-high 42 minutes. More significantly, he was the player of the moment when Dallas used that 34-17 third quarter to blow open the game.

"I just wanted to be more aggressive," said Daniels, who was just 11 for 30 from the field in the first two games of this series. "Once I hit my first couple of shots, coach called for me to get more."

That would be Don Nelson, the highly regarded strategist - or trickster, depending upon your mood - who had patiently explained a couple of days ago that he had no more rabbits to pull out of his hat when it came to creating mismatches against the Sacramento defense.

Instead, Nelson rode the hot hand Saturday. And once it became apparent that Bibby was having trouble staying with Daniels and that Bibby's teammates weren't moving at the speed of sound to help on defense, the coach figured he had himself a winner.

"I gave him some opportunities, and we talked about some mistakes he was making (in the first two games), like bringing the ball too close to the basket," Nelson said. "He took what was there and really settled down in the second half."

The talk before the game centered on Bibby's strained hip flexor, but the Kings' point guard seemed mobile enough on offense, where he cut into the lane several times for baskets. It was only in attempting to defend Daniels that Bibby looked a step slow.

Daniels is a great story, though one that is becoming increasingly known.

Undrafted out of Auburn last summer, he played his way onto the Mavs' roster by working stints at the Summer Pro League in Long Beach and the Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City. Nelson tossed Daniels into the starting lineup near the end of the regular season and hasn't been able to get him out since.

"We did more things through him (Saturday), and he responded with an excellent game," Nelson said.

Call it a trend. And add it to the list of matchup problems for the Kings to ponder.