Quote:
Originally posted by: SeriousSummer
The Mavs had several problems:
1. It's obvious the injuries had a large effect, but I think there was a bigger problem.
2. At the beginning of the game the Suns ran their whole defense against Dirk. He made several excellent passes to Howard/Daniels/Harris and they couldn't finish or hit the open shot. Dirk compensated by taking the ball to the basket and drawing fouls. Stackhouse came in and helped on offense, but, face it folks, right now the vaunted Mavs offense is down to two weapons--Dirk and Stack.
3. The Suns were dominating the boards. and then Damp was injured. Booth was no help on the boards, leaving the whole burden on Dirk.
4. Terry is the Mavs third-best offensive weapon (with Finley on the IR) and the player with the best chance of slowing Nash's offense because of his quickness. He's also a key to trying to tire Nash out and/or harass Johnson when Nash was out. Terry went down hurt.
5. When Dirk went out with five fouls (the last one was stupid on his part, an obvious retaliation for the foul not called on Stoudemire), Nelson had no choice but to try one of his tricks--the zone with Bradley anchoring it. It worked well and the Mavs got some help on offense from Harris and Stackhouse, but like all gimmicks, the secret is to not stay with it too long. After the Mavs went up five, you knew Nelson was thinking about bringing Dirk back and going away from the zone. The minute the lead was cut to three, Dirk went to the scorers table. Unfortunately by the time he got in, the Mavs were already behind.
6. Henderson couldn't handle Amare on the boards, Nash played great and Phoenix won. But the problem wasn't Dirk's "poor" (at 20 and 16) game. The problem was without Damp Dallas didn't compete on the boards well enough (except what Dirk did) and without Terry and Finley Dallas didn't have enough firepower to make Phoenix pay for concentrating on Dirk.
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Great analysis imo. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
Injury does hurt a team a lot especially with Dirk having 5 fouls. Dirk probably won't have 5 fouls if Damp was in the game, right? So overall, everything is linked together. One bad injury can cause a game.
Dirk did the smart thing to go inside when his shots don't go in. He has the ability to draw many fouls.
Another problem is passing. Dallas' ball movement is just bad when their shots don't go in.
Jimmy