MAVS x ROCKETS

[MFFL]

<< Questions&gt;:

Who stopped Yao?

Why did he play only 22 minutes? >>



The announcer mentioned that fatigue could be playing a role. Yao has already played more games this year than ALL of last year in China.

[MavsFanFinley]

Thanks MadApe.

I've been waiting for this type of analysis on Rig and what he will/won't bring to the team in time.

[Chiwas]

<< The announcer mentioned that fatigue could be playing a role. Yao has already played more games this year than ALL of last year in China. >>

Tks. Some Mav showed dominant on him?

[MavKikiNYC]

Is Bradley still slightly injured?

[MFFL]

Raef capped two of his first four shots and forced Yao into 3 or 4 turnovers EARLY in the game.

[MFFL]

<< Is Bradley still slightly injured? >>



Injured or had his confidence shaken by Nellie not playing him much lately.

[LRB]

It looks like the Mavs mad some major changes in their play in this game. I say much less of the isolation, 4 corners, and even small ball. Nash appeared to pass more on his drives. Much less possesions with only the guard toughing the ball. The pick and roll returned. I thought that Dirk was being posted more and even saw a repost to Dirk. Can't remember the last one of those that I saw.

Defensively I thought we looked a lot better. Our team defense especially. Raja and Raef really help set the tone early.

I would like to see more of Raja and less of Griff at least until Griff can heal. With Philly coming up, I hope Raja can have the opportunity to get some major minutes. He deserves them if he plays like he did tonight.

Nice to see the Mavs return a little more to form. I sure hope that they can keep it up.

[madape]

Bradley's reduced playing time is more likely due to the opponents the Mavericks are playing and Raef's improved play.

The last three of our opponents have chosen not to play their true centers limited minutes against us, probably in attempt to attack our zone. Nelson looks to try to counter by either playing man, or by going with quicker, smaller players. He certainly isn't going to play Raef AND Shawn against these types of linups. Raef is getting the bulk of the center time now, frankly because he's playing so well.

I don't see it so much as Shawn being injured, or even in the doghouse. I see it as just Nelson being Nelson and playing matchup games again. In my opinion, he could play Shawn a lot more and it would help us. But I'm not going to get too upset YET. If it starts to become a layup drill for Mavs opponents again, like it was last year, I'll start screaming bloody murder. But until that happens, I'll let Nelson play with his toys.

[MavsFanFinley]

Michael Finley scored 19 points, including the 5,000th of his career on a hard-fought tip-in just before the buzzer at the end of the third quarter.

I copied this from the DMN recap. However, they really got this wrong. Finley has over 11,000 points.

But, Nash scored his 5,000 point in tonights game. Thought I'd pass it on.

[Drbio]

yet another amazingly accurate contribution by the DMN .....what does an editor cost anyways?

[MFFL]

<< yet another amazingly accurate contribution by the DMN .....what does an editor cost anyways? >>



An editor at 11 PM? They're all at the bars doing research.

[dude1394]

I was surprised about bradley but raef was a real stud in there tonight. They didn't need him and bradley wouldn't have been able to push yao around. Might have done something against cato however (oh he did....he picked up about 4 fouls in 8 minutes...there were some questionable ones from my seat, but if you guys saw replays let me know).

Nellie said tonight that he's been trying to get raja in but that he's not been playing well. I'll take that with a grain of salt, sometimes I think all nellies sees are shots with respect to playing well, raja hit his first couple so great.

If he'd been placed on marbury in phoenix that game would have been ours. But raja DID play with a lot of energy tonight.

I thought Rigeadeau(sp) looks like a keeper. He certainly hasn't settled down but most of his shots were open, he handles the ball real well and looks like he will be a perfrect &quot;point forward&quot;. It will be interesting.

Good job by fin... Real good job I thought by williams, real big 3 from him. It was a very un-maverick kind of game. They really stuck to defense, not a lot of offensive runs, just steady,steady,steady pressure.

Again game ball to raef and raja.

[MavsFanFinley]

Last post before turning in.

I snagged this from the post-game quotes on the official site. I remember Francis talking about how the Mavs couldn't beat the Rockets playing man-to-man.

On the Mavericks not using much zone defense

I am surprised. That’s why I was so mad, because they beat us playing man-to-man. I never thought that team could beat us playing man-to-man.

[ames7]

from the Houston Chronicle game story. Hehe, this guy's actually pretty funny. Liked the alert beer vendors comment.

Mavs get plenty of help en route to 107-86 victory
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

DALLAS -- Steve Francis might still be right. Perhaps the Dallas Mavericks cannot beat the Rockets playing man-to-man as he declared after the Rockets' previous loss in Dallas, as if beating a team with a zone did not really count.

The Mavericks obliged, going with a man-to-man defense most of the night Tuesday and they won ease start-to-finish. They rolled 107-86, but we still might not know if they could beat the Rockets that way.

