Rockets throw a surprise at Dirk - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

MavsFanFinley · 04-24-2005, 12:08 AM

Rockets throw a surprise at Dirk
Bowen makes most of increase in minutes and helps stymie Nowitzki

By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News

Ryan Bowen's resume was sparse, to say the least. The 29-year-old Houston Rockets forward had played in 66 games this season, averaging 9.2 minutes.

So how did he become a key contributor Saturday? Well, a little luck and a lot of hustle.

Juwan Howard is out for the playoffs because of a viral infection in his heart, and regular starting forward Clarence Weatherspoon is perhaps a little too slow to face the quick Mavericks and didn't play Saturday. So Bowen took his five minutes of playoff experience and drew the toughest assignment of any Houston player – guarding Dirk Nowitzki.

"I was nervous, I'll admit it," Bowen said. "This was really my first time playing in the playoffs. I was definitely anxious to get out there."

And Bowen was out there. He played the third-most minutes (31) on his team and helped hold Nowitzki to 21 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the field as the Rockets beat the Mavericks, 98-86.

So is the former Iowa Hawkeye the next candidate for Defensive Player of the Year? Well, Bowen was clearly out of his element at times and probably didn't do as much damage to Nowitzki, one-on-one, as Tracy McGrady did. Still, Bowen was a key part of a slick plan.

"Coach asked me how many minutes I would take defending Dirk, and I said I'd go 40-plus," McGrady said. "But it helps to have a guy like Ryan Bowen, who is really energetic and who's going to lay it all out on the line and sacrifice. It's great to have him come in and kind of frustrate Dirk a little bit, and then I move in on him and just make things difficult for him."

Bowen was quiet statistically, with four points, three rebounds and six fouls. He admitted he had some trouble with Nowitzki.

"It's not like I was that good defensively," he said. "It was a team thing. It's nice to know when you're pressuring him that you've got Dikembe [Mutombo] or Yao [Ming] behind you, or if he's going to drive middle, you've got Tracy there. To play him one on one is impossible."

Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy heartily admits that.

"We know Nowitzki missed some shots he normally would make," Van Gundy said. "We're not going to pound our chests like we have some answer for this guy. We have no answer. We're just going to try our hardest."

Quetzalcoatl · 04-24-2005, 09:44 AM

Bowen did a great job in game 1.

Mavs Rule · 04-24-2005, 10:27 AM

According to the stats that I saw, Dirk did OK against Bowen. It was when he went against McGrady that he couldn't hit a shot.

Bayliss · 04-24-2005, 10:46 AM

And as KG said in the gameday thread: how could he not know that McGrady would be guarding him?

Jeff Van Gundy may be Alonzo Mourning's personal leg warmer but he is a smart defensive coach. He definitely has seen video tape of Mar5ion against dirk this year. Marion is 6'7" with long arms and good quickness. Hmmm... McGrady is 6'8" with long arms and good quickness. There is some similarity there. And you throw in years past when smaller quicker players have always given Dirk problems and boom instant gameplan.

There is no excuse for him to play so lazy. Even in the post he threw up some soft shots. He should've backed McGrady down and powered it up either drawing a foul or getting a dunk. And stop trying to be a damn pretty boy.

dude1394 · 04-24-2005, 11:05 AM

I also don't think it was all JUST having McGrady on him. The rockets also decided to not double until dirk put it on the floor, that's where the 3 to's seemed to come from in the last quarter where they salted it away when dirk came back in.

Coaches are going to have to find a way to hurt the other team if they are going to double-team the dribble.

grndmstr_c · 04-24-2005, 12:04 PM

Bowen was a non-factor.

dude1394 · 04-24-2005, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: grndmstr_c
Bowen was a non-factor.

In fact bowen was the only rocket with a negative +/-...

Yup, big factor.

oopsss.. except padgett. Let me re-phrase...

Bowen was the only rocket with a negative +/- that played more than a minute or so.

sp3nc3r13 · 04-24-2005, 01:03 PM

i didnt feel bowen did that good against dirk, it was dirk's inability to split the double team when he put the ball on the floor or find the open man. he would turn the ball over if someone came around him and took the ball. if dirk starts to use his body more against the smaller defenders and shows his ability to draw fouls and get to the rim, i can see this series turning around.

kg_veteran · 04-24-2005, 02:11 PM

The Rockets never doubled Dirk until he floored the ball, which is exactly what I predicted they would do. Again, I'm just a big Mavs fan. I'm not on the coaching staff, and I figured that out.

