Sonics @ Mavs Game Day Thread

[cheesestar]

gosh we couldve won this one

our D was just terrible

[Mavs Rule]

We have a much better team this year than last year, but we have already lost as many games at home as we did ALL of last year. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/img]

[V]

Crap. Here come the Kidd threads.

[StrikerV]

OMG THIS TEAM SUCKS WE LOST TO THE SONICS AND WE HAD A CHANCE TO WIN WTF OMG GET KIDD NOW

[Mavs414]

yup u right someone will put a kidd trade up lol but we played good tonight but DAMN we match our home loss from last year DAMN

[StrikerV]

hehe is that what u meant V [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[ames7]

This is one of those losses that make me feel sick to my stomach. We just can't seem to get into any sort of streak, it's win 2, lose 1. Granted, Seattle's a damn good team this year, this I now buy. But I really wish we could have executed when we got w/in 2.

I feel like this team, in the long run, is probably going to be fine, but it doesn't feel that way right now. Hopefully we can beat who they're supposed to beat in the next few games & maybe get into a rhythm now that we're mostly healthy.

[Simon2]

Man. I have so many gripes about this game its not funny. First of all, I think Nellie should go. He is a BS coach. I am convinced that with Nellie at the helm, the Mavs will never win.

Why did Terry only get 17 mins? He had 9 points in 17 mins. Marquis Daniels is NOT and I repeat NOT a point guard. He had 4 turnovers! Why does Nellie insist that he's a pg? Armstrong is a third string point guard. He really isn't any use out there. I cringe everytime he takes a shot. Why is Stackhouse allowed to touch the ball? He's a turnover machine. Why did Nellie go to essentially small ball in the end? Where was Dampier? He had 4 blocks but he onlyl had 28 mins? Please fire Nellie.

[dirk2003]

That was my first and last game thread.

Why not sub Quis when he is making rookie mistakes?

[rakesh.s]

i must be missing something but the sonics are a REALLY good team..nothing to complain about..

at this point they're better coached and play better...they don't choke when teams come back on them..something spurs fans might be familiar with

i personally thought finley shot the ball way too much tonight..take the open jumpers but don't start shooting fadeaways when the double team is coming at you..especially when you're coming off an injury

[XERXES]

Originally posted by: Simon2
Man. I have so many gripes about this game its not funny. First of all, I think Nellie should go. He is a BS coach. I am convinced that with Nellie at the helm, the Mavs will never win.

Why did Terry only get 17 mins? He had 9 points in 17 mins. Marquis Daniels is NOT and I repeat NOT a point guard. He had 4 turnovers! Why does Nellie insist that he's a pg? Armstrong is a third string point guard. He really isn't any use out there. I cringe everytime he takes a shot. Why is Stackhouse allowed to touch the ball? He's a turnover machine. Why did Nellie go to essentially small ball in the end? Where was Dampier? He had 4 blocks but he onlyl had 28 mins? Please fire Nellie.

Quis was a huge liability on the court all night. I kept waiting for Nelson to pull him - but he kept subbing other people out and leaving Quis in...It was making me crazy. Put Terry or Armstrong or heck even Avery in - but please don't make me suffer by forcing me to watch Quis - who cannot dribble and cannot pass (two big prerequisites for playing point)- play PG anymore! Woe is me - I can't take it anymore!!!

I'm always a big Nelson supporter - but he coached like an idiot tonight.

[Mavs414]

i know he needs to play our point gaurds not Daniels i dont know why he does that

[akaarod03]

Originally posted by: dirk2003
Mavs will win.. trust me.

Really?

[Bayliss]

Please fire Nellie.

Truer words have never been spoken.

[FilthyFinMavs]

My problems with tonights game:

Nellie. He has to matchup with the Sonics and that pisses me off. Granted, I understand his logic and maybe I even agree with it for a certain amount of time but Damp should've ended this game. That Rashard dunk doesn't happen if Damp is on the court.

I just love how this team doesn't give Finley the ball but when it's a close game we expect him to win it for us. For a guy who was someone hot why couldn't he atleast get more touches? There were continous plays of Daniels and Stackhouse coughing the ball up.

I saw someone call Daniels unintelligent when it comes to basketball IQ. Maybe so, but I think I want to critique him more when he's healthy. That guy is still cringing everytime he walks. The fact he got a steal and a fastbreak basket shows he atleasts has the heart.

Rebounding. I don't have the stats on me but I know they were atrocious. Howard with 1 rebound? I don't know how many boards Fin got credited for but I know he got 1. There was a time when Dirk had 4 during the 4th. Mavs made this game wayy to heard.