The Rockets beat themselves first.

While the Mavericks calmly passed the ball around the Rockets' usually stout defense, the Rockets threw themselves into the teeth of Mavericks defense waiting for them. The Mavericks' 7-footers caught more Rockets passes than the Rockets did. But then, so did Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich and several alert beer vendors.

Even with a largely meaningless fourth quarter to find a handle on the ball, the Rockets collected more turnovers, 26, than field goals and fewer assists, eight than in all but three of the previous games in franchise history.

&quot;Poor decisions,&quot; Tomjanovich said. &quot;That was the game right there. Our decisions were bad. I got more passes coming to me. I had a couple right on the numbers.

&quot;They still do things when they switch sometimes which makes you really have to execute. We played hard, we just didn't play smart.

&quot;Our decision making wasn't bad; it was really horrible.&quot;

The Rockets did make a brief move in the second half, closing for a moment to within 12. But when both teams cleared their bench with 5:43, the Mavericks had their lead back to 24 and went driven only to hit 100 to give away fast food and to get French import Antoine Rigaudeau his first NBA points.

The Rockets posed few other challenges.

A night after scoring a season-low four points and earning a spot on the bench for the whole of the fourth quarter, Francis quickly made up for lost time. He did not miss in the first quarter, rolling up 13 points. But the Rockets also started the game handling the ball as if it were radioactive and never did get that passing thing back into their game.

Francis played the first 42 minutes before returning to the bench, and had 26 points and eight rebounds. But the rest of the Rockets starters combined to make just 9 of 29 shots. Only Cuttino Mobley also reached double figures.

&quot;We talked about it at halftime,&quot; Tomjanovich said of the Rockets' determined recklessness. &quot;Some guys got it, some didn't. We were trying to do too much with a possession.&quot;

Even after making a mini-run in the third quarter, cutting a 24-point point lead in half, the Rockets were forced to rely on their bombs-away offense and whatever they could find at the line, making just 38.5 percent of their shots.

The Rockets had other problems for much of the night. Defensively, they went with their usual plan, giving up certain shots to take away an opponent's primary attack. But the Mavericks could not find a poor shooter and by halftime Dallas led by 19.

&quot;They did a great job starting the game,&quot; Tomjanovich said. &quot;Our plan was we weren't going to give them layups. We were going to come off the lesser scorers. They just passed the ball to the guy and the guy made the shot. They read the defense. We fought the defense.&quot;

Yao Ming, increasingly looking worn out, could not come close to matching the 30 he scored in Dallas in his last game coming off the bench.

Unlike that night, when Don Nelson had not prepared a defense for Yao and tried 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley alone on Yao, Bradley did not play until Yao went out and instead the Mavericks sent double-team help and shut him down.

Yao made 2 of 6 shots, and for the second-consecutive night could not get his points within the Rockets offense.

He played just six second-half minutes before he was benched for the night -- and Tomjanovich said Yao would keep his feet up for the next two days, as well -- with six points and five turnovers.

[Dooby]

The 3 PG's played a combined 49 minutes. And they win. Coincidence?

I think not. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[LRB]

<< The 3 PG's played a combined 49 minutes. And they win. Coincidence?

I think not. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] >>



If that is all the contribution that Rig gives us, its not that bad of a contribution. Hope we see similar minutes for the PGs in the future.

[mavs_afroman]

Things I liked about this game:

1. Improved ball movement

2. Improved player movement, especially without the ball

3. Defensive intensity

4. Raja Bell. I think that he should get the starting job because he brings more energy and hustle to get the game started well than does Griff.

5. More freethrow attemepts

Things I didn't like:

1. Bradley's lack of minutes. I don't care what the reason is for him sitting out so much lately but he needs more minutes. When he's playing well our defense gets that much better and I'd hate to see him lose his confidence because of Nellie's weird substitution patterns.

2. Smallball with Dirk at center and Walt at power foward again. We got away with but I would not be at all disappointed if I never saw it again.

Things I can't really complain about:

1. Running the offense through the post: This mainly the best way to run a half court offense but since we didn't get stuck in half court situation too much there's not much to complain about even though a little practice now would'nt hurt too much so it won't be such a big adjustment when that time roles around.

[mavs_afroman]

<< The Mavs are up by 22, at the moment, in a game that sure would be good to win, but I won't be able to enjoy it, if Dirk doesn't get to post up more. >>



Even in a win, you can see tendencies that can hinder a team from winning against better opponents. When the offense is out of sync or you just need a basket, the best place to go is down low in the post for an easy basket and I think we all agree that Dirk is our best post up option. Even thought it didn't change the result much last night, against the top teams they are going to have to utilize that option much more.

Now, if he had only mentioned this after a loss he would be called a knee-jerker. He mentions it now and he complains too much and should just be happy with the win. Is there ever any valid crticism of the mavs or should all complaints just be dismissed as silly fans wanting too much?