RE:The New Weakness
True, there was no passing (for all practical purposes), but I think that's a sympton, not a cause of the Mavericks offensive problems.
The real problem is nobody besides Dirk can shoot the ball reliably from 18 feet and out.
If you watched what happened when Dirk got the ball, usually about 18-20 feet from the basket, San Antonio doubled him and dropped the other three players very deep.
When Dirk gave the ball up, for the most part, Howard or Harris or Daniels or Stackhouse or whomever missed an open jump shot. There was no room to force the ball inside against the defense (in fairness though, most of Dirk's five turnovers didn't happen that way--one was a bogus offensive foul, one a bogus travel, and on one he lost the long lead pass out of bounds).
You can't very successfully drive the ball on five guys packed into the paint, even Dirk isn't going to have a great deal of success trying to shoot over a double team. The best passing (which the Mavs don't have) isn't very effective if there isn't any room.
Someone has to spread the court. Finley will help when he gets back, and Terry helps some, but I'm beginning to wonder if Dallas hasn't gone from too many players that can shoot but can't play defense to too many guys that can play defense but can't shoot.
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