This didn't cost us the game but we should've got 2 flagrant fouls tonight for Ridnour and Fortson. It doesn't matter if they were intentional or not you still can give them a flagrant 1.


Some positives:

Not very many but I agreed with Ortegal or Pinto who said this was Fin's best game coming off an injury. He became much more aggressive during the 3rd quarter. I wish he could've got more touches in the 4th when this team was throwing dimes to the Seattle Sonics.

Stack. I don't like his game at all but when this team needed buckets he did two things. He either turned it over or drove to the rack. That's what he's got to do more of. He and Dirk are the only ones on this team that can drive to the rack at will and get a foul damn near everytime.

Defense. Excluding a couple of meltdowns here and there I thought the D was pretty good tonight. Seattle lives and dies by the 3 so you can't really expect to limit them under 100. One thing that frustrated me like hell was watching how the Sonics kept trying to get Dirk to guard Daniels or Allen and off the top of my head I don't remember Dirk giving up any points to them.

[MavsFanFinley]

Seattle wins 107-102:

Howard (30) 3-6, 0-1, 6pts, 1rb, 1as, 1to, 2stls

Dirk (38) 8-17, 2-3, 9-10, 27pts, 7rbs, 3as, 2tos,2blks

Dampier (29) 3-6, 1-1, 7pts, 9rbs, 2as, 3tos, 1stl, 4blks

Finley (37) 7-17, 2-7, 3-3, 19pts, 2rbs, 1as, 2stls, 1blk

Armstrong (20) 2-6, 1-3, 0-2, 5pts, 3rbs, 4as, 1to

Daniels (230 4-7, 0-1, 2-2, 10pts, 3rbs, 2as, 4tos, 2stls

Terry (17) 3-6, 1-2, 2-2, 9pts, 2rbs, 3as, 1to

Stackhouse (28) 5-11, 9-10, 19pts, 5rbs, 3tos, 1stl

Henderson (15) 0-1, 2rbs, stl

Booth (3) 1rb, 1blk

[cheesestar]

problems i see with this game are:

1.lack of playing a pg

2.crucialTO"s late in the game

3.bad offensive rebounding

4.bad defense

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: XERXES

Quis was a huge liability on the court all night. I kept waiting for Nelson to pull him - but he kept subbing other people out and leaving Quis in...It was making me crazy. Put Terry or Armstrong or heck even Avery in - but please don't make me suffer by forcing me to watch Quis - who cannot dribble and cannot pass (two big prerequisites for playing point)- play PG anymore! Woe is me - I can't take it anymore!!!

I'm always a big Nelson supporter - but he coached like an idiot tonight.

I'm somewhat a Nellie supporter also but hell this guy is forcing me to start bashing him. I'd love to one day understand what the hell he's thinking when he makes somes of these decisions.

[XERXES]

Howard was really a nonfactor tonight. Who was guarding him? WHoever it was - they kept him from shooting or getting to the boards.

[akaarod03]

Originally posted by: sike

and perhaps the nearest mod who allowed it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Agreed

[Ninkobei]

Man that Dirk sure is a warrior. Two injuries in one game and he still comes back. Albeit either of those injuries if happened to Finley would have kept him out for a month. It seems like every american-born nba player has it out for dirk. They all want to see him fail miserably. I guess its cause of what he did to the olympic team, or maybe they just hate foreigners. We can't keep letting dirk take puinshment like that. There has to be a way to stop it somehow, its just getting reDIRKulous..ahha ahha ahha....(yes, I know someone has that username, but it fits nicely in that sentence)

[kg_veteran]

Originally posted by: kg_veteran
<u>KG's Keys to Beating the Sonics</u>

1. Run them off the line.

The Sonics are killing people from the arc this season, shooting nearly 40% AS A TEAM. Even though Allen, Lewis, and company are also threats to attack the rim, they'll murder us if we let them bomb away. Our perimeter defenders are going to have to play tight and challenge every shot.

2. Rebound the ball.

The Sonics have two dedicated rebounders in Fortson and Evans, and they are 4th in the league in rebounding differential. Last night, they edged the Spurs on the boards. Dampier is going to have to match up with Seattle's twin rebounders and keep them off the glass -- a difficult task not only in light of their rebounding prowess but also in light of the fact that Dampier will spend a lot of time trying to challenge shots when Seattle's perimeter scorers drive. The Mavs have to rebound as a team to win, much like they did in Minnesota the other night.

If the Mavs can keep the Sonics off the offensive glass, they have a good chance to win.

3. Attack the rim.

The Sonics block an anemic 3.8 shots per game, and they really don't have anyone who can protect the rim. The Mavs need to pound the ball down to Dampier early, and the Mavs need to avoid settling for jumpers and attack the rim. This Mavs team won't beat the Sonics in a jumpshooting contest, but they can beat them by scoring in the paint and by getting to the line.

