Mavs vs Jazz game 1 "in progress"

[Mavinator]

I'm not unhappy. Look at how close the game was, look at how we played through a slump at the beginning and toughed it out... Take away the early game jitters, one or two technicals, and the bad officiating, and where are the Jazz? Losing by about 12, I'd say. And this was on their homecourt... This hurts, but the game looked promising for the rest of the series.

[Mavinator]

Although, I might point out a certain 7'6" goalie who was playing very well tonight, but inexplicably got only 17 minutes of playing time...

[djb]

I think he was a bit shaken up after getting posterized by Marshall [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] He did play well though in the time he was on the floor. It's too bad neither he nor Booth could have had more of an impact this afternoon.

[Mavinator]

As much as Nellie praises it in the papers, you can tell he has a distaste for playing the Bradley/Booth lineup to close off the paint, but it is SUCH a good lineup that I don't understand why Nellie doesn't play it...

[Mavinator]

Oh, and that one dunk should be forgiven because Bradley had already caused both Marshall and Malone to miss dunks earlier in the game.... Individual Defense Baby...

[Bookit]

I feel lousy. This loss hurts. It hurts because I thought the officiating wasn't that bad. The refs weren't calling those ticky tacky fouls that Malone always gets. It was the perfect opportunity to take control of the series. It hurts because Utah played smart down the stretch and the Mavs didn't. That being said, we stayed in the game with Nowitzki missing everything. Now all the pressure is on the Mavs. If we lose on Tues., the series is pretty much over.

Observations....

Howard Eisley is pretty much useless. He just isn't a smart player imo. His only function is to feed the ball to Juwan. Nothing else. Drive and dish? Forget about it. We need to get Mookie Blaylock for next season. When Buck gets back,(is he does get back)we should let him play poing instead of Eisley. At least he contributes. I like the way Nelson let his stars play extended minutes. Dirk and Finley played the whole game. Good call. Juwan is afraid of getting the ball stripped to have a big game. Give credit to the Jazz. I was laughing when the Jazz were getting called for fouls on all the arm slapping. They do it so often and they finally got caught. Have you ever seen so many flops in all your life. The Jazz flopped the whole game and the refs were letting it go. I hope the next crew calls it the same way. Bryant did a GREAT job on Malone. I expect them to adjust however. I don't think it will be any easier this next game.

Any other thoughts on the game?

[turbo.mav]

Excellent breakdown bookit.

my additions: GIVE NAJERA A CHANCE. any else agree?? i mean, what more does this kid have to prove? he's shown what he can do. rebound, rebound, and bang. i know that he could find away to agravate malone, and hes a proven offensive rebounder... also-- I think eisley is a quality guy, but the jazz fans pressure is too much, i say rest him for the jazz home games and work a different un-affected player in there.

[Jordan23TX]

Bookit u gave an excellent summary of the game. I like you didnt think the game was officiated that badly. But we just got killed on the boards .,..as we always seem to do ......time & time again they got offensive rebounds..... Offensive Rebounds would kill any team ....and its definetly killed us today....

j

[MavsFanFinley]

I have no idea why you guys think Dirk should of taken that shot at the end. Have you not noticed how many 3's he's been missing lately? Take a look:

San Antonio (3-7), Phoenix (0-1), Sacramento (0-4), Seattle (1-8), Golden State (0-2), Minnesota (1-3) and tonight against Utah (2-9). Correct me if Im wrong, but doesn't that add up to 7-34?

Fin did take some ugly looking fadaways today but no worse than Dirk thowing up another missed 3. You rag on Fin for not taking it to the basket but there hasn't been any mention of Dirk flinging up the 3's. People, we're talking 7-34. Am I missing something? Is that a great stat? And who hit the big 3's in this game when we needed it? FINLEY!

Fin taking that last shot did not lose the game for us, I think he's proven to hit those enough this season...