The Mavericks are better than the Rockets. This isn't some sort of "sky is falling" post. But I was really disappointed in the lack of offensive preparation. When they put McGrady on Dirk, the Mavs have several options:

1. Dirk can get good position in the post BEFORE catching the ball. This is something that's generally a foreign concept to Dirk, but the Rockets WILL NOT allow him to catch at 18-20 feet, then dribble and back his man in. They're taking that away from him. If Dirk can get good position on the block, he can turn and quickly make his move or he can wait for the double to come and pass the ball. If Dirk can't get good position on the block, he'll have to try another option. Such as...

2. Run Dirk off of screens. The Mavs have a number of set plays where they run Dirk off of screens to get him shots, either on the wing or rolling to the basket. If McGrady's going to guard Dirk, why make it easy on him? Why let him stand at 20 feet and guard Dirk one-on-one, where McGrady has a quickness advantage? Running Dirk off screens will get him into situations where McGrady is trailing or chasing rather than being able to dig in, and it will serve the added benefit of wearing McGrady down and making him take some physical punishment. I think this is an option the Mavs completely underutilized last night.

3. Get Dirk involved in pick-and-roll situations. This can be with Dirk either setting the pick or handling the ball. It doesn't really matter. The pick-and-roll will force the Rockets to either switch, giving Dirk a better matchup, or they'll have to double Dirk, leaving the other player (preferably Terry) open for shots.

Tracy McGrady is hardly a defensive demon, but he's athletic enough and talented enough that he can make life difficult for Dirk unless the Mavs put Dirk in better position to succeed than they did last night.

grndmstr_c · 04-24-2005, 02:16 PM

All dead-on, kg.

dude1394 · 04-24-2005, 02:31 PM

Quote:

3. Get Dirk involved in pick-and-roll situations. This can be with Dirk either setting the pick or handling the ball. It doesn't really matter. The pick-and-roll will force the Rockets to either switch, giving Dirk a better matchup, or they'll have to double Dirk, leaving the other player (preferably Terry) open for shots.

Dang....now I can't even remember the pick and roll being used with dirk yesterday??

TVI · 04-24-2005, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Mavs Rule
According to the stats that I saw, Dirk did OK against Bowen.

Which is actually all anyone should expect from Bowen. The guy's barely a role player. If he plays hard, makes Dirk work for shots, and doesn't put him on the line every time, then he's doing exactly what any coach could expect going up against Dirk.

Dirk is a superstar. If he only does "okay" against Bowen, then the way I see it, Bowen did his job. If Bowen sucks so bad, then Dirk should have absolutely destroyed him. That didn't exactly happen.

grndmstr_c · 04-24-2005, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Which is actually all anyone should expect from Bowen. The guy's barely a role player. If he plays hard, makes Dirk work for shots, and doesn't put him on the line every time, then he's doing exactly what any coach could expect going up against Dirk.

Dirk is a superstar. If he only does "okay" against Bowen, then the way I see it, Bowen did his job. If Bowen sucks so bad, then Dirk should have absolutely destroyed him. That didn't exactly happen.

Dirk scored 19 of his 21 points with Bowen in the game (looks like a total of maybe 27-28 minutes that they were on court together), and that's with Dirk looking like he left his brain back in the regular season. Bowen was a non-factor.

sike · 04-24-2005, 03:36 PM

the Rockets surprise was that Dirk showed up rather heartless....that is always a surprise.

TVI · 04-24-2005, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: grndmstr_c
Dirk scored 19 of his 21 points with Bowen in the game (looks like a total of maybe 27-28 minutes that they were on court together), and that's with Dirk looking like he left his brain back in the regular season. Bowen was a non-factor.

There's no logic in that. If Shaq scored 19 of 21 points against Dampier, everyone would be saying that Dampier did a great job against him. Any time you can prevent a superstar from dominating the game, you've done a good job. Put it this way. If Fin/Howard/et. al. had held T-Mac to 21 points on 5-19 shooting, the Mavs win this game.

Again, if Bowen was such a non-factor, then why didn't Dirk go nuts on him? This is denial, pure and simple. Okay, so Dirk got 19 points (mainly on free throws) on a scrub. He should have dropped 40 on a non-factor.

Come on, people, keep it real. No one's nominating Bowen for DPOY, but he did what he was asked to do. And right now, JVG is pretty happy with the result.

