Najera puts blue in collar

[mavsfanforever]

link

Najera puts blue in collar
Mavs forward wants to be known for hard work, not hard fouls


05/29/2003

By CHUCK CARLTON / The Dallas Morning News

Eduardo Najera would rather be known for elbow grease, not forearm shivers.

If the lasting images of Najera from Game 5 of the Western Conference finals are a couple of forceful two-hand shoves under the basket, then Mavericks teammate Michael Finley says the impressions are wrong.

Najera's real impact, as opposed to the sudden kind felt by San Antonio's Malik Rose, came in less obvious areas.

If the Mavericks want to avoid elimination in Game 6, they may need a duplicate performance of Najera's defensive and rebounding effort against Tim Duncan.

"Eddie came in and gave us a lot of energy," Finley said. "I don't think that the hard foul had anything to do with his performance or intensified us to pick the game up to another level.

"I think he just did all the little things we were missing in the games we lost. He was able to get the rebounds we were missing in Game 4. He was able to give us a lively body on Tim Duncan. Just his aggressive attitude helped us on the interior."

Although Duncan finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds, an average game by his standards, Najera, Raef LaFrentz and an aggressive double team limited Duncan to 15 shots.

Najera played all but one minute of the second half and finished with 11 points and tied for the team high with eight rebounds, four of them offensive.

He felt every minute, putting his 6-8, 235-pound frame against the 7-foot Duncan. Wednesday, Najera dismissed the idea that Duncan weighed only 260 pounds.

Najera should know. By any standard, the load was heavy. Then again, on a team loaded with offensive talent, Najera is a well-cast worker bee.

If the Mavericks didn't stop Duncan, they at least forced other Spurs to beat them, and this time the outside shots didn't fall.

"It takes a lot of energy to guard him," Najera said. "In the fourth quarter, I was ready for my second wind. I think everybody was. For a while, I looked and it seemed like there was nobody [ready] to go on the bench."

With just nine players dressed because of injuries, the last thing coach Don Nelson wanted to confront was fatigue. So he didn't.

"He looked over a couple times like he wanted to maybe come out," Nelson said. "I looked the other way."

In the second half, Najera was all hard work, not hard fouls, unlike the first half.

He flattened Rose after being beaten on a lob pass, drawing a flagrant foul. Then he hammered Duncan inside.

The message on the first foul was only that Najera was upset about getting beat.

"I thought I got fouled before the play," Najera said. "I just didn't want him to have a wide-open layup. I just wanted to foul him hard, make sure he knows it's going to be hard to get to the rim. It's more out of frustration because I didn't get the call."

Spurs fans failed to make a distinction, booing Najera, who played his senior year of high school as an exchange student at San Antonio's Cornerstone Christian.

"Obviously, they're going to boo you when you foul somebody hard. That's the worst thing they can do to a player," Najera said. "That's motivation when somebody is booing, and your reaction is to have a better game."

E-mail ccarlton@dallasnews.com

[Chiwas]

I have seen some cuts of the game and noticed that he also made big screens allowing others to score (Nash above all).

It was a good work, but hardly to repeat it. There have to have other schemes, specially coming from SA.

I think the Spurs are going to be more dangerous from outside next game.

[DrtyFlthyNstYnQuik31]

Najera is a BEAST!.. gotta love the guys hustle and effort..

[LRB]

Little sissy Spurs fans are afraid of the Big Bad Najera!!!!