We couldn't rebound the ball or chase down the loose ones. Offensive rebounds killed us. 19-9, Utah with the edge. And, in the beginning, how many layups did we allow them? It was embarassing! And don't get me started on that posterization Marshall had on Bradley. I think NBA2Nite said that Howard didn't score or grab a rebound in the 4th quarter. Eisley is useless, I can't keep thinking he'll break out in the future. I hope Cuban/Nelson are making plans to move him this summer.

I do have a positive from the game...Mark Bryant played really well. I couldn't believe how well he guarded Malone, that could be interesting to watch in the games to come.

And finally, with all the things the Mavs did wrong or lacked today--we only lost by 2. If we can correct some of those things for Tuesday, we win and bring it to our court.

[MavsFanFinley]

Another thing...Nelson needs to keep his cool too. That first T, I thought was unnecessary because we had the ball on the fast break, Collins even said as much. That second T was a good one. Dirk was fouled and nothing was called. It was ridiculous.

Did I mention that I hope Cuban/Nelson are working on a way to ship Eisley out yet?

[TheKid]

Mavinator, I think that dunk by Donyell Marshall on Bradley was not even a foul. That was bullshit if you ask me. Donyell was on his way down from dunking the ball and they called a foul that was bullshit. Also the refs are full of it because that flagrant foul they called on Bryant was ridiculous.

My biggest beef of the game is rebounding. We SUCK on the boards. I've said it before, I don't question will our big guys step up when we need them because they did when it counted, but our front line has got to do a better job on the boards. Howard getting 0 rebounds in the fourth quarter is sick!!!! Bradley did play decent while he was in there but I see why he took him out because Bryant was playing phenomenal against Malone.

If we board better that game, we win, it's that simple. We put ourselves in position to win that one and we were beaten on the boards. Towards the end of the game. We MUST, MUST REBOUND!!!!

[madape]

Is there a rule in the NBA that states "If John Stockton falls on the ground, call a charge on the opposing team". I mean this guy would be in full back-pedal mode, trip our player, and then fall down. It happened about 3 times. The techs were ridiculous. We were getting mauled under the basket during rebounds and no call... I knew the Jazz were going to get some calls to go their way but that was pretty bad.

[madape]

Just thought I'd throw in my thoughts on Bradley. There was a point in the second quarter where the Jazz missed 9 out of ten shots. Mostly due to the interior defense of Bradley. The Mavs went up by seven. Then Shawn picked up his third foul and had to be taken out of the game. Booth came in and guess what? The Jazz made their next 4 shots, the Mavs made no more shots, and we went into halftime down 1. I can't understand why Bradley didn't get more P.T. in the second half. He was having a great game. All those layups and dunks the Jazz had would have been severly limited.

[erub]

The Nelsonans must have thought that Bryant was more effective than Bradley at guarding Malone. It wasn't like either Bradley/Bryant/Booth would have been needed to score, their job was to shut down Malone. I questioned it myself throughout the game....Maxwell didn't get to play, IMO that was a mistake. A good decision to let Dirk and Fin go the distance, and Howard only had 4 mins of rest, another good call. You must stay with your stars, even if they aren't shooting well.

One foul the other way, a few less offensive rebounds for the Jazz, and this game could have been ours.

[Bookit]

Is there a rule in the NBA that states "If John Stockton falls on the ground, call a charge on the opposing team".

madape, yes there is a rule. John Floppton is such a hard worker he deserves every flop to be called a charge. Rule 2302, page 37. Isn't that bull****? That is star favoritism at its finest.

Eisley? I agree. Ship him out. He is dead weight. Mavinator, I agree. Bradley was just standing there when Donyell Marshall stuffed it over him. What is he supposed to do? All he did was stand there. Nothing else. Mavsfanfinley, maybe Dirk will break out of his shooting slump on Tues. The Mavs need his bombs to loosen up the interior. Dirk was a mad man on the boards however. He is only getting better on the boards. I love watching it…..Finley played great as usual.

Juwan plays hard but just isn’t effective with all the arm slapping going on. I think he is afraid of getting the ball stripped. We really miss Buckner. I guarantee we would have won that game with him getting 20 minutes or so. Especially down the stretch.