The real question is, why didn't any of the Mavs do the same for their team?

grndmstr_c · 04-24-2005, 05:48 PM

TVI, if you honestly think that Bowen had that much of an impact on Dirk's bad day then I daresay you're significantly underrating Dirk. If Bowen continues getting 28 minutes against Dirk and defends him the way he did yesterday, Dirk will be having a much bigger impact on the game than he did yesterday. Sometimes players have good days in spite of good defense being played on them. Sometimes they have bad days that the defense was only partially responsible for. Surely you realize that.

kg_veteran · 04-24-2005, 05:52 PM

TVI - I see your point, but in this particular game Dirk just flat-out sucked. Bowen really didn't do much to deter Dirk; Dirk was his own best defender. Well, Dirk and Avery.

dirno2000 · 04-24-2005, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: kg_veteran
The Rockets never doubled Dirk until he floored the ball, which is exactly what I predicted they would do. Again, I'm just a big Mavs fan. I'm not on the coaching staff, and I figured that out.

The Mavericks are better than the Rockets. This isn't some sort of "sky is falling" post. But I was really disappointed in the lack of offensive preparation. When they put McGrady on Dirk, the Mavs have several options:

1. Dirk can get good position in the post BEFORE catching the ball. This is something that's generally a foreign concept to Dirk, but the Rockets WILL NOT allow him to catch at 18-20 feet, then dribble and back his man in. They're taking that away from him. If Dirk can get good position on the block, he can turn and quickly make his move or he can wait for the double to come and pass the ball. If Dirk can't get good position on the block, he'll have to try another option. Such as...

2. Run Dirk off of screens. The Mavs have a number of set plays where they run Dirk off of screens to get him shots, either on the wing or rolling to the basket. If McGrady's going to guard Dirk, why make it easy on him? Why let him stand at 20 feet and guard Dirk one-on-one, where McGrady has a quickness advantage? Running Dirk off screens will get him into situations where McGrady is trailing or chasing rather than being able to dig in, and it will serve the added benefit of wearing McGrady down and making him take some physical punishment. I think this is an option the Mavs completely underutilized last night.

3. Get Dirk involved in pick-and-roll situations. This can be with Dirk either setting the pick or handling the ball. It doesn't really matter. The pick-and-roll will force the Rockets to either switch, giving Dirk a better matchup, or they'll have to double Dirk, leaving the other player (preferably Terry) open for shots.

Tracy McGrady is hardly a defensive demon, but he's athletic enough and talented enough that he can make life difficult for Dirk unless the Mavs put Dirk in better position to succeed than they did last night.

Excellent points and I would expect to see more of this going forward. I don't know how much it would have helped yesterday. The couple times we did get Dirk the ball in the post against McGrady, he missed easy shots...airballed one of them.

On another note, our passing was terrible. I watched the 1st half again last night and there were a number of opportunities to take advantage of their shifting defense for lay-ups and we simply made the wrong pass. Sometimes that led to a more difficult shot sometimes a turnover. I'm sure they'll see that on tape today.

Bayliss · 04-24-2005, 07:04 PM

Quote:

1. Dirk can get good position in the post BEFORE catching the ball. This is something that's generally a foreign concept to Dirk, but the Rockets WILL NOT allow him to catch at 18-20 feet, then dribble and back his man in. They're taking that away from him. If Dirk can get good position on the block, he can turn and quickly make his move or he can wait for the double to come and pass the ball. If Dirk can't get good position on the block, he'll have to try another option. Such as...

That is one thing that really pissed me off. I don't know if it's Dirk, Avery, Nellie, or whomever but you don not post up a smaller dude 20 feet from the basket and then **root** your way to the hoop. That is how the ball gets stripped. For Dirk to get position, they have got to have a guard dribbling at the three point line on onme side of the basket. Dirk at that point needs to be on the weakside. He needs to use a pick from his player and come up baseline. As soon as his butt crosses the rim on the strongside he needs to stop and put up his hands. Now he'll be 3 feet from the bucket and there will be no need to dribble. Power that sh*t up and force the damn foul. And if they switch on that pick and a big guy takes Dirk, then the guy who throws the pass needs to clear out and let Dirk take the big off the dribble.

Quote:

2. Run Dirk off of screens. The Mavs have a number of set plays where they run Dirk off of screens to get him shots, either on the wing or rolling to the basket. If McGrady's going to guard Dirk, why make it easy on him? Why let him stand at 20 feet and guard Dirk one-on-one, where McGrady has a quickness advantage? Running Dirk off screens will get him into situations where McGrady is trailing or chasing rather than being able to dig in, and it will serve the added benefit of wearing McGrady down and making him take some physical punishment. I think this is an option the Mavs completely underutilized last night.

