Nice read on the mavs from the NYTimes

[dude1394]

Although most of it is rehashed stuff we have already read, it's nice to see it here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/sp...ll/27MAVS.html



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November 27, 2002
Good to the Last Stop
By MIKE WISE


ichael Finley always knew, like most people, "that the D was missing." They were known as the Allas Mavericks and coached by that old sideline ragamuffin, On Nelson — they had no D.

They played a highly entertaining brand of basketball, found mostly in church leagues and PlayStation cartridges. But the franchise saddled in Big D did not play a lick of defense. The former Maverick Gary Trent used to call Dirk Nowitzki Irk because there "was no D in Dirk." The team's mad scientist, Don Nelson, was too busy keeping the scoreboard clicking to worry about stopping the other team.

The Dallas Mavericks are 13-0, two victories from tying the best start in N.B.A. history, and holding teams to less than 90 points a game. They protect the rim, slide their feet and win with more than just a scintillating offense.

"Most true fans knew that was the main issue with us, that we had to find a way to stop teams," Finley said last night by telephone aboard the team charter plane. "And once we improved our defense, we could be taken a little more seriously. That's where we are now."

A Dallas victory in Detroit tonight will tie the 1957-58 Boston Celtics, who began 14-0. Another victory at Indiana tomorrow will tie the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, who each started 15-0. All three teams advanced to the finals.

While Dallas leads the league in scoring (103.9 points a game), opponents are shooting just 40 percent. Only two teams have shot better than 43.5 percent against Dallas, and the Mavericks have given up 100 points only three times in 13 games. The Mavericks gave up more than 101 points a game last season, worse than anyone but the Golden State Warriors.

As victories pile up, jabs about their defense are subsiding. No one even pokes fun at 7-foot-6, 265-pound Shawn Bradley and his piano-wire frame. Bradley is averaging 8.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and nearly 3 blocked shots, tending goal for a team that employs as many as nine different zone defenses.

"There was good reason for those jokes for a long time," said the Mavericks assistant Donn Nelson, Nelson's son. "We deserved them. But we also internalized them over time."

Especially after last May, when the Mavericks were caught in a second-round playground playoff series with the Sacramento Kings, running and gunning and falling in five games. The lasting film clip from that series was not a back-and-forth scoring foray, but little Mike Bibby and Bobby Jackson slithering through Dallas defenders in the final seconds of close games like salamanders through quiet reeds, stuck deep in mud.

The owner Mark Cuban, once the club's most marketable personality, in part because of the fines he received for criticizing officials, had a banner installed at the practice gym that included the ghastly number of layups the Kings converted in the series.

"Last year it took me till January to get fined, so I'm still warming up," Cuban responded via e-mail. "I guess it's just my preseason."

Cuban is not making much noise, but a certain part of him is gloating. Many of his peers have cried poor and have begun using terms like "cost effective" and "fiscal responsibility" regarding a league-imposed luxury tax, which forces teams to pay a dollar-for-dollar tax over the salary cap. Cuban, a billionaire, is still on a spend-money-to-make-money budget.

"I do love the fact that the Mavs are becoming one of the best draws in the league after the Lakers and M. J.," Cuban said, referring to Michael Jordan. "It raises an interesting chicken-and-egg question. Which creates more value to the league, the money I pay in luxury tax, or the increase in our attendance on the road and the higher TV ratings because I was willing to spend the money to keep the team together?"

The first month of training camp was spent almost entirely on shutting down the opposition. Nelson went on an archeological dig for help, tapping the 65-year-old assistant Del Harris for advice.

"I got the best zone guy in the league; he's written books on it," Nelson said. "He came to me and said, `We should play this more.' I said, `Well, I don't know.' But I think we all knew we had to get better on the defensive end."

Donn Nelson said: "We're not doing anything unique to basketball. Between Del and Nellie, they've come up with some pretty creative ideas. But the zone has been around as long as, well, Del and Nellie. And they came along shortly after James Naismith."

A zone defense often involves covering for your teammate. When a player vacates one area, another one rotates over, sliding in to assume a teammate's responsibility.

When the Nelsons were fined and suspended two games for watching an under-age European player practice over the summer, Harris coached the team to its first two victories. When the reserve point guard Nick Van Exel had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, Avery Johnson slid into his role off the bench. When Steve Nash and Nowitzki could barely make a shot against Cleveland, Finley became flammable. When Raef LaFrentz went down early with a sprained right ankle, Bradley gave Dallas a different look in the pivot. Rotate and slide.

In Boston, Bradley had food poisoning, vomiting before and after the game. But he played a huge role in a victory and came out the next night against the Nets and hit the game-clinching basket. This is the same player whose lack of conditioning and confidence led to criticism from some of his peers last season.

Bradley responded by working out five days a week last summer in the weight room. He patrols the paint, changing or blocking shots, recapturing the athleticism that made scouts gush over him a decade ago before he became another big man who never tapped his potential.

"It's one thing to be challenged by your coaches; it's another thing to be challenged by your teammates," Donn Nelson said. "If he was in shape and had the confidence he has now, he could have really added something to that Sacramento series. I don't think he's going to make the same mistake again."

Circumstance has helped fuel the Mavericks' success. Seven of their first 13 games have been played at home. The Mavericks have faced Portland without Bonzi Wells, the Lakers without Shaquille O'Neal and the Celtics on a night when Paul Pierce could not find his stroke. They have yet to play San Antonio or Sacramento.

"We are an upper-echelon team, but if you look at the West, you can't say we're better than Sacramento," Donn Nelson said. "The Lakers have given us real problems. Until we start challenging and beating those teams on a consistent basis, I don't think we're worthy of being talked about in the same light."

Don Nelson added: "We're not as good as our record, we know that. We think Sacramento is the best team. We love Portland's team, if they can ever get it going. After the Lakers and San Antonio, we're probably below some of those good Western Conference teams. All you can say right now is we're playing very well."

You can still take shots at the Mavericks for their coaching roster. They have four coaches on the bench, four behind the bench, three player-development coaches and a free-throw shooting coach. They also splurged on a full-time team psychologist this season.

And Nash and Nowitzki's unkempt, wavy hairstyles, which have more split ends than any N.F.L. offense, are still fair game. But for a change, they don't give up layups as freely in Dallas, and no one refers to the Mavericks' best player as Irk anymore.

"It's still the weakest part of my game right now," Nowitzki said. "I'll never be a great defender, I know that. But I've got to be solid enough to keep my man in front of me at the end of a playoff game. If that happens, I'll be happy with my defense."





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[Fidel]

<< Circumstance has helped fuel the Mavericks' success. Seven of their first 13 games have been played at home. The Mavericks have faced Portland without Bonzi Wells, the Lakers without Shaquille O'Neal and the Celtics on a night when Paul Pierce could not find his stroke. >>


Excuses, excuses. We´ve been missing some players too like... I can´t remember [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img].
Otherwise, good read, thanks for posting dude.