4. Defensive matchups.

Since the Mavs are going to start Finley (and, I assume, Howard), I'd like to see Howard draped all over Rashard Lewis, with Finley and Daniels guarding Allen. I don't expect Finley and Daniels to stop Allen, but as long as they run him off the three-point line and make him work hard for his points, I'm happy.

In the paint, Dirk should guard Radmanovic and Dampier should guard either Fortson or Evans.


Again, not an exhaustive list, but if they do all of those things, they should be in position to win.

Oh well. At least they listened to No. 3. I didn't get to see the game, so I couldn't say whether they did No. 4 or not, but they clearly didn't do No. 1 or 2.

[FilthyFinMavs]

Number 4 was done. One thing that kept pissing me off towards the end of the game was that the Sonics kept switching Dirk to Ray Allen or Antonio Daniels. Dirk did exceptional on them though. They tried to beat him off the dribble but he kept up with them.

[bernardos70]

I think in a situation like that, you go for the tie instead of the win. Playing at home with the crowd finally going nuts, overtime would be ours. I would rather have seen dirk drive harder and get fouled than pass to Finley.

[kg_veteran]

Originally posted by: Ninkobei
Man that Dirk sure is a warrior. Two injuries in one game and he still comes back. Albeit either of those injuries if happened to Finley would have kept him out for a month.

I don't know you very well, Ninkobei, but I think you should educate yourself a bit about Michael Finley before you speak. Dirk Nowitzki certainly is a warrior, but so is Michael Finley. The man played an entire season with plantar fasciatis in his foot. He's played through numerous injuries throughout his career.

Show some respect.

[Simon2]

Coz he was drunk? :-) Sarcasm there. Seriously, if you are lookijng for a positive, that looked like an "A" game by the Sonics and probably a "C" game by the Mavs. Once the Mavs turn it on, the Sonics won't have a chance. They have to solve that high pick and roll though.

Originally posted by: FilthyFinMavs

I'm somewhat a Nellie supporter also but hell this guy is forcing me to start bashing him. I'd love to one day understand what the hell he's thinking when he makes somes of these decisions.

[FilthyFinMavs]

Originally posted by: Simon2
Coz he was drunk? :-) Sarcasm there. Seriously, if you are lookijng for a positive, that looked like an "A" game by the Sonics and probably a "C" game by the Mavs. Once the Mavs turn it on, the Sonics won't have a chance. They have to solve that high pick and roll though.

Don't get me wrong the Sonics are the better team right now. This was just one of those games were you just have to take them and plan for the next game. The Sonics were on fire. The Mavs played unMavs-like. The Sonics can play this win and die by the 3 all they ant but they will understand that unless they don't change that method they will be dying by the 3 in the playoffs.

[JLEEHASMUCHGAME]

Originally posted by: XERXES

Quis was a huge liability on the court all night. I kept waiting for Nelson to pull him - but he kept subbing other people out and leaving Quis in...It was making me crazy. Put Terry or Armstrong or heck even Avery in - but please don't make me suffer by forcing me to watch Quis - who cannot dribble and cannot pass (two big prerequisites for playing point)- play PG anymore! Woe is me - I can't take it anymore!!!

I'm always a big Nelson supporter - but he coached like an idiot tonight.

I agree that daniels shouldn't have been playing so much tonight. I know I'm going to get railed on for giving Quis excuses, but dang, it's obvious that the guy is playing hurt. He's a better player than what we've seen all season -- on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Yes, he may have some limitations regarding his dribbling and passing, BUT that is not what is limiting him as much as his athleticism. I don't think he's necessarily a stupid player as some here would assert. He's just a young player who hasn't yet figured out how to be very effective without his athleticism. NELSON SHOULD KNOW THIS. Why can't he see that there are like four other options at point other than quis? Quis needs to rehab that ankle because I think the mavs will NEED him for THIS team to get far in the playoffs.

[Ninkobei]

Meant no disrespect to Finley. And you're right, I'm not thoroughly educated in the injury history of finley. Checked out his GPed last 4 years and he hasn't missed more than 13 games in a season. Jumped the ball on that one. But my statement about Dirk still stands. Just replace Finley with (whoever gets injured lots, I don't care)

[V2M]

In a game where Seattle's been dropping tons of 3pt bombs or conducting layup/dunking drills on us, where Dirk and Quis were clearly playing on 1 leg, where Fin's coming back after missing 15 games, where the 36yr old DA's playing just his 4th game for us and where Stack's just being Stack until late in the game... Nellie couldn't find any playing time for Harris, who's easily our best perimeter defender, and Bradley, who's arguably our best and most intimidating shot blocker.

