Just came from the game. It felt good to come out of the Air Canada Centre with a grin. I think My wife and I were the only ones smiling... hahaha!
Great recap from jthig32. Summed up the game pretty much.
JET was amazing. He was doing everything. I initially felt that his game has dipped when Josh came back from his injury. However, as the game went on, he continued to be aggressive and he was making great shots and great plays.
Dirk was great too. He was definitely off in the first half. But in the 2nd half, he was unstoppable. The Raptor fans (around 18,000 of them!) were just in awe. You could see in in their faces. He would shoot the ball and it was all net. The Raptor fans beside us were saying "Has he missed at all in the 2nd half???"... and I could only smile.
He did have quite a lot of turnovers (when the ball was swatted out of his hands) but overall, he was his usual great self.
George... Hmmm. Well, he shouldn't shoot. It should be the least of his priorities. He is a good defender but offensively, he really makes awful decisions. There was a moment there when he had 2 offensive blunders. One, an offensive foul and then the other, a travel. Ugh.
Kidd was quietly effective. I'm a big Kidd fan but objectively, he didn't have one of his "amazing" games. He hasn't had one in quite a while. Tonight, I felt he should have been more aggressive on the offensive side. He only attempted 6 shots tonight and made 3 of them. I hope he elevates his game because it can only help this team.
JJB was okay. When he went up for that layup and got blocked, I said to myself "well, what's new"... To make it worse, the Raptors fan beside me said "Does he actually think that he won't get blocked 90% of the time??"... But I liked the fact that he didn't push the issue. He tried, he got blocked, and didn't do it over and over (unlike previous games). He tried to be more of a distributor and he was effective in most instances. During one timeout, I saw Kidd and JBB talking and it seems JJB genuinely takes advice from Kidd. Kidd was describing a few things (I think) and JJB would nod and listen. I didn't see any sign that he didn't like being told by Kidd on how to run a few plays.
Josh was good. His scoring was a huge help to the team. However, there were some occasions when he would totally ignore Dirk or anybody for that matter. It just seems that the ball movement just goes away when he has the ball. He really thrives in the ISO offense and passing isn't his strength. The Raptors fan beside me made a comment. He said "Josh Howard will rarely pass the ball to anyone, much less pass it to Dirk. I think he is trying to outplay Dirk and be the main man on this Mavs team." (something to that effect)... I was caught by surprise, I didn't know what to think.
There was one thing I really noticed in a few of the timeouts. Dirk, JET, JKidd and even Barea (or Damp) were talking and Josh was just in the other side of the huddle. I don't know if he was disinterested or those other players felt that he didn't have to be part of the huddle. I hope there isn't any tension or gap between them because it will be detrimental to the team.
On the Raptors side, well, Bosh probably had one of his worst games. He was just terribly off. And you could see he wasn't himself. I could believe he was that bad. Well I guess all good players have one of those horrible games at some point.
Overall, I'm just glad the Mavs won. Felt good to come out of the ACC grinning while everyone else was cursing.