[Underdog]

Originally Posted by jthig32

That was sweet. Very sweet.

That Dirk guy...he's ok you know? Dirk is obviously a special, special player. But when he's hitting that three ball...he is the greatest offensive force in the NBA. Period. What a show tonight with his all around game. What more can you say really? I don't even know what more analysis to give. He's awesome and I love him.

The person I really want to talk about didn't even play during the fourth quarter. Shawn Marion's game tonight is going to be over shadowed by Dirk and possibly even Haywood. But let's take some time right now to really, really appreciate this guy. First of all, he's been bringing an incredibly efficient offensive game for a while now. His post ups are becoming more timely (he absolutely punished Denver for switching Billups onto him tonight), his chippies are going in, and he's running the floor. He scored 21 points on 9-13 in only 29 minutes tonight...and that's just the icing on the cake. The most important numbers are:

3-16 for 10 points. That's the line of Anothony, who happens to be averaging 29 points a game against the NBA. Oh and the other time Carmelo has had to go against Marion this year? 5-19 for 16 points. So for the two games, their simple points and makes vs misses are:

Marion: 33 points 15-26 from the floor.

Anthony: 36 points 8-35 from the floor.

I mean..holy crap. Does anyone remember what it was like trying to guard Anthony last year? Or any other scoring swing man for that matter? You can't give all the credit to Marion; other areas of the defense have improved, for sure. But my goodness that dude makes an incredible difference on the defensive end, and I still feel like he's under appreciated among the more casual Mavs fan.

Also huge defensively (and offensively too) tonight was Haywood. That dude showed me a ton tonight against Denver. Damp wasn't bad himself in his limited minutes, but Haywood was at another level and showed he has the mobility to play with Denver. Huge blocks, huge rebounds, and provided some offensive pressure.

Kidd turned in a relatively normal night for him. A few huge defensive plays, good passing and a few big shots. Rock solid.

Butler was a little out of the offense tonight, mainly due to match ups that had us getting offense from Marion. But he rebounded well, had a few defensive plays, and hit some big momentum shots early in the game. I also just love his attitude out there. Completely willing to stick his nose into traffic and come up with that ball.

Jet was big tonight without really going off (we didn't need him to). He was efficient, got shots within the offense and hit a clutch shot to get Dirk his Triple Double. Good stuff.

Najera was pretty quiet tonight and has to pull down more than one rebound in 12 minutes. I thought Carlisle really played with fire having him in there late in the third quarter. Denver went on a run that coincided with no center being on the court for the Mavs. Luckily the ship was righted early in the fourth.

Pretty "meh" night from Roddy tonight. I think we can all see how wide the production gap is between Roddy on the floor with Kidd and Roddy running the offense. But he put pressure on Denver defensively and didn't really screw anything up, and you obviously have to continue to give him SOME time every game. No more DNP's for Boobie.

So there it is. A very satisfying win. Obviously Denver had several things working against them tonight, but it doesn't really take way from a really fun and important win. But this thing's far from over; the Mavs need to finish this push and wrap up the second seed over the next two weeks.

Nice summary...