There was 1 play that they ran Dirk off of a screen. It was late in the 4th quarter off of an inbounds play. He got it baseline put it up and nothing but net. Dirk is not Peja. But Pretty Boy can be a catch and shoot type player. And if McGrady is guarding him, run Dirk off so many f'n screens that McGrady doesn't want to guard him anymore. Run him around Dampier, let Damp take a body shot to him. Run around Howard, etc. Get him off of a double puick fade to the corner play a la Reggie Miller. But make McGrady take contact while guarding Dirk and make him move.

Quote:

3. Get Dirk involved in pick-and-roll situations. This can be with Dirk either setting the pick or handling the ball. It doesn't really matter. The pick-and-roll will force the Rockets to either switch, giving Dirk a better matchup, or they'll have to double Dirk, leaving the other player (preferably Terry) open for shots.

And it doesn't matter who the pick and roller is... or who has the ball. Force the defernse to choose. Dirk/Terry pick and roll may create a switch, a wide open 3 for Terry or the possiblity of Terry or Dirk rumbling to the goal with a half step lead. But a pick and roll is a great way to get guys involved in the offense because it puts pressure on the defense to rotate over and therefore causing wide open shots. If the Mavs need an explanation of how it works all they have to do is go back to the first two quarters of Saturday's game.

Hitman · 04-24-2005, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: kg_veteran
The Rockets never doubled Dirk until he floored the ball, which is exactly what I predicted they would do. Again, I'm just a big Mavs fan. I'm not on the coaching staff, and I figured that out.

The Mavericks are better than the Rockets. This isn't some sort of "sky is falling" post. But I was really disappointed in the lack of offensive preparation. When they put McGrady on Dirk, the Mavs have several options:

1. Dirk can get good position in the post BEFORE catching the ball. This is something that's generally a foreign concept to Dirk, but the Rockets WILL NOT allow him to catch at 18-20 feet, then dribble and back his man in. They're taking that away from him. If Dirk can get good position on the block, he can turn and quickly make his move or he can wait for the double to come and pass the ball. If Dirk can't get good position on the block, he'll have to try another option. Such as...

2. Run Dirk off of screens. The Mavs have a number of set plays where they run Dirk off of screens to get him shots, either on the wing or rolling to the basket. If McGrady's going to guard Dirk, why make it easy on him? Why let him stand at 20 feet and guard Dirk one-on-one, where McGrady has a quickness advantage? Running Dirk off screens will get him into situations where McGrady is trailing or chasing rather than being able to dig in, and it will serve the added benefit of wearing McGrady down and making him take some physical punishment. I think this is an option the Mavs completely underutilized last night.

3. Get Dirk involved in pick-and-roll situations. This can be with Dirk either setting the pick or handling the ball. It doesn't really matter. The pick-and-roll will force the Rockets to either switch, giving Dirk a better matchup, or they'll have to double Dirk, leaving the other player (preferably Terry) open for shots.

Tracy McGrady is hardly a defensive demon, but he's athletic enough and talented enough that he can make life difficult for Dirk unless the Mavs put Dirk in better position to succeed than they did last night.

KG -- You are absolutely correct on all accounts.

SeriousSummer · 04-25-2005, 08:04 AM

Absolutely right KG, but also:

Run the 4-5 pick and roll with Dampier. First, Damp's screens are brutal; second, neither Yao or Mutombo are very good on the perimeter; third, Damp can throw the ball down through T-Mac on the roll.

When you swing the ball after Dirk's doubled, then you've got to shoot the open three. I saw Van Horn, Finley, Terry and Stackhouse all pass up open looks. You get no advantage out of the double team if you're not willing to shoot the ball. Nellie never would have stood for it. Avery's got to tell those guys to shoot before the defense gets set up again.

tgfan · 04-25-2005, 09:52 AM

Summer,

You're right, but I think AJ was hounding them not to take jumpers. Telling them Josh was not the only one that was going to be going to the goal. I think that's why they were passing up some of those open 3s. Hopefully, he will clarify that.

tgfan · 04-25-2005, 10:10 AM

Summer,

You're right, but I think AJ was hounding them not to take jumpers. Telling them Josh was not the only one that was going to be going to the goal. I think that's why they were passing up some of those open 3s. Hopefully, he will clarify that.