Dirk is our Go To Guy- Then why is this happening

[mavsfanforever]

See the article below from dallasnews.com. I cannot understand why Raef gets more shots than Dirk when Dirk is the superstar.


Nowitzki takes few shots
Forward scores 18 points despite being limited to 13 attempts

05/07/2003

By JAN HUBBARD / The Dallas Morning News

The Big Three do not have to play large for the Mavericks to be successful. That was proven emphatically in Game 1 of the Portland series when Michael Finley and Steve Nash missed 15 of the 23 shots they attempted and the Mavericks still won because Dirk Nowitzki had 46 points.

Nowitzki also took 27 shots in that game and during the Portland series, he averaged slightly more than 20 a game. It was evident early in Game 1 against Sacramento, however, that the Mavericks were straying away from their primary offensive option.

Consider that in the first quarter, Raef LaFrentz attempted four shots in six minutes and Eduardo Najera attempted three, also in six minutes.

Nowitzki, meanwhile, took his first shot less than a minute into the game but did not take his second until 2:17 was left in the first quarter. By that time, the Mavericks were behind by 11 points and they never really recovered. He had only three attempts while playing all 12 minutes in the first period. That is hardly enough for the primary offensive option.

"I never really got any clean looks," Nowitzki said. "They were doing a good job of rotating. I didn't get open looks, but you have to give them credit for the way they played defense."

Nowitzki ended the night taking only 13 shots, hit seven of them and had 18 points, which is considerably fewer than the 29.9 points that he averaged in the Portland series.

Despite the relative inactivity, Mavericks coach Don Nelson said: "I thought Dirk had the ball enough. We were trying to get everybody involved and have better ball movement. I thought he had enough touches."

Against Portland, Nowitzki had fewer than 20 attempts in only two games, and the Mavericks lost each time. Kings assistant Elston Turner said the Kings always pay close attention to Nowitzki, but they emphasized staying close to him even more in Game 1.

"We never wanted to be more than one pass away from him," Turner said. "We wanted to stay close enough to him so that we could get to him when he did get the ball."

Nowitzki, however, accepted part of the blame for his lack of shot attempts.

"I need to be a little more aggressive in going after the ball," he said. "They guarded me well, and they play really good defense on the strong side. We just have to make sure that we get better ball movement and swing the ball to the weak side. If we're passing like we're supposed to, we'll get open shot because they're not that great of a defensive team, either."