13-9: Mavs squeak by the Tropics..er..Thunder

[DevinHarriswillstart]

I think Gana is in the doghouse and isn't coming back anytime soon. I only see him being used in situations that call for guarding a big center.

[Mavs Rule]

Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

I think Gana is in the doghouse and isn't coming back anytime soon. I only see him being used in situations that call for guarding a big center.

I agree he is in the doghouse. The question is why? Bayliss seems to think because of his defensive screwups. I think he has been less intensive on the court, and we have seen this in previous years, because he knows the coach will not play him much. Its a self forfilling downhill snowball with this attitude. But if Rick gave Gana a chance (more minutes), knowing that historically he has been able to deliver excellent defense, I think Gana will rise to the occasion.

Look at Bass for instance. He played horribly both offensively and defensively to start this season, yet he was continually given minutes which allowed him to work his way out of his offensive slump, only because historically he has proven he can do that. Do you see the correlation? Rick needs to give Gana more minutes, his confidence will grow, and he will allow us to play stronger defensively against small ball teams.

[dude1394]

So now a guy needs to be given minutes to play solid defense? I don't buy it. Offensively I can see it. But if you want to play defense, then you do it..

[Mavs Rule]

Its more of a phsycological play with someone who has shown potential, as opposed to an offense vs defense decision IMO. We need him and therefore it is worth the gamble.

[jthig32]

Yeah, Diop has been horrid this year. Just awful. There's no reason to have him on the floor right now, in my opinion. His incredibly poor floor time plus/minus is topped (or bottomed, I guess) only by Stack's.

Bass's isn't great, but he's backing up Dirk. That's always going to depress his plus/minus.

It really is unfortunate that Damp can't make teams pay for going small. I don't think people realize how good Damp has been this season. He has the best flor time plus/minus on the team (obviously helped by how poorly Diop is playing) and his on court defensive number is the best on the team by a mile.

[Flacolaco]

Originally Posted by DubOverdose

This team needs a shakeup badly. Let's hope that could happen with Josh returning to the court and whatever Stack can net us.

This team needs a shakeup badly?

Or the fans want a shakeup badly just for the sake of doing something?


Let's just get Josh back healthy and see what's up.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by Mavs Rule

Its more of a phsycological play with someone who has shown potential, as opposed to an offense vs defense decision IMO. We need him and therefore it is worth the gamble.

The Mavs, this season, have given up 10 more points per 48 minutes with Diop on the floor versus Damp. And Diop can't guard small centers any better than Damp can, and he makes them pay even less on offense because he doesn't rebound the way Damp does.

[dude1394]

While I was watching the rebounding numbers last night for some reason didn't realize how many Orebs they got. I couldn't quite understand what was happening as we were very efficient offensively.

Who was covering Russell Westbrook? He almost single-handidly out OREB'd our enitire team with 6?

Also how much zone did we play last night? I saw us in it a little bit but at the arena it becomes a little hazy (and the beeers don't help).

[jthig32]

When the starters were on the floor Barrea was guarding Westbrook, which would explain some of the offensive boards.

I didn't notice more zone than normal. They play zone after almost every timeout now, and yet Ortegal still surprised every time.

[dude1394]

Thanks jthiggy...I was afeard of that. It also explains why JJB (I guess) got so little burn last night.

[jthig32]

I actually thought he should have played even less. It's time for him to stop starting.

[Flacolaco]

Especially last night. The starting lineup looked awful against all those young long athletic guys that were jumping out of the gym all over the place...and the Mavs were rolling out JJB and George and Kidd...we're so un-athletic already but I thought it really stuck out at the beginning of the game last night.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by Flacolaco

Especially last night. The starting lineup looked awful against all those young long athletic guys that were jumping out of the gym all over the place...and the Mavs were rolling out JJB and George and Kidd...we're so un-athletic already but I thought it really stuck out at the beginning of the game last night.

Thing is, we're not even that unathletic. We just don't give our athletic players much burn.

Where in the world is Gerald Green? The guy really needs to get at least a couple of minutes a game.

[duboh7]

Originally Posted by jthig32

I actually thought he [JJB] should have played even less. It's time for him to stop starting.

Agree.
However, I disagree with those who have complained about Damp's/Diop's matchup "problems" for this game. (Interesting how we all "see" different things, isn't it?)

I thought we had matchup problems at all other positions, rather than the #5, for the first part of the game. OKC started Petro and played Collison & even Joes Smith, later. I thought Damp and even Diop did OK.

But Dirk was getting KILLED by Green's speed and shooting. Green hit his first 7 shots.

George did "OK" against Durant (at least he, at times, was good at denying him the ball)

Kidd did "fair" against Wilkins or Mason, but I thought his height disadvantage was a problem at times. Mason generally killed JET, when JET was at the #2.

JJB and JET were generally mismatched, all the time, against Westbrook and Watson (height and speed).

SO..... RC's only available solution (at least the one he chose) was to sit Damp/Diop, so Dirk could guard Petro/Collison/Smith. Dirk did an "OK" job with those. Bass & Williams did better (not great) with Green. Since RC never played a "big" SG to guard Wilkins/Mason, our PG matchups remained bad the entire game. (Our guys did better in the 4th with better effort and an occasional zone).

Surely, this game will mark the end of the JJB starting streak. (I'm not hating on JJB, he gives us a real spark on offense, but I think he should play 15-20 Mins in relif of Kidd at the #1...... and we need to start a "big" at SG, and JET can get his 30+ Mins against (mostly) the other team's backup. Look at what DEN is going to roll out Mon. Billips at the #1, and Melo and Smith at the Wings. Kidd is going to have his hands full with Billups----much less a larger Wing. JJB would get killed.

[Sportstudi]

Originally Posted by ghazi

can't attack Dirk's "clutchness" based on the Hornets series. That series was lost due to us being unable to stop Chris Paul and Josh Howard shooting 25%. Dirk had one of the top 2-3 PER's over the course of the 2008 playoffs.

He had the best: Link