Mavs vs Blazers, game 1 - Page 9 - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Murphy3 · 04-19-2003, 11:37 PM

doc, one thing we have to remember is that dirk is playing near an MVP level right now.. how old is he? 25?
bird was 2-3 years out of college.

let's keep that in perspective..dirk hasn't reached his prime but he's already playing near an MVP level. he hasn't reached his prime by any means..

David · 04-19-2003, 11:39 PM

Dirk was hot. Why didn't they give him the ball in the post more?[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

Drbio · 04-19-2003, 11:44 PM

Murph- that was my point. At this point in Birds career, he had the benefit of more experience. Dirk is still learnigna nd is at the top of the NBA. And we all know he hasn't shown us his best yet. He will be one of the greatest to ever play this game.

Murphy3 · 04-19-2003, 11:49 PM

david, the question you should be asking is this...

why did it take so long for the mavs to decide to go to dirk down low like they did tonight?

is he just now getting to the point to where he's efficient down low? No.
This should have been occuring a long time ago..well over a year ago

Drbio · 04-19-2003, 11:57 PM

Maybe Nellie held it back in his bag of tricks and he is unleashing it on the league in the playoffs?

MavsFanFinley · 04-19-2003, 11:59 PM

<< why did it take so long for the mavs to decide to go to dirk down low like they did tonight? >>

I'm not sure I'll word myself correctly for how I'm thinking about this strategy.

Were they using this as a sort of secret weapon or were they just letting Dirk warm up for a season?

I remember Nelson saying about 2-2 1/2 months ago that they'd be going to Dirk more and more down low. Getting him more shots, having the offense run through him. Were they letting Dirk adjust to that for a season without putting too much pressure on him to come through and at the same time not letting other teams figure a way to solve it?

David · 04-20-2003, 12:02 AM

<< Maybe Nellie held it back in his bag of tricks and he is unleashing it on the league in the playoffs? >>

That would be implying that Nelson has picked something up in his 25 years of coaching in the NBA. Maybe Nelson just felt sorry for the rest of the league and didn't want to punish them for an entire year.

#41 · 04-20-2003, 12:04 AM

What a great performance by Dirk tonight!

It's gonna be tough for Portland to stop him, he's on fire like he has been inlast year's playoffs..

Drbio · 04-20-2003, 12:44 AM

The Blazers in the post game interviews looked stunned. They were all saying things like "Dirk was amazing", "Dirk went off"...Dirk this....Dirk that.

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

ocelot_ark · 04-20-2003, 01:57 AM

And then there was Bonzi, saying something like "All we have to do is limit Dirk and we got this team." Implying that Dirk's a one man team...

Lvubun1 · 04-20-2003, 03:35 AM

Couple thoughts.

Dirk was amazing, even if he would have had a "great" game the Mavs probably would have been blown out, nobody else could buy a bucket and he carried the team to victory.

I loved the hard foul/push by NVE, we need to show the Blazers that we won't be intimated by them, Nick standing up to a bigger Bonzi showed that, I will take that T over the "bitch to the ref about a bad call" T every time.

Nellie did a great job of realizing what worked and what didn't. Any duo of Nash, Finley, or NVE worked, together they didn't. The duo of NVE and Finley were in during the big run in the beginning of the 4th, later he stuck in Nash and the Blazers came back, he took out Nick and closed the game out, perfect. That might not be the case every game but just as long as he sees what works and what doesn't we should be good.

MavKikiNYC · 04-20-2003, 07:32 AM

Fair enough to point out the disparity between SheWeb's season and Dirk's, but I'm not sure that I'd be ready to reach the same conclusion. Dirk's game IS still green. And yet, I don't think Webber has ever had as good a game as Dirk had yesterday.

I think part of the MVP-consideration issue with Dirk is the perception that he doesn't yet impose his game, doesn't take over games at key points on a consistent basis yet. A few more performances like yesterday and he inarguably moves from 5th-7th as MVP to top 3.

(P.S.: Still doesn't explain why Webber gets any consideration as an MVP at all.)

Murphy3 · 04-20-2003, 09:51 AM

don't get it mavskiki... i'd be willing to bet that dirk averages more points in the 4th than both KG and webber.

His best quarter this season is probably the 4th.. yeah,he did go through a bit of a slump late in the season..but don't let it tarnish how amazing he was in the 4th for much of the season

LRB · 04-20-2003, 01:02 PM

I really think that the MVP should be a 2 man race between Dirk and Tim Duncan. But you really have to have at least one MVP season before you get serious MVP consideration. This is how it was for Duncan, it was how it was even for Jordan.

mavsman · 04-20-2003, 08:34 PM

I am very afraid. I've seen Dirk in too many games when he didn't make 60% of his shots. I just hope for Fin and Nick to bring on the hot hand in game 2. You just can't expect even the best of the best to have a career game every game. And Steve could start to produce too. Jesus Christ, there are so many holes in the Blazers' defense, if we would utilize them Shawn could end up averageing 20-10.

Drbio · 04-21-2003, 12:20 AM

Shawn 20-10?

I love the Mavs, but c'mon. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

MavKikiNYC · 04-21-2003, 08:05 AM

Some talk in another thread about a Kevin Willis flagrant.

Not sure I was paying attention to the thread when Dale Davis took Mantis down with a club to the head, but THAT foul looked deliberate and resulted in enough contact that it should get more attention from the league, IMO.

Were you even watching, Stooge Ackson?

Ummmmm Ok · 04-21-2003, 08:34 AM

<< Want a good start to the series. 100-93 Mavs. >>

Ames you almost got the prediction. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

ariosto · 04-21-2003, 08:56 AM

<< doc, one thing we have to remember is that dirk is playing near an MVP level right now.. how old is he? 25?
bird was 2-3 years out of college. >>

He's still 24 [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Although I think the Bird comparisons are a bit off since Bird handled the ball a bit more and wasn't as much of a scorer. I think of Dirk almost as a really big Jerry West.

Murphy3 · 04-23-2003, 09:35 AM

ok, what's the deal..it's almost 10:00 and there's no gameday thread.. again.

Murphy3 · 04-23-2003, 09:52 AM

interesting tidbit, dirk led the team in scoring in every quarter in game 1