Nellie's got a screwed up mind. He just wants to tinker with rotations all the time and never lets the team gel and gain some consistency. He needs to go if we ever want to win a title. I'm absolutely convinced about this. Nellie has never and will never win a title!!

[bloodyhell]

We made some really bad errors at bad times. One was stack almost handing the ball to the opponent and the other was when he just lost the ball dribbling. He sort of made up for it with that nice layup shot but that's no excuse for tonights game. Fin had an open chance to do it. Dirk had a layup but at that time it was really not much chance. We blew this one and got raped on the boards.

[dude1394]

I think the sonics are just a better team than we are right now. If you want to really point a finger somewhere point it at the rebounding and our unwillingness to take the ball inside on them. They have no shot-blockers.

When dirk tweaked his ankle he lost much of his aggressiveness on the boards as well as taking it to the rack. Didn't help.

Marquis played because they couldn't match up with them and our point guards were throwing the ball all over the place, so nellie broughit quis into back down their little guard and get some points inside. Damp wasn't playing worth a crap out there on the pick and roll, they were eating him up and that's why he was pulled.

Also because they were so small AND they were hitting their threes nellie almost had to match up with them. They shot 43% from 3pt for goodness sakes. Only a little worse than their 45% from 2pt.

We are a very,very sloppy offensive team out there right now, pretty good defensively, not stellar yet, but pretty good. We had 8 blocked shots and 9 steals so saying our defense sucked is just ridiculous imo.

If you had to put a name to it, I'd put howard on it, I thought his head was up his rear most of the game. 1 rebound for goodness sakes, when there is nobody out there 3 inches taller than he. He would normally clean up.

Good game by finley, would have been nice to have hit that last open 3, would have been sweet. My buddy said dirk should have gone ahead and taken it, but I was ok with the decision. The team looked actually better offensively in some respects, confused in others. Maybe mike being out there will take a few games to get in a rhythm a little bit.

Pretty exciting game against what looks like sort of a carbon copy of the mavs 2 years ago, if they are shooting well, they will kick your butt. Mavs competed, but aren't good enough YET.

[Jesus_Shuttlesworth]

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[dude1394]

Originally posted by: V2M
In a game where Seattle's been dropping tons of 3pt bombs or conducting layup/dunking drills on us, where Dirk and Quis were clearly playing on 1 leg, where Fin's coming back after missing 15 games, where the 36yr old DA's playing just his 4th game for us and where Stack's just being Stack until late in the game... Nellie couldn't find any playing time for Harris, who's easily our best perimeter defender, and Bradley, who's arguably our best and most intimidating shot blocker.

Nellie's got a screwed up mind. He just wants to tinker with rotations all the time and never lets the team gel and gain some consistency. He needs to go if we ever want to win a title. I'm absolutely convinced about this. Nellie has never and will never win a title!!

Nellie is trying to find a regular rotation and harris isn't in it right now. He'll sit for a while and then get some time. But seattle is the best team in basketball right now and nellie coached it like he wanted it. Unfortunately (AS IS EXPECTED) our PG play is pretty dang poor right now. I'm hoping like heck it will get better, but it will probably be a struggle most of the year.

[bloodyhell]

My take on dirk is that he played hurt and I wish he had taken it to the rack a little bit more early on. I want to see him go to the rack more often. He seems to do extremely well on free throws so in crunch time i'd def. like to see more of that. Our pg play isn't there yet but we gave it a decent shot. Next time, losing will not be an option.

[dude1394]

Yes and he probably would have if he hadn't gotten hurt in what the first quarter or so? He was pretty gimpy out there for the rest of the game. Really competed and tried to help. I'm still shocked that howard only got 1 rebound.

[bloodyhell]

&gt;Yes and he probably would have if he hadn't gotten hurt in what the first quarter or so?

It was later than that.

[dude1394]

Ok when?

Edit: Sorry there is an edge that that is uncalled for. I didn't realise you were just giving me an answer, not a smart-aleck one. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I get testy with the board after a loss because it's doom and gloom and fire everyone, it's a whip.

[bloodyhell]

I don't know, i just know it wasn't in the 1st. Maybe someone can say when it was eexctly. To be honest I completely forget when it happened as he went down twice and the other one seemed to be more serious at the time and made me forget about the ankle one. The ankle is probably the worst one, now looking back. Let's hope the ankle is ruined. Geez how many times has he screwed up his ankles already this year?

[dude1394]

I read somewhere where some guys were saying that dirk really should wear ankly braces. I dont' know...It's a real problem for him, that's for sure.