I think the reason Nelson pulled both Booth and Bradley is that Bryant was guarding Malone effectively and we needed more offense on the floor.

[Evilmav2]

With the exception of the horrible Stockton call, the officiating was pretty decent last night. We did well considering the fact that the Jazz needed 18 assists from Stockton and an offensively sub-par game from Dirk to win by two. I just hope that Malone doesn't break us in the next game... That is an absolute must win situation, because y'all know that we probably will not be able to take three straight...

Also, the illegal defense business was a little excessive in the first half, and Bradley should have played more minutes... He was extremely effective in the first two quarters, and Mavinator is right to point out that stretch where the Jazz went 1-10, because Bradley had at least four shot intimidations in that time, and we could have built up a lead, if not for a few missed shots... Forget about that stupid Marshall dunk, and realize that our team defense was far, far more effective when Bradley was in the lineup (just like always)...

[Mavinator]

There are three men who are going to decide this series and only three men: Stockton, Nash, and Bradley. People like to talk about Malone breaking our back or the team needing Finley or Dirk to thrive, but these are only secondary to the real game-changing factors. In both of the Jazz's wins over us in the regular season, and last night, John Stockton was incredibly focused and on his game. The Jazz live off of John Stockton, as does Karl Malone, and the Jazz will go as he goes. The same goes for the Mavericks with Steve Nash- I believe he had 14 assists and 17 assists in our two wins during the regular season, and when he frustrates Stockton both offensively and defensively, the Mavericks just dominate the Jazz. Then there is the ultimate x-factor, the man who can single-handedly win games for the Mavericks when he plays well: The Stormin' Mormon, Shawn Bradley. Don't even pretend the man doesn't have the power to change everything when he's playing well. With Stockton on, Nash out of control, and Bradley getting limited minutes, the Jazz will beat us... With Bradley consistently anchoring the post and with Nash playing at the top of his game, the rest of the series might look very different.

[Evilmav2]

Very good points... I don't want Malone popping off some night for 35 though. Just one game like that could end our playoff run in a five game format...

[Mavinator]

That's true... but I think it would be incredibly unlikely to see Malone go off for 35 without Stockton similarly going off for 15 assists.

Lately I've been very concerned with Nellie's obviously wavering confidence in Bradley...

[Mavinator]

Of course, one can't disregard the idea that maybe is was Donnie's fault Bradley didn't get minutes down the stretch.

[turbo.mav]

WHY!! why was i programmed to feel pain!

[Mavinator]

LOL... that is hilarious...

[Flying Tiger]

We gotta give propts to Mark Bryant... he really kept Malone occupied. I gotta give it to you Hales, when you wanted him to play in the playoffs I though you were an idiot.

[turbo.mav]

more proof that stockton is a robot

[TheKid]

Mavinator, I agree with you that those people will make significant impacts but I don't know if they'll decide the game. My point is, despite all that happen Saturday, we still should have won the game. Now I've said before we need Bradley to win this series and we do! When he was on the court he definately made a difference. I'm still pissed about that foul the refs called on him after Donyell dunked it because he didn't do anything. However it is important to atleast make Malone work for all his pionts. The fact is Malone and Stockton are going to do their thing, we just have to weather the storm. Also, better decision making by Nash is IMPERATIVE.. He killed us down the stretch on two possessions where he wanted to dripple the ball to death! We'll see what happens tuesday, I'd like to believe we have what it takes to get it done!!!

[dallaslaker]

The only way we will win a game is be ahead by 10 points at the end. The refs have replaced MJ with Stockton as the new "Teacher's Pet" who gets anything he wants. What the hell happened to "not letting the refs decide the end of a game and letting the players play it out." When Stockton got the COMPLETE CRAP CALL, I knew we had absolutely NO chance of beating Utah and Refs. This is exactly why I wanted Sacramento in the first round.

[TheKid]

Here you go lam, read post #12, during the game, this shows my HATRED towards Dirk. MEATHEAD!

[Hales233]

FlyingTiger, I'm glad to hear you don't think I'm an idiot